Captain Scott Bowman was standing beside the replicator in his ready room. “Bourbon, over ice” he said into the unit, which beeped in the affirmative, and a second later he pulled the squat glass of amber liquid from the hole in the wall. No sooner had he sat down at his desk and took a drink from the glass, then the door chime rang. “Come” he said, setting the glass down on the desk. The door opened to reveal Bema, holding a PADD in one hand as he came in. “What is it, Number One?”

“Just bringing the duty report, Captain” Bema replied, “And letting you know we are almost to Delta 11 Outpost.”

“Excellent, thanks Bema.” Scott said, taking the PADD from him. After a few moments, and noticing Bema hadn’t gone back to the bridge, he added, “Was there anything else?”

“It’s about Ezra,” Bema began, ” I think it’s time we give him his extra pip. He’s been your go to pilot for a few years now, and now you’ve made him Alpha Pilot, it seems fitting.”

“Ahh, you’re not wrong.” replied the captain. “He does a really good job, that’s for sure. Alright Number One, we should arrange the promotion for when this job is finished.”

“Sounds good, Captain. I’ll let the rest of the senior staff know. See you at the lounge later.” Bema said conclusively, and turned and headed out of the ready room. Scott picked up his glass again, and turned his chair to the window. He sat there for a while, sipping and relaxing as his new ship stretched its legs. This last year had been a relaxing one, to be honest. They had ferried the engineers to New Providence without so much as a hiccup, and they were now headed to Delta 11 Outpost on the Klingon border to drop off a load of supplies. A voice came over the comms, “Captain Bowman, to the bridge.” with more urgency than he expected. He got up immediately, set his glass back into the replicator, and headed back for the bridge.

The doors to the bridge opened, and Scott walked swiftly inside, noticing at once why he had been summoned. Out the main viewscreen, a little to the right of center, was a amorphous bluish purple vortex, spinning lazily. “What is that?” Scott asked as he took his chair.

“I don’t know sir,” said the science officer, “but I’m reading high levels of gravimetric interference.”

“Launch a Class One Probe, and keep your distance” Replied the Captain. They watched the probe as it flew towards the anomaly, and then suddenly disappear. “What happened, are we getting any readings?” He asked.

“No sir. It’s as if the probe just vanished.” replied the science officer.

“Captain?” came Ezra’s voice, sounding uneasy, “You might want to see this.” Scott turned his attention back to the viewscreen, and discovered why Ezra sounded unsettled. The anomaly was getting larger.

“Ensign, have we moved from our position?” Scott asked Ezra.

“No, sir, we are at full stop.” Ezra answered. “I think it’s moving towards us.” The ship lurched suddenly forward, forcing Scott back into his seat, and knocking the tactical officer off her feet. “Captain, it’s pulling us in!” Ezra cried, rapidly tapping buttons on his console.

“Full reverse, then come about!” Scott commanded, “Full impulse!”. Ezra complied, turning the ship around with a deft movement of his hands. He worked frantically, do his best to outrun this anomaly that suddenly seemed bent on devouring the ship.

“It’s not working, Captain!” Ezra said as he worked. ” The anomaly just keeps pulling us in!”

“Bridge to engineering! Bud, can we go to warp?” called the captain over the comms.

“It’s not advisable, Captain.” said the Chief Engineer, “There is no way to know what effect this thing will have on our warp field.”

“Damn it!” shouted Scott. The ship now began shaking violently, and the crew on the bridge were finding it harder to keep their footing. “At this rate, we’ll be shaken to pieces!” They held on tightly, as the anomaly engulfed the ship, shaking and pitching so violently even Scott was thrown from his chair. After what seemed like hours, the tremors subsided, and the crew were able to regain their footing.

“Doctor to bridge, what the fuck was that?! It’s raining patients down here, what the hell are you doing?”

“Apologies, Doctor” Scott replied, “We seem to have been overwhelmed by some type of temporal anomaly.”

“Captain, multiple warp signatures detected.” Vail said from her position at the tactical station. She tapped her console, “Looks like Federation ships.”

“Maybe they have experienced the same thing, or have had better luck figuring out what it is.” said the captain. In an instant, two of the three ships blinked into view on the front viewscreen. They were very clearly Federation, but they were old, a Constellation class  and a Miranda class. The third ship, a Constitution class, appeared on the San Jose’s rear sensors.

“Captain, they’ve powered up their weapons!” Vail cried, intuiting what her captain would command next, and beginning the emergency sequence.

“Shields up, Yellow Alert”, ordered the Captain, standing and taking a position in the center of the bridge. “Don’t power up weapons yet Commander, if they are Federation we shouldn’t be in any danger.”

“On Screen, Ms. O’Donnell” Scott replied.

The viewscreen lit up with the image of a ship’s bridge, and this ship’s captain, a severe looking woman in a red tunic and a tall white collar. The delta on her chest suggested it was not a comm badge, but merely a decoration, as they had been during the 23rd century. “Unidentified vessel, this is Captain Isabella de la Cruz of the Federation Starship Durango. Identify yourself, and your reason for trespassing into Federation space.” she demanded.

“Stand down Yellow Alert,” Scott said to Commander O’Donnell before turning his attention to the viewscreen.  “Greetings, Captain.” he replied, “I am Captain Bowman of the Federation Starship San Jose. We encountered a temporal anomaly that passed over our ship, have you encountered anything like that on your sensors?”

There was a pause from Captain de la Cruz before she continued. “We have seen that anomaly on our sensors, that is what originally brought us here. The problem I seem to have, Captain,  is there is no San Jose in the federation database, and the configuration of your ship does not match any ship in the database either, so I am left wondering where you came from, and why you only just appeared on our sensors?”

Everyone has seen a Cali class before, haven’t they? Scott asked himself, and then, it suddenly clicked in his mind: Old ships, old uniforms, high tension out here at the Klingon border,  Oh god, this is one of those we’ve gone back in time things. He straightened his uniform, and responded to the other ship, “I believe, Captain, that we may be from the future, and the anomaly that overcame us sent us here.” he took a deep breath, and continued, “What is the current Stardate?”

“The current stardate is 2257.” She responded with a more inquisitive and less severe tone this time. “I have noticed you’ve lowered your shields, and your weapons were never even powered up, which leads me to believe you most likely mean us no harm. I’m inclined to believe you, Captain. How can we help?”

“Sir, they’ve powered down weapons.” Vail said from behind the tactical station.

“Perfect.” Scott sighed with a deep sense of relief. “Now let’s figure out how in the hell we are gonna get home.”