After a long double shift on the bridge, Captain McCallister had retired to his ready room. Sitting at his desk, he read the latest reports coming in from the datastream sent into the nebula from Starfleet. Relief efforts continued to pour into the region to help those who needed it, with a large bulk of the work being around resettling those who had become displaced by the Century Storm. The phenomenon was creating so much havoc for everyone that he was surprised Starfleet had not assigned the Odyssey to any humanitarian efforts, yet. Being a ship that had supported a number of Romulan relocation efforts since it was launched and the fact that they had moved an entire civilisation while in the Delta Quadrant last year, he had wondered what was the deeper thinking behind their current orders. 

McCallister’s orders had been simple, enter the nebula, render aid if and when it was needed and attempt to close as many of the subspace rifts as possible. Being one of the larger ships of the fleet with its advanced deflector technology, it meant the ship could undertake multiple attempts at these rifts. Only two days into their work had the ship been able to close its first rift using the modified dekyon beam fired from its main deflector. The rift was closed and they were able to prevent the need for an entire observatory station being evacuated. Since then they had closed an additional three rifts and were now on the trail of one of the more fiercest ion storms to see if they could stop further damage from happening. 

The door chime went off and he looked up, “Come in,” McCallister responded as he closed down the reports that were floating on the holographic LCARS screens with a wave of his hands.

A soft hiss and the ready room’s entrance from the bridge parted down the centre, allowing Commander Duncan to make his way in. With a PADD in his hands, the executive officer walked across the room and towards the captain’s desk. “Our latest scans sir.” He indicated as he approached his superior by briefly holding the device in the air.

“Thanks Max.” McCallister answered as he stood up and took the PADD into his own hands. Glancing down over the key headlines, he could see that at the moment there wasn’t much to be worried about. Their path ahead appeared clear, besides a class four comet. “Well this is certainly worthy of our attention.” He sarcastically said before dropping the PADD onto his desk and looking up at Duncan. “Can I get you a drink?” He offered as he picked up his empty mug from earlier and took it over to the replicator. 

Shaking his head, Duncan declined the offer. “Thanks for the offer sir, but I’m about to head home for the evening.”

Refilling his drink, he smirked back at his right-hand man, “Anything special planned tonight?” McCallister asked. 

Shaking his head, Duncan explained it was going to be a quiet night in. “Though there is one thing that Tobie mentioned to me the other night that I was hoping to pass through you first?”

Picking up his mug of warm tea, McCallister gestured for Duncan to share it as he sipped on his drink. “Sure, what is it?”

“Now the boys are a bit more settled, we were wondering if we could organise a time to properly introduce them to Alfie, Henri and Theo?” Duncan wondered. 

Sitting back in his chair, McCallister considered the request; he had no objections to the idea, especially as his sons had not seen much of Tobias (who was their godfather) recently. “Let’s organise something, I’ll chat with my three and see what we can do.”

Appreciating the effort, Duncan thanked the captain and after asking if there was anything else he could do, McCallister said no, allowing the first officer to excuse himself and leave the room. 

Spinning his chair around he looked out of the large window behind him and soon saw the photograph of his three sons with his wife and he when they were back on Earth last year. Picking it up in its frame, he smiled affectionately at it. So much had changed since then. Karyn had stormed off the Odyssey quicker than a Borg Cube entering a transwarp conduit, Alfie was caught up over his studies to join Starfleet while Henri and Theo were now working on their own interests. He knew he needed to bring his family back together, soon rather than later or he’d lose them forever. 

However, his family wasn’t the only thing that was broken right now. The rest of his crew were still not in a good place. With the departure of Karyn leading a team to rescue her trapped mother and colleagues elsewhere, some of whom were not just members from Starbase Bravo, Karyn had somehow got others from the crew to join her without his knowledge until it was too late. Then it hadn’t helped with the change on his senior staff with Admiral Bennet installing Commander Louwanna Horin in as his chief counsellor, effectively demoting Lieutenant Samris back down to his previous position. Her time with them was meant to be only short-term but he wondered if this was truly the case. Flemen was also not with them. He had opted to remain on Mellstoxx III to undertake the first few assessments and trials for the Command Training Program. As a result, McCallister was now having to cope with having Horin on the bridge sitting to his left during every shift he was on. She was a decent officer and a skilled counsellor as well as diplomat, but the captain hadn’t appreciated how she had been forced upon him. She had shared a similar sentiment. Nevertheless her presence and the team she had brought with her were helping everyone out. Their change of orders with their R&R to assist with the response to the Century Storm had caught them all off guard, especially with how important it had been shared with them all that they had to be assessed and supported with coming to terms with their two month imprisonment under Captain Jyster. Since then the counsellor and therapists brought on board with Horin had been working around the clock. They were having the desired impact that Starfleet wanted. McCallister just wondered if their impact would last long enough for everyone to recover.

The ship then went to red alert as it was hit by a sudden surge of power out of nowhere. His thoughts and worries about his broken family and crew had to be set aside as he placed his mug down and rushed out onto his bridge.

Stifling a yawn, Samris walked down the corridor towards his quarters. Smiling at a few passerbys, he had noticed that since his transfer back to assistant chief counsellor, some of the crew either looked at him with pity or showed some sort of support in disagreeing with the action that had taken. Frustration had entered him after he had found out the news from the captain. Feeling completely undermined by the admiral’s orders, he had initially felt useless as to what to do or say. It hadn’t helped that Counsellor Horin had spoken to him and shared with her that she was not keen with her reassignment and being replacing him for the time being. He hadn’t been quite sure how to take her, so for now he decided he would give her some room before he worked out if he could trust her sincerity. 

The door sensors automatically registered his approach and opened up for him. Walking into his quarters, he was surprised to find some low volume music playing and what appeared to be dinner setup for two. His quarters were of a reasonable large size, allowing him to have guests over for meals. He just wasn’t expecting to find what he found. 

Standing by the replicator and picking up two dishes and walking over to the beautifully laid table was T’Rani. Placing the two dishes carefully down, he noticed that one was Romulan jumbo mollusk and the other was a vegetarian version of it. One of his favourite dishes. Smiling at her, he walked towards her. “What’s this?” He asked with a smile spread across his face.

“My observations of non-Vulcans is that when they are having a difficult time, especially with their emotions, that sometimes their ‘spirits’ can be lifted by having a favourite meal. Considering what has happened with your position on the ship, I felt it was appropriate to help you lift your spirits.” T’Rani answered as she picked up a glass of kali-fal and handed it over to him. “Along with your favourite beverage. This is not replicated either. I went to Mister Goldman in The Auditorium for his assistance in getting a non-synthehol version.” 

Sniffing the drink, he could really sense the aroma and his smile grew bigger and the gestures. The table was set up with a candle in the middle along with a bouquet of pink favinit flowers sat in a vase. 

T’Rani was a true romantic. 

“This looks delicious and I am so grateful.” Samris approached her and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “Thank you, I needed this.”

“Well, I hope everything is to your satisfaction.” T’Rani replied as she gestured for them both to sit down to enjoy what she prepared.

 Around forty-five minutes later they finished their meal and were sipping on their kali-fal. Samris placed his almost empty glass down and looked at her. “There is one thing I want to discuss with you, something we’ve not spoken about since our return to the Odyssey.”

“Please, proceed.” She insisted as she placed her glass down. 

Samris cleared his throat, his discomfort showing that the subject he wanted to share was one he was unsure how to approach with her. “Well it’s about us.”

“Us?” She repeated.

“Yeah, and besides us having to go to these regular counselling sessions due to what happened on the Quirennal, there is one thing that did come out of it all that I felt was good.” Samris stated. “And that was that we make an excellent…team.”

 “I agree.” T’Rani said, unmoved by his comment. 

“So, I was wondering if we wanted to return back to that and perhaps we should consider moving in with one another?” Samris suggested.

“As in share quarters?” T’Rani checked. 

Samris just nodded. 

Considering the idea for a moment, T’Rani’s left eyebrow rose by a few centimetres. “A fascinating proposal.”

“Not to compare us with Max or Tobi, but they’ve moved in and their relationship was still quite young and fresh before the incident on the Quirennal.” Samris added, worried that he needed to justify his proposal. “I enjoyed your company and I would hope to think you feel the same way.”

“Commander Duncan and Senior Chief Court are providing a stable home life for the sons of Captain Jyster, however I must concur that us habitating in the same area was agreeable.” T’Rani stated. “Our relationship has gone through what I believe Counsellor Horin described as ‘a whirlwind of an adventure’, nevertheless I do wish to explore it further to see if it would become a permanent idea.”

Not sure if she was hinting at marriage on the horizon, Samris just smiled as he got up to give her a hug. He knew she would not automatically return the gesture (or even be prepared for it) but once she was in his embrace she held him back. 

“This is great, thank you T’Rani.” Samris said after letting go. 

“Likewise.” T’Rani remarked. “Both of our quarters are sufficiently large enough to accommodate us both, however do you wish to request if we could find some that are more available and perhaps slightly bigger?”

Feeling that was a reasonable compromise, Samris just nodded. “Shall we go for a nice walk in the arboretum?” He offered her his hand.

“That is agreeable as well.” T’Rani said as she took his hand into hers.

Before they reached the door though, the red alert klaxon went off. Instantly they let go of each other as they both knew they had stations to report to. He was no longer needed on the bridge but she would be.

“We will continue this later.” T’Rani promised before placing a kiss on his left cheek and leaving him.

Tapping away at the holographic interface he was using, Commander Hunsen was running another check on the ship’s preparations to create an inverse warp field. It was the last job for him that he knew he needed to complete before calling it a day. The captain had requested for it to be set up in preparation for them possibly needing it if they had to deal with any more fierce ion storms while closing the various subspace rifts that were popping up all over the nebula. The final adjustments to the warp core were almost complete. His team that was on it were almost complete with the modifications, which meant they could bring the inverse field the moment it was required. With a swipe of his hand, Hunsen closed the display and then issued his final orders to the gamma shift leader that was coming onto duty. Spending almost all day in engineering with only an hour’s break earlier on in the day, he was ready to have a quiet night in and go to bed early. 

Sensing the arrival of a familiar presence, Hunsen turned around to see Counsellor Horin entering engineering. Gazing around the room, she looked as if she was taking in everything that she saw while also appearing to be on the search for something.

Or someone. 

Laying eyes on him, she smiled genuinely and walked across the room to where he was sitting on a stool by the primary command interface. The huge control console, also known as the engineering ‘pool table’ was a huge rectangular interface that had various readings dotted around it, giving everyone an insight into the ship’s current status. 

“Counsellor, this is an unexpected pleasure.” Hunsen said as he rose to meet her. 

Wearing her blue duty uniform, she maintained her smile as she approached him. “Well I thought I should visit engineering at some point. Seeing as I am a qualified bridge officer, I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself in front of the captain by stating I’ve never been down here to the heart of the ship.”

“Indeed.” Hunsen agreed. “Can I give you a tour?”

 “Of course not, I’m happy to look around myself, if that’s okay? I’m sure you’re really busy.” Horin said, showing her appreciation for the offer but insisting he didn’t show her any preferential treatment. 

Shaking his head, he told her he was just about to leave and would be happy to show her around. “Obviously this is the main engineering for the whole ship, but when we separate there’s a secondary engineering room in the chevron section of the ship.”

“Yes, I read that when I was studying the ship’s specifications.” Horin stated. 

She was about to ask another question when an alarm went off on the pool table. Excusing himself from her attention, Hunsen looked back at what the computer was reporting. Before he had a chance to truly read everything, the ship started to rock and more alarms went off. 

“What’s happening?” Horin asked, concerned. 

“The ships’ hit some rough waters,” Hunsen answered back. “We’re caught in a huge gravimetric surge?”

“One of the ion storms?” Horin guessed.

“Could be, or it could be another subspace rift.” Horin answered. “Damn it,” He cursed as several more systems started to send up more alarms. “Red alert!” He ordered the computer.

The intercom then went off a few seconds later with the captain’s voice. “Bridge to engineering, Tremt what’s happening? Lukiz is stating our inertial dampeners are being overloaded. Do we need to drop our anchor and activate the inverse warp field?”

“Inertial dampeners are not the only thing being affected, sir, whatever we’ve hit is de-stabilising the warp core. I can’t activate the field!” Hunsen reported. 

“Shut down the core then.” McCallister order.

“We’re attempting to do so now, sir.” He worked hurriedly to stop the core from overloading and breaching, but everything he did to stabilise the situation was not working. 

Tapping his combadge, Hunsen spoke up. “Sir, whatever has opened up and is affecting us, I can’t counteract its influence over our systems. We may need to consider separating the ship.”

“Understood,” McCallister answered. “We’ll begin emergency procedures at once.”

Before Hunsen had a chance to make another move to save the ship, the Odyssey was struck hard by a powerful white and blue bolt of lighting from out of nowhere. Smacking directly into the side of the ship, the force of the strike was powerful enough to enter the ship and interact with the ship’s warp core. 

“Everyone get out of here. Evacuate engineering!” Hunsen ordered as he watched as the warp core began to fail. There was nothing he could do. “Computer prepare to eject the warp core. Authorisation Hunsen omega phi nine three.”

“Warp ejection system enabled.” stated the computer. 

As he started to move across the engineering deck, he noticed that Horin was waiting for him. “Let’s go.” He ordered her as he stretched open his arm to go around her but he didn’t have a chance to touch her as a bolt of lightning escaped from the warp core and hit Hunsen straight in the back, forcing him to fall to the ground. 

At the same time the computer made an announcement. “Warning, warp core breach in thirty seconds.”

Screaming at watching Hunsen fall to the floor with a thud, Horin dashed to his side to check his vitals because instantly she lost the low level telepathic link they could sense for one another as fellow Betzoids. Seeing he was hurt with burns across his face, Hunsen reached out to her with his left hand. Grabbing it instantly into one of her own hands, she told him to rest as she tried to get him help.

Whispering with the last breath he could give, Hunsen coughed before he told her one thing. “Dump it Louwanna, dump the core.” 

Hunsen then lost consciousness completely and his stretched out arm fell to the deck plating.

Holding back the tears, Horin looked up and saw the warp core was going wild. “Computer, repeat the request to eject the warp core. Authorisation Horin Delta-Five-Seven-Alpha.”

“Authorisation accepted.”

“Eject the warp core.” She ordered.

The sparks from the ejection charges went off as the warp core was sent flying out of the ship.

Further sparks and eruptions flew across the Odyssey’s bridge the moment after Jen announced the warp core had been ejected. The more he tried to stay on top of the situation, the more the Trill operations manager’s voice showed the stress they were all enduring. 

“The core has gone sir,” Jen announced before continuing, “but I am detecting a massive powerful surge circulating throughout the ship.”

“What’s happening?” McCallister asked from his chair as he looked around at various bolts of unknown energy flying around the ceiling, deck plating and the bulkheads. The ship seemed to have somehow sustained a massive bolt of power against it, it was almost like static electricity coming to life as various bursts of energy were crawling over everything. 

Jen looked at his controls, “It looks like a subspace rift opened right underneath us and we’ve been hit by what sensors are reading as a chronokinetic surge. Our warp core attracted it like a magnet.”

“Great, more damage to the ship. Not what the yard engineers at Starbase Bravo want to see so soon after our refit.” McCallister sarcastically remarked. 

“Indeed sir.” Jen paused as he looked at his readings again. “Sensors are detecting that the ship is in a state of temporal flux.” Jen reported. “Temporal sensors are having a bad time trying to determine what is happening.”

More eruptions and more shuddering hit the bridge as different parts of it began to glow white and then blue. Waves of temporal energy were making their way through the ship, it looked as if the ship was melting in some parts while other parts looked like a puddle with ripples rushing across it.

“High levels of tachyons and chronitons are racing across the ship, sir.” Jen reported. “I’m not sure we can prevent what’s going to happen. Structural integrity is now starting to fail.”

“Abandon ship.” McCallister ordered all of a sudden. In the back of his mind he hoped that by giving that order if they escaped they may just survive, it was a slim chance but one he knew he had to try. He couldn’t wait any longer and risk losing everyone. He tapped the intercom and opened a shipwide channel. “All hands, this is the captain. Proceed to the escape pods and abandon ship. I repeat all hands abandon ship.” He looked down at his armchair console to his left and pulled up a quick scan of the nearby area. They weren’t that far from Starbase Bravo. “Program your pods on a heading out of the Paulson Nebula and towards Starbase Four. All shuttlecrafts, runabouts and other auxiliary crafts are to be used to escape as well.”

 The computer then began to repeat the captain’s orders to abandon ship as the evacuation klaxon started to ring as well. Everyone started to move away from their stations on the bridge. McCallister stood up and took one more glance around his bridge. He couldn’t believe this was it. This was how the Odyssey’s journey would end. During every other dangerous mission it had entailed, from dealing with the Romulan refugee crisis, the Archanis Campaign right up to their deep space exploration mission in the Delta Quadrant. The Odyssey would be laid to rest as it went out in a blaze of fire in the Paulson Nebula. No noble sacrifice, just lost due to bad weather. 

About to call down to his sons, hoping they were on one of the escape pods or possibly on his yacht, McCallister was stopped when Jen (who was also getting up from his station) paused and saw something that caught his attention on the sensors. “What is it Lukiz?”

“The chronokinetic surge is growing in power, sir.” Jen answered. Looking up at his commanding officer, “we’re too late sir!”

Not knowing what Jen meant by that, McCallister didn’t have a chance to look at the sensors for himself as the whole ship was enveloped in a huge bright white light.

This is it.

McCallister couldn’t say anything as he saw the disappointed and sad expression across Jen’s face and all he could think of was in that moment was how angry he was with himself for letting his sons die in this situation and the fact he and Karyn had never had a chance to resolve their differences. 

Odyssey turned into a huge beacon of bright light.

Within seconds the light was gone. 

“How are you doing mom?”

Looking up from the bio bed she was lying down on, Najra Reyas pushed herself up onto her elbows as her daughter approached her. “All the better for seeing you.” She answered as the EMH continued to treat her for the few cuts and bruises she had sustained from her expedition. 

Smiling at seeing her mother in one bit, Reyas nodded with approval. “Once we’ve got you back up and on your feet again, we can talk some more. In the meantime, we were going to head further into the nebula to pick up your other teammates but I’ve just spoken to a runabout that responded to a distress call and it turns out it was from your team. They’re all fine and your ship is being towed to Starbase Four right away. We’re now heading to rendezvous with the Odyssey. You’ll see the others when we return to the station.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Najra took hold of her daughter’s hand as she held back tears. “Thank you Karyn, I definitely thought we weren’t going to make it. Make sure you thank James for me as well.”

Holding back an expression at the mention of her husband’s name, Karyn just nodded once at her mother. “You should rest and when you’re up for it, then we can have something to eat together.”

Noticing her daughter’s change in tone and subject being so uncharacteristic like her, Najra sat up straight on the bed and looked at her. “Karyn, what’s going on with James and you?”

Signalling for the EMH to give them some privacy, the small sickbay on the Telemachus was the same size as those found on the Defiant-class of ships. Only four bio beds existed and the room was almost cramped with the amount of people in it. She wasn’t prepared to talk about her marital problems here for others to hear. “Nothing for you to worry about.” She said, placing a reassuring hand on her mother’s arm. “Please rest mom.”

Before her mother could say anything, two other Starfleet officers approached them. Noticing them out of the corner of her eye, Reyas changed her expression to one of more formality. “Tierra, Abbej, are you both okay?”

Tierra, who was acting first officer for this mission and chief engineer, looked to her wife and indicated for her to pass the PADD that Abbej had in her hands towards Karyn. “Ma’am, long range sensors have picked up something quite disturbing.”

Taking the PADD into her own hands, Karyn looked down at them. She looked back up at Abbej, “Are you certain?”

Abbej nodded solemnly. “The last known location of the Odyssey now registers a huge antimatter/matter explosion taking place a short while ago. Further analysis confirms that this took place straight after a large chronokinetic surge took place. There’s no way the ship could have survived either. I’m so sorry Karyn.” 

The Boslic assistant chief science officer stepped forward to comfort her superior but was met by two arms going up to stop her. “No, that can’t be. There must be some hull fragments, or something else that we’ve missed.”

Tierra and Abbej looked at one another before looking back at her. Tierra spoke up, her role as first officer now taking effect. “We can only be certain if we approach the area ourselves. However the amount of chronitons, tachyons that are saturating the area along the huge subspace instabilities in the area caused by the rifts and ion storms makes it almost impossible to safely navigate. We’d be risking losing the Telemachus.” 

Realising she may have just lost everything on the Odyssey, Karyn took a step back and found her mother’s arms wrapping around her shoulders from behind. She had heard everything and knowing she was there to comfort her at the sudden realisation that the Odyssey was lost with all hands, including her sons and James rocked her hard. A mix sense of guilt, anger and sadness washed over her. Pushing back the tears, she knew she had to keep everything professional. “Lieutenant, set a course for the last known location of the Odyssey and get me Admiral Bennet on subspace, right away.” She ordered before raising one hand to stop either of her two most senior officers saying anything else. “There may be escape pods that may need our help.” She looked at both women with a strong intent. “That’s an order. Go now.”

Noticing they couldn’t change her mind for now, both women nodded and exited the sickbay. As they left, Karyn turned around and looked at her mother. “They’re not gone mom, I just know it.”

Pulling her in for a closer hug, Najar nodded. “I know you can sense the boys, but you can’t be certain. It might be something else”

“I know, but I’ve gotta trust my instincts on this.” Karyn reaffirmed. The El-Aurian sixth sense as such was a secretive one. Not many El-Aurians shared with outsiders what they could sense. It wasn’t a telepath, it was just a feeling of knowing what was right and what was wrong.  “I can sense Alfie, Henri and Theo, but something isn’t quite right.”

“Then go my dear, find my grandsons.” Najar insisted as she placed a motherly kiss on her daughter’s forehead and encouraged her to leave to return to the bridge of her ship.

Opening his eyes slowly, James Preston McCallister couldn’t work out where he was due to the bright light that shone down on him from up above. The light seemed extremely bright and it only took a few more seconds for him to feel the strong headache that finally hit him as he became conscious. Slowly he raised his right hand to cover his eyes and his left to rub his temple. He felt absolutely sick from whatever was wrong with him but soon his mind was distracted by hearing the noise of a calm voice. 

“The captain appears to be slowly coming around.” It wasn’t a voice he recognised but a gentle caring hand was placed onto his arm and he was helped to sit him. “Slowly sir, you may feel a spell of dizziness.” 

