Vadia IX - Timey Wimey

Posted on Mon Mar 16th, 2026 @ 8:59pm by Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Rosa Coy & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Micheal Stevens & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Commander Jennifer Baldric

2,424 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Beholder
Location: Vadia IX
Timeline: Current

ET2

The ERI hummed with a steady, confident tone that Bonnie had never heard from it before. The Möbius current had settled into its path, flowing along the hidden ley line like a river that had finally discovered the shape of its own bed.

On her tricorder display the energy curve no longer spiked or wavered. It flowed forward along the line toward Vadia IX, folded through the Chronoton boundary, and then returned along the same surface, a perfect continuous loop. The two directions existed at once, sliding over each other in layered blue arcs that pulsed gently with each completed cycle.

Bonