05-31-2024, 10:28 PM
Captain’s Log, Stardate 22404.01, Captain Aitrus Colso commanding USS Crusader, recording.
We’ve been tasked with delivering supplies to Marlek IV, a small world on the Cardassian border. It has an abundance of mineral wealth that the Federation is trying to claim, and not much else - including an atmosphere. A team is working to terraform the planet, making it habitable within the next century or so if everything goes according to plan. Most of the supplies are foodstuffs and the like, but also several bits of tech that they need to ply their trade.
At least, that’s our official mission. Unofficially, I’ve also been tasked with investigating a spy that reportedly is on the planet for reasons unknown. They sent a message just hours ago, and since we were already at the nearby starbase, the cargo was transferred from the Mauritania over to the Crusader, and here we are. I hate spy games, but I understand why they wanted us to have the job rather than Captain T’Vis. She’s highly competent, but having looked at her record she’s not particularly imaginative, and also has only been captain for about six months.
Lucky me.
There’s a briefing for the senior staff in thirty minutes, but Lieutenant Korinas, my chief medical officer, has requested an urgent meeting. It's not like her to do that, and while I’ve had unavoidable business to take care of since we departed I called her up to speak before the briefing. She should be arriving shortly.
Lieutenant Baz Korinas walked into the conference room, flung herself into a chair, and said “What is it going to take for me to convince you that we’re in a time loop?”
Aitrus sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. He’d expected a request for leave, or maybe a training session she wanted to attend. At worst, a transfer request - her career appeared to have been hitting a lull and he could understand if she had wanted to try and go elsewhere to rejuvenate it. This…
“Um,” Aitrus said eloquently. “What type of time loop?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s approximately five days long; I always wake up with us still at the starbase to find out our orders have changed, sending us to Marlek IV.” Aitrus nodded; that was already public knowledge since they were underway. “You give us a briefing that we’re actually looking for a spy, and things go on from there.”
This, however, she shouldn’t have known. Even Silran didn’t know that yet; he was waiting to brief everyone at once. It was necessarily proof, but it did give her claim an air of truth, at least. He hadn’t studied temporal loops in a while, but it wasn’t too far outside his area of expertise.
In the literature, the type of effect she was describing was usually called a ‘Groundhog Day Loop’. Aitrus had no clue why; when he’d tried to look into it, the oldest references had footnotes to papers that no longer existed, and ‘Groundhog Day’ seemed to be some kind of festival around an extinct ground mammal in the American Northeast. It didn’t make any sense. He did have to admit, though, that it was easier to say than ‘Macro-Quantum Localized Temporal Superposition Loop’.
“So,” he continued when he realized that he’d lapsed into silence for longer than he’d intended, “you say it's five days long and that we’re in day 1. Are you the only person who remembers the loop?”
Baz sighed exhaustedly, with her arms crossed on the table and a hand on the back of her bald, blue head. “So far, this is the fifth loop I’ve been in. The first time it reset, I thought I just had the weirdest sense of deja vu, but then it kept happening. And no, I’m not the only one.
“The spy also remembers each loop,” she explained, “and she’s been through a few more of them than I have.”
Aitrus’ mouth moved wordlessly, still trying to come to grips with her claims - and so far they were still just claims. He didn’t rule out the possibility that this was all just some elaborate prank that the senior staff decided to play on him, though if so it was incredibly elaborate. “Who is the spy?” he asked.
“A Cardassian woman, named Geshen Emur,” Baz replied as she sat up, though she kept her arms leaning on the tabletop. “She’s currently on the planet posing as a Bolian software engineer, though she’s kind of given up the pretense these past couple of loops.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Aitrus said softly. “After all, what point in hiding your identity if its already known?”
“Exactly,” Baz said with the ghost of a smile. “At this point, she just wants out of the loop, and she needs our help to do it. She doesn’t have the expertise or the resources to escape on her own.”
Aitrus contemplated for a moment. “So, she sends out a message - presumably at first to try and get her people to help, but since we’re the closest she’s agreed to work with us?” Baz nodded, rubbing her hands together a bit in a more familiar piece of body language from the normally very closed medical officer. “But presumably, we’ve been available the past few loops,” he continued; “and yet the loop persists?”
Baz nodded. “This is true,” she said. “Geshen has a very… strict and ingrained sense of what she should do. She’s worked with us, and Samantha felt like we were close each time when Geshen sabotaged the work and tried to escape on her own. She knew that we’d arrest her, and thought she could somehow make it work.”
“Then what makes you think she’ll work with us this time?” Aitrus asked.
Baz just grinned. “Because this time, I don’t plan to give her a choice.”
==TBC==
We’ve been tasked with delivering supplies to Marlek IV, a small world on the Cardassian border. It has an abundance of mineral wealth that the Federation is trying to claim, and not much else - including an atmosphere. A team is working to terraform the planet, making it habitable within the next century or so if everything goes according to plan. Most of the supplies are foodstuffs and the like, but also several bits of tech that they need to ply their trade.
At least, that’s our official mission. Unofficially, I’ve also been tasked with investigating a spy that reportedly is on the planet for reasons unknown. They sent a message just hours ago, and since we were already at the nearby starbase, the cargo was transferred from the Mauritania over to the Crusader, and here we are. I hate spy games, but I understand why they wanted us to have the job rather than Captain T’Vis. She’s highly competent, but having looked at her record she’s not particularly imaginative, and also has only been captain for about six months.
Lucky me.
There’s a briefing for the senior staff in thirty minutes, but Lieutenant Korinas, my chief medical officer, has requested an urgent meeting. It's not like her to do that, and while I’ve had unavoidable business to take care of since we departed I called her up to speak before the briefing. She should be arriving shortly.
Lieutenant Baz Korinas walked into the conference room, flung herself into a chair, and said “What is it going to take for me to convince you that we’re in a time loop?”
Aitrus sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. He’d expected a request for leave, or maybe a training session she wanted to attend. At worst, a transfer request - her career appeared to have been hitting a lull and he could understand if she had wanted to try and go elsewhere to rejuvenate it. This…
“Um,” Aitrus said eloquently. “What type of time loop?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s approximately five days long; I always wake up with us still at the starbase to find out our orders have changed, sending us to Marlek IV.” Aitrus nodded; that was already public knowledge since they were underway. “You give us a briefing that we’re actually looking for a spy, and things go on from there.”
This, however, she shouldn’t have known. Even Silran didn’t know that yet; he was waiting to brief everyone at once. It was necessarily proof, but it did give her claim an air of truth, at least. He hadn’t studied temporal loops in a while, but it wasn’t too far outside his area of expertise.
In the literature, the type of effect she was describing was usually called a ‘Groundhog Day Loop’. Aitrus had no clue why; when he’d tried to look into it, the oldest references had footnotes to papers that no longer existed, and ‘Groundhog Day’ seemed to be some kind of festival around an extinct ground mammal in the American Northeast. It didn’t make any sense. He did have to admit, though, that it was easier to say than ‘Macro-Quantum Localized Temporal Superposition Loop’.
“So,” he continued when he realized that he’d lapsed into silence for longer than he’d intended, “you say it's five days long and that we’re in day 1. Are you the only person who remembers the loop?”
Baz sighed exhaustedly, with her arms crossed on the table and a hand on the back of her bald, blue head. “So far, this is the fifth loop I’ve been in. The first time it reset, I thought I just had the weirdest sense of deja vu, but then it kept happening. And no, I’m not the only one.
“The spy also remembers each loop,” she explained, “and she’s been through a few more of them than I have.”
Aitrus’ mouth moved wordlessly, still trying to come to grips with her claims - and so far they were still just claims. He didn’t rule out the possibility that this was all just some elaborate prank that the senior staff decided to play on him, though if so it was incredibly elaborate. “Who is the spy?” he asked.
“A Cardassian woman, named Geshen Emur,” Baz replied as she sat up, though she kept her arms leaning on the tabletop. “She’s currently on the planet posing as a Bolian software engineer, though she’s kind of given up the pretense these past couple of loops.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Aitrus said softly. “After all, what point in hiding your identity if its already known?”
“Exactly,” Baz said with the ghost of a smile. “At this point, she just wants out of the loop, and she needs our help to do it. She doesn’t have the expertise or the resources to escape on her own.”
Aitrus contemplated for a moment. “So, she sends out a message - presumably at first to try and get her people to help, but since we’re the closest she’s agreed to work with us?” Baz nodded, rubbing her hands together a bit in a more familiar piece of body language from the normally very closed medical officer. “But presumably, we’ve been available the past few loops,” he continued; “and yet the loop persists?”
Baz nodded. “This is true,” she said. “Geshen has a very… strict and ingrained sense of what she should do. She’s worked with us, and Samantha felt like we were close each time when Geshen sabotaged the work and tried to escape on her own. She knew that we’d arrest her, and thought she could somehow make it work.”
“Then what makes you think she’ll work with us this time?” Aitrus asked.
Baz just grinned. “Because this time, I don’t plan to give her a choice.”
==TBC==