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Fan Fiction: T'Pela - Chapter Four
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in Ten Forward
I hit a writer's block on this for a while. I am sorry it has taken me so long to write chapter 4 of this story.
Here is a link to Chapters 1 and 2: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1221993/fan-fiction-tpela-chapters-one-two
Here is a link to Chapter 3: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1222527/fan-fiction-tpela-chapter-three
And here is Chapter 4:
T'Pela: Chapter Four – Time and Again
Captain's Log (append date) Seal for Temporal Operatives Only.
After the battle with the Eagle, our repair teams realized our damage was worse than we thought. In order to expedite repairs, the Antillies came back to Utopia Planitia fleet yards for repairs.
While in the Sol system, I shuttled over to Earth Space Dock. I had a chance to speak to Admiral Quinn. He was very impressed with our conduct in the battle for Starbase 24. For this reason, he asked me to take on a new ship, the Nebula class San Antonio.
What makes this new ship particular is that there are holo-emitters throughout the decks. My senior bridge crew has also been replaced with the exception of, the now Lt. Commander, Tarsi. I now have holographic officers. With their mobile emitters, they even join me on away missions.
With my recommendations, the officers that left the ship have been promoted a step in rank.
I do not know if it is the Admiral's sense of humor, but my chief medical officer, science officer, and chief engineer have been modeled after the Enterprise's crew. It is strange to come onto the bridge and see contemporaries from my past walking on this new, advanced bridge. They won't even let me reprogram their clothing to match everyone else.
End log.
–
“Yellow alert. Captain to the bridge. Yellow alert.”
T'Pela looked up to the speaker she knew was in the ceiling, “This is the Captain, report.”
Tarsi's voice answered, “Captain, a ship just showed up off our port aft quarter. Sensors can't see it, but we look out a window, and it is there. There has been no hail yet, and it is pacing us.”
“I'm on my way.”
Tarsi made her way from her quarters to the nearest turbolift. On the way to the bridge, she pondered over this ship that could be seen with the naked eye, but not with sensors.
The doors opened onto the bridge, and T'Pela stepped out. “Captain on the bridge,” Tarsi spoke up.
“Status?”
“The vessel is still pacing us.”
“On screen.”
The viewscreen showed their port aft quarter, stars streaming by while they were at warp, and there in the middle of the screen was a small ship that appeared to be the size of a very large shuttlecraft; similar in size to that new one she'd seen at space dock, the Delta Flyer.
“Any response to hails?”
A hologram in the form of Nyota Uhura responded, “Nothing yet, Captain.”
“Put me on, please.”
“Hailing frequencies open.”
“Alien vessel, this is Captain T'Pela of the San Antonio, please respond.”
After waiting a few moments, the screen switched to the view of a man. He appeared to be in his thirties, with wavy light brown hair, and a strange goatee, with an upper lip that was mostly shaved, except for the ends. What was most memorable about him was his light grey-blue eyes. They were the eyes of a genius, or a madman.
“I am sorry about taking so long to respond, Captain. Please, rest assured that I pose no threat to you, and in fact, I have come to ask for your help. If you would allow, I would like to beam aboard to discuss a problem we both are going to be facing shortly.”
“I am not in the habit of beaming strangers on-board, mister?” waiting for his name.
“For now, let's call me Doctor.”
T'Pela sat up straighter in her chair, “We will need coordinates for transport, as we cannot scan your vessel.”
“Not a problem, Captain. I am sending the coordinates on a second frequency. I will be ready in 5 minutes. Doctor out.”
T'Pela turned to her second in command, “Tarsi, have the coordinates sent to Transporter Room One. You and I are going to meet this Doctor and see what he wants.”
Tarsi pressed a few keys on her station and stood to join T'Pela in the turbolift, “Is this the Doctor that Captain Chayton told you about?”
T'Pela heard the turbolift start to move, the inertial dampeners working so well, she couldn't feel it. It still amazed her the level of technology that these new ships had, “yes, I would assume so.”
When they arrived in the transporter room, she turned to the operator and said, “Once he is beamed in, erect a level one force field. I want whatever is beamed in contained until we know what we're dealing with.”
The chief nodded, “yes, ma'am.”
As the transport cycle ended, T'Pela was able to take a full look at the man, and a memory from her past came to mind; a record of a threat while she was a cadet that was felt through most of the quadrant. When she had become captain, she has researched the incident, reading Captain Kirk's classified after action report.
“Chief, please leave the room.”
The chief looked at T'Pela, and then made his way out, without a word. Once he had left, T'Pela turned to the man still on the transporter pad, “Lazarus, I presume.”
He nodded and smiled slightly, again that look in his eyes that made one appreciate the nearness of genius and madness, “Captain T'Pela. Yes, I am Lazarus, but not the ones you are thinking of. They are still trapped in the door between dimensions.”
“But if you are not them, then who are you?”
“Captain, please, I pose no threat to you. Would you kindly lower this force field? You can scan me and see I am unarmed and quite safe.”
T'Pela checked the transporter logs, and, as Lazarus had said, there was no sign of any weapons or anything else that could pose a threat to her ship. She lowered the force field and Lazarus stepped down.
“The doors between universes is why I am here, however. Due to this temporal cold war, individuals from alternate timelines have been coming into this one. This has caused a severe imbalance in the cosmological balance and...” Lazarus stopped. He could tell that he had lost the Andorian, and the Vulcan captain was starting to look the same, even through her normal impassive face.
“I am sorry, I sometimes forget that most people don't actually have the experience with temporal mechanics that I do. Let's start from the beginning, I am Lazarus Manheim.”
T'Pela blinked, her mind pulling up the information from her temporal acclimation, “Manheim? As in Doctor Paul Manheim the scientist who was working on the relationship between gravity and time?”
“That is right. In an alternate timeline, he and Jenice had me just as he was succeeding in his work.”
T'Pela raised her eyebrow, “But that is impossible. Our Lazarus existed before Paul Manheim did.”
Lazarus chuckled, “Yes, same in my universe. We're dealing with time travel. As the Prophets say, 'it isn't linear.'”
T'Pela shook her head. “Okay, let's not get sidetracked. What do you want?”
“I need your help to save the multiverse.”
“The multiverse?”
Lazarus smiled, “Every universe. This one, the one you call the mirror universe, the so-called antimatter universe, all of them.”
T'Pela turned to Tarsi, and Tarsi simply shrugged her shoulders. T'Pela returned her attention to Lazarus, “Okay, why me?”
Lazarus' smile faded, his face turning serious, and calmly he explained, “In the door between universes is someone waiting for you. It is the antimatter T'Pela. She needs something only you have. With the two of you working together, she has found a way to generate enough power and energy to balance the losses to the other universes. Anti T'Pela has the ability to restore the cosmological balance. She sent me to find you, to ask for your help.”
“There really isn't a choice here, is there?”
Lazarus looked sad for a small moment, “There is always a choice. You can decide not to help, in which case we may or may not be able to restore the balance to the multiverse. Or you can decide to help, which should work, but is a risk to you and the other T'Pela.”
Tarsi spoke up, “Should work?”
T'Pela spoke up, “There are no guarantees, are there Doctor?”
“None at all. Shall we go?”
T'Pela turned to Tarsi, gently gripped her shoulder and smiled the small smile she reserved for her, “We'll be back,” and stepped up to the transporter pad with Lazarus, “Stand by to energize.”
As Tarsi moved to the transporter controls, Lazarus spoke up, “No need,” He pressed a button on his sleeve, and both him and T'Pela were transported onto his ship.
Even though the vessel appeared to be the size of a large shuttlecraft on the outside, the inside appeared much larger. “Holographic interior?” T'Pela asked.
