“So, when was the first time you encountered this… temporal anomaly?”
“Oh come now, why would I tell someone like you, some Federation officer that?”
“You thought these anomalies were so worrying that you fled the Terran Empire as a whole, putting your symbiote at risk of death. I'd say that's reason enough.”
“Bold of you to assume I was looking to live. I just wanted to get away, and damn everything else.”
“Bullshit. If that were the case, you would've cut life support in your shuttle, that alone used enough energy to slow your flight down. On some level, you wanted people to know what was happening.”
In the sparsely-decorated cell, the Andorian’s antennae twitched in irritation. “Fine. One question, though. How are we even talking? You and I both know that I died on that shuttle, don't we.”
Outside the cell, the Trill raised an eyebrow, her expression slightly baffled. “Do your Trill not have the zhian’tara ritual?”
“The what ritual?”
“Zhian'tara. It's a ritual of closure where a new host talks with those who carried the symbiote before. I am now the host of that symbiote you once carried. That does answer if you have heard of it, though. Now, what about that temporal anomaly?”
Lieutenant Yanor Blor walked down a hallway in the ISS Enterprise, his pace hurried, his posture crisp and professional as he headed for his duty station.
Approaching the weapons control station where his shift would be, he tapped the controls to open the door, locked as it normally was to keep out unauthorized personnel. As the door hissed open, he walked through.
“Reporting for duty, sir!” As the lieutenant extended his arm straight in front of him in salute, though, it was obvious that something was wrong. Everything seemed to be completely still, the whirring and beeping of his computer banks silent, and his commander silent and completely unreacting to his movements.
Ending the salute, Yanor slowly, carefully walked closer to the constantly angry commander, trying to inspect his face for any sign of what might be going on. Unable to see anything that would serve as a clue in the commander’s unnaturally motionless face, he turned around, facing his console to see if a clue might be gleaned from that.
All of a sudden, pain erupted all over Yanor’s body. “Lieutenant. You forgot to salute me as you entered. You have been through training, you know your duty to show some god damn respect.” As the lieutenant sank to his knees, carefully suppressing any noises he might make, he saw the boots of his commanding officer come into view. For a moment, he stayed in this position, on his knees in front of his commander, before a boot lashed out, knocking him over and out.
For several long moments, there is silence in the brig, neither the Andorian holding Yanor’s mind nor Asli speaking. The latter had already taken to pacing outside of the cell while the story was being told, the sound of her boots on the deck plating all that could be heard. Breaking this silence, she said quietly “You were punished and tortured for something so minor as not saluting in time for your commander’s liking? And given how you described it, that seems routine?”
Yanor chuckled drily, his voice low and resignedly amused as he responded, still sat in his cell. “Well, of course. That’s how you maintain discipline, after all. If you aren’t brutal, you cannot expect to maintain command. And if you cannot maintain command, someone else will kill you and make sure that command is taken. That is simply the way things work.”
The Trill sighed heavily, rubbing her temples in irritation. “It may be the way things work for your Terrans. It is not a universal, or even common way of things. Hierarchy through fear and brutality is not something we will have to face again.”
“Then I hope you’re ready to lose. And to keep losing. Because the Terran brutality, as you call it, is the reason why we have won so often, and it’ll help us keep winning.”
“And yet, one of us is in a cell after dying trying to flee that society, and one of us is not. Like it or not, the brutality hasn’t exactly helped you, has it? That said, it’s all somewhat irrelevant right now. We were talking about these temporal anomalies, and you were about to describe what happened next.”
The next time Yanor Blor noticed time standing still, he was off-duty, eating the standard mid-day ration for a lieutenant. While he was trying to get his meal down as quickly as possible, he noticed with a start that nobody else was moving, once again, all was still and motionless despite the fact that just moments earlier, the mess had been awash with activity. After a few seconds of glancing around, time resumed and everyone returned to the normal motions of military life.
This cycle continued for some time. After the first few anomalies, Yanor took to covertly carrying a small scanner that he could activate the moment time froze, trying to get as much data as possible. One thing that remained consistent, though, was that he was the only person moving and thinking during the freezes, at least so far as he could tell.