Gradually he blinked and soon he started to take note of where he might be. Sickbay. It wasn’t the Odyssey’s sickbay though. Or was it? Dotted around the edge of the room from where he was were several other bio beds and to one side he could see the entrance into the surgical ward, but everything looked different. The standard colouring he would expect to see for the Odyssey’s huge medical complex of silver and blues were replaced by a mixture of soft bronzes, dark reds, and a spectrum of greys. For a moment he wondered if he was on a Sovereign-class ship but then he saw in the corner of his eye the ship’s name and registry. It was the Odyssey and his Odyssey. But none of it looked familiar.

A young man approached him and smiled as he passed the tricorder over him. The tricorder was definitely not the type of medical tricorder he had seen before. It appeared to be of a device attached to something around his wrist and the holographic display that came across from it appeared to work as the tricorder function. The man’s uniform was not familiar either. It was Starfleet but nothing he had seen before. His entire top was the standard cerulean blue expected to be worn by Starfleet science and medical officers, instead of the black turtleneck undershirt and the black top with division colours displayed on both its shoulders and its high collar. The combadge was also different. It was no longer pure silver, the actual backing behind the delta was gold and then he noticed the pips were solid gold too and sat just below the black piping that ran across the yoke. He then noticed the actual top of the uniform was almost like a jacket, similar to what was worn by Starfleet in the late twenty-third century. The medical officer that was tendering to him was not human. In fact he didn’t recognise his species. On either side of the man’s forehead were a bulbous sort of cranial bulge while a dark set of patterned lines that almost looked like veins ran around this part of his face and down his cheeks and just under his ear lobe. It then dawned on him the officer was Krenim. The next question just filled him with, how did a Krenim join Starfleet?

Glancing to his right, James noticed Lieutenant Commander Jen lying unconscious on the bio-bed next to him. A much younger looking man with almost pointy Vulcan-like ears was scanning him. Again he wore the same uniform as the person attending to him but with the rank of ensign. James noticed that his ears had folds of skin around the bottom of his ear. Ocumpan.

“Don’t worry, Cap-” The Krenim medical officer corrected himself quickly before speaking further. “Lieutenant Commander Jen is fine. The Jen symbiont needs a bit more time to adjust.”

“Adjust?” James repeated and quizzed the man. He was about to ask another question when the door, which he assumed was the main entrance opened and walking in were three individuals that surprised the hell out of him. All of them were wearing red command uniforms with the one in the middle having a gold trim running down the edge of the jacket and around the cuffs. 

Standing before him were Tomaz, Max Duncan and one individual he couldn’t quite work out who he was. Then it hit him. Alfie. His son.  

However none of them looked like the young selves he had only seen that day. All of them looked older. All of them had changed. James could feel his headache getting worse in order to understand what was happening. His default Starfleet training told him to tread carefully in this situation. Was he under the control of an outsider’s influence? Was this the Q Continuum playing tricks on him? Was he back on the Quirennal and had never escaped it over two weeks ago? Or had he lost track of time himself? He looked down at his own uniform, it was still the same one he had been wearing since Starfleet introduced it in the 2390s. He took another look over at the entourage approaching him. Part of him wanted to break out into laughter at how ridiculous all of this looked but none of them had any smirks across their faces, all of them appeared to be extremely seasoned veteran officers. Was this truly real?

Tomaz had a streak of grey hair running through the top of his hair (which was receding along the forehead). The Barzan, who was James’ chief strategic operations officer, no longer had the same breathing apparatus he was used to seeing on either side of his cheeks. Then there was Max. He had nothing but pure silver hair that was sleaked right back. A good number of lines were etched across his face, especially around his eyes then to the top it all off this was complimented by a speckled silver beard. The man also wore a silver ring around his wedding finger. When did Max get married?

James’ eyes finally fell on Alfie next. Still he could see the young man he was but he looked more like he was in his thirties, a bit more fuller in the face and a lot taller than James remembered. Alfie’s hair was more golden in colour, with a few hints of grey strands and just like Max, he too had a ring around his wedding finger. A golden one.  

Examining their uniforms, he saw that Tomaz held the rank of captain, Max a vice admiral and Alfie a commander. What universe was he in? 

“Hello, sir.” spoke Max with a friendly smile as they approached him and the doors closed behind him. His voice was slightly gruffier than James remembered but the hint of calmness that came from Max was there. The counsellor in him hadn’t died off. 

Looking at each of them, James didn’t know what to say. He was speechless as he wasn’t sure what was going on. 

“Dad, are you okay?” Alfie asked, as he stepped closer. His voice was completely different. Almost as if he was a different man. 

“What is going on?” was all that James could say and get out. “Where am I?” He paused. “Or do I want to ask when instead of where?”   

All three looked at one another and Tomaz dismissed the Krenim doctor and the other Ocampan medical officer looking after Lukiz (who had just started to wake up himself). Lukiz, who rubbed his forehead and shielded his eyes just like the captain had done a moment ago, looked around and saw the three men standing by his captain. “Are we dead, sir? Or did I hit my head hard on something? Is this real?”

James looked at Lukiz and then went back to their company. “I think it’s real Lukiz and I hope that we’re about to find out what’s happening.” He paused. “Can we get some answers to my original questions?

Tomaz just smirked at Max (as did Alfie) as the older man spoke up. “What was the last thing you recall, sir?”

“Before we were here?” James checked and got a nod from the Barzan officer before continuing. “We were in the midst of abandoning the Odyssey after we were hit by a massive chronokinetic surge from a subspace rift we were trying to seal inside the Paulson Nebula. The warp core had to be ejected.” James then looked to Lukiz for asistances as his memory felt a bit fuzzy. 

“The ship was being pulled apart as it was in a constant temporal flux.” Lukiz added as he swung his legs around and sat on the edge of his bed. 

Nodding to confirm that was right, Max continued. “From our perspective that was twenty-one years ago.”

“What?” James exclaimed by that revelation. “How can that be? How can we be here?”

“It’s a long story, dad.” Alfie assured his father. “But it’s one we will share and we do need your help in resolving.”

“Okay.” James sat up straight and took himself off the bed as he started to pace in between his bed and Lukiz’s. “So obviously the ship survived whatever was happening to it?” James checked looking around. “This is the Odyssey right?”

Tomaz nodded with a sense of pride. “It is, sir. She’s the current Federation flagship as well.”

“What no Enterprise in your era?” James challenged. 

Tomaz looked at Max and then smirked before he replied. “Let’s just say it involves a certain admiral from the upper echelons of the fourth fleet who when they became Starfleet Commander-in-Chief decided to change the rules about the Federation flagship after the previous Enterprise was decommissioned.”

“It’s a very long story and one you don’t need to know about right now.” Max commented. 

“Let me guess, the almighty temporal prime directive?” James asked. 

Max nodded. “Exactly.” He paused. “But we are on the Odyssey, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Lukiz challenged. “How are we ‘sort of’ on the Odyssey?”

“When the chronokinetic surge interacted with the ship’s warp core it split the vessel into various pockets of timelines.” Tomaz answered. “Some go as far back to the day the ship was launched from the San Francisco Fleet Yards all the way up to this current time period.”

“So let me guess,” James said looking at Tomaz, “You’re the captain of the Odyssey now and what is Alfie? Your first officer?”

“That’s correct sir.” Tomaz said with one nod and another smile over at his first officer. “I took over command when Max joined the admiralty.”

Looking at his first officer, who wasn’t his first officer now, James just raised his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you led a mutiny to take over from me?”

Max chuckled as did Alfie and Tomaz. “No, sir. I was promoted fairly and you gracefully transferred command to me.”

“Dad, in our timeline you’re an admiral too but you teach at Starfleet Academy on Earth.” Alfie shared and then realised he had said too much. “You weren’t to know that.” He then whispered ‘sorry’ to Tomaz and Max who just ignored that.

 Suppressing a smirk, Tomaz shook his head at his first officer for getting a bit zealous in sharing information. “Anyway, sir, we’ve been preparing for this day for sometime.”

“How come?” Lukiz asked. 

Max looked at Lukiz. “Well this is one way in which we can break the temporal directive as the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations has granted us permission.” He looked back at James. “Once we’ve restored the Odyssey back to its original timeline, yours in fact, then you’ll meet with two agents from DTI to discuss this temporal incursion. Then with the DTI agents, you read the entire senior staff plus others, Alfie included, into what has happened or will happen and have us sworn to secrecy. Plans are put in place so that when this event does happen we can restore the timeline.”

“Oh my god, you’re talking about a temporal causality loop.” James stated.

“Not quite dad,” Alfie said, correcting his father. “This is what we call the Pogo paradox. It’s a causality loop in which interference to prevent an event actually triggers the same event.”

Lukiz looked at his captain and then back at the younger McCallister. “That’s confusing to understand. So has someone tried to prevent this event from happening?”

“Unfortunately from our perspective, yes.” Max stated. “However their attempt is what triggered this event from happening.”

“Now I am getting a bigger headache from all of this. I hated temporal mechanics at the academy and I hate it now.” James moaned. “Who triggers all of this?”

Max and Tomaz looked at Alfie and both gave him reassuring looks to tell his father the culprit. Alfie gulped, took a breath before uttering the words that shocked his father. 

“It’s mom’s fault, dad.”

With the tip of her left thumb perched between the almost tight grip of her teeth, Commander Reyas was sitting in the captain’s chair of the Telemachus staring out into nowhere as she waited calmly for their arrival at the last known coordinates of the Odyssey in the Paulson Nebula. 

Believing she was right to take them back in, she couldn’t shake this weird sensation she was having surrounding her sons. They were alive, she was sure of it. It felt right to feel that way, but could she be wrong? Could this be some sort of survivor’s guilt she was now feeling? Her crew were adamant that the ship couldn’t have survived what they had detected earlier. The only one to believe her was her mother. As a result, after her mother was discharged from the ship’s sickbay, she was brought to the bridge and given her clearance to sit at the empty Mission Ops II station. A highly decorated scientist, not only as an archaeologist but in other areas too, having her mother’s insights she felt would be useful at this time.

Tierra, who was sitting at the engineering station to Reyas’ left, turned in her seat to speak to the captain. “Commander, the levels of tachyons and chronitons just spiked hugely. If I transfer some power from the warp core then it should keep the shields up for a bit longer.”

“Do it.” Reyas said after blinking from being interrupted by the Deltan acting first officer/chief engineer as she took her thumb out and spun her chair around to look at Abbej who was at the science station behind her. “Anything on sensors, lieutenant?”

 The Boslic acting chief science officer shook her head as she continued to run scans. “I’m having to recalibrate our sensors every few seconds. It’s taking it longer to get a clearer picture ma’am.” 

Speaking up from the mission ops station, which was located on the forward-starboard side of the bridge, Najar Reyas shared an idea. “Is the ship powerful enough to send out an anti-tachyon pulse and anti-chroniton burst from its main deflector? If it’s strong enough it may cancel some of this interference we are encountering.”

Turning her chair back to face her mother, Karyn just shook her head. “It’s a great idea mum, but we’d lose vital power to keep the shields up.”

“Just a thought my dear.”

Appreciating the idea, Karyn smiled at her mother trying to help before turning her chair back to where Abbej was. 

The redesigned version of the Telemachus bridge was a welcome one. It was just slightly bigger but retained its lineage from the Defiant-class. No longer was everyone on the same level. A small raised area in the centre of the bridge gave the captain’s chair and the two forward centred stations (the helm and ops stations) a better view of all of the stations that sat around them. One step was used to gain access to each area where each primary station was located. Every terminal expected to be found on a bridge had a decent size wall console that was within a sunken area of the ship. Normal Starfleet bridge designs had the centre of the bridge in a lower bunker level, instead this was inverted on this design. Karyn preferred it.  

Glaring at the sensor readings, wasn’t helping her nerves. Closing her eyes for a second, she realised she needed to get a grip so she got up and walked over to the replicator that was in the wall opposite to the entrance to the captain’s extremely small ready room.

“Raktajino with one sugar.” Karyn ordered.

Just as her hot drink came to life and she took it out, Abbej called her over. “Captain, we’ve got something ahead of us.”

“Let’s see it.” Karyn ordered as she returned to the centre of the bridge while finishing off the sip she had started. Placing her mug into the holder attached to the side of the chair, the El-Aurian science officer was confronted with the image of the Odyssey. However the Odyssey was shifting in shape ever so slightly, almost like golden and white ripples were riding across the hull. At a closer look it appeared like a dark pink forcefield currently existed around the ship. It too was shimmering around the ship. However the scary image was how the ship appeared to be completely dead in water. Nothing was on.  

“That’s impossible.” Tierra remarked in shock as she looked at the mainscreen. 

“What’s happening to its hull?” Najar asked, sharing a similar surprised expression like everyone else on the bridge.

“Sensors show the ship is in some sort of temporal flux. I can’t be any more precise than that. We are limited to what we can scan with the Telemachus’ sensor capabilities.” Abbej answered. 

“Ensign Shumark,” Karyn said, grabbing the attention of her pilot. “Bring us to a full stop, but keep an eye out for any dangers heading our way. If you see something, move us to avoid it.”

The young Bolian just nodded in response. 

“Is there anything else we can tell about the ship?” Karyn asked as she moved from her position to stand behind Abbej. The waist-high bannister was located between them. Instantly she saw something on the sensor readings. “Look, there.” She pointed at the sensor sweep and quickly moved herself to join Abbej behind her in the pit that had the science and communication stations. “That’s a temporal phase variance.” She then saw another one. “Again, another variance.”

Studying the readings herself, Abbej agreed with the assessment. “You’re right but if these scans are correct then the ship is undergoing a huge transformation across…well I can only summarise as different timelines from its history.”

“Run a quantum scan.” Tierra suggested as she joined them, as did Narja. “We should get a precise reading of what we are seeing.”

Abbej nodded to her wife’s suggestion and ran the first series of quantum scans and then squinted her eyes. “This can’t be right, I’m detecting parts of the ship not just in its own past but in its own future.”

    “Damn, now that’s one helluva of a find, Karyn.” Narja stated as they all turned to look back at the live image of the Odyssey. Looking at her daughter, the older El-Aurian woman spoke. “Can you still sense the boys?”

Wincing slightly, Karyn nodded. “I can, but it’s hard. I can feel Alfie tremendously, which is something I’ve never noticed before with him.”

“What about Henri and Theo?”

“Yes but both of them are different.” Karyn shook her head. “I can’t work it out or explain it. I just know they’re over there but something is seriously wrong.”

“Question is, how do we help them?” Tierra asked next.

Abbej answered swiftly. “I’m already looking into it,” She tapped away at the LCARS display in front of her and used the holographic display to her left to aid. “I think I may have something.”

“Go on.” Karyn said as she shook her head and re-focussed her attention back to the Boslic and what she had found. But in the back of her mind she couldn’t shift that nagging feeling of what she could sense with her sons. 

“From these readings, it looks like this subspace rift opened. I’m detecting the remains of huge gravitational energy mixed with neutrinos, chronometric particles, tachyons – all the bad stuff that in theory I think would explain why the Odyssey is in a temporal flux. Every single one of them is at some point linked to temporal mechanics.” Abbej explained. “That chronokinetic surge we detected earlier, I reckon was the combination of all of those things emanating from that rift and hitting the Odyssey.”

Karyn nodded in agreement. “More than likely, and look here.” she pointed to the sensor readings, “high amounts of subspace radiation too. So I reckon the ship’s primary warp core acted like a magnet and attracted the surge towards it.”

“Odyssey’s enhanced warp drive does produce a high level of subspace radiation, allowing it to sustain high warp factors for a longer period of time.” Tierra confirmed. She squinted at something on the readings. “Talking of which, Abbej my darling, will you point our sensors to that area below the Odyssey’s stardrive section. I think I recognise that subspace resonance signature, some of the variance patterns are consistent with the-” The Deltan engineer paused as her wife showed the image of Odyssey’s warp core slowly floating in space. “Warp core.” She said, “Obviously they had to eject it.”

  “A surge that powerful, as you both said earlier, would have destroyed the warp core.” Reyas remarked. “So what did we detect earlier that was a powerful antimatter-matter explosion?”

Abbej shook her head. “I’m sorry ma’a, but the ship isn’t equipped with temporal sensors. I can’t be certain for sure.”

“We could retrieve the warp core and pull it out of the nebula to prevent it from breaching.” Tierra suggested. “A modification to our tractor beam should be enough to tow it out safely.”

“I don’t think we should do that.” Karyn stated, focussing on the scans before her.

“Why not?” Tierra questioned.

Pointing at the other readings, Karyn shared what she was thinking. “The ship is still filled with the chroninketic surge. If the warp core acted like a magnet to the surge, then the ship is almost like something storing static electricity. If we could somehow attract it away from the ship, using the warp core as bait perhaps, then we might be able to help save the Odyssey.”

“That could end up causing the warp core to breach.” Tierra said. 

“But it wouldn’t harm the ship or us if we’re far away.” Karyn stated. “Either way we can’t leave that surge to remain active across the Odyssey. At any point it may destroy them, in whatever time period they’re in.”

“A gravimetric torpedo might be enough to neutralise the warp core without causing too much damage to subspace once the surge has been attracted to it.” Abbej offered. 

Tierra considered the idea. “It’s just that’s our second warp core. I don’t think Commander Hunsen is going to be happy we’ve lost another one.”

Smirking at her concerns for their chief engineer, Karyn eased her first officer’s worry by stating she would sort out that mess afterwards. Their conversation was interrupted by Najar.

“Karyn, isn’t that a pair of lifesign readings?” The El-Aurian said, pointing to another set of live data.

Looking at where her mother was pointing, she agreed. “They are and they’re on the bridge.”

“This I can work with.” Abbej stated as she tapped a few buttons on the holographic controls. “Oh my god ma’am, I’m detecting a Trill lifesign, the other is human and it’s the captain’s combadge.”

Hope that they were alive brought a smile to her face, Karyn looked at her mother and then back to her two officers. “Can we beam them out?”

“We can try.” Tierra said as she returned to the engineer station and got on with her work. 

Looking over to the slightly older chief petty officer that was sitting at the communications station, the Tellarite man looked to be old as her mother. “Chief Blargh, can you cut through the interference and hail the captain?”

The Tellarite played with his console and then turned to his superior and shook his head. “Without knowing the correct temporal phase variance and any more power to the subspace transmitter, I don’t think I can break through the interference.” 

“Damn.” Karyn cursed. “Keep trying though.”

“Yes ma’am.” The Tellarite answered and returned to his work. 

Looking over her right shoulder, Tierra called out that she was ready with the transporters. “I’m going to attempt a skeletal lock.”

“Then by all means lieutenant, energise.” Karyn ordered as she returned to her chair in the middle. Her mother moved to stand by her right hand side. Without realising it, she felt her mother take her hand and tightly squeeze it. She returned the gesture. 

In front of the main viewscreen two outlines began to appear as transporter beams attempted to rematerialise them. However they weren’t fully formed. 

“I’m losing them.” shouted Tierra. 

“Stop the transporter beam then!” Karyn ordered fiercely.  

 “I can’t return them back to their original location.” Tierra announced. “The bridge is undergoing further temporal fluctuations.”

“Transport them to the main sickbay.” Abbej called out. “Sensors detect a clear signature there. Quickly Tierra, do it now!”

  The engineer nodded in response as she reprogrammed the transporter beam and sent it back to the Odyssey. “Transporter cycle complete, they’re safely back on the Odyssey. Hopefully someone in sickbay will find them.”

Giving out a huge sigh and pushing back a tear, Karyn stood up and let go of her mother’s grip. “Prep the tractor beam. We’re ending this now.” She ordered as she turned and began to head off the bridge towards the port turbolift doors. “Abbej you’re with me. We’re going to go and do some surgery on a torpedo.”

 Abbej just gave her wife a worried look before acknowledging her superior and following in her footsteps. 

“Commander, we have an incoming hail from Starbase Four.” announced Chief Blargh just as Reyas returned to the bridge. “It’s Admiral Bennet.”

Sitting into the captain’s chair with ease, Reyas placed her hands on the chair’s arms as she told her Tellarite chief to open a channel. 

The viewscreen flickered to life as the signal with Starbase Bravo was established under awful conditions. Static filled the screen. “Commander Re-.” The admiral seemed to have paused and then there was a delay as his image caught up with him. “Stand…I’ve got…Temporal of…join-.” Again the garbled static overwhelmed the admiral’s signal.

“Come again, sir?” Reyas asked her superior but got nothing back that any of them could understand. Spinning the chair around to the left to look at her communications officer, she could see that he was working to get the admiral back. “Try applying a narrowband filter to the signal processor.”

Blargh just shook his head. “No affect ma’am. There’s too much interference.” He stated.

Turning around in her chair, Abbej spoke up. “Sounds like the admiral got your message and was saying something about the Department of Temporal Investigations.”

“Maybe.” Reyas said softly as she turned herself back around to face the viewscreen. “In any scenario, help is too far away. We need to act now to save the Odyssey. Are we ready?”

Tierra turned in her chair at engineering. “I think we are ma’am.” She sighed heavily. “Ma’am, permission to speak freely?”

Reyas just nodded to the engineer to proceed.

“I’m going to say it again ma’am, this is a very risky task. It may end up in us being destroyed as well as the Odyssey.” Tierra said with conviction after inhaling a big breath of air. “I don’t think this is the best course of action.”

“Your objection is noted, thank you lieutenant. Please proceed.” Reyas ordered. 

Returning to her computer panel, Tierra went ahead with the work. First the Telemachus moved close enough to the ejected warp core, then the modified tractor beam was fired towards it. Slowly they began to move away from the Odyssey, as they did the tractor beam stabilised the warp core and soon it came back to life. As they moved under the belly of their mothership the ejected drive self did as Reyas predicted, it began to attract the surge of chronokinetic energy that currently enveloped the Odyssey. Soon enough, like iron filings attracted to a magnet, the surge moved across the hull of the ship at an alarming speed as it chased after the warp drive. The Telemachus started to rock from the pressure as their impulse engines kicked in. Eventually they were far from the Odyssey but the surge hadn’t completely been removed from the large Starfleet vessel. Only some continued to follow after the warp core. 

“The containment field around the warp core is starting to fail, the modified tractor beam can’t keep re-enforcing it!” Tierra shouted over the commotion.

“Odyssey remains in a temporal flux!” Abbej announced in a high volume. 

Trying to work out why her plan had not worked, Reyas couldn’t explain it. It should have worked. If the warp core had attracted the surge in the first place then it should have removed it completely. 

An alarm went off at Tierra’s station. “Commander, we’re looking at a possible core breach in the next thirty seconds. We need to get rid of it. Now!”

Looking at the sensor readings before her, Reyas quickly made up her mind. “Helm alter course, take us into the original rift that created the surge.” She looked at everyone else, “All hands abandon ship. Proceed to the escape pods and use the shuttlepods as well.”

“Karyn, don’t be foolish!” Her mother said as she got up from the station she had been manning. “There has to be another way!”

Standing up and reliving her pilot, Reyas took over. “There isn’t. If the core detonates here then it will most likely damage Odyssey and we can’t outrun the blast radius in the Telemachus. Even with the gravimetric torpedo, it won’t be enough in time. But if I take the ship into the original rift then we can trap it on the other side and maybe stop the rift from causing any more damage.”

“That’s a big ‘IF’” Her mother added.

“How will you get out?” Abbej asked. 

“Go, now, there’s no discussion and that’s an order.” Reyas commanded, “Chief Blargh make sure my mother and her team get to the escape pods safely!” 

The Tellarite communications officer got up and escorted Naja off the bridge under her protests as the ‘abandon ship’ klaxon was going off. Tierra and Abbej just looked at one another as they approached the aft doors about to leave the bridge. Both of them had the same thought, smiled and quickly returned to their seats. 

“What the hell are you two doing?” Reyas screamed at them as the ship continued to shake from the external pressure. 

“Your plan may succeed if we help you.” Abbej answered. 

“The last of the escape pods have gone and both shuttlepods have launched.” Tierra announced. “There’s one left for us, if we survive this crazy ride!”

“Here goes nothing!” Reyas said smiling as she piloted the ship into the rift. She gave one more look at the two other women. “Thank you.” She said just as the ship crossed over the threshold into the rift with the Odyssey’s warp core being dragged along behind them. 

The rift itself looked like a monster’s mouth, with sparks and lighting being discharged in all directions. The bolts made it look like a set of hungry sharp teeth. As the rift interacted with them the warp core then exploded. Collapsing in on itself, the rift made a rumbling noise, like a stomach unhappy with what it had just digested.  

The Telemachus was gone. 

“I don’t understand, how is this your mother’s fault?” McCallister asked his son, the confusion evident in his tone. “She wasn’t near to us when we were hit by the surge.”

Alfie looked at his superiors and sighed heavily. “I can explain to you the whole paradox and how phenomenon A  leads to event B and then action C tries to change the outcomes to event B but somehow effect D takes place which results in a variant of phenomenon A happening even though the desire was to avoid it.”

Holding his hands up at his son to stop, McCallister got the idea. “Okay, I get the general temporal gist. Your mother tries to rescue us and in the process the event still takes place. So how do we save the ship?”

Tomaz and Alfie both looked to the admiral, who had by this time crossed his arms across his chest. “This is where we do break the temporal prime directive and I am authorised to share this data with you both.” Duncan said as he looked at both Captain McCallister and Lieutenant Commander Jen. 

“We’re honoured.” Jen said, almost in a sarcastic tone. 

“If Doctor Obrith and Nurse Tarrik are happy for you both to leave sickbay,” Tomaz said, looking over at the Krenim and Ocampan medical staff to check (both nodded), “then we can show you eberything in our Temporal Observatory.”

“Temporal Observatory? Odyssey doesn’t have a Temporal Observatory.” Jen stated as Tomaz started to lead their group out of sickbay and towards the nearest turbolift. 

As they got to the lift, Tomaz explained how they did. “When we knew that at some point in the future, we would find ourselves in this moment certain areas of the Odyssey were reconfigured. Deck Five, Section Forty-Seven Alpha was changed to the Temporal Observatory.”

“Deck Five, Section Forty-Seven-Alpha is the location of the Entomology Lab. What happened to that?” McCallister quizzed as they passed a Klingon woman wearing a teal science Starfleet uniform walking down the corridor with a Cardassian in command red. 

“After we worked out the bugs, they were moved into the shared biology labs.” Duncan answered with a smirk.

“Two decades later and I see your humour hasn’t developed, Number One.” McCallister said shaking his head at the bad pun.

Ignoring the banter between his father and the admiral, Alfie carried on with their explanation. “The Temporal Observatory was specifically designed for this moment. It’s not been used for anything else and no-one without level ten clearance or above can override the door lock. Then access to its database is encrypted and can only be accessed by the admiral and you, dad.”

McCallister looked at his son after hearing that final statement. “Why only me and Max?”

“The system was specifically designed that way to avoid anyone else trying to access the data that it contained.” Alfie stated.

As they got into the turbolift and took a short ride to deck five, Jen noticed the amount of different species on the Odyssey after they got off and proceeded down another corridor. “Is it my imagination or has the diversity in crew expanded further?” Jen asked as they walked past a group of officers that included a Kazon, a Talarian, a Reman and a Karemman.

Realising what the joined Trill was referring to, Tomaz confirmed his observations. “A lot has changed between our two timeframes. Let’s just say the Federation has expanded its influences a lot further.”

“That’s an understatement.” Jen stated as they went down a junction and approached their destination, passing more species he didn’t recognise as being members of the Federation. 

The door to the room was guarded by two security officers. Both were Talaxian men and both were holding phase rifles in their hands. When they saw the senior officers approaching they both automatically stood to attention.

“Lieutenant Bralix,” Tomaz said, getting the attention of one of his men, “No one is to disturb us. Is that clear?”

“Aye sir.” The Talaxian security officer said. 

After inputting his code, Tomaz led the team into the room that looked like a huge dome. The computer beeped at their arrival and ran a number of scans of them, identifying each person who was present. After it had scanned and confirmed the identities of Captain McCallister and Admiral Duncan, it announced it was unlocking the Time Machine Protocols. Again McCallister looked at his former first officer who just assured him that it wasn’t his idea to call it that, instead he believed it was actually McCallister who called them that. 

The room came to life and a number of holographic images appeared across the curved walls while consoles that were sitting in the centre of the room powered up. Still leading, Tomaz took the group over to them and began bringing more information up. “Admiral, we’re ready for your briefing.”

Nodding, Duncan looked at the others. “So, what I’m about to de-classify and share with you all obviously remains with us and protected under the Temporal Prime Directive. Only certain key individuals are aware of all of this and the plan is to bring the Odyssey back into normal time and space and in sync with where the original flashpoint was,” He looked at McCallister and Jen, “your timeframe.”

“An ambitious idea.” Jen remarked.

“It is Lukiz but we’ve had over twenty years to work on this and make a credible plan.” Duncan said, showing his slight irritation at the Trill’s statement. “To bring the ship back into sync with the flashpoint timeframe we need to generate a significant and powerful chroniton field.” He flicked on a holographic display and an image of Odyssey appeared, showing its current temporal status. “Right now temporal sensors are showing that there are over forty-seven different timeframes currently existing on the ship. Temporal sensors can’t be precise at what every one of these timeframes are, but we’ve been able to map some of them. For example in cargo bay three, the year is twenty-three-eighty-six and we believe it is near to the time when Odyssey assisted with Romulan refugees. While in The Lion Gate, there’s a diplomatic event being undertaken from the year twenty-four-oh-six.” Hitting another button, the plan on how to bring the Odyssey back together was then shown. “The timeframe for the flashpoint we want to reach is the only period of time we can’t detect. When the surge interacted with the warp core it shattered the space-time continuum hence why we can’t find that specific timeframe, so our belief is that the chroniton field would force every timeframe to return to that point.”

Studying the hologram for a second, McCallister looked at Duncan. His confusion was developing but he did his best to focus on everything he was hearing. “How do we generate a chroniton field that large? The ship is massive.”

“It is, but since we know that this incident took place then plans were put into place not to only install the temporal observatory but special conduits would be built in areas of the ship we know would be placed into timeframes that are the future from your perspective. To Tomaz, Alfie and I, that is our past and the work we’ve have to do quietly without others knowing.” Duncan explained. “These conduits, and then along with modifications we can make to the ship’s systems in other past timeframes will be used to generate the field. We activate the field by using the warp drive.”

“But we ejected the warp core?” Jen questioned.

“In your timeframe, yes but from our perspective a new one was put in but we’re not going to use the main drive.” Tomaz responded. He pressed a button this time on the controls and the ship’s MSD appeared as it zoomed into a particular section. “The chevron’s warp core will be used as it is the same one that exists in all timeframes.”

“However we do have a slight issue with what is going on.” Duncan added as he pulled up another record. “Not only do we have people on Odyssey we don’t want roaming around for too long as they may begin to work out what is happening, if we don’t complete the work within six hours then the ship will eventually either create a temporal fissure taking the ship into what we call the Dali paradox or we believe a temporal inversion will happen inside the Paulson Nebula in our timeframe that will then send shockwaves in all directions across the space-time continuum. This will then cause long lasting and far reaching temporal anomalies across the entire galaxy.”

“The Dali paradox?” Jen asked clarity on

“Also referred to as the melting clock effect, it basically means that the fissure will eventually slow time to a gradual halt. We would all be frozen in time.” Duncan answered.

“No pressure then.” Alfie stated. “We know either of these may happen as we received a visit from the Department of Temporal Investigation who have the technology to determine the possible outcomes. These two have the highest probability of happening.” 

“As I said earlier, Odyssey is massive. How are we meant to get around to every single section that needs modifying and coordinating such a large project in such a short amount of time?” McCallister wondered as he scratched his chin.

Tomaz pushed out another set of files and each one of them showed key personnel that served on Odyssey from its past to its current present. “Sir, without going into the whole temporal paradox reasoning again, you’ve already picked who we will recruit and under the temporal prime directive have them aide us.”

Noticing his former first officers: Zack Hawkins and Cambil Bexa listed, McCallister tried to listen to the Barzan captain but his heart sank when he saw their records appear. “I take it we are going to meet former colleagues who knew about all of this.”

“From their point of view in their timeframes this will be the first time they hear about it, but once we recruit them and then after this incident you’ll pick other crew who are awaiting to help us, they will know what happens.” Duncan shared. 

“But if we bring Odyssey into sync with the flashpoint timeframe, how can those in the past remember?” Jen challenged. “Or is this one of those other paradoxes that means they just will remember.”

“Kind of.” Duncan said with a smile. He could see how temporal mechanics was frustrating for both Jen and McCallister. Telling the computer to replicate a chroniton-infused serum, a set of hyposprays appeared in the middle of the console they had been using. “These serums will help us pass through the time barriers from one timeframe to the next. We need to limit how many timeframes we cross into as it places us at risk of sensory aphasia. However, another side effect of the serum means we will be aware of the changes in the timeline once we complete our mission. That means those from the past we recruit will remember.”

“Max, are you telling me that there are members of our crew who knew about this before I knew about this?” McCallister checked. 

“They will once we tell them and after the chroniton field has been activated.” Duncan answered. “Again, don’t ask me to explain the paradox involved here but I know from our timeframe that we succeed as it is you two who prepare those of us who we don’t encounter in the past timeframes. We also know that those you recruit from the past come forward and are debriefed by the DTI at this time with what they know.”

McCallister looked at his son, “Alf, does that mean you’ve known about this for a long time?”

Nodding towards his father, Alfie answered him. “This is one of those burdens I’ll carry with me for my entire Starfleet career.” He sighed. “But if it means we can prevent losing the Odyssey, my home, then it is worth the burden.”

“And what about your mom? Can we rescue her? Stop her from causing all of this damage.” McCallister checked waving his hand at all of the floating displays around them.

Alfie looked at Duncan and Tomaz, a guilty expression went across his face, something that McCallister noticed but couldn’t say anything as Duncan answered. “As long as our plan to bring you back into your timeframe at the flashpoint then in theory she wouldn’t come and investigate. We might be able to break that cycle.”

“Might?” McCallister said, sounding not impressed at that possibility.

“Dad, all of this can’t be calculated to a precise point in time. In theory by forcing the ship back to the flashpoint, we can deflect the surge before it interacts with the main warp drive. We can also end up saving the life of Commander Hunsen too.”

“Tremt’s dead?” Jen asked, now sounding shocked at hearing that revelation. 

Realising he shouldn’t have said that, Alfie winced as Duncan and Tomaz looked at him a bit annoyed with his comment. 

“Tremt dies trying to eject the warp core after the flashpoint. He is hit by a surge from the drive.” Tomaz answered. “He dies in the arms of Counsellor Horin almost instantly.”

“The core was only ejected by Louwanna’s quick thinking.” Duncan added. “But Alfie is right. If we can deflect the surge away from the ship then we shouldn’t lose Tremt and Karyn shouldn’t come in to the nebula to investigate what happened to us.” Duncan now looked at his former captain. “So what do you say sir?”

Sighing heavily, he crossed his arms against his chest and considered everything for a moment. “We don’t have much choice, do we?” He looked at Jen who just shrugged his shoulders at him. “Let’s get the job done!”

Though the chroniton-infused serum was working, McCallister still found this whole experience one massive headache. He found the whole experience of meeting his son from the future one of the most bizarre moments in his Starfleet career. Still wondering if there was more of this possible alternate future they had encountered that they didn’t know about, the captain had hoped that if they could reset the ship back to its original timeframe then maybe he could do things differently. 

Crawling through one of the many jefferies tubes heading through deck eighteen so they could get to cargo bay four, he was just behind Jen. To avoid either him or Jen seeing too much of the ship’s possible future, it was decided they would focus on areas of the ship that were identified as being in timeframes from their past. 

“Sir, do you mind if I speak freely?” Jen asked as they reached another mid-level access hatch and stopped as he started to use the manual ride to pump it open. 

“Sure, Lukiz.” McCallister replied as he paused and scanned the next section ahead of them with his tricorder. The tricorder and the equipment they had been given by Captain Tomaz were all infused with casings that had the serum in them, thus allowing them to pass through the temporal barriers that separated each timeframe from one another.

 Pressing a few buttons, the pump was released and he started to push it back and forth. “Admiral Duncan mentioned that you have already picked those we plan to recruit with our efforts, but I can’t work out how you’ve already done that if you’ve not done it.” Jen remarked.

“Again, temporal mechanics doesn’t always make sense.” McCallister stated with a smirk. “Perhaps in the original timeline, I was careful on who I picked as I knew I could trust them, but the list that Max presented to us are the people I trust with this.”

“And I thought having to deal with multiple lifetimes of experiences and memories was difficult, this stuff definitely doesn’t make sense.” Jen commented as the access hatch popped open and allowed them to continue their journey. “This whole situation is just crazy.”

“You said it, Lukiz.” McCallister agreed as they pushed themselves further down the small passageway before they got to the end and got to the last hatch. Again Jen activated the manual override and pushed the small door open. They were finally in cargo bay four. 

Tapping the portable holographic projector attached to their left sleeves, their uniforms were replaced by the era-specific Starfleet uniform. The mid-2380s uniform, one that McCallister started to wear shortly after taking command of the Odyssey, was one he preferred. Not wanting to attract too much attention from those they may interact with, McCallister and Jen kept to themselves as they moved across the large cargo bay and as they passed around a few containers they came across their first possible barrier to their work. Before them, the entire room was filled with Romulan refugees. 

Jen looked to McCallister for an idea on how to proceed. “I don’t recognise this timeframe, sir.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be safe,” McCallister replied quietly. “This looks like one of our many missions in rescuing Romulan refugees who were fleeing the Star Empire.” Squinting his eyes further he soon remembered which one. “This is the Vorash mission.”

“The one where Odyssey had to protect a large caravan of ships from being attacked by Nausicaan raiders?” Jen checked. 

“I think so,” McCallister answered. “Follow me.” He then moved through the crowds of Romulans who were moving around talking to one another. Some were huddling in groups feeding their children or comforting one another. As the two Starfleet officers walked past them they didn’t pick up too much attention. Then a Romulan woman approached McCallister.

“Are you the captain of this ship?” She asked, holding her infant child in her arms. Her appearance was not the greatest. Smudges were across his face, arms and hands while her black hair was tied up in a dishevelled state. Her clothes were ripped in certain areas as well.

Smiling at her, McCallister answered. “I am Captain James Preston McCallister.”

Automatically she threw her arms around him and hugged him, while still holding on to her child. “Thank you so much, captain.” She sobbed into his arms. 

A sense of deja vu overwhelmed him as McCallister remembered receiving a similar reception to other civilians they had rescued. “It’s my pleasure.” He answered, hugging her back. “I’m sorry that we don’t have more ships to help.”

“You’re here and you’ve saved my son and me. For that, I am grateful, captain.” She said after letting go. “Do you have children of your own, captain?”

About to say yes, McCallister realised that in this timeframe the boys hadn’t been born. “No, but I look forward to the day I am a father.”

“Then I wish you all the best.” She said with a smile and then returned to the small crowd she was with. 

Appreciating the sentiment, McCallister thanked her, assured her group that they would be given access to somewhere to get fresh clothes, a warm meal and medical attention. After excusing himself, he and Jen moved to the area where the modifications to the ship they needed to do were located. Pulling the panel off the wall, they started on their work when they were stopped by a voice that was familiar to McCallister.

“Captain, what are you doing down here?”

 Turning around, McCallister’s heart skipped a beat as he saw standing before him was Zack Hawkins. “Zack.” He said, sounding surprised and shocked simultaneously.

In the flesh, standing before him with a confused look but a genuine warmth about him was Commander Zack Hawkins, Odyssey’s first officer. Hawkins had served on the previous ship named Odyssey as its first officer under Captain McCragg and when McCallister had taken command of the newest incarnation and the prototype of the class, he had requested Hawkins to join him. The two had become close but at this point in time they were just developing their professional relationship as Captain and First Officer. 

“Sir, I thought I just left you on the bridge?” Hawkins asked another question attempting to get some answers. 

“You did.” McCallister replied and he had a somewhat flashback to this moment. He remembered that he had sent Hawkins down to meet with the refugee leaders and to begin making sure they were all placed in comfortable settings. 

Looking at Jen, Hawkins squinted his eyes at him. “Who’s this, sir?” He asked, now sounding sceptical of what was happening.

McCallister looked at Hawkins and just knew this was it. This was the point in time that he would recruit Hawkins for this mission. “Zack, can we talk? Just us two?”

“Of course, sir.” Hawkins remarked, still sounding cautious. 

McCallister gestured for Jen to continue with the work as they had been instructed to do by Admiral Duncan before suggesting to Hawkins for them to walk away. “Zack, what I’m about to share with you is going to sound unrealistic and I know it will take a lot for you to believe me, especially as we’ve only just started to get to know one another.”

“Permission to speak freely, captain?” Hawkins requested as he tugged on the bottom of his right ear. 

Smiling at him, McCallister remembered that he had learnt over the years when Hawkins needed to offload whatever was on his chest, he would always start with that question and then his nervous twitch of pulling on his lobe followed. “Of course Zack.” He encouraged.

“From what I know from Captain McCragg and others that have worked with you, you are known as a fine officer but I get the impression you’re about to ask me to take a leap of faith with you.” Hawkins stated. 

Nodding to show he was right, McCallister confirmed Hawkins’ suspicions. “I am.” McCallister sighed and then tapped his left arm, deactivating the holographic camouflage and showing Hawkins his real uniform. “Zack, I need you to jump high for me and right now I know you can’t imagine trusting me with what I’m about to tell you, but from where I stand we have a lot of history. I come from fourteen years in the future. In that future, you and I spent a long time becoming a well-oiled machine, close friends in fact and we trusted each other a lot.”

With eyes wide open, Hawkins didn’t know what to say at first and then he eventually spoke. “Are we breaking the temporal prime directive?”

“We are, somewhat, but it is authorised,” McCallister replied with a small chuckle. “I don’t say this lightly and I am one of the last people who want to deal with temporal mechanics, but I need you to help me as the Odyssey has been fractured into different timeframes. Has anyone reported to you any problems in gaining access to other parts of the ship?”

“It’s funny you should say that, I watched one of the security officers with me disappear in a flash as he went down a junction to return to the bridge. I’ve had a team scanning the area and they detected large amounts of chroniton and tachyon radiation.” Hawkins confirmed. 

“We came through one of those barriers, you can see I am not the James McCallister from this timeframe.” McCallister indicated to the signs of grey hair and his uniform.

“Indeed. So what can I do to help?” Hawkins offered, he was starting to sound less reluctant now. 

McCallister went on to explain to Hawkins what he and Jen were doing. He then asked Hawkins if he could inject him with serum so if anything was to happen he was aware of what was going on and he could also help out with the other modifications in the timeframe he existed in. 

Once Jen and McCallister were finished showing Hawkins what to do, they began to pack up their gear, ready to move on to the next timeframe. 

“So how much of a great team will we become?” Hawkins wondered as he walked beside McCallister as they approached the next barrier. 

Knowing he couldn’t tell him what his future held ahead for him, especially that Hawkins would die in the future while commanding the USS Holt, McCallister just smiled at him. It was good to once again work with him. “One of the finest in the fleet, Number One.” He answered. “This is going to be one of the best assignments.”

Copying the same grin that McCallister had, Hawkins thanked McCallister for sharing that with him before promising he would keep what he was told a secret with him. “I’ll wait for your signal at this end.”

“Thanks, Zack, now those modifications are complete once we activate the entire system to create the chroniton field, you’ll see when things will begin. Keep safe.” McCallister said as he approached the barrier with Jen. 

“Good luck, sir.” Hawkins said as he watched both men step through and then were gone from his vision. 

Looking on from the other side, McCallister turned around and took one more glance at Hawkins. 

“Is it weird to know that we know what will happen to him?” Jen asked, almost in a whisper.

Bobbing his head in agreement, McCallister turned to his operations manager and just said: “Yeah, it sucks.”

Both men then resumed their work.  

Noticing his reflection in one of the wall consoles they passed on deck thirty, Vice Admiral Max Duncan ignored his surprise as he quickly reminded himself that their mobile holographic projector was working and was disguising himself as his much younger self. His beard was gone, the countless lines and grey hairs were replaced by his once smooth fresh skin and much thicker brown hair. His hair was no longer combed back but styled forward where he had a some sort of brushed forward long fringe that was slightly swept to the left. No longer did it look as if he was wearing the red flag officer’s uniform, instead his teal blue uniform from the late 2380 era was on show with the rank of full lieutenant. He felt stupid trying to mimic his younger self, all of these years of experienced had changed him. No longer was he a counsellor, he was a full blown member of the admiralty. This entire concept was madness but one he knew he had to complete. 

That said he couldn’t hold back the slight chuckle that had caught him off guard the moment the holographic projector updated the appearance of Tomaz. In this timeframe, Tomaz hadn’t joined Starfleet, in fact he was still a teenager. Originally the camouflage had given him a civilian attire, realising this wouldn’t help them, Duncan had manually adjusted it and instead gave Tomaz an early promotion to a cadet freshman class. Similar to Duncan, Tomaz’s appearance made him look very different. His youthful appearance was almost shocking, his breathing apparatus had re-appeared and Tomaz’ hair looked extremely fluffy. That was the best way that Duncan could describe it when he first saw his former first officer shortly after they had stepped through the temporal barrier. 

“I take it Starfleet Academy was the turning point for change of coiffure?” Duncan had teased him. 

Rolling his eyes, Tomaz’s embarrassment could not be shielded by the holographic camouflage. “Let’s just say my academy day’s changed me a lot.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Duncan had retorted before they carried on their journey down the corridor of deck thirty.

They had stopped several times to make the adjustments they needed to do to the ship’s systems. Along with installing devices that would help them monitor the systems from this timeframe they ejected a number of the gel-packs with the chroniton-serum. As they finished working on a batch of packs, Tomaz looked at one of the nearby consoles. 

“This station shows that the ship is docked.” Tomaz announced. “When are we again?”

“Sometime in mid-twenty-three-eight-nine.” Duncan replied as he injected the last gel-pack. 

Tapping at the console, Tomaz studied it further. “Hmm, that’s interesting. This looks like the ship still has its old NX classification.”

“San Francisco.” Duncan muttered.

“Pardon, Max?” Tomaz asked as he looked around at his superior. Though the two were different in rank from their timeframe, the two of them had become close strong friends when Duncan had been captain and Tomaz was his loyal first officer. The two had lost any need to remain professional when they were in the company of just each other, so their ranks dropped. 

Picking up the panel that was on the floor and clicking it back into place to cover up the gel-packs, Duncan looked up at his friend. “If we’re docked and this is mid-twenty-three-eighty-nine then Odyssey is at the San Francisco Fleet Yards receiving further upgrades and a refit as it is losing its prototype status.”

“Anything exciting happen then?” Tomaz asked as he turned to face Duncan fully now. 

Shaking his head, Duncan replied with a simple “no”. 

“Weren’t you still the ship’s counsellor then?” Tomaz checked.

Fixing his gear away, Duncan confirmed Tomaz’s guess. “And chief diplomatic officer. I was in my third year and still frightened at how large the vessel was.” 

Tomaz chuckled. “Really?”

“Yeah, I never wanted to join the ship in the first place.” Duncan added as they started to walk down the empty corridor. 

“Why did you join then?”

“It was James’ fault.” Duncan answered as they moved further to their next target. “I was happily trying to find my way on the Charlton, a Galaxy-class vessel until James literally head-hunted me to join him.”

“How come he wanted you with him?” Tomaz asked as he knelt to the deck plating and pulled off the next panel and started to make the modifications. 

“Several reasons really,” Duncan answered as he joined Tomaz on the floor. “The Triton, the ship he had commanded beforehand and the previous ship named Odyssey had just completed some classified mission which had resulted in them finding some old, dis-used Iconian technology that had somehow moved the entire Kovar system from the Beta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant. During the mission to return Kovar to its original location the Odyssey was destroyed. Thankfully the crew had been saved by the Triton. Anyway, Starfleet wanted James to take command of this Odyssey and as you know he planned to integrate those from the old Odyssey and the Triton to this ship.”

“So what, you were the independent voice of reason to help with that?” Tomaz checked as he injected his first gel-pack. 

Nodding, Duncan loaded his hypospray and answered Tomaz’s question. “Something like that, yeah. Bringing together crews from a Luna-class ship and a Sovereign-class that had known each other for a long time was one hell of a crazy concept of his. I had to do a lot of work in breaking down old routines and habits that they had got used to.”

The two men continued with their work when they both heard a recognisable voice coming down the corridor. Quickly, they finished their work, closed the panel and pretended to be studying a nearby wall monitor as the voice got closer.

“So as you can see admiral, once we’ve finished the last of the refits we can-” Tremt Hunsen paused himself as he looked a bit surprised to see Duncan and Tomaz there. “Lieutenant Duncan, what, what are you doing here?”

Turning to see the younger version of Tremt Hunsen, both men smiled but it was Duncan’s expression that changed the quickest when he saw who Hunsen was with. 

“Dad?” He mumbled with surprise.

“Max?” Fleet Admiral Luke Duncan said as he looked at his son, up and down. “What are you doing here? I thought you were on the surface visiting old academy friends?”

Stumbling to say anything at seeing his father, Duncan was speechless. He hadn’t seen his father for a long time and seeing him stood there before him was something he had not prepared for. This was the man who had commanded the previous two ships named Odyssey, commanded Deep Space Nineteen and had risen through the ranks to command the Fourth Fleet. Now he had moved onto other senior positions within Starfleet Command. He was close to retirement and was looking forward to finding a quiet corner on a familiar Federation colony in the Beta Quadrant. 

Realising that Duncan had almost frozen, Tomaz spoke up. “Sir, the lieutenant promised me a tour of the Odyssey.”

Looking at the Barzan man up and down, Fleet Admiral Duncan appeared suspicious to what was taking place. “Cadet?” He asked to find out who the man was.

“Cadet Tomaz, sir.” Tomaz replied and then realised he needed to pretend to be a nineteen year old version of himself, so he stood to attention. “I’ve just applied to join the academy and one of my instructors is a former colleague of Counsellor Duncan’s from his time on the Charlton.”

Looking to his son, the admiral extended his hand towards Tomaz as he spoke. “Max, you look like you’ve seen a pair of ghosts, are you okay son?”

Blinking a few times, Duncan gulped once and then nodded to his father. “I’m fine, thank you sir. It’s just good to see you.”

Still confused, the admiral frowned at that comment. “Max, I only saw you yesterday.” He looked to Hunsen and then back to his son. “Seriously Max, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I am,” Duncan then shook his head and re-focussed on his work. “I am. sorry. It’s been a long morning for me, but yes this is Cadet Tomaz. His lead instructor was someone I knew from the Charlton, who I owed a favour to and the cadet is one of the few Barzans to consider entering Starfleet this year. They thought a tour of the Odyssey may encourage him to continue with his application. Seeing how diverse our crew is and how well it works.”

“Well we’re definitely a diverse crew.” Hunsen confirmed, he looked at both Tomaz and Duncan with suspicion. “I was just giving the admiral a tour.”

“For old time’s sake.” Fleet Admiral Duncan said with a smile. He looked at Tomaz. “Cadet, I hope your tour encourages you to remain with the idea of joining Starfleet.”

“Thank you sir.” Tomaz said with an appreciative smile.

“Max,” The admiral said gaining the attention of his son, “Will we see you tonight for dinner?”

He wanted to say yes, but Duncan knew that would not be possible. “I’ve got a few more meetings but once I’m done, I’ll be in touch.”

“Excellent.” The admiral said with a smile. He turned to the Betazoid chief engineer beside him. “Tremt, shall we continue with the tour?”

Eyeing up Duncan, the Betazoid chief engineer was definitely trying to read his companion and then he stopped as he looked at the admiral. “Yes sir, but would you mind going ahead without me for a moment. I just need to share something with Counsellor Duncan and Cadet Tomaz.”

Noticing something strange was going on, the admiral nodded his head and stepped away with his Vulcan yeoman following him around the corner. 

Hunsen squinted his eyes at Duncan and Tomaz then spoke. “I don’t need to read either of your minds to see you’re not who you are. So if you’re infiltrating this vessel in an attempt to do something, I won’t let you harm the admiral that’s for sure.”

Realising that their cover was blown, Duncan sighed heavily. He tapped his camouflage projector and switched it off to show the real him in his future uniform. Tomaz followed thereafter. Hunsen stepped back at the big revelation before him and looked surprised. 

“So you’re not Counsellor Duncan?” The chief engineer said and then looked deeply. “You are but you’re not from this time, are you?”

“You can sense all of that?” Tomaz quizzed.

Hunsen looked at the Barzan before replying. “I can hear the thoughts you both are trying to suppress and I can also sense the feelings of trying to hold things back.”

“Tremt, this is going to sound strange but what I’m about to share with you is the truth, but you can’t share it with my father and we need your help.” Duncan said honestly. 

Hunsen nodded and listened as Duncan and Tomaz quickly told him everything. After their brief speech, he looked at them both. Again squinting his eyes as he studied them closely. “I believe you.” He finally said. 

“It’s that easy?” Tomaz questioned. 

“I’ve gotten to know the counsellor well over the past couple of years, I can sense when he is lying or hiding something.” Hunsen said. “So what else can I do to help?”

Appreciating the offer of help, Duncan gave Hunsen the serum and told him about the temporal prime directive and their plan to free the ship. Hunsen agreed to keep everything from the admiral and to do his bit. 

“I suppose you can’t tell me what my life is like in the future you come from?” Hunsen then asked. 

Trying to conceal that aspect, Duncan and Tomaz both shook their heads in a solemnly nature. 

Taking back by their silent gesture, Hunsen then realised what that meant. “I’m not alive, am I?”

“We can’t answer that.” Duncan said softly. 

Smirking at the thought that they knew his fate, Hunsen shrugged his shoulders. “It’s okay, I won’t ask anymore. Just make sure however I die, I do it with style.”

Eventually both men left Hunsen and moved further down the corridor. Before they reached the next temporal barrier, Duncan took one more glance at this timeframe. Wondering if their plan did mean that Hunsen lived, he just hoped that once this was all over that somehow McCallister is able to rescue his former friend from the awful death he endured trying to save the Odyssey. That said, he kicked himself for not trusting his father with this mission and not enlisting him with helping them. It had been over twenty-two years since his father died. He knew that was a fixed point in time, but could he really walk away from this opportunity to say something or even just to spend longer with him? 

Seeing the turmoil in his friend’s eyes, Tomaz caught Duncan’s attention and told him that they had to move on.

Solemnly, Duncan agreed as he turned his back towards the fate of two people who meant something to him. He just hoped that at least one of them would survive this. 

Feeling nauseous the moment he stepped through the temporal barrier, Alfie McCallister had to pause as he felt his stomach perform several cartwheels. He wasn’t sure if it was celebrating that it had got through the time-shift without any issues or if it was setting off an internal alarm stating it shouldn’t be there. Either way, Alfie had to hold onto the side of the nearest bulkhead to steady himself and take several deep breaths. 

“You okay?” asked his companion.

Turning around, Alfie gave a weak smile and nod to Jorgeh. Placing a caring hand on Alfie’s arm, his friend offered some sound advice. “Didn’t Doctor Obrith say we may suffer from nausea and dizziness as we pass through the barrier?”

Alfie just nodded as he straightened his back up. Appreciating the concern from his friend, he looked around to where they were and was happy to see that they were in an empty junction. “We should activate our camouflage.” He suggested. 

Jorgeh nodded and without hesitation tapped the mobile projector on his left arm and instantly his appearance changed. Alfie did the same and both men no longer looked like each other, but instead this timeframe was before either of them were old enough to be adults. As such they had programmed the projector to change them to look like their fathers. Alfie smirked at seeing Jorgeh looking like a young Tobias Court while Jorgeh did the same back at seeing his friend appearing like a young version of James Preston McCallister. 

Taking out his scanner, Jorgeh started to determine where they needed to start their work. Alfie was somewhat pleased that Jorgeh was with him. The two of them had grown up together on the Odyssey, knowing that one day both of them would be involved in this mission to save their home. Jorgeh had followed his adoptive fathers in joining Starfleet once he was old enough. In fact Jorgeh and Alfie had gone to the academy campus on Mellstoxx together. Alfie had gone down the route of becoming a pilot while Jorgeh had enjoyed his time in security and tactical. Now both of them served on the Odyssey in the future. Alfie was first officer while Jorgeh was second officer as well as chief security and tactical officer. Both men had remained close friends over the two decades since Jorgeh and his brother Wylem were rescued from the Quirennal. Alfie had wondered if they would ever enter a timeframe where that event took place. Would he or Jorgeh ever encounter their younger selves? For now they had a lot to do. 

Disguising themselves as their fathers seemed like the best option for now. The holographic camouflage would make anyone they encountered think they were Odyssey’s commanding officer and command chief. The ship’s computer would also think that too, especially as both Alfie and Jorgeh had their father’s clearance and command codes for this period of time. Looking at themselves they looked down at the uniforms they found themselves in. 

“Remind me again, why does Starfleet change its uniform so often while the Klingon Empire has pretty much had the same style for almost two centuries?” Jorgeh complained, the holographic camouflage kicked in and his voice was altered to sound like Chief Tobias Court. 

“If I remember rightly, a certain academy professor of ours who did temporal mechanics had a theory that it would help those of us who time travel to work out when we are in Starfleet’s past.” Alfie answered, sounding like his father. “It’s not the official line that the quartermaster likes to keep the style fresh and appealing to those who join Starfleet.”

Chuckling somewhat, Jorgeh couldn’t get over how much Alfie sounded like his father. “That voice is creepy to hear.” He mentioned as he carried on with his scans. “Plus when did your father ever have so much blonde hair?”

Turning around to check his reflection out in the mirror, Alfie snorted somewhat at his appearance. He had seen pictures of his father from this era, he vaguely recalled his early childhood when his father looked so youthful but from what he always knew his father had darker hair and as he got a lot older it went completely grey. Returning back to look at his friend, Alfie commented back. “Jorgeh, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t ever remember seeing your father with tousled curly hair like that.” 

Jorgeh groaned as he copied his friend and inspected his reflection. “Wow, our dads really knew how to live in style in their youths.” He sarcastically said. 

“It was the style in the late eighties and nineties!” Alfie said, carrying on with the sarcasm. He took out his scanner once they had finished insulting the looks their fathers had enjoyed from their youths. Looking at the scans, Alfie’s expression changed. “Jorg,” He said, grabbing the attention of his friend by using the shortened name he had created years ago for him. “I’m detecting over forty-seven life signs ahead of us in the arboretum and most of them are Reman.”

Spinning back around to look at his friend’s readings, Jorgeh peered over his shoulder. “Reman? When did the Odyssey have Remans on it?”

Trying to recall that event from the ship’s past, Alfie couldn’t quite remember. “Computer, what stardate is it?”

“The stardate is six-seven-two-two-six-point-two-two.”

Muttering the numbers to himself, Alfie then realised the year as Twenty-Three-Ninety. “Ah crap,” He added. “This is the time when the Odyssey took a Federation delegation to meet with representatives from the Romulan Republic, then the Tal Shiar turned up and tried to assassinate the lead delegate by beaming over drugged induced Remans.”

“Drugged induced Remans?” Jorgeh repeated, not sounding convinced at what his companion said. 

“Yeah, they ended up pumping them with some sort of narcotic that brought their primal urges to fight to the forefront while their conscious and reasoning elements were subdued. Doctor Slyvexs was able to create some sort of cure for it that she ended up spreading through the ship in a gaseous form. It ended up knocking them all out.” Alfie explained.

“So with the ship split into too many timeframes to count and we know that sickbay is in our timeframe, we can probably be certain that gas won’t appear.” Jorgeh said after realising the seriousness of their situation.

“When you put it like that…” Alfie started and then Jorgeh finished his sentence.

“…ah crap indeed.” The security chief said. “Ideas?”

“We need to do the work and then get out of here as quickly as possible.” Alfie answered.

“Dressed like the captain and command chief?” Jorgeh checked. “We could end up being taken by these crazy Remans?”

“Drugged induced Remans.” Alfie corrected him.

“Are we really going to squabble over semantics?” Jorgeh countered back. “Either way neither of us are armed.”

“It looks like we’re on deck seventeen section twenty-one-alpha.” Alfie stated and then looked around the empty corridor before beginning to walk down the corridor cautiously. “Which means the main entrance to the arboretum is just around that corner and there should be a weapon’s locker nearby.”

“No there shouldn’t be. It was removed years ago.” Jorgeh said as he followed his friend. 

Shaking his head, Alfie reminded Jorgeh that in this timeframe the weapon locker still existed. As they approached another junction, Alfie went over to the locker and used his fake credentials to open it. Swinging around in a one-hundred-eighty turn, phaser rifles appeared with handheld phasers next to them. Placing his hand on the scanner to authenticate who he was, Alfie was surprised that the holographic camouflage worked as it detected his father’s handprint, recognised his voice clearance and confirmed that his DNA was a part of the McCallister lineage. 

“I don’t understand why anyone thought having a weapon’s locker next to a large indoor garden was a good idea.” Jorgeh groaned to himself as he carried out his own checks. “I mean who invades a ship and thinks the best strategic place is the ship’s inside park? Which then results in Starfleet Security thinking let’s place some weapons nearby for security teams?”

Alfie ignored Jorgeh’s rant instead he held his breath hoping that the camouflage showed that he was in fact Tobias Court with the handprint and voice recognition system. The only thing that could let them down was the DNA scan. Thankfully Jorgeh’s DNA was altered several years ago during a mission in the Delta Quadrant. An alien race, who claimed to be members of Jorgeh and Wylem’s species, attempted to kidnap them in an attempt to open a Ryslanti artefact. To stop this from happening Doctor Slyvexs used a retrovirus that changed Jorgeh and Wylem’s DNA to appear human. The DNA itself was a combination of their parents and thankfully the aliens then stopped harassing the Odyssey. Both Jorgeh and Wylem decided not to have the retrovirus removed from them, so over the years their DNA had slowly became more human with the Duncan/Court genes. 

The computer then beeped and confirmed it recognised him as Tobias Court. 

“Oh thank god.” Alfie mumbled as Jorgeh took out the rifle and phaser. 

Smirking at his friend, almost in a cocky way, Jorgeh showed he was ready for them to move forward.

At first they worked on a panel just outside the arboretum and injected the gel-packs with the serum. Once they were finished they moved into the huge plant-based sanctuary/indoor garden. In the distance they heard phaser and disruptor fire, instantly both men raised their rifles to their sides as they moved swiftly and carefully through to their next target. The main area of Odyssey’s arboretum was a massive dome shaped place. Within it were small paths in between large swathes of grass, trees, plants and bushes. Small streams ran through it that all connected into a wider river and then a waterfall at one end where a large rock face/cliff was. There had been many times in his childhood that Alfie had climbed it, in fact one of the first things he remembered from his early days of his friendship with Jorgeh was them trying to grapple it. The whole incident ended with both of them splashing into the huge lake that the waterfall led into. Jorgeh didn’t know how to swim so Alfie ended up pulling him up. Both of them had laughed so much that day with their brothers. It was a sweet memory. Remembering it brought a smile to Alfie now as they walked through the arboretum.

“I hope you’re not planning on pushing me into that waterfall anytime soon,” Jorgeh joked from Alfie’s side.

Snorting somewhat at the idea and liking the fact that Jorgeh was thinking the same thing as him, Alfie just shook his head. The noise of the phaser fight was getting louder as they got closer to their target.

“Captain!” shouted someone from behind them before saying it again and in a much louder tone. “CAPTAIN!” 

Realising that he was in disguise as his father, Alfie stopped and turned around (Jorgeh did the same). Running up to them with several other security officers beside him was Cline Lenjir. Lieutenant Cline Lenjir. The young Tiburonian held a phaser rifle tightly as he caught up with both Alfie and Jorgeh. He didn’t realise who they really were as the camouflage was doing its magic. 

Registering that he needed to become his father, Alfie spoke up. “Lieutenant, I don’t think I should remind you that screaming my name while we are being boarded by Romans…I mean Remans, is a good tactical plan.” He said, kicking himself for that mix up.

“Sorry sir,” Lenjir said, sounding breathless, “but I was told you and the chief were on the bridge.”

“I…we…were on the bridge.” Alife replied, “but something came up that we had to deal with.”

“Oh? Nothing too serious I hope?” Lenjir checked, his breathing was now slowing down. 

“Not at all.” Alfie answered, remaining strong with his response and trying to impersonate his father as best as he could. He looked at Jorgeh, “Chief care to elaborate to the lieutenant?”

Jorgeh glared at Alfie through his own father’s eyes before turning his attention quickly back to Lenjir. “We heard that Alfie, the captain’s youngest son, was last seen here. He did a runner from his quarters when the intruder alarm went off. The little tyke has done that a few times.”

“Oh, that makes sense. We can help you look for him!” Lenjir offered.

Alfie looked at Jorgeh, slightly shaking his head at the implication that his younger self would do such a thing. He was only a toddler in 2390. Remaining composed though, Alfie carried on to act like his father. “Yes, please send your teammates into pairs to see if they can find Alf before any Remans do.”

 Lenjir gave out his orders to his large team as Alfie and Jorgeh turned away to quietly discuss their plan of action. 

“What the hell was that?” Alfie quizzed in a low but harsh whisper.

“I was trying to think on my feet.” Jorgeh complained in a similar low volume. “It makes sense as to why the captain and the command chief have left their posts. Remind me again who your father and godfather are?”

“Alright, alright, but this wasn’t part of the plan.” Alfie said back, looking over his shoulder to see if they still had time before Lenjir finished.

“Yeah but we know that Cline is one of the people that is recruited to help. This is probably the timeframe in which that happens.” Jorgeh encouraged, still saying it quietly. 

“True.” Alfie agreed as Lenjir finished and they turned to face him. 

His team started to disperse as he looked at his superior. “It’s probably best I remain with you sir, you know tactical directive thirty-six.”

Alfie just looked blanked for a moment as did Jorgeh. 

Looking between both men, Lenjir showed he couldn’t understand why his superior didn’t know what he was going on about. “Tactical Directive Thirty Six: the captain will not engage a hostile force without the protection of a security officer.”

“Ah yes, that one!” Alfie said, making it look like he knew what Lenjir meant before gesturing for him to take the lead as they headed toward their target.

Jorgeh just shook his head. “We are going to be in a lot of trouble if we don’t pull this off.” He whispered to Alfie. 

Alfie just nodded as they moved forward with their mission. 

The time barrier that helped them enter deck eleven to enter the main shuttlebay was located between the corridor and one of the entrances. As a result the door sensor at first didn’t recognise the arrival of Captain McCallister and Commander Jen. 

“This is annoying.” McCallister mumbled. 

Jen took out his tricorder and scanned the large rectangular door. “You’re not going to believe this sir, but the sensor is stuck halfway between the barrier.”

Sighing heavily, McCallister took out his own tricorder and looked over the scans, the same ones that Jen was seeing at that point. “The time differential will make it difficult open the door straight away.”

“We might be able to send the signal, then give it a second to see if there’s a delay?” suggested Jen. 

Shaking his head, McCallister showed he was not prepared to wait. “No. The irony is we don’t have the time to give it time. Let’s open it with the manual release.”

  Jen nodded in agreement, knelt down onto the floor and opened the panel. Tapping away at the console, the Trill operations manager was able to by-pass the system and then the computer spoke up. 

“Manual release is online.”

Jen looked up at McCallister who just gave him the nod to proceed. Yanking on the release the manual levy was unlocked, allowing for him now to start pumping the door open. While he did that McCallister took out an emergency hand actuator and placed it on the wide cargo bay doors. Next he started to push the door open. Between the two of them they were able to part the heavy set of doors, wide enough for them both to enter. 

Squeezing through they entered the shuttlebay and straight away McCallister realised when they were. “Stardate six-nine-three-four-six-point-two.” He said. 

“Ah, yeah.” Jen agreed as they looked around the room and saw multiple spaceborne lifeforms flying around the room or attaching themselves to the various bulkheads and auxiliary craft that were located in the bay. “The evening we succumbed to spaceborne offspring.” 

Sighing with another heavy heart, McCallister played back in his mind this entire incident. While patrolling the Romulan border, deep in the Beta Quadrant, the Odyssey came across a school of small bioplasmic organisms that was able to penetrate their shields, by-pass the hull and take refuge in the ship. All of them were attracted to the Odyssey’s warp signal. The spaceborne aliens looked like fat blue and white starfish. In the centre of them they pulsated through their transparent sack like scales a deep red. 

“Without access to deflector control in this time frame, we won’t be able to encourage them to leave the ship, sir.” Jen advised the captain.

Concurring with a nod, McCallister went out of his way to avoid the two nearest space starfish that were close to him. “Let’s get started on those modifications.” He stated.

About to make their way to the nearest set of gel-packs, both men were stopped when they heard their names being called out by a familiar voice. “Captain, lieutenant, what are you two doing here?” questioned a strong female voice. 

Turning around, McCallister and Jen were met by Doctor Slyvexs and Lieutenant T’Rani. “Doctor Slyvexs, I could ask you and T’Rani both the same thing.” 

Thankfully in this timeline the two visitors from the future could count on their own uniforms not letting them appear too out of place. The only thing the holographic camouflage did was make them appear younger and Jen’s rank was one that showed him as a lieutenant instead of a lieutenant commander.  

Slyvexs still looked like the same woman they knew from their timeframe. Curly blonde hair that bobbed just under her jawline while her bright turquoise piercing eyes appeared as mesmerising. T’Rani looked the same while on the other hand there was one slight difference: her hair. While similar to Slyvexs’ style, T’Rani had loose curls from their timeframe, in this period of time she had grown her black hair long, kept it straight and tied it back into a loose low ponytail with curtain bangs. 

T’Rani’s eyebrows raised somewhat at the captain’s comment before she answered on behalf of Slyvexs. “Captain, we just called into the bridge that one of our pilots was injured by these spaceborne creatures.”

Looking at T’Rani and then back to the captain, Slyvexs quizzed the captain further. “My medical team went through the door you entered about ten minutes ago, did you not see them in the corridor?”

Shaking their heads, Jen answered with a straightforward ‘no’.

“Very well,” T’Rani said, not sounding convinced in her cold Vulcan tone. “I assume there is a shipwide emergency as we have not been able to raise anyone else and we detected a significant high level of chronitons around two of the other entrances into the shuttlebay.” The Vulcan pilot opened the tricorder she had in her hands to show the captain her results. Right in front of them were the readings showing the existence of the barriers. “Are these readings due to the appearance of these creatures from subspace?”

“Not quite.” McCallister answered.

“There’s something else going on here, isn’t there?” Slyvexs deduced. “We tried to use one of the runabout’s sensors to get a better image and all we got was interference from similar readings we took around the door.”

“The high amount of chronitons would indicate a possible temporal anomaly has affected the craft.” T’Rani added.

Realising there was no point trying to hide anything anymore, McCallister tapped his camouflage emitter and deactivated the holographic disguise of what made him look younger. Jen did the same thing. Both women reacted in a calm and collected manner.

“Well that’s different.” Slyvexs commented. “You’re not our Captain McCallister or Lieutenant Jen, are you?”

Jen shook his head. “The captain and I are from a few years in your future. This event with the space-starfish has already happened for us.”

“Then how did you travel to this period of time?” T’Rani questioned.

McCallister took a huge breath and then started to share the account of what happened to the ship in their timeframe and what they were doing now with others.  Furthermore he added that this entire situation with the space-starfish was resolved however he needed their help to inject the serum into the ship’s systems and make the modifications required. Both women agreed to help them but then T’Rani explained that some of the starfish had latched themselves to areas that would prevent them from accessing.

“We need to remove them.” Slyvexs suggested. 

“In our timeframe we had to adjust the ship’s warp signature for them to think we weren’t their pack leader.” Jen suggested. “But we can’t do that in this timeframe.”

“Perhaps we should do the opposite.” T’Rani suggested. “We could modify one of the shuttles to emit the signature they are attracted to and then perhaps set it on auto-pilot to leave the ship. They may follow it in its wake.”

“The only issue is they may not survive the transition from one timeframe to the next.” McCallister stated. “I’m not prepared to kill them by erasing them from the space time continuum.”

“I don’t think they’ll be affected by it sir.” Slyvexs said as she took out her tricorder and showed him some scans she took earlier. “One of the space-starfish materialised halfway in one of those time barriers you mentioned earlier, it didn’t appear affected.”

“If that’s the case, we could change the systems on one of the shuttles with the same modifications we’re doing to the Odyssey…” Jen shared. 

 “…And send it out off the ship for the space starfish to follow.” McCallister finished, nodding in approval. “They may consume the shuttle but at least they’ll be off the ship and not endangering our mission.

“Then let’s get started!” Slyvexs suggested in an enthusiastic tone. 

The four officers began the work on one of the shuttles. Jen and T’Rani, the two old friends from the academy, worked in sync while McCallister worked with his doctor to make sure their plan didn’t harm the space-starfish. 

“Tell me something,” Slyvexs asked him once they were away from the earshot of the other two. “How many crew are we going to lose from today until your time?”

McCallister had a tricorder in his hands, he lowered it and looked at her before he replied. “Let’s just say, we’ll suffer casualties like any one, we’ll also gain new members as well.”

“And promotions as well?” Slyvexs checked. “From my perspective, Lukiz has only been with us for a year as chief operations officer, from that extra pip on his uniform I take it that he gets a promotion at some point in the near future?”

“Most of you do.” McCallister answered. 

The Denobulan doctor gave out a small chuckle, “For me to get a full set of three solid pips, I’d have to undertake the advanced bridge officer’s exam. There’s no way you’ll get me doing that.”

It was now time for the captain to chuckle. “We’ll see.”

Slyvexs just gave him a look of curiosity before returning to her scan, considering his words carefully.

The Wheeler had been picked to be the shuttle that was to be sacrificed to the space-starfish, so Jen and T’Rani were quickly working on it within the cockpit. T’Rani was sitting in the pilot seat carrying her work while Jen was lying with his back on the floor with his hands working through the controls under the main cockpit controls. 

“I am curious Lukiz,” She said, still focussed on what she was doing. “Is there anything interesting that takes place for any of us?”

 Looking away from the opened access panel he was at, Jen pulled himself up on to his elbows. “Are you asking me what happens in the future?”

“Not quite.” T’Rani asked. 

“Temporal prime directive, lieutenant.” He reminded her and carried on with his work. 

“I appreciate that, however I do not see the logic in concealing anything especially if this plan of yours means that myself and Doctor Slyvexs may remember what has happened once you return the Odyssey back into sync with your timeframe. Surely it is vital that we are aware of certain events to ensure they take place correctly or this paradox we find ourselves in may not happen and something else may take place instead. The ship may be lost.”

Snorting with laughter, Jen just shook his head. “I forgot how much you used to love using logic to get your way with things, even if it comes close to bending a regulation or protocol.” He told her after shaking his head. 

“Very well, I will not place you in an uncomfortable situation.” T’Rani stated, sounding almost defeated in her tone.

“Just know this,” Jen said as he sat up straight by her side. “Whatever happens in your future, just enjoy what comes your way.”

“Vulcans do not ‘enjoy’ what we deal with. We may appreciate events as they unfold but we do not find joy in them.” T’Rani said in an even more cold tone. 

Shrugging his shoulders, Jen returned to his work. “Then I can’t help you.” He added.

“Do S’Tefe and I have children?” She quickly asked. 

Surprised at that direct question, Jen looked at her and didn’t say anything. 

“You are my friend, Lukiz. I know Trills, like humans, Tiburonians and Bajorans, value their friendships and the honesty between them.” T’Rani stated. “Both S’Tefe and I are about to enter our pon farr cycle. Will we be successful this time?”

Now he felt guilty for trying to remain optimistic with her. How could he not tell her that was not the case? Could he tell her that her beloved dies when the Klingons attack? But then could he tell her about the amazing relationship she starts with Samris? “Temporal Prime Directive.” He answered in a low tone. “I’m not saying anything.”

“Your lack of honesty and expression tells me that we are not successful and something else may happen.” T’Rani remarked as she paused her work. 

Shaking his head, Jen countered back. “That’s not what I’m saying, T’Rani. I’m saying it’s not my place to tell you what may happen between you. That’s for you and S’Tefe to work out.”

“Very well.” She said again and returned to her work. Her comment sounded like she was annoyed with him further for not telling him the truth. 

Eventually they completed their work and the Wheeler was ready for launch. Setting the small ship to auto-pilot, the entire computer followed the instructions that they had programmed into it. It’s warp field came to life while it hovered just about the deck plating, automatically the space-starfish moved from their positions dotted around the shuttlebay. Hanging around it, they started to change colours. The entire spectrum appeared as they lit the entire hang in a flood of colours. It was like sitting up close and under a rainbow. The four officers appreciated the spectacular event taking place before them. It wasn’t long until the shuttlecraft carried out its next time-delayed instruction as its thrusters came to life and it started to leave the bay. Following in its wake, the space-starfish were keen to see where their new master led them. As they went through the forcefield of the shuttlebay the shuttle hit the time barrier, appearing to have pierced it before the space-starfish attached themselves to it. Seconds later and a bright white light appeared where they all seemed to have disappeared.

“They took the shuttle into subspace.” Jen announced after using his tricorder. 

“Looks like you two need to carry on with your original mission.” Slyvexs said. “We can help.”

“Let’s get it done.” McCallister said with a smile, knowing that some good may actually happen today.

Deck fourteen in the stardrive section housed two of Odyssey’s transporter rooms and the modifications needed to bring the ship back into sync required a bit of extra care. After knowing every system on the Odyssey after a long and illustrious career, Vice Admiral Max Duncan was confident that he and Captain Tomaz could complete this part of their mission quickly and quietly. The latter was quite apparent as they made their way down deck fourteen. They had just passed through a time barrier and entered another timeframe. At that moment no-one had appeared out of nowhere, so both men had wondered if they had entered a day where the ship may have been docked at a particular station and a majority crew were off the ship. That said, the ship was massive, so it could also mean that for the moment they were alone. Their holographic camouflage had changed to make them still look a bit younger than before, but both were now in the uniforms they had worn over twenty five years ago. Max wore his blue counsellor’s uniform with the rank of lieutenant commander while Tomaz wore the rank of ensign. His still young, fresh appearance from before being apparent. The emitters they were using were using some sort of temporal scanner combined with the ability to run a quantum scan of their surrounding area and adapt to the changes. Every emitter had been carefully designed and tailored for each of its wearers. 

While they had a moment, Tomaz had checked the emitter to determine when they were. “Mid-twenty-three-ninety-six.” He shared to Duncan. “Around stardate seven-three-five-nine-seven-point three-six. Sound familiar to you?”

Duncan shook his head. “It doesn’t ring any bells for me, yet. You?”

“I was still on Starbase One-Eight-Five, by the fact I’m still an ensign means I’ve not been made assistant chief strategic operations there, yet.” Tomaz answered with a sigh.

“You don’t seem that happy with recalling that time?” Duncan said looking at his former first officer. “I thought you once told me you enjoyed being on One-Eight-Five?”

 “I did, but it was just the fact that during that time most of the missions I led involved us saving refugees coming across the border.” Tomaz said. “The scenes we encountered weren’t the cheeriest.”

“I know the feeling, the amount we saw when Odyssey was assigned to the border. It was immense.” Duncan replied. He took his tricorder out and scanned the corridor ahead of them. “Our next panel to work on is in that room.” He pointed to the door. 

The door read: TRANSPORTER ROOM FIVE, so both men quickly entered it. To their surprise this room was not empty and before them they encountered a small group of agitated Tamarians. Trying to calm the whole situation down was one Lieutenant junior grade Craigen Flemen. 

“Oh damn.” Duncan muttered which caused Tomaz to look at him with concern.

The Barzan man didn’t have a chance to ask why his superior quietly said what he said as they were both quickly approached by the young fresh faced Flemen. The diplomatic officer looked relieved at their arrival. 

“Lieutenant Commander Duncan, I am so glad you’ve arrived.” Flemen said and then he looked at Tomaz. He didn’t recognise him straight away. “Ensign?”

“Tomaz, sir.” He replied as he shook the Lumerian male’s hand. 

“Another face I’ll need to learn, I’ve just joined Odyssey.” Flemen explained before he turned to Duncan. “I’m so sorry sir, but the Tamerians are becoming quite a handful and I’m not sure what to say or do. I think some of their group got lost and I found them wandering the corridor.”

Knowing where and when he was, Duncan soon recalled the whole incident. Odyssey was patrolling the Klingon-Federation border when they found a disabled Tamarian frigate. After rescuing them their ship exploded. All of the transporters were used to bring them on board before their warp core breach. This group of Tamerians must have been brought on board but somehow with the temporal differences were now stuck and couldn’t find a way off. Looking to Tomaz, Duncan issued out his orders. “Ensign,” He said using the rank that Tomaz had, “why don’t you proceed with that work you were sent to do while I assist Mister Flemen.”

Tomaz nodded and took the kit that Duncan had in his hands as he walked around the edge of the transporter room, avoiding the Tamerians like the plague and made his way over to the control panels. 

Duncan then turned his attention back to Flemen and their guests. “Let me guess, their speech doesn’t make sense?”

Nodding, Flemen shared what had happened so far. “I know the Tamarians speak in metaphors but I’m struggling as the universal translator isn’t completely working either. I am so sorry. I called up to the bridge and heard nothing, so I was able to get them to come in here and I tried to calm them down.”

Placing a reassuring hand on Flemen, Duncan felt like he had done this a million times with this young man. From his perspective, Craigen Flemen was no longer this young officer that grew to become the confident diplomatic officer that succeeded him but instead the man he knew now had been recently elected by his people to represent their interests on the Federation Council. “Do not worry lieutenant, we’ll get through this together.” He said and then placed his focus on the Tamarians in the room. Their leader appeared to be a female who wore the rank of lieutenant on her sash. Her entire demeanour appeared hostile, agitated and angry. Straight away Duncan was able to remember who she was, Lieutenant Julion. She was the chief engineer.  

“Rapunki, when he joined the Seven.” Duncan said immediately. 

Julion’s entire disposition changed as she looked at Duncan with some sort of reservation at first. “Kadir beneath Mo Moteh.”

Nodding, Duncan showed he understood that she was referring to their inability to fully understand and communicate with one another. “Sokath, his eyes uncovered.

“Zima at Anzo.” She said quickly. 

“Yes, Zima at Anzo. Zima and Bakor.” Duncan said before shaking his head. “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.”

Julion then looked at her comrades before looking back at Duncan. She smiled. “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.”

Copying her smile back, Duncan knew he was getting somewhere with her. The reference to the first successful first contact between the Federation and the Children of Tama was an indicator they were going in the right place. “Kiazi’s children, their faces burnt.”

Shaking her head, Julion responded. “Kiazi’s children, their faces wet.”

Knowing she was telling him their injuries were minor, Duncan turned to Flemen. “Craigen, go get the medkit from the locker.” He ordered the lieutenant. He turned back to Julion. “Zinda, his face blue, not black. Zinda his arms open.”

“Temba, at rest.” She replied by raising her left hand to Duncan and shaking her head in a peaceful manner just as Flemen returned with the medical kit. 

“Kiazi’s children, their head’s cloudy?” Duncan asked as he took out the medical tricorder. He could see they had a few injuries among them all and he wanted to help them. 

Shaking her head again, Julion repeated the same metaphor again. “Temba, at rest.” Showing her declining his offer. 

Nodding once, Duncan showed he understood. He then needed to explain to her how important it was for them to stay where they were. “The beast at Tanagra. The beast at El-Adrel.” He gestured with his hands to the room and ship around them. 

Julion then looked concerned at hearing that. “Arnock at the race of Natara.” She said, pointing towards the door. 

“The river Temarc in winter.” Duncan started showing he had to tell her to stay where they were. “Darmok and Jalad on the ocean.” He then looked at Flemen, pointed to him. “Flemen and Julion on the ocean.” He indicated to her, showing he knew her identity. “Flemen and Julion on the Odyssey. Eyes open, arms wide open, together on Odyssey.”

She smiled and looked at Flemen. “Flemen and Julion on the ocean, eyes open, arms wide open on the Odyssey.”

Pleased she understood him, Duncan placed his hand on his chest. “Duncan and Tomaz,” He said, indicating to his comrade who had returned after doing his work, “on the race for Tanagra.”

“Duncan and Tomaz, on the race for Tanagra. Mirab, with sails unfurled. ” Julion stated, showing she understood that he and Tomaz were working quickly and they needed to move on. “Sokath, his eyes uncovered.”

“His eyes uncovered.” Duncan repeated and then turned to Tomaz. “It’s time we went.”

“Umm, sir, what do I do with the Tamarians?” Flemen interjected before his superior left. 

Realising that he needed to explain to him what was going on, Duncan took him outside the transporter room and briefed him. “What I’m about to tell you is going to only add to the craziness to what you just witnessed, but I’m going to leave you with something that will help you.” 

“Oh?” Flemen questioned.

Duncan deactivated his camouflage and told Flemen everything before injecting the chroniton infused serum into him. He then handed him his combadge. “I’m ordering you lieutenant to destroy this combadge after we’ve completed our work here. If it does not disappear from the timeframe then you need to destroy it. The universal translator in this combadge is able to translate everything you need to know in communicating with the Tamarians. From my time period we’ve been able to work out the translation perfectly.”

Flemen nodded, still dazed and impressed by what he had just been told about Duncan and Tomaz’s mission through time. “This is certainly something I never expected to deal with when I joined the Odyssey.”

“And a lot more will happen lieutenant, but you’ll be amazing in every situation.” Duncan said with a reassuring smile. “I promise you that.”

“Why do I feel my new department head knows a lot more about me than I know about myself?” Flemen asked and then looked to Tomaz who had just joined them.

“Because he is one of the best mentors you and I will ever have.” Tomaz said and then looked to Duncan. “Sir, we need to move on.”

“Yes, time is not waiting for us.” Duncan answered and then looked at Flemen. “We’ll be in touch if we need anything, Craigen. The beast at Tanagra does not wait for anyone.”

“Then Darmok and Jalad on the ocean with eyes wide open.” Flemen stated with a smirk.

Duncan chuckled and then indicated for him and Tomaz to leave as they passed through the next time barrier. 

Still appearing as their fathers, Alfie and Jorgeh entered another timeframe and looked down at their tricorders. The coast was clear for now as their camouflage changed and showed them wearing the Starfleet uniform that was specifically made for the late twenty-three-nineties. 

“Looks like we’re in twenty-three-ninety-seven.” Jorgeh mentioned before looking up at Alfie. He had just begun to get used to seeing his friend appearing like his father: the impressive and famous James Preston McCallister. His father was this imposing figure who had risen through the Starfleet ranks and had developed a legendary status that placed on par with other famous Starfleet captains like Archer, Pike, Picard and Janeway. That all said, seeing Alfie looking like his father was a strange sensation. Unlike his father, Alfie had more of a bounce in the way he walked and over the years the two had known one another, Alfie had developed a set scowling expression that he reverted to when he was concentrating. The same one now existed and looked unnatural of the holographic appearance that was over Alfie. “So has travelling back into your past brought back any memories?” He asked his friend. 

Glancing up from his tricorder, Alfie turned to his friend and nodded his head. “A few.” He admitted. “It’s weird but just walking down these corridors, they feel smaller even though they’re not.”

Before Jorgeh could comment back, the computer interrupted him. “Warning ship-wide computer malfunction. Holographic controls are offline. Safety protocols are offline. Emergency back-up systems are unable to activate.”

Jorgeh turned to Alfie who had a worried expression across his face. “Alf, what’s happening?”

However he did not have a chance to respond to the ship-wide holographic systems’ announcement and before they could react the projectors had somehow overrode their camouflage systems, forcing them to deactivate. Then everywhere around them became a monochromatic environment. It wasn’t what either of them were expecting, until it finally hit Alfie what was happening. 

“Ah jeez.” He complained and swiftly turned to Jorgeh. “Jorgeh, we need to adjust our phasers to be able to disrupt holographic matrices.”

“Why?” Jorgeh checked while taking his sidearm off from his waist and began making the modifications.

“Because in about ten seconds or so, we are going to be overwhelmed by the arrival of some evil henchmen in some rather questionable outfits.” Alfie explained as he adjusted his own weapon. “We should also get ourselves out of these uniforms. While the holographic systems in this area are wreaking havoc with our holo-camouflage emitters then anyone we do encounter will question why we’re not wearing the uniforms of this era.”

Looking around, Jorgeh noticed a door ahead of them that said it was crew quarters. Pointing for them to go there, they moved towards it and used their tricorders to override the locks. Thankfully their tricorders contained the security clearance codes needed for any time from the Odyssey’s past to help them by-pass any security lockouts. Accepting the override, the computer opened the door and both men entered the quarters. They were empty guest quarters. The simple arrangement of a bed in one area and a small living area was in front of them. Heading over to the replicator, Alfie used the tricorder again to bring the system online and then ordered for uniforms to be created for them both. Deciding to keep their ranks less suspicious, he opted to make them both lieutenants and both in the science division. 

“Why science?” Jorgeh questioned as they started to get changed. 

Pulling his jacket off, Alfie shrugged his shoulders. “If anyone asks, we work in the ship’s library.”

Jorgeh sighed at his friend’s logic and shook his head. “A librarian? Really?”

Once they were in their new uniforms, they wrapped their old uniforms into the backpacks they had with them and then moved out. Holding their phasers close to them, they checked for the coast to be clear before leaving the guest quarters. 

“So can you explain to me more about these evil henchmen we may encounter?” Jorgeh asked, his phaser was held high as he led them down the corridor while Alfie had his tricorder out in one hand and his weapon in the other.

“Do you remember us telling you and Jorgeh one of the things we did with your dad before joining us was to visit the holodeck and play a certain holoprogram?” Alfie questioned as he looked up to check his surroundings before they approached their first panel. 

Taking point close to the panel, Jorgeh looked around again to make sure they had no company before answering his friend. “Yeah, wasn’t it something called The Chronicles of Major Atom?” 

“The Adventures of Captain Proton.” Alfie corrected him as he took the panel off and was confronted by a whole group of bio-neural gel-packs. Straight away he started on the modifications, first by taking out a few isolinear chips before he started to prepare the packs for their injection of the serum. “Your dad,” He said referring to Tobias, “would take us there after school when we were kids and we would play endless chapters.”

“Yeah, if I recall he played the lead part while you and your brothers were his trusted sidekicks.” Jorgeh stated as he recalled other bits he had been told. 

“The Triplets of Justice.” Alfie reminded him as he pulled out a hypospray and loaded it with the concoction needed for the packs. “So there was this one time we were playing it while the ship was docked at Starbase Ten. Anyway to cut a long story short, while the Odyssey was receiving an upgrade to its computer networks, including its holographic systems, something went wrong. A power overload, I think, which caused the systems to somehow merge our program to every projector on the ship. The Odyssey became one huge holodeck.”

“I bet your dad loved you for that.” Jorgeh sarcastically said, still on guard for anyone approaching them.

“The engineers who installed the upgrades received the biggest earlashing from him.” Alfie shared. “Anyway, the only way for us to turn the program off was to complete the chapter we were on.”

“Let me guess, everyone had to dress up?” Jorgeh asked.

Tilting his head from one side to the other, Alfie corrected Jorgeh’s prediction. “Somewhat. There were certain roles that needed to be filled as we were in a new chapter called: The Rise of Lord Blackheart.” Alfie said as he finished working on the last pack. “Basically Doctor Chaotica, who is Captain Proton’s arch-nemesis, loses all of his henchmen to the latest scurv of the universe, Lord Blackheart. He basically has a mind-controlling device that turns anyone into following his orders and becoming his puppet to control.”

“Is he a member of the Tal Shiar or Obsidian Order?” Jorgeh questioned as Alfie fixed the panel back into place. 

Looking confused at that question, Alfie shook his head as he stood up. “No, the Romulan or Cardassian secret police aren’t part of this. Captain Proton was set in an era on Earth when no-one knew what an alien looked like. Hence why the holographic projectors have turned everything into black and white. It was set in a time period where entertainment was broadcast on screens in black and white to people’s homes.”

“Your ancestors had a weird sense of entertainment.” Jorgeh said as he suggested with a gesture with his head for them to move on.

“Half of my ancestors, remember I am part human and part El-Aurian.” Alfie reminded his friend. “Anyway, we’re getting off track. What I was about to say was…” He then paused as he saw something ahead of him. 

Jorgeh stopped in his tracks as he saw what Alfie saw. “Tell me that’s not someone from the crew?”

Alfie just shook his head. 

Before them elevating was a woman wearing a long black tightly fitted dress with numerous jewels attached to it. If it had been for the monochromatic environment they would have seen that each one was a shade of red. She had an interesting head piece in her hair. Almost looking like a crown, it had three points on it with another jewel at the bottom of each one of them. Her long wavy but bushy hair reached her shoulders. 

“Oh no,” Alfie said as his childhood memory from this moment came forward. “Lady Enigma!”

Unable to take his friend seriously, Jorgeh just looked at Alfie with an expression of almost disgust that Alfie McCallsiter-Reyas, the current first officer of the USS Odyssey appeared scared by a holographic character. “Really, Alf? A flying woman frightens you?”

“With the safety protocols offline, Lady Enigma can use her telekinesis and magic powers to control anyone. She is Lord Blackheart’s wife and is where his power of the mind control devices comes from.” Alfie explained, he sounded so serious and worried. 

Still not being able to believe what he was hearing, Jorgeh raised his phaser at the woman when she started to speak. 

“I see the Proton Brigade has materialised. You will succumb to my powerful and fiendish ways and end up as slaves in my husband’s army. You will help him rule the cosmos!” Lady Enigma said before chuckling somewhat. 

“Not so fast my lady,” shouted a young voice from behind her. “Your wicked and devilish ways will end today!”

Before she could do anything, beams of rings were fired against her and she fell to the ground with the rings all surrounding her. She was trapped in them and tied up by what looked like electrical handcuffs too. Smoke filled the area after she had been caught. 

“The Triplets of Justice have served you!” Another young voice spoke.

Once the smoke faded away, both Alfie and Jorgeh were confronted by the appearance of two people that Alfie was not expecting to see. His two brothers.

Wearing grey leather jackets, goggles and white trousers and knee length boots were Theo and Henri, however not the adult version of them that Alfie now knew. Instead his brothers appeared as young teenagers. 

“Oh jeez.” Jorgeh muttered before he stifled a chuckle at seeing a young Henri and Theo standing there holding their ray guns in their hands and looking proud of themselves for taking down this woman. 

Walking past her and through the last of the smoke, both Henri and Theo approached Alfie and Jorgeh. Both boys had confused appearances across their faces. 

“We don’t recognise either of you two.” Henri said straight away. 

“Are you a part of our dad’s crew?” Theo asked as he stared at Jorgeh. 

“You can say that.” Jorgeh replied as he stared back at a young Theo. 

Henri examined Alfie quite a bit as he squinted his eyes. “You look a lot like our father.”

“Really?” Alfie said, trying to avoid revealing too much for his younger brothers. “Anyway, thank you for saving us back there.”

Henri looked harder at Alfie while replying at the same time. “You’re welcome. We got separated from our brother and our godfather. Have you seen them?”

Alfie and Jorgeh shook their heads. 

“That’s annoying.” Theo said as he lowered his ray gun. 

Henri had kept his focus on Alfie and before Alfie could work out what his younger looking brother was doing, Henri spoke up. “Alfie?” He quizzed.

Knowing that Henri had access to his El-Aurian gifts just a bit sooner than he or Theo, Alfie knew that Henri was able to make himself aware of things around him, including people he had a close connection with. Knowing he couldn’t lie, Alfie just nodded. “It’s me, Henri.”

Surprised to hear that, Henri examined Alfie further just as Theo turned his attention as well. 

“This doesn’t make sense?” Theo said. “Alfie isn’t a fully grown man!”

“It’s a long story.” Jorgeh interjected with. “We’re in the middle of trying to help fix the ship.”

“We could use your help.” Alfie said quickly. 

“We could?” Jorgeh checked, surprised to hear that remark from his friend. “How?”

Looking at his comrade, Alfie explained that keeping Henri and Theo close by they could defend them from any other holographic character they encounter while they make the changes. 

Reluctantly, Jorgeh agreed and they set off on their work. Modifying a number of systems, they eventually entered the holodeck on deck eighteen and they found themselves in the rocketship that belonged to Captain Proton. Alfie and Jorgeh had avoided answering any questions about the future with Theo and Henri, instead they spoke about other things and mainly what had happened so far in the plot with this chapter of Captain Proton. 

Opening one of the access boxes that showed the holographic controls and another panel with gel packs, Jorgeh and Alfie got to work when the rocket ship started to rock heavily. 

Henri shot up from where he was sitting on the small steps that took them to the raised level that had the rocket’s imagizer and went over to periscope to see what was happening outside. “It looks like Lord Blackheart’s army of Robozombies is trying to gain access to the rocket ship!”

Alfie looked up when he heard this. “Ah that’s not good.”

Injecting the final gel-pack, Jorgeh looked up at him. “Robozombies? Do I want to ask what they are?” He raised a hand. “No, let me guess, they’re like the Borg but with a lot more attitude?”

 “Sort of.” Alfie answered back. 

Theo turned to Jorgeh and described in more detail about the incoming enemy. “They like to kill people and then they will upgrade you with their cyber gear. Lord Blackheart created them as another way of taking over the cozmos. Ray guns don’t always work against them.”

Rolling his eyes, Jorgeh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Do they have a weak spot?”

“Yes.” Henri answered as he ran to another part of the ship and started to pull out a long hose before he added one more word to his response. “Water!”

“Yes! We can fry their systems but we won’t have enough water to defeat them all here.” Theo stated. 

Alfie could see that Jorgeh wasn’t amused, but as he looked at the younger versions of his brothers, he knew he couldn’t leave them. “Henri, Theo, come over here.” He instructed. 

Both of them did as they were told and before they could say anything he injected them with the serum. “What I’m about to say and do, you must promise me you don’t say anything until dad speaks to you about this in about three years. Do you understand me?”

The boys just nodded before Alfie told them to go collect their things. 

Jorgeh in disbelief looked at his friend. “Alf, what the hell was that? We can’t be babysitting your brothers from the past?”

“We won’t.” Alfie answered as he closed the panel up. “But I won’t leave them here while the safety protocols are offline and a horde of Borg-wannabes are about to kill them. They can come with us into the next timeframe, hide somewhere safe and before we activate the chroniton field to re-sync the ship we get them to return and hide in those guest quarters we used earlier.”

“You’ve got to be kidding, Alf?” Jorgeh questioned again.

“I’m not and that’s an order.” Alfie replied in a more stern reaction. 

“Fine.” Jorgeh replied.

Leaving Proton’s rocket, the four of them slipped away without of any of the Robozombies seeing them and they exited the holodeck. 

Stepping through the next timeframe the effect of the holographic projectors faded away as their normal colouring appeared and the holographic camouflages came back online. Finding another spare, empty room with a working replicator, Alfie set his brothers up and gave them his combadge to use to stay in touch. He knew his father would kill him for giving them the serum but he wasn’t prepared to leave them behind.   

Feeling like hot Klingon pain sticks reaching inside of his skull, Vice Admiral Max Duncan was rubbing his head as he entered the temporal observatory. Doctor Obrith had just injected him with a hypospray loaded with painkillers to help. It would seem the constant moving from one time frame to another along with the chroniton-infused serum had its side effects. The Krenim medical officer had prepared the team for this along with preparing them for the symptoms of nausea. 

The admiral’s headache wasn’t helped the moment he heard the argument between his former commanding officer and his son. 

“How the hell could you be so stupid and make a decision like that?” McCallister threw at his son.

Raising his hands up in the air in surrender, Alfie tried to defend his action. “I admit it wasn’t the best choice but I couldn’t stand there and let them be killed by holograms.”

“You could have found a safer place in that time frame instead of moving to another one and now they’re going to be aware of what happened. You said it yourself earlier Alf, we can’t be precise with how things are going to turn out. Both of your brothers may remember what happened and that is going to live with them for the rest of their lives now. The time when they were kids and they saw their brother appear to them a lot older and they had to hide in a different period of time.” McCallister gave out a huge sigh of frustration as he turned to Jorgeh. “What time period are they deposited in?” 

“Twenty-Four-zero-zero.” Jorgeh answered as he checked the scans that were flying around them on the holographic displays. All of the displays showed who they had tagged with the serum as well as the areas of the ship that they had worked on. “A few months just after the accident.”

Speaking up as he stepped in, Duncan made his presence known. “Problem?” He asked. 

Turning to the future version of his first officer, McCallister pointed with his right hand towards the current first officer of Odyssey. “Alfie decided to move both Theo and Henri out of their time frame.”

Looking at Alfie, Duncan gave him an assuring smile. “I know he did.” He said walking over to stand by the younger McCallister. 

“You did?” the older McCallister questioned. 

Jen, Tomaz and Jorgeh both showed surprised reactions to the admiral’s comment. 

Tomaz looked at his first officer. “Alfie, is there something here I don’t know about?”

Dropping his head down, Alfie exhaled and then spoke up. “We knew that both Theo and Henri would be hurt if they were left.”

Jorgeh now looked confused. “How do we know that?”

“Something we said in the past, isn’t it?” Jen questioned. 

Duncan nodded. “When this happened before you and the captain reported that they were harmed in the time frame we would find them. Instead of it being you two, I decided that it should be Alfie to go find them and find a way to protect them. He was acting on my orders.”

“Dad, why didn’t you tell me?” Jorgeh asked. 

“I think we all should have been told, especially as I am their father” McCallister said with crossed arms against his chest.

“Because I know you J-P and you would make a choice that may have affected the work we do here.” Duncan answered, looking at McCallister first. By using the captain’s nickname he was trying to make this conversation more personal. He turned to his son, “And Jorgeh, I know how much Theo and Henri mean to you and Wylem, but this whole situation is difficult already, I didn’t want the lines between you and I becoming any blurry then they already are. The Department of Temporal Investigations can have my neck for that but both Alfie and I agreed a long time ago that that by removing Theo and Henri from their time frame and sheltering them elsewhere for the moment until it was time to activate the chroniton field was the right call to make.”

“Listen,” Tomaz said, breaking up the argument. “Right now we don’t have the time to debate this issue. We need to move forward and get the job we started, done.” 

“Tomaz is right.” Jen said in support. 

“I want to see Theo and Henri.” McCallister stated in a stern tone. 

“And you can.” Duncan said. “The time frame that they’re in is somewhere both you and Lukiz can go to.”

“I didn’t know we needed permission.” Jen stated sarcastically.

Tomaz spoke up in defence of the admiral, “If you both travel into other future time frames you’d be exposed to other events you shouldn’t be aware of yet. The Department of Temporal Investigations calculated that the furthest you both should go is a few months ahead of your own time frame.”

“And we also know that Jen has to appear in the next one.” Duncan said, turning towards the Trill ops manager.

“Why me?” Jen asked, showing a joint sense of curiosity and concern. His eyebrows rising almost in a Vulcan like fashion. 

Duncan smirked as he placed his hands on his hips. “Because what you’re about to witness is something I know you will find hard to deal with on a personal level, but I know you’ll understand why.”

Jen looked more disturbed by that remark. “Okay.” He said, sounding a bit unsettled by that. 

“How much time do we have left?” McCallister queried, admitting that he couldn’t control too much of what was happening to them all by a sigh and the way he asked. 

“Just over two hours, give or take.” Alfie mumbled after checking the nearby holographic console.

“And including the time frame you both need to go to,” Tomaz said looking at McCallister and Jen, “we’ve got five more time frames to sort out. The last one is going to require a huge effort to deal with.”

“Why?” Jen asked. “Or do I want to know?”

“Let’s just say we’re going to be endeavouring to step back to your recent history and we’ve got to deal with some unwanted guests who attempted to take over the ship while we helped another Starfleet crew.” Tomaz shared, sharing an apprehensive look. 

While Captain McCallister checked on his two sons that were hiding out in a nearby locked set of guest quarters, Lieutenant Commander Jen walked down the corridor. For the first time since this whole incident had started, he felt like his normal self. Wearing his own uniform, using his own tools from this time period, everything felt normal. Though knowing that he may witness something that was about to happen in his near future was a bit weary and made him feel awkward. 

The words of Admiral Duncan continued to ring in his ears, the fact it had to be him in this timeframe made him feel uncomfortable. What was going to happen? Trying to think logically about it, he assumed that he was in a safe situation or the admiral would have made more of a thing when the captain had decided he would go in and check on his sons while Jen finished their work. Apparently on deck twelve, where he was now, in the forward section shortly after returning to normal space the crew started to install the conduits necessary to assist with the chroniton field. It was located just outside of the Auditorium. Wondering if he would bump into anyone, Jen remained cautious as he turned the corridor and down one of the junctions, following the route laid out on the map he had on his tricorder in his hands. 

The map indicated that the room, which normally served as a small area off from the Auditorium for smaller private functions, was coming up. Without thinking he pressed the button to give him access and he walked in straight away. As soon as the doors closed behind him he looked up and he was surprised to see who was there waiting for him. 

“Hello stranger.” Spoke the friendly tones of one Tobias Court. Standing there, wearing a full dress uniform and showing he wore the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer with the extra dot on his rank insignia, Court had a huge smile on his face. 

Returning the smile, Jen felt a bit nervous as he tried to work out what was going on. The room had two large bay slanting windows on one side, a replicator on another wall and a long oval glass table in the middle with eight chairs around it. On a lower section that was accessed by a few steps, a set of sofas were curved into the deck, allowing for guests to sit on them and gaze out at the sight coming from the huge windows. The table itself had a few snacks on it along with empty champagne flutes, bottles of champagne and a number of boutonnieres sitting in a wooden-looking tray. Unable to determine what event was going on, Jen had to find out. 

“Tobias, what’s going on?”

Lifting his hands to either side, he answered his former boyfriend and colleague. “My wedding.”

“Your wedding?” Jen repeated as he put his tricorder away and stashed it into the pouch hugging his hip. “To who?”

Court leaned his head to the left to one side and gave Jen a look showing he couldn’t believe that Jen wasn’t able to work that one out himself. “Really Lukiz?”

Jen then realised. “To Max?”

“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!” Court replied sarcastically. “I know this is probably a lot for you to take in but you told me to be direct with you.” The master chief then paused before speaking. “Well, you will tell me to be direct with you.” He rolled his eyes. “Time travelling is ridiculous.”

“So you’ve been briefed on what I’m doing here?” Jen checked.

“Uh-huh.” replied Court. “And I’ve got orders to assist you, but I suppose you need to inject me with that potion that will help me become immune to all of this time travelling mess!”

Jen just nodded and took out the hypospray, loaded it with the serum and walked over to Court. As he pressed the device against his neck, their skins lightly touched and Jen was reminded of a time when the two of them had been closer. That relationship had felt like a lifetime ago. They had been young and foolish, it was a whirlwind of a romance and ended harshly. Releasing the hypospray away from him, Court smirked as he rubbed his neck. 

“You’ll look…” Jen paused as they separated. “…you look handsome.” 

Court blushed at that remark. “Thanks Lukiz.” He took in a breath before exhaling. “I know this is awkward but from my perspective, you are all fine with Max and I. We are genuine friends.”

“I know,” Jen said, assuring Court that he could remain calm in this situation (though he felt differently on the inside). “I suppose I’m still getting used to everything I’ve experienced today.”

“Nothing like a good time travelling mission to muck you up!” Court commented on, trying to lighten the mood further. “Before we do what we have to do to those conduits, I want you to know that you’re probably thinking that Max and I have barely known one another and that we’re rushing into this at slipstream velocity, but I promise you that’s not the case.”

Holding his hands up in surrender, Jen tried to stop Court from explaining himself. “Tobias, you don’t need to explain anything to me.”

“I do.” Court said.

“Aren’t you meant to say that to Max at the end of the ceremony?” Jen teased.

Chuckling at that, Court shook his head and walked over to the table with the champagne flutes and buttonholes waiting to be used. “This is ridiculous Lukiz.” He said turning to face Jen. “We broke up a long time ago, and yes I’ve said it before but when you joined with the Jen symbiont, I understood your duty as a Trill to protect it, but when I lost you: Lukiz Smyth, my world did come to an end. But our time apart and then back together here on the Odyssey has not changed how important you are to me and I know Lukiz that you’ll find the same happiness I have with Max. You’ll have a place in my heart.”

“And the family you’ll have.” Jen added.

“Hey, spoilers!” Court remarked with a smirk. “Temporal Prime Directive and all that stuff! But I figure that Jorgeh and Wylem will remain with us.”

“You’ll continue to be the great dads you are now.” Jen assured him. “But back to what you said, yeah I know I hurt you when I left you to deal with my joining.” He took a breath. “But like you have for me, you’ll be here,” He said motioning to where his heart was, “forever.”

Court walked over to Jen and pulled him into a close hug. “Thanks Lukiz, I appreciate that.”

“As do I.” Jen replied before they let go. “Now, fancy showing me how to bring this conduit online before you need to head down the aisle and say ‘I do’ to the right guy?”

“It’d be my pleasure.” Court said as he led him over to one of the walls and pressed a button for a panel to hiss off from its hinges to reveal a piece of technology that Jen had never seen before. 

The two began their work together and for the first time in years since his joining, Lukiz Jen felt he could be himself. 

Finally. 

Noticing that Tomaz was not talking to him, Duncan looked down at his former first officer as they climbed a ladder from one deck to the next in one of the many jeffery tubes the ship had. “Tomaz, I can tell you’re annoyed. Talk to me.”

Looking up at his superior, Tomaz sighed and just shook his head. “It’s nothing, sir.”

Pausing on the climbing front, Duncan held himself to the bars and looked down. “Ouch, ‘sir’, really? You rarely call me that in private.”

Stopping his climbing efforts as well, Odyssey’s Barzan captain looked upwards. “What do you want me to say then?” Tomaz queried. “You’re the senior officer here, you’ve planned a large bulk of this mission, why does it matter what I think?” 

Duncan continued climbing to the next intersection and replied back as he did so. “Damn it Tomaz, don’t you think this is difficult enough for us all?” 

“I’m not disputing that sir, I’m just frustrated that this is something that you, me, Alfie and Jorgeh have prepared ourselves to undertake and now that we’re at this moment…”

“Do you think I’ve betrayed you for not sharing my orders with Alfie?” Duncan questioned back as he got through the hatch and took himself out off the ladder and into the small compartment that had a main access door leading them out onto the deck they needed to go into or two entrances either side down more horizontal access tunnels. 

As Tomaz pulled himself up he looked at Duncan. “Alfie is my first officer. I’ve mentored that guy pretty much for most of his career, the same goes for Jorgeh, your own son.” He paused as he placed his hands on his hips. “So finding out you ordered something about this mission, when it was made explicitly clear to us by D-T-I that everything we did had to be out in the open, makes me wonder what else you’ve got planned.”

“Nothing else!” Duncan answered honestly. “That was it.”

“I get why you did it.” Tomaz replied. “But it just adds another variable to this delicate matter we’re in.”

“It’s a calculated risk.” Duncan said with conviction. “And I alone will face the consequences alone if we ever get out of this temporal paradox.”

“You’re really prepared to throw away your career on this technicality?” Tomaz asked with sincerity. 

Pausing for a second, the admiral just nodded before speaking up. “If it means protecting the captain’s sons, including the careers of my son, my former first officer and Alfie’s then yes I will.”

Groaning somewhat, Tomaz shook his head. “Why is there always one crazy-ass admiral who thinks he can get away with something on these types of missions?” He commented before smirking at his superior. “Who’s to say that D-T-I need to know about any of this?”

Appreciating the suggestion, Duncan slapped Tomaz on the left shoulder and thanked him. “I promise Tomaz, once this is all done we can finally get back to exploring the galaxy and being with our loved ones.”

“Yeah don’t remind me that Tobias made me promise him to have you back in one piece.” Tomaz stated as he pulled out the emergency hand actuator and magnetized it against the door they were able to use.  

“And I made a similar promise to that wife of yours too.” Duncan replied as he helped his comrade push open the door so they could move onto their next destination. 

Almost half an hour later they had completed the next set of work quickly, thanks in large to the existence of the conduits that were already installed. Just bringing them online and making the final adjustments was all that was needed. Eventually they reached their final room before they crossed over to another time frame.

Thankfully this time the door sensor was working and the entrance to The Lion Gate parted wide. Both men stepped in and were greeted by two individuals they were expecting to see.

“Ambassador Horin, Commander Samris, it’s good to see you both.” Duncan said, greeting them.

The Betazoid woman of whom he had trained with at Starfleet Academy had been sitting on one of the spiral shaped sofas, sipping on what looked like a hot chocolate while the Romulan man had been standing by one of the long windows. Both of them looked over to the admiral and captain. 

“And there was me thinking that trying to get the Annari and Kraylor to agree to peace was a mad idea, but here you both are just as we were told.” Horin remarked. The Betazoid woman placed her mug down and smiled at them both. “It’s good to see the future Max Duncan and future Tomaz.” She walked over to give them both a hug, Duncan first and followed by Tomaz. 

In this time frame, twenty-four-oh-six, Horin had moved on with her lift after the death of Tremt Hunsen. She remained with the Odyssey for a bit longer before leaving the ship and allowing Samris to return to his position as its counsellor. Though they had been briefed about this moment, Horin had wanted to do more before she knew she had returned to the ship at some point. After a few more years in the uniform, she had left Starfleet and had taken up a position joining her mother as a diplomat. Being assigned to the Odyssey as it resumed its work in the Delta Quadrant, she had become the face of the Federation government as the vessel went on its way to make in-roads in forming long-term relations with the natives.     

 Samris followed her and walked over to greet them both with a handshake. “I genuinely thought when Admiral McCallister-I mean Captain McCallister briefed us about this incident he was pulling our leg.”

Tomaz smirked and nodded his head. “Yeah, we’re not surprised to hear that.”

“Tobias said the same thing after he saw Lukiz before our wedding.” Duncan stated. “Nevertheless, here we are. Can we count on your help with finishing off with these upgrades?”

Both Samris and Horin looked at one another before turning back to their visitors. 

“Once again we find ourselves performing another crazy mission on the Odyssey. Is anything around here ever normal?” Horin questioned. “And if it means bringing back Tremt, then I’m all for it.”

“Agreed.” Samris supported his former academy professor. The two of them had a close bond that had grown over the years since her appointment to the Odyssey prior to its mission to deal with the Century Storm. She made him a better counsellor with their time together. The loss of Tremt had been significant for her and when she had finally felt she had to leave, Samris had taken over, becoming one Duncan’s closest advisors when he took on the role of Odyssey’s captain. “What do we need to do?”

Tomaz answered him. “Samris, we need you to help us carry on with bringing the rest of the conduits online in the other time frames near to us. Louwanna needs to remain on this deck and do those we’ve not got our hands on to.”

“And you’re sure that by not injecting me with that serum-stuff that I won’t be dragged into some paradox where none of us exist?” Horin checked with concern as she pointed to the vials that Duncan and Tomaz had strapped around their chests. “I mean, are we sure this is going to work?”

Nodding with confidence, Duncan relieved her fears. “Lou, you need to remain unaffected by the changes so when James and Lukiz activate the field you can pull Tremt out of danger. So that means the moment the chroniton field is activated and something goes wrong-”

“Not that we are expecting anything to go wrong.” Tomaz quickly interjected.

Appreciating the support, Duncan nodded before resuming. “Then we need to make sure that past you is in the right place and not affected by the changes in the timeframe. Does that make sense?”

Shaking her head the Betazoid told him simply: “No.” She breathed in through her nose and shrugged her shoulders, “but I’ve got over six years of experience that tells me I have to trust you that this is right. As I said earlier, anything to get Tremt back.” 

Duncan nodded in appreciation of her concerns and then looked around the room. “Did you two clean up after that diplomatic event?”

Samris and Horin looked around the room and then proceeded to nod in answer. 

“Hosting a bunch of drunk Delta Quadrant delegates is messy, don’t you remember sir?” Samris asked.

Chuckling somewhat, Duncan shared that he remembered how well this diplomatic event went but knew it was one of the many important missions that the Odyssey would undertake. “Oh I remember well.” 

The four of them then went on with what needed to be done. When it was just them alone, Tomaz turned to Duncan after they said goodbye and good luck to Samris and Horin. “You honestly think this is going to work and Horin will be available to save Tremt?”

“I hope so, otherwise getting the Krenim drunk for no reason was a waste of their time for us wanting their help to deal with all of this and using their calculations to help get this right.” Duncan said before they stepped through the next time barrier.  

The moment the last Hirogen fell to the ground, Jorgeh fell to his knees from exhaustion. 

“You okay, Jor?” Alfie asked as he approached from behind and lowered his phaser rifle after shooting the Hirogen that had been chasing him down the corridor. Offering his friend a helping hand to get back up, Alfie did his best to calm his breathing down. 

“Yeah,” Jorgeh replied as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and slowly got up with the assistance of his friend. “How far are we until the next conduit?”

Placing his rifle over his shoulder with the strap that was over his neck, Alfie pulled out his tricorder. “Just around this corner and surprise surprise, I’m detecting two life signs ahead.” He closed the tricorder as his expression changed from being tired to one mixed with anxiety, apprehension and concern .

“Alf,  are you sure you want to do this?” Jorgeh asked, placing his left hand on Alfie’s right shoulder.

Nodding, Alfie showed his conviction. “We always knew this day would come and I need to do this.”

“And you promise me, you don’t have some sort of secret order to save her?” Jorgeh checked. “Because I promise you now that I will knock you out if you pull the same nonsense you pulled on me with your brothers.”

“I promise, on our friendship that I won’t interfere.” Alfie said solemnly and then he looked Jorgeh in the eye. “I know I can’t Jor, but knowing you’re there with me helps.”

Appreciating the sentiment, Jorgeh let go of his friend as they made their way around the corner and found two people they knew well.

On his knees, holding a small bundle of wrapped up sheets and running a tricorder over its contents was Jorgeh’s brother, Wylem. Wearing a cerulean blue Starfleet science uniform and with the rank of lieutenant, Wylem was deep in his work, showing off his medical expertise. In this time frame he was one of the Odyssey’s doctors. Instantly, Wylem looked up and gave a friendly smile. “It’s about time you two showed up.” He said.

Kneeling down beside him, Alfie made his way over to the other person with Wylem. “How is she Wylem?” He asked as he placed his hand over Wylem’s other patient.

“She can answer for herself.” The woman, who wore a gold Starfleet uniform with the rank of lieutenant, spoke in a tone of voice showing she was exhausted herself and somewhat in pain. “I’m so glad you’re here to witness this Alf.” She said weakly as she held out the bundle she had in her hands. “Knowing you’re here to see them, makes this all special.”

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Alfie said as he leaned in and kissed the woman’s forehead and closed his eyes, trying his best to hold back the tears.

Wylem looked up at his brother and gave him a weak smile before returning to his patient. “I’m so sorry Alf.” He whispered. 

“I know you are Wylem.” Alfie wept as he held on to the woman as he took one more glance at the infant she held. 

    Jorgeh stood there, watching down as his best friend held the woman who became his wife and who had just given birth to his godchildren. Linnis McCallister, the Ocampa wife of Alfie McCallister, had joined the Odyssey four years ago and in that time span both her and Alfie had fallen madly in love with one another. Jorgeh had served as Alfie’s best man at their wedding only a year ago, but both men knew that this day would come. It would be the day when the Odyssey had been boarded by the Hirogen. While trying to save a heavily pregnant Linnis from the invaders, Wylem had tried to hide her in one of the small junctions while she gave birth. However, she had been shot in their escape by a Hirogen which forced Wylem to speed up her pregnancy to protect the twins she would deliver. All of this led to her death. It was a point in time that he knew that Alfie had regretted not being there to be with her as he had been on the bridge during the battle, so when it was noted that this time frame had appeared, Alfie was certain he would be there to be with his wife as she took her last breath and he’d be there to protect his children. 

“I love you.” He heard Alfie whisper into Linnis gold platinum hair as she handed him their son, Tarrik.

Alfie smiled with joy as the tears continued to roll down his cheeks, he then passed the infant up to Jorgeh to take. Holding his future-godson-to-be, Jorgeh smiled knowing that one day this small child would grow quickly thanks to his Ocampan genes before working out how to use his mixed heritage of Human and El-Aurian inheritance to slow his life down. The same would happen to his sister, Karyn who was being held by Wylem. Both infants would bring Alfie joy as he raised them as a single parent without Linnis. It would make him a stronger person and naming his daughter to honour his mother would be just the icing on the cake. 

One more hug and Alfie soon looked over to Wylemn who’s medical tricorder soon gave the alert that Linnis had taken her last breath. He kept her close for a bit longer, told her he loved her one more time before he soon realised he needed to get on with their mission. 

“You sure you’re ready?” Jorgeh asked as he handed Tarrik over to his brother’s free arm.

Alfie nodded after getting assurance from Wylem he would protect them. “If we’re lucky this may change everything and Linnis may not have to die here.”

“We can only hope.” Jorgeh assured Alfie before they helped his brother take shelter in a nearby empty room with the latest additions to the mighty McCallister clan. 

Finding the conduit they needed to activate, Jorgeh looked at his friend, who was showing his determination to now get the job done, and knew that this was a bad idea of bringing him into this time frame. If he had the chance he knew he would question his father’s decision over it.

From his own perspective, Captain McCallister had travelled just over six months into his past. His tricorder told him straight away what stardate it was and his heart skipped a beat. He knew it too well.

Omega. 

The current mission that the Odyssey was on in this time frame was the one he had regretted undertaking. Though he never had a choice. Standing on deck eight, he knew that this was it. He knew that this was the point where he would successfully saved the Gradin Belt from being succumbed to the devastation brought on by numerous Omega molecules while on the other hand he would lose the finest first officer he had the opportunity to have. 

“Sir, you okay?” Jen asked as he finished the last of the modifications to the systems he had just worked on. 

Looking down at the Trill operations officer, he just nodded. “Is that the last one?” He asked. 

“Besides those quarters,” Jen said pointing to the door. “Then we’re done here and there’s only one more time frame to deal with.”

“Give me the gear and get yourself through the time barrier back to the temporal observatory.” McCallister ordered after he stared at the door they were near.

“But sir, I thought we said for this last one we’d get it done together?” Jen asked as he stood up. 

“Let me have this one, Lukiz.” McCallister ordered. “I won’t be too long.”

Noticing who’s quarters they were, Jen just nodded and handed the gear over. “Okay sir, but if you’re not back in ten minutes, then I’m coming back.”

“Agreed.” McCallister said as he watched Jen walk through the nearby barrier and disappear from sight. Turning to the door, he placed the override clearance in and the doors parted. Stepping in he allowed the doors to close behind him. As they did they revealed the name of the occupier.

CMDR CAMBIL BEXA & FAMILY

Looking around the room, McCallister turned on the lights and made his way across towards the final panel. Entering his former first officer’s quarters and making the adjustments needed, McCallister found the whole experience extremely weird. In his own time frame, these quarters had been vacated for some time and only recently had his current first officer and chief of boat requested to move into them with their new family. Before the surge had hit, McCallister had planned to grant the request. Gazing around the main living room, memories of being here with his own family as well as the Cambils came flooding in. All of them were good memories. Be it various dinners or even playing a range of games. The time spent here was cherished. It was here where he and Bexa had become close colleagues and eventually close friends. As he injected the serum into the final bio-neural gel pack, McCallister started to wonder if he should have shared with Cambil the whole secret of the Omega Directive. Then he shook his head. He reminded himself that he had no choice. Omega was deadly and the knowledge of its existence was a threat to the whole galaxy. He had no choice. 

Finishing off his work, he placed the cover over the open panel he had worked on and checked his tricorder. Their plan was almost complete. The doors to the quarters then opened and he immediately regretted looking up and over his shoulder to see who was standing there in the doorway.

Bexa. 

Gulping he placed his scanner away as she stared at him. Tears had streamed down her face and instantly he recognised her look. This was the point in time when she had resigned, they had shared some insults with one another (not one of his proudest moments and something he had never shared with anyone, including his wife) and she had stormed out of his ready room to use the private turbolift away from everyone else’s sight. 

“James, what the hell are you doing here?” She demanded after pushing back a tear with the back of her index finger.

Coming clean instantly, he knew what he had to say. “It’s not what you think this is.” He then tapped his camouflage emitter and instantly his appearance changed to show the new uniform that Starfleet had introduced for the start of the twenty fifth century. 

Surprised at the revelation, Cambil walked two more steps to allow the door behind her to close. “Holographic trickery, really James?” She said after taking in a breath or two. “What did you do? Rig a site-to-site transporter and beam down to throw more insults at me?”

“No, that’s not what’s happening here.” McCallister said instantly as he shook his head and stepped forward to close the gap between her. “Bexa, you need to understand, I’m not your James McCallister.”

    “Then tell me why the hell I shouldn’t call security down here?” Cambil countered back with. “Who are you then if you’re not my McCallister?”

“I am,” McCallister replied, “but from your perspective I’m a future version.”

“Future?” She repeated. “Are you some sort of time traveller now? Is that what that whole mission was about? Is that why you can’t tell me? Is it because of the temporal prime directive?” She stormed further and across to her drinks cabinet and proceeded to pour herself a strong glass of Alderbaran whiskey into a glass. She took hold of it and turned her back to him. “You know what James, in the time I have known you, I have never heard such utter rubbish come out of your mouth.” She took a swig from the glass before pointing her finger at him, the same one that held her glass. “You have some nerve what you have put me under.”

“I know, I know but I need you to understand that the mission you think I was on had nothing to do with the temporal prime directive but as past me has told you, it has to do with another classified directive.” He paused as he took his breath. “But this one, the one I am on is protected by the temporal prime directive.”

“By the Prophets, help me!” She screamed as she threw the glass across the room. Storming over to him, she instantly pushed him over. “You really think I am that foolish!” She shouted. “I gave up my career because of your utter nonsense.”

Stumbling to the floor, as he hadn’t expected her to act like that, McCallister looked up from where he was on the floor. “Bexa, please calm down.” He said, raising his hands up to her. “I get, you’re angry with me. You have every right to be, but I am telling you the truth.”

“The same truth you shared with me as to what you were up to while I had to delay the Kraylor and lie to them?” Cambil spat out. Her anger had been built up inside her and it was all coming out now. There was no need for her to hide it anymore. Officially she was no longer his first officer or part of Starfleet. She could say what she wanted without any issue. “I told you before James, I won’t have anything to do with it.” In that instant she pulled her combadge off and threw it across the room. “Now get out of here!”

Standing up slowly, he brushed himself down and realised that he had truly hurt her. “I come from six months into your future, I am trying to prevent an accident from happening which results in the ship being splintered across the space-time continuum. Trent dies trying to save all of us and for some reason beyond my control Karyn ends up being responsible for it all. It’s a possibility that I’ll end up losing her as well.” He looked at her, tears were forming in her eyes. “As I’ve already told you today, my past self that is, I never wanted to hurt you. Never. You have been my trusted right hand for so long that I need you by my side, even if it’s just for one more mission. Please Bexa, I can’t bear to lose Karyn or Tremt.”

Shaking her head at him, Cambil jabbed her finger at him in the air. “How the hell am I supposed to trust you?”

“If you don’t believe me, then follow me outside and you can step across a time barrier with me.” McCallister answered. He handed her the hypospray, “Take this and you’ll be safe. I promise you.”

“How’d I know that’s not some poison and you’re not trying to kill me?” Cambil queried. 

“I’m many things Bexa, but a murderer is not one of them.” He assured her. 

Standing there for a moment, Cambil looked him up and down. She took the hypospray, injected herself with it and then proceeded to nod once at him. McCallister smirked slightly as he led them out of her quarters and towards the time barrier. 

“Trust me.” He said as he took her hand and they stepped through the barrier together.

“It’s not going to work.” Captain Tomaz said instantly as he looked at the data flashing on the large screen in the temporal observatory. A mix of frustration and disappointment showed in his features as he rubbed his temple.

“Hang on Tomaz, we’ve not come this far to give up.” Vice Admiral Duncan stated, trying to remain optimistic. “Are we certain with what the temporal sensors are telling us?”

“Absolutely.” Alfie confirmed as he manipulated the main control panel. With every other area of the ship now prepped and ready for the chroniton field, our sensors are more precise in telling us what is happening in each section. The chevron section’s engineering has been taken over by a group of Klingons.”

“I take it then they’re not the Klingons who are members of the Federation?” Jorgeh checked.

Hearing that bit of information about the Klingon Empire joining the Federation, Jen gave a surprised reaction towards McCallister who just shook his head as if to say ‘don’t ask’. The Trill was sitting on one of the stools as he tried to understand how the temporal observatory worked. The science was ahead of him and he knew from conversations with the others from the future it was all based on Krenim and Borg inspired technology.

Leaning against a bulkhead at the back of the room, near to the main entrance, McCallister had crossed his arms against his chest while listening to the others have their conversation. “I assume that the Klingons in question are the Hunters of D’Ghor? Unless Odyssey in its future history was boarded by the Klingons?”

Duncan shook his head. “No and the temporal sensors are showing this timeframe is set in the year twenty-three-ninety-nine.”

“Hey dad, isn’t this the first time you assume command of the Odyssey?” Jorgeh asked his father.

Nodding to confirm, Duncan gave a brief outline of the events. “Yeah, we had been ordered to assist with relief efforts in the Archanis sector after the Hunters of D’Ghor had launched a number of raids and incursions in Federation space. Odyssey was sent to secure the Haydorian system, ready for the construction of the Archanis Array. We were attacked by a Klingon task group. James and several others higher in the chain of command were severely injured and it left me in command.”

“One of the more interesting missions, if I recall.” McCallister stated. “Those D’Ghor were ruthless and were intent on restoring honour to their House and wanting the Empire to go to war with the Federation.” Looking at Duncan, he smirked. “I’m glad to hear that’s all in the past now.”

“It took a bigger threat to force the Klingons to admit our two ‘house’ united was a stronger fighting force.” Duncan remarked. “Anyway, enough about that as that may not happen.”

“And let’s get back to the issue at hand.” Tomaz said, reminding them. “Taking the chevron’s engineering room is the last critical element of all of our efforts. We’re outnumbered.”

“Seeing as our sensors are better at focussing now on what is there, can we not just beam them out?” Jen suggested.

Shaking his head, Alfie answered that one. “Our temporal sensors are good but our transporters aren’t.”

“Could we flood the engineering department with a knockout gas, like neurozine?” Jorgeh proposed.

“We can’t access environmental controls for that specific area of the ship.” Alfie stated. “Even if we could make the computer think there was microbiotic contamination in the area, we’ve got no way of ensuring the ventilation system opened automatically.”

“Show me engineering again with the temporal sensors.” McCallister ordered his son.

Complying, Alfie adjusted the controls again and showed the deck plan of engineering and where the temporal barriers were along with the life signs of the Klingons who were there.

Studying the scans for a moment, he pointed to one section on the upper section of engineering. “Why is that area in green and the rest of engineering in red?”

“Green represents a timeframe we’ve adjusted and red shows the areas we’ve not.” Alfie answered.

“So the upper command level is sitting in a different time frame?” McCallister queried.

His son just nodded in confirmation.

Duncan stepped forward to stand by McCallister’s side, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, JP?” He asked.

“I think so.” McCallister said with a smirk. “But we’re going to need more than just us six to do this.”

“Time to call in some favours then.” Duncan said as he copied McCallister’s grin.

Both men turned around and began to walk out of the room, leaving the others perplexed.

“Alf, Jor, either of you know what your fathers are planning to do to my ship?” Tomaz asked.

Alfie and Jorgeh both shook their heads. All of them turned to Jen for answers.

“Hey, I’m in the dark as much as you guys are!” The Trill man said as he raised his hands and shrugged before following his own captain to leave the room.

Doctor Obrith had heard it all in his almost ten years service of being in Starfleet. The Krenim doctor looked at the admiral, the man who had supported his application into Starfleet and then to the past version of McCallister who had become a mentor to him while at Starfleet Academy. What they had just proposed to him was something that required a miracle worker to do. He certainly was not that. “Admirals,” He paused as he realised he had called McCallister the wrong rank, “I meant admiral and captain, what you are asking me to do is not something that I could not do in the time we have left.”

“Come on Obrith, you’re good with this type of thing! Facial restructuring and genetic manipulation, it’s right up your street!” Duncan exclaimed. “You made Alfie and Jorgeh look like a pair of convincing Kazons a couple of years ago.”

McCallister looked at his son from across the room who just grinned at not being able to tell his dad why and his friend had to be surgically altered to look like a Kazon. Shaking his head in an attempt to forget it, he returned his focus back onto the ship’s chief medical officer. He found it weird that Slyvexs was not here. Apparently though Obrith had not only owed a lot to himself and Max but also to her. He had been her protege for a long time after he had graduated from the academy. “Obrith, if you can’t do it this way then is there a way you can modify the holographic camouflage mobile emitters to make us look like the Hunters, similar to how you made both Alfie and Jorgeh look like me and Tobias.”

Considering the idea for a moment, Obrith then nodded. “I can but if you want to take so many of you through then I’ll need as many hands as possible to assist.”

“You tell us what to do and we’ll follow your lead.” Duncan assured his chief medical officer.

“Follow me into the med lab then.” Obrith gestured as they left the confines of the main sickbay area and towards the large lab nearby.

Standing outside the main doors of the chevron’s engineering room, McCallister took in a deep breath. The moment they opened the large wide doors then they would be stepping through another time barrier and into a new time frame. He had not been there to fight the Klingons off his ship. It had been one of those things he had regrets over. Unable to defend what was his because the Klingons decided to ram his vessel instead of giving up in an honourable way. The Hunters of D’Ghor had made Starfleet’s life hell during this campaign. Nevertheless it was one particular point that proved to him later on that the man standing next to him would be an excellent first officer.

A beep came through on the tricorder that Duncan had in his hands. “All teams are in position. We’re ready.”

“Once more unto the breach then.” McCallister stated as he took a deep breath in.

“Who invited Jean Luc Picard to the party?!” Duncan teased with his former boyish wit. “Let’s do this JP!”

“Make it so, Number One!” McCallister said with a chuckle before composing himself.

Duncan suppressed his smirk as both men looked at one another’s reflection in the shiny doors and saw the appearance of two Klingon warriors before them.

The jump from their timeframe in the future to the past didn’t make McCallister ill one bit, so as Duncan and he made their way into engineering their disguises were not interrupted by any infliction or sign of them feeling nauseated one bit. 

“Captain Kargarth!” bellowed one of the many Klingon warriors who were on guard in engineering. “We were not expected to see you.”

Puffing out his chest and pushing his shoulders back, Duncan, who was in disguise as Kargarth, answered the warrior who spoke his alias’ name. “I do not report to you lieutenant, if I hear a tone of distrust from you again then I will slit that tongue out of your mouth, wear it as a belt while at the same time demoting you to the rank of Bekk!”

The warrior bowed his head for forgiveness. “I am sorry sir, but when we saw that Druvanna was lost and we heard Commander Shaniath’s call to move to the next phase of our mission, I assumed you had joined the honoured dead in Sto-vo-kor!”

“Sto-vo-kor does not await anyone from the House of D’Ghor. We will have to fight our way from Gre’thor before we are able to reach the honoured halls.” Duncan spat out as Kargarth. “Now, tell me what is our situation here?”

“Our boarding teams were able to penetrate the Federation defences easily, but after we attempted to secure ourselves we encountered some unusual anomalies.” The D’Ghor hunter answered. 

Looking to McCallister, who appeared as the second mate of the Druvanna, Duncan commanded him to investigate. It was their cover-up for McCallister to begin working on their plan. Thanks to Starfleet Intelligence they had known a lot after the attack the Odyssey had sustained during the Archanis Campaign. The Druvanna, which had been one of the Klingon ships owned by the Hunters of D’Ghor, had rammed them in a bold attempt to give their crew the chance to split up. Some boarded the Odyssey while others took shuttles and took refuge to prepare for another assault to prevent the construction of the Archanis Array. The exchange after the campaign with the Klingon Defence Force meant that those who were responsible for the attack were identified, as a result the Odyssey had their files on board allowing for the future version of the crew to create holographic disguises to get them past the enemy. 

For now. 

While Duncan distracted the Klingons and used some elaborate lie that the barriers they encountered were some form of new Federation technology, McCallister was able to make the final modifications without being disturbed. For someone who was more of a pacifist than war-like, Duncan appeared to be enjoying his performance of being a blood thirty Klingon a bit too much. He truly knew his stuff when it came to Klingon culture too. Once his work was complete, he covertly took out his tricorder and tapped the button to call for their reinforcements to come in. McCallister then gave Duncan the nod just as more beings appeared from above through the other time barrier on the upper level. 

“See my warriors, more of our brave brothers and sisters have stepped through!” Duncan exclaimed. “There is nothing to fear!”

Those that had just appeared all grunted or cheered. McCallister joined in with them.

“But sir, when I sent a scouting group through the same doors you and Commander Lukan came through, our men disappeared and we detected high amounts of tachyon radiation!” The lieutenant stated.

“As I said, Federation defence technology is smart but is not strong enough to hold our mightiest hunters down!” Duncan remarked. “We survived, perhaps your group was able to overpower it with their warrior souls before we entered. Did you not just see your fellow brothers and sisters enter from a similar fashion from up above?”

Unsure of what to do, the Klingon lieutenant looked at his own group and then back to Duncan in his disguise as well as the others that had just arrived. “With our limited number, we should attempt to find a different escape route and detonate their warp drive.” He said pointing at the warp core that sat in the middle of engineering. 

“Escape? What are you an honourless Ferengi petaQ?” Duncan chastised the Klingon with. “We will find another way by overriding their command features and taking control of their vessel from here!”

“Capture the Odyssey, sir?” Once again the lieutenant challenged. “Our orders were to board and to destroy it from the inside.”

“I have changed my mind!” Duncan answered back.

The Klingon lieutenant growled before smacking Duncan in the face with the back of his hand. “There is no glory with that!” He looked down as Duncan fell backwards onto the floor. “You are not fit to command us!” 

As Duncan hit the floor his holo-emitter was damaged and straight away his disguise was lost and his true identity was revealed. Before any of the Klingons could respond, everyone else had taken out their phasers and opened fire. Taking shelter behind consoles and bulkheads, the Starfleet team deactivated their disguises as the Klingons, who had yet to be hit, started to open fire on them. The Klingon lieutenant, who had hit Duncan, had taken out his mek’leth and was making his way over to Duncan who was trying to get back on his feet. Before he could attack the fallen admiral, both Tomaz and McCallister had launched themselves at the Klingon and tackled him to the floor. Tomaz had kicked the bladed weapons out of his hand while McCallister struggled to hold the large warrior down. Being stronger than him, the Klingon had been able to push McCallister off of him and had been able to overpower him. He grabbed McCallister by the neck and pushed him up against the bulkhead, almost strangling him. McCallister was fighting for his breath when Duncan had got up, aimed his phaser at the Klingon and shot him in the back. Instantly he fell to the ground. Thanking the future version of his first officer, McCallister looked around and saw everyone taking down the last of the Klingons while securing engineering. 

Stepping up to him, with a phaser rifle from her era, Commander Cambil approached McCallister. “That was for the artificial heart they gave me.” She cursed at the stunned warriors before turning back to the captain. “I take it that’s my final mission as Odyssey’s first officer?”

Nodding solemnly at her, McCallister spoke up. “Bexa, listen I know we ended on a bad note, but it wasn’t because I didn’t trust you. There are some secrets a captain must keep.”

“Including ones belonging to the temporal prime directive.” She stated before sighing. “I suppose I’ll have to keep this quiet to you until you return to your correct time frame.”

“I suppose so.” McCallister said. He was starting to feel like he was getting some closure on the friendship he lost with her.

“Then when you do, call me up and I’ll have a bottle of Bajoran spring wine ready for us to share.” Cambil said before smiling at him and placing the phaser rifle over her shoulder and going in to hug him.

Embracing her for a few seconds, McCallister felt a sense of relief wash over him. “Thanks Bexa.”

Walking over to join them was his other first officer, Commander Zack Hawkins. “So I take it that in this future if Commander Cambil becomes my successor then I must go on to greater things?”

Cambil and McCallister exchanged looks at one another and she nodded. “You’re going to grow to such great heights Zack. You’ll get to command this ship for a while too.”

Grinning at hearing that, Hawkins bobbed his head in approval. “I like the sound of that. Sounds like our future together is going to be interesting.”

“Eventful, sir.” spoke Hunsen as he made his way over with everyone else.

Standing around in front of the warp core, everyone appeared satisfied at their accomplishment.  Jen spoke up after he took one more look over the nearest display. “The chroniton field has almost finished charging. We should consider returning to our own original time frames.”

“And I need to go rescue my brothers from one time frame to another.” Alfie commented.

“You know they’ll never let you hear the end of this when you return back to your time frame?” Jorgeh teased his friend.

“I can’t wait to hear what Henri and Theo have stored up all of this time.” Alfie sarcastically stated. 

“Sir, what do you want us to do with the Klingons here?” Cline asked as he gestured towards the dazed warriors that were lying on the deck flooring. 

“We can’t just leave them here.” Slyvex said. “Though I feel there may be some justice in throwing them across one of the time barriers.”

“We may end up erasing them from the timeline, that may cause another paradox.” T’Rani stated. 

“In that time frame the Federation invades Qo’noS and Captain McCallister slays Chancellor Martok!” Flemen joked with a few others chuckling.

“And the Borg make an alliance with the Q Continuum to wipe us all out!” Horin added as she crossed her arms against her chest and sighed. “But seriously, what can we do with the Hunters of D’Ghor?”

“I believe the jeffrey tubes are still in this timeframe.” Samris answered. “Can we not lock them in there for now?”

“Let’s hope they don’t wake up before we activate the field.” Court stated. “Can we do this sooner as I have a wedding to get to!” He looked over at the older version of his husband. “I’d like to get down the altar before my husband-to-be thinks I’ve changed my mind.”

“Don’t worry dad, you’ll get there first before him.” Wylem quipped. “Let’s just make sure you don’t go back smelling like a Klingon.”

“Yeah, I’d like my husband to look handsome and not turn up in Klingon attire.” Duncan remarked. 

“That’s saved for the honeymoon!” McCallister teased before he looked at everyone. “Before we do that, I just want to thank you all for your efforts today. Once again you’ve all proven to me that this crew is incredible and I am honoured to have serve with you all.” He looked at Duncan and Tomaz, “Admiral, captain, shall we store our Klingon visitors and then move to our last phase?”

Duncan and Tomaz both nodded in agreement. The crew then worked together to lug the stunned and heavy Klingons into the nearby access tunnels. Once the last one was pushed in, the door was locked. Saying their last goodbyes to one another, the crew all began their walks back to their timeframes. 

McCallister stopped Alfie in his tracks. “Alf, a word before we finish up here.”

“Sure dad, what’s up?” Alfie said as he looked at his father as they stood by the warp core. 

Sighing out, McCallister opened up to his son. “There’s one thing I truly have hated about all of this mess.” He gestured to the room around them. “I hate the fact that this has been something that has interfered with your life, that you’ve had to remain here on the Odyssey to see it through. So will you do me a favour and indulge your old man for one more piece of advice?”

Smirking, Alfie just nodded. “Sure, dad.”

“Go and enjoy the rest of your life and don’t look back.” McCallister suggested as he placed his hand on his son’s right shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Please.”

“I will.” Alfie said with a nod. “Will you indulge me with some advice?”

“Sure.” McCallister smirked. 

“Don’t let what’s about to happen make you think you didn’t do everything in your power. I promise everything will turn out okay in the end.” Alfie said in a lower tone, indicating he was sharing more than he should. “Just give it time. Ironically enough.”

Unsure what his son was implying, McCallister agreed to keep that at the forefront of his mind as Jen approached him. 

“Ready to return back to the bridge, sir?” Jen asked. 

Nodding, McCallister agreed. “Let’s go home Lukiz.”

As the last ones to leave, they activated the chroniton field and by the time they reached the bridge it was close to being fully powered and ready to do its magic and sync the ship back to its original time frame. Their time frame. 

The chronition field had flashed across the whole ship as the chevron section’s warp core emitted it, creating a bright golden stream of lightning throughout. It was so powerful it had forced everyone who had returned to their time frames to cover their eyes. Blinking several times, McCallister looked around and soon found himself back on his bridge that was full with everyone that was with him before the ship’s warp core.

Without thinking, he got out of his chair and called over to Jen. “Lukiz, I hope you are-” he didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as the Trill operations officer was already working and responding to him.

“Shutting down both warp cores and diverting power to the main deflector.” Jen stated.

Everyone on the bridge looked amazed as to what McCallister and Jen were doing. McCallister had fled over to the engineering station and began helping Jen with securing the ship. With only a few more seconds to spare they had completed their task when the chronokinetic surge had hit them. Instead of reacting to the ship’s warp drive, it was deflected back into the subspace rift that had created it. Instantly the rift was sealed by the feedback.

“Report?” McCallister said as turned in the chair he had occupied.

“It worked, sir.” Jen announced, sounding relieved as he sighed and slumped into his chair.

The bridge crew all still looked in wonder about what had just happened.

“Engineering to bridge.” spoke the voice of Hunsen over the intercom. “Whatever you guys did up there, it’s caused us to lose our main deflector and our warp drive is offline. I’ve got a number of damaged injectors but everyone is safe and alive.”

Relieved to hear his chief engineer’s voice, McCallister smiled as he hit his combadge while also standing up from the engineering station and making his way back to his own centre chair. “That’s good to hear Tremt. Begin repairs at once and we’ll look at leaving the nebula to appraise Starfleet of our situation.”

“Quick reflexes there sir, it’s almost as if someone told you that something bad was about to happen.” Hunsen commented.

Knowing from that remark that Hunsen had remembered everything, McCallister ended the call by telling his chief engineer that he will meet with the senior staff shortly. Sitting down in his chair, he looked at Jen and gave him a smile. “Well done Lukiz.”

“Thank you, sir.” The Trill man replied as he relaxed further. “I’ll begin scans for the Telemachus.”

“Please do, I’d like to speak to my wife as soon as possible.” McCallister stated.

Jen looked down at his console and then noticed something on his sensors. “Sir, I’m detecting escape pods from the Telemachus just below us from where the subspace rift had closed.”

“Escape pods?” McCallister repeated. “How? They shouldn’t be here.”

 Pushing the scans up into the holographic interface, Jen showed his superior what he meant. “Eight escape pods, all with lifesigns on board.”

“Tractor them in straight away and have Slyvexs meet me down there with a relief team.” McCallister ordered as he got up and headed to the turbolift. “Lukiz, the bridge is yours.” He said as he entered the cart.

Moments later, McCallister was moving quickly across the large hangar deck of the ship’s shuttlebay as escape pod after escape pod was brought in through its forcefield. Looking through those who got out, the captain was assuring everyone of them but also was trying to find Karyn through the group.

His name was eventually called but it wasn’t by his wife, but instead by his mother-in-law. “James! James!” She screamed as she moved swiftly towards him and instantly pulled him into a close hug.

“Naja, where’s Karyn? What happened?” He asked.

Holding on tightly, Naja began to sob uncontrollably. “She’s gone James, she’s gone!” She said in between tears.

Returning to his quarters, almost an hour later, McCallister had felt like his entire world had been turned upside down. Pulling his uniform jacket off, he slowly walked over to the corner sofa and sat down. For a moment he just stared at the floor but he was interrupted by the arrival of all three of his sons coming down the twisted staircase. It was weird to see the teenage versions of them, especially Alfie.

“Dad, you okay?” Alfie asked as he instantly recognised that his father was not himself just by his facial expression.

“No, I’m not Alf.” He answered and took a deep breath in. “Boys, I need you to sit down. I’ve got something to tell you about your mother.”

Sitting quietly in the captain’s chair on the bridge, Commander Duncan was glaring at a fixed point on the floor between the raised middle pit of the bridge where the three command chairs were and where the ops and helm stations were. The only noise heard on the bridge was the odd tapping of those inputting something on their station. No-one knew what to say. Everyone was in shock at the news of the loss of Commander Reyas. 

Duncan had visited McCallister when he had been informed of the news and his superior had just asked him to assume command while he supported his sons. He hadn’t been able to completely convey his condolences with McCallister and his boys before the doors had abruptly closed on him. He had been left to pick up the pieces with everyone else and explain to them what had happened. Thankfully they had been able to save Lieutenants Tierra and Abbej in another escape pod that had somehow survived the trip through the rift the Telemachus had entered. Both women had reported that Reyas had tricked them into the escape pod after they had started to encounter temporal distortions. She closed the hatch on them and automatically pushed the ejected button without them being able to protest. Instead she had taken the ship and used it somehow to push them out of the rift. The whole situation was bizarre but after Jen had briefed everyone about what had happened, what he and the captain had encountered, the whole reset button from the paradox was making some sense. Though the two of them had returned to the time before the accident that had caused the ship to split into multiple time frames, to the rest of the galaxy the Odyssey had entered some sort of time dilation. This was what they had guessed was how the Telemachus had been able to enter the rift. Temporal mechanics was one class at the academy he had never attempted to do besides the basic requirements. On some level, Duncan knew he should have paid more attention, especially as when he was a child he had lived within a temporal anomaly for a brief stint with his adoptive parents. The anomaly had a temporal differential compared to normal space. He ended up losing seven years of his life because of it. That said he had never seen it as a bad thing, especially with where he now ended up, but now after what happened Duncan was cursing every temporal anomaly for eternity for taking one of their greatest assets away from them.  

And now the Odyssey was without a chief science officer, a second officer and Captain McCallister had lost his wife while his sons had lost their mother. Duncan had promised he would meet with everyone once they had more information and suggested they all meet later in The Lion Gate to raise a glass to their fallen comrade. 

T’Rani, who was sitting at the helm, turned her chair around after her console beeped. “Sir, I’m detecting a number of civilian freighters being escorted by eight Federation runabouts and eleven shuttles, heading in our direction.”

Duncan looked up at her. “Do they require our assistance?” He asked. 

“Scans show they have taken some damage but nothing significant.” T’Rani answered.

“Lukiz,” Duncan said in a low tone, “send a message to them stating we are happy to provide any help they may need but inform them we are unable to achieve warp at the moment while we finish off repairs to our main deflector.”

Jen just nodded as he got to work on contacting the convoy. A moment after he sent the message he got something back. “Sir, they appreciate our offer and ask if their smaller ships could dock with us and could they beam over any critically injured patients.”

“Sure, inform sickbay of incoming patients,” Duncan said, still in a calm tone, before turning back to look at his pilot. “T’Rani, have the shuttlebays open their doors for our friends out there to dock.”

Both officers acknowledged their orders and got to work straight away. The whole process took another half an hour for the shuttles and runabouts to dock with the mighty Odyssey. The rest of the freighters came in close and surrounded the ship as they finally reached the edge of the nebula. 

“We are out of the Paulson Nebula, sir.” T’Rani announced. “Commander Hunsen reports the deflector has been repaired enough for us to achieve warp six, safely.”

“Then lay in a course for Starbase Bravo and inform the other ships to remain with us.” Duncan ordered. “Once we’re good to go, then engage the warp drive.”

One of the aft turbolift doors opened, allowing Counsellor Horin to step off the cart and walk over to the seat beside Duncan. Giving him an assuring smile, she sat down elegantly and crossed her left leg over her right knee. “Doctor Slyvexs wanted me to let you know her new patients are stable and are being treated.”

“Thanks Louwanna.” Duncan replied back, still looking forward. Realising he was being absent-minded, he turned to her. “Did any of them need you or your staff’s help?”

   She shook her head. “No, we’ve got other pressing matters.” Horin answered honestly but in a low volume so no-one besides Duncan heard her. “Are you okay, Max?”

He shrugged his shoulders, as he didn’t know how to answer that. “I will be.” He whispered eventually. The Odyssey then jumped to warp which caused him to look at the huge wide viewscreen that showed the starfield now racing past them. Looking back at her, he smiled before he whispered again. “I am pleased you’re with us, Louwanna.”

She returned his smile with her own. “I’m here for you all.”

He nodded to show his appreciation. 

Horin opened her mouth to say something but was stopped when Jen spoke up. “Sir, we’ve got an incoming call from Starbase Bravo. It’s Admiral Bennet for you.”

“For me? Not for the captain?” Duncan checked.

Jen looked at his console and then back to his superior. “He is definitely calling for you.”

Nodding, he stood up and directed Jen to place the call into the ready room. “Commander Horin, the bridge is yours.”

Horin, surprised at that, opened her eyes a bit wider and then composed herself as she acknowledged the order as she stood up to take over from him. 

Mere seconds later and after a quick stroll across the bridge and into the private sanctity of the captain’s ready room, Duncan walked over to the desk and tapped the console to activate the holo-communication device in the room. Fizzling to life, Rear Admiral Zack Marshall-Bennet appeared with an almost blue/white haze around him. He looked as if he was standing in the centre of the ready room. Both hands clenched together in front. 

“It’s good to see you again, Commander Duncan.” Bennet said. “I’ve just finished reading Commander Jen’s report and yours, I wanted to check in with you to see how everything is.”

Appreciating the gesture from someone who was high up in the chain of command, Duncan answered. “The crew has received the news about Commander Reyas’ loss. Our counselling teams are already supporting those who need it. Captain McCallister has requested that I take temporary command while he grieves with his sons.”

“Temporal paradoxes aren’t easy things to understand, I appreciate that you of all people know what it’s like to go through one, but Commander Reyas’ death is a huge loss to Starfleet. She had a lot of potential to go further and I know the El-Aurian people will grieve her passing. ” Bennet said solemnly.  

Impressed that the admiral knew about his own encounter of dealing with a temporal difference paradox when he was a child as well as the sentiment about Reyas, Duncan thanked the admiral for his remarks. “I’m afraid sir, when we arrive at Starbase Bravo not only are we bringing back those who survived the loss of the Telemachus, including the scientists they saved but we’ve just came across a convoy of freighters departing the nebula. They were being escorted by runabouts and shuttles.”

“They may have been the convoy that had rescued refugees from the New Scarborough colony. We have set up a temporary settlement on one of the moons of Mellstoxx Three for them.” Bennet explained. “But don’t worry yourselves over that. Just get yourselves home and safe.”

“We will, admiral.” Duncan stated. “Is there anything else, sir?”

“There is.” Bennet said with a singular nod. “Two in fact. One, I wanted to let you know that I’ve spoken with the Federation Displacement Agency and your request for legal guardianship of both of those boys you rescued in the Delta Quadrant has been granted to you and Senior Chief Court.”

Duncan’s whole posture changed at that news, a smile crept on his face. “That’s great news sir, thank you so much for taking the time to find out for us and letting me know.”

“You’re welcome,” Bennet replied, “but it was Louwanna’s heavy suggestion that helped influence their decision. Her report on how it was important not to break the bond and attachment they had formed with you was what got it past the finish line.”

“I’d make sure to thank her.” Duncan said, feeling very happy and excited now that they had that news. “You said you had two things, sir?”

“Ah, yes. Well with what I’ve read about what’s transpired with the Odyssey, I’m afraid that the Department of Temporal Investigation had to be called. Please inform those of your crew who were involved to grant their agents full access and full cooperation as they conduct their investigation into the temporal paradox you were all a part of.”

Duncan sighed, he knew that wouldn’t help anyone right now and it would only add to further stress when it wasn’t needed. “Sir, can’t there be a delay with their investigation?” He pleaded. 

“I’m afraid the regulations are quite clear on this commander,” Bennet answered, “we cannot wait and the Odyssey is not the only ship to encounter a temporal paradox. Challenger, Endeavour and others in the fleet have come across something that has caused D-T-I to almost have an aneurysm at. I’m certain they won’t tell us anything specific but we must cooperate. Please ensure your crew are ready to be debriefed. We’ll keep a docking port clear for you. Safe travels. Bennet out.”

The admiral then deactivated his holographic representation and ended the call. Duncan sighed heavily as he leant against the back of one of the armchairs in the room. The appearance of D-T-I agents, he felt, would be the start of causing more problems for them. Taking in a huge breath, he then stood up and made his way back out onto the bridge to face the music. The only thing that made him happier was the news about Jorgeh and Wylem. 

At least something had gone right for them today, he thought. 

Gradually, the fleet admiral eased himself to sit down in the chair behind his desk after ordering the replicator to make him a mug of tea. Leaning across his desk he picked up the warm beverage and was about to to take a sip when the door chime to his office went off. “Come.” He croaked. 

The doors parted open allowing for his two visitors to enter. Each and everyone brought a smile to his face. Even after all of these years, the countless number of missions they had shared, their presence was one he never got tired of. Standing back up, he knew instantly why they were all there.

“Max, Alf,” Fleet Admiral James Preston McCallister said softly, “tell me it’s all over.”

Vice Admiral Maxwell Duncan just nodded to his superior. “It’s done, sir.”

Sighing heavily, McCallister had waited for this moment for over two decades. Walking around he approached his son and the two hugged briefly. “Thank goodness.” McCallister said.

“That’s not the only good news we have dad.” Commander Alfie McCallister-Reyas said after his embrace. “At the end we picked up someone you may want to go and see.”

Looking a bit startled, the aged admiral glanced between his son and his former first officer. “Are you telling me…did it actually happen?” He said with surprise.

Alfie just nodded. “She’s waiting for you on Bravo.”

“Then my dear son, you are dismissed and you now have a life to get on with, as I ordered you to do so over twenty years ago.” McCallister said with a smirk that he had not expressed in years. Turning to his old friend, the admiral asked him if he would journey with him to Starbase Bravo one last time.

Agreeing to the request, the three men left the office.

Hours later, McCallister greeted the one person he had missed for ages. There standing waiting for him in the middle of Starbase Bravo’s sickbay was the woman he had never given up waiting for. Instantly they moved across the room and embraced one another into a tight hug, followed by what seemed like a never-ending kiss. Keeping close to one another, their embrace turned into a slow dance.

Duncan looked on, smiled and finally knew that their mission was over.

It had been a long, long time coming. 

Tapping his combadge, he called up his husband and knew he could return to the life he once knew. 

He hoped the same would be said for James and Karyn now.