“Not exactly. Something much more complicated. I like to call it a time and relative dimension in space,” the Doctor smiled, “Stand by for dimensional jump.”
The Doctor pressed a few controls, and T'Pela felt the ship jump in a direction she could never explain. It almost felt like moving at a right angle to every direction. Even as she thought it, she knew it wouldn't make sense later.
“Okay, Captain. We are here. I am going to beam you out to meet Anti T'Pela. She will explain what she needs you to do.”
T'Pela nodded and felt herself transported outside. There, leaning over a console was her mirror self. The clothing was different, almost like traditional Vulcan clothing. Anti T'Pela turned, and raised her hand. Instead of the V of the Vulcan salute, the middle two fingers were together, with the first and fourth fingers outstretched, making a W, “Greetings.”
T'Pela raised her eyebrow and saluted her with the traditional V salute, “Greetings, T'Pela.”
Anti T'Pela's lips curled very slightly, “This will get confusing quickly. Call me Ela.”
“Ela, then. The Doctor has brought me,” T'Pela turned as she heard the Doctor's ship leaving.
“It isn't safe for him or anyone else here,” Ela gestured to a set of chairs, “Please, have a seat.”
T'Pela sat down, with Ela sitting across from her, “So, what is it you need me to do, and why do you need me when you have all the multiverse to choose from?”
“I will keep it as simple as I can. I need you because you are my exact quantum opposite. As you know, when matter and antimatter meet in an uncontrolled environment, they are quite destructive. When you have matter that meets its exact quantum opposite, the energy released is much more potent.”
“But if what you say is true, we will be destroyed in the process.”
“That is what this machine is for. It will control the energy released, and will send that energy to wherever it is needed.”
“But why us? Why can't we use ordinary matter? Why the sacrifice of lives?”
Ela nodded, appreciating the questions, “You may find this hard to believe, but there is more to people than mere matter. This device uses all of our energy, including the potential energy caused by time travel. It is all that energy that we will be tapping into.”
T'Pela thought for a moment, “So basically, this is going to kill us both?”
“Yes, but is it such a large price to pay to save all the universes?”
T'Pela meditated for a moment. She remembered her life: the battle of Caleb IV, coming forward in time by way of Daniels, watching her husband die, and the secret depression that troubled her katra, “I suppose not. What do I do?”
“Press your hand to this panel,” and Ela pointed to one of two identical panes on the console, “I will press my hand to the other and the device will activate.”
T'Pela set her hand on the console. Ela did the same and a transporter effect began. It was slow, but painless, and T'Pela could feel her essence dissolving. Part way through, Ela's eyes opened wide in shock, “You aren't full Vulcan?!?”
T'Pela shook her head and suddenly she felt herself carried away, feeling disembodied. She looked down and she found herself floating, surrounded by darkness and stars. It was so beautiful. One point of light grew bigger, and she realized it was a starship heading for her. She felt herself swept up by it, and recognized it as the Eagle. She floated through decks and walls until she found him.
She watched as he slept fitfully. Reaching out, her ethereal hand gently grazing his cheek, she woke him. Chayton's eyes opened, seeing what to him was a vision of utmost beauty. He asked, “Who are you? What are you?”
T'Pela realized that all of her Vulcan control was gone. She felt herself start to weep, and told Chayton everything. Who and what she was, her history, and why he should never fall for her. T'Pela felt her grasp on reality waning, and warned him, “I must go now.”
“No, please, T'Pela. Stay with me, let me help you; save you”
“You cannot. Stay the hero, and know that I did care for you.”
T'Pela felt herself ripped away, back to the corridor between universes. Pain wracked her body, as it reassembled. Suddenly, she found herself thrown out of the corridor.
After several blinding flashes of light, she found herself falling through the air. Guessing she was about 3,000 meters in the air, she had time to realize her fate. She was falling, and she would be dead when she hit the ground. Just in time to realize what planet she was on, she smiled to herself, and fell.
Here is a link to Chapters 1 and 2: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1221993/fan-fiction-tpela-chapters-one-two
Here is a link to Chapter 3: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1222527/fan-fiction-tpela-chapter-three
And here is Chapter 4:
T'Pela: Chapter Four – Time and Again
Captain's Log (append date) Seal for Temporal Operatives Only.
After the battle with the Eagle, our repair teams realized our damage was worse than we thought. In order to expedite repairs, the Antillies came back to Utopia Planitia fleet yards for repairs.
While in the Sol system, I shuttled over to Earth Space Dock. I had a chance to speak to Admiral Quinn. He was very impressed with our conduct in the battle for Starbase 24. For this reason, he asked me to take on a new ship, the Nebula class San Antonio.
What makes this new ship particular is that there are holo-emitters throughout the decks. My senior bridge crew has also been replaced with the exception of, the now Lt. Commander, Tarsi. I now have holographic officers. With their mobile emitters, they even join me on away missions.
With my recommendations, the officers that left the ship have been promoted a step in rank.
I do not know if it is the Admiral's sense of humor, but my chief medical officer, science officer, and chief engineer have been modeled after the Enterprise's crew. It is strange to come onto the bridge and see contemporaries from my past walking on this new, advanced bridge. They won't even let me reprogram their clothing to match everyone else.
End log.
–
“Yellow alert. Captain to the bridge. Yellow alert.”
T'Pela looked up to the speaker she knew was in the ceiling, “This is the Captain, report.”
Tarsi's voice answered, “Captain, a ship just showed up off our port aft quarter. Sensors can't see it, but we look out a window, and it is there. There has been no hail yet, and it is pacing us.”
“I'm on my way.”
Tarsi made her way from her quarters to the nearest turbolift. On the way to the bridge, she pondered over this ship that could be seen with the naked eye, but not with sensors.
The doors opened onto the bridge, and T'Pela stepped out. “Captain on the bridge,” Tarsi spoke up.
“Status?”
“The vessel is still pacing us.”
“On screen.”
The viewscreen showed their port aft quarter, stars streaming by while they were at warp, and there in the middle of the screen was a small ship that appeared to be the size of a very large shuttlecraft; similar in size to that new one she'd seen at space dock, the Delta Flyer.
“Any response to hails?”
A hologram in the form of Nyota Uhura responded, “Nothing yet, Captain.”
“Put me on, please.”
“Hailing frequencies open.”
“Alien vessel, this is Captain T'Pela of the San Antonio, please respond.”
After waiting a few moments, the screen switched to the view of a man. He appeared to be in his thirties, with wavy light brown hair, and a strange goatee, with an upper lip that was mostly shaved, except for the ends. What was most memorable about him was his light grey-blue eyes. They were the eyes of a genius, or a madman.
“I am sorry about taking so long to respond, Captain. Please, rest assured that I pose no threat to you, and in fact, I have come to ask for your help. If you would allow, I would like to beam aboard to discuss a problem we both are going to be facing shortly.”
“I am not in the habit of beaming strangers on-board, mister?” waiting for his name.
“For now, let's call me Doctor.”
T'Pela sat up straighter in her chair, “We will need coordinates for transport, as we cannot scan your vessel.”
“Not a problem, Captain. I am sending the coordinates on a second frequency. I will be ready in 5 minutes. Doctor out.”
T'Pela turned to her second in command, “Tarsi, have the coordinates sent to Transporter Room One. You and I are going to meet this Doctor and see what he wants.”
Tarsi pressed a few keys on her station and stood to join T'Pela in the turbolift, “Is this the Doctor that Captain Chayton told you about?”
T'Pela heard the turbolift start to move, the inertial dampeners working so well, she couldn't feel it. It still amazed her the level of technology that these new ships had, “yes, I would assume so.”
When they arrived in the transporter room, she turned to the operator and said, “Once he is beamed in, erect a level one force field. I want whatever is beamed in contained until we know what we're dealing with.”
The chief nodded, “yes, ma'am.”
As the transport cycle ended, T'Pela was able to take a full look at the man, and a memory from her past came to mind; a record of a threat while she was a cadet that was felt through most of the quadrant. When she had become captain, she has researched the incident, reading Captain Kirk's classified after action report.
“Chief, please leave the room.”
The chief looked at T'Pela, and then made his way out, without a word. Once he had left, T'Pela turned to the man still on the transporter pad, “Lazarus, I presume.”
He nodded and smiled slightly, again that look in his eyes that made one appreciate the nearness of genius and madness, “Captain T'Pela. Yes, I am Lazarus, but not the ones you are thinking of. They are still trapped in the door between dimensions.”
“But if you are not them, then who are you?”
“Captain, please, I pose no threat to you. Would you kindly lower this force field? You can scan me and see I am unarmed and quite safe.”
T'Pela checked the transporter logs, and, as Lazarus had said, there was no sign of any weapons or anything else that could pose a threat to her ship. She lowered the force field and Lazarus stepped down.
“The doors between universes is why I am here, however. Due to this temporal cold war, individuals from alternate timelines have been coming into this one. This has caused a severe imbalance in the cosmological balance and...” Lazarus stopped. He could tell that he had lost the Andorian, and the Vulcan captain was starting to look the same, even through her normal impassive face.
“I am sorry, I sometimes forget that most people don't actually have the experience with temporal mechanics that I do. Let's start from the beginning, I am Lazarus Manheim.”
T'Pela blinked, her mind pulling up the information from her temporal acclimation, “Manheim? As in Doctor Paul Manheim the scientist who was working on the relationship between gravity and time?”
“That is right. In an alternate timeline, he and Jenice had me just as he was succeeding in his work.”
T'Pela raised her eyebrow, “But that is impossible. Our Lazarus existed before Paul Manheim did.”
Lazarus chuckled, “Yes, same in my universe. We're dealing with time travel. As the Prophets say, 'it isn't linear.'”
T'Pela shook her head. “Okay, let's not get sidetracked. What do you want?”
“I need your help to save the multiverse.”
“The multiverse?”
Lazarus smiled, “Every universe. This one, the one you call the mirror universe, the so-called antimatter universe, all of them.”
T'Pela turned to Tarsi, and Tarsi simply shrugged her shoulders. T'Pela returned her attention to Lazarus, “Okay, why me?”
Lazarus' smile faded, his face turning serious, and calmly he explained, “In the door between universes is someone waiting for you. It is the antimatter T'Pela. She needs something only you have. With the two of you working together, she has found a way to generate enough power and energy to balance the losses to the other universes. Anti T'Pela has the ability to restore the cosmological balance. She sent me to find you, to ask for your help.”
“There really isn't a choice here, is there?”
Lazarus looked sad for a small moment, “There is always a choice. You can decide not to help, in which case we may or may not be able to restore the balance to the multiverse. Or you can decide to help, which should work, but is a risk to you and the other T'Pela.”
Tarsi spoke up, “Should work?”
T'Pela spoke up, “There are no guarantees, are there Doctor?”
“None at all. Shall we go?”
T'Pela turned to Tarsi, gently gripped her shoulder and smiled the small smile she reserved for her, “We'll be back,” and stepped up to the transporter pad with Lazarus, “Stand by to energize.”
As Tarsi moved to the transporter controls, Lazarus spoke up, “No need,” He pressed a button on his sleeve, and both him and T'Pela were transported onto his ship.
Even though the vessel appeared to be the size of a large shuttlecraft on the outside, the inside appeared much larger. “Holographic interior?” T'Pela asked.
“Not exactly. Something much more complicated. I like to call it a time and relative dimension in space,” the Doctor smiled, “Stand by for dimensional jump.”
The Doctor pressed a few controls, and T'Pela felt the ship jump in a direction she could never explain. It almost felt like moving at a right angle to every direction. Even as she thought it, she knew it wouldn't make sense later.
“Okay, Captain. We are here. I am going to beam you out to meet Anti T'Pela. She will explain what she needs you to do.”
T'Pela nodded and felt herself transported outside. There, leaning over a console was her mirror self. The clothing was different, almost like traditional Vulcan clothing. Anti T'Pela turned, and raised her hand. Instead of the V of the Vulcan salute, the middle two fingers were together, with the first and fourth fingers outstretched, making a W, “Greetings.”
T'Pela raised her eyebrow and saluted her with the traditional V salute, “Greetings, T'Pela.”
Anti T'Pela's lips curled very slightly, “This will get confusing quickly. Call me Ela.”
“Ela, then. The Doctor has brought me,” T'Pela turned as she heard the Doctor's ship leaving.
“It isn't safe for him or anyone else here,” Ela gestured to a set of chairs, “Please, have a seat.”
T'Pela sat down, with Ela sitting across from her, “So, what is it you need me to do, and why do you need me when you have all the multiverse to choose from?”
“I will keep it as simple as I can. I need you because you are my exact quantum opposite. As you know, when matter and antimatter meet in an uncontrolled environment, they are quite destructive. When you have matter that meets its exact quantum opposite, the energy released is much more potent.”
“But if what you say is true, we will be destroyed in the process.”
“That is what this machine is for. It will control the energy released, and will send that energy to wherever it is needed.”
“But why us? Why can't we use ordinary matter? Why the sacrifice of lives?”
Ela nodded, appreciating the questions, “You may find this hard to believe, but there is more to people than mere matter. This device uses all of our energy, including the potential energy caused by time travel. It is all that energy that we will be tapping into.”
T'Pela thought for a moment, “So basically, this is going to kill us both?”
“Yes, but is it such a large price to pay to save all the universes?”
T'Pela meditated for a moment. She remembered her life: the battle of Caleb IV, coming forward in time by way of Daniels, watching her husband die, and the secret depression that troubled her katra, “I suppose not. What do I do?”
“Press your hand to this panel,” and Ela pointed to one of two identical panes on the console, “I will press my hand to the other and the device will activate.”
T'Pela set her hand on the console. Ela did the same and a transporter effect began. It was slow, but painless, and T'Pela could feel her essence dissolving. Part way through, Ela's eyes opened wide in shock, “You aren't full Vulcan?!?”
T'Pela shook her head and suddenly she felt herself carried away, feeling disembodied. She looked down and she found herself floating, surrounded by darkness and stars. It was so beautiful. One point of light grew bigger, and she realized it was a starship heading for her. She felt herself swept up by it, and recognized it as the Eagle. She floated through decks and walls until she found him.
She watched as he slept fitfully. Reaching out, her ethereal hand gently grazing his cheek, she woke him. Chayton's eyes opened, seeing what to him was a vision of utmost beauty. He asked, “Who are you? What are you?”
T'Pela realized that all of her Vulcan control was gone. She felt herself start to weep, and told Chayton everything. Who and what she was, her history, and why he should never fall for her. T'Pela felt her grasp on reality waning, and warned him, “I must go now.”
“No, please, T'Pela. Stay with me, let me help you; save you”
“You cannot. Stay the hero, and know that I did care for you.”
T'Pela felt herself ripped away, back to the corridor between universes. Pain wracked her body, as it reassembled. Suddenly, she found herself thrown out of the corridor.
After several blinding flashes of light, she found herself falling through the air. Guessing she was about 3,000 meters in the air, she had time to realize her fate. She was falling, and she would be dead when she hit the ground. Just in time to realize what planet she was on, she smiled to herself, and fell.
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