Weeks and months went by, and Yanor continued to gather data. While there was no real rhyme or reason to when the anomalies showed up, he could tell that the frequency and length was increasing, both from his carefully kept, even more carefully hidden records, and simply from personal experience. And as the length of the stops increased, so did his confidence and willingness to take risks while time was frozen. He started small, actively using a full-sized tricorder to scan for temporal issues (and also his rivals for promotion, just in case they had some conditions or weaknesses), but eventually came to the level of confidence of walking the halls and engaging in small, quiet sabotage of people who were a threat to him.
“And, is that all, then? You didn’t figure out what caused all this? Why flee if it was all working out so well for you?” The questions came thick and fast from Asli, her tone very noticeably curt and agitated.
“Of course it wasn’t all. What, do you think I’d try and steal a shuttle over things as minor as this? Especially when I can use it to my advantage?“ Yanor stood, gesticulating irritatedly as he spoke. “If you had let me continue, I would’ve told you exactly why I took that flight as soon as I could.”
“And your tangent about how you could sabotage people was relevant, how exactly? You could’ve already explained what was going on if you wanted. But instead, you seem to want to confirm the worst about how the Terrans operate.” Asli stopped in front of the cell, taking several moments to calm down as she spoke.
“It’s context. If I just said I started traversing the ship during the anomalies, you would have asked regardless, wouldn’t you. I figured I’d just get in front of that, make it easier for your debriefing. Now, do you want to hear why I left, or do you want to continue to take my information.”
“Alright. I’m listening. Now, explain.”
The sound of boots on metal deck plating is all that can be heard in the corridor, Lt.Cmdr Yanor once again walking the ship during one of the anomalies. He had gotten yet another promotion, after the chief rival for his new position as head of the weapons control station had mysteriously suffered a sudden illness. Now, though, was time to scope out rivals and know who to eliminate.
Humming to himself lightly, the commander continued walking the halls, trying to decide who his next target, his next victim could be. On the Enterprise, there were always far too many ambitious young officers willing to do whatever it might take to get a promotion, all while trying desperately to stay alive. And any one of them could be a threat to Yanor in their own rights. Or, rather, they could be, if he didn’t remove their threat first.
Going through the list of potential rivals in his head, Yanor made a decision, abruptly turning left at the next junction to walk towards the small research department, passing various motionless officers as he did. Checking his scanner, he made sure the time freeze was still stable as he reached the door to the lab operated by Lt.Jg. Wesley Crusher, hoping to find something useful to gain an advantage over the man, to have leverage.
It took only moments, however, to see that he had made a mistake. As the door hissed open, Yanor could see Crusher turning to face the door, seemingly confused at the movement. Before the Lieutenant could do anything to react, instinct forced Yanor to start running, and run he did, hoping that Crusher didn't get a good view of him. As he ran, the scanner he used as a warning chirped loudly, a sign that time was about to return to normal. It was far before any of his predictions showed that the time freeze ought to end, and it took only a few moments for the reason to become obvious. As his mind raced, his legs aching from exertion, the commander turned down a corridor to reach the shuttles as quickly as possible. Rumors had it that Wesley was ambitious and dangerous, and, in his mind, Yanor firmly decided he didn't want to find out.
“So… Your version of Wesley Crusher has some sort of temporal abilities? That tracks with our own version as well, but if so, it is quite worrying.” Asli sighed heavily, lost in thought about the new revelations.
“Why's that? Do you know what he's like? Or are you just assuming?” the ex-Terran Officer snapped, irritation laced with a noticeable amount of terror and worry as he paced and fidgeted in the cell.
“Quite bluntly, Yanor, if his abilities are the same as our version, then he's a major threat even if he's not as brutal as the average Terran. The powers of a Traveller are not to be underestimated.”
“A Traveller? What exactly is that?”
“Not something for you to know. I do thank you for the information, though. Starfleet will put it to good use, I'm sure. And I'll be sure to, as well.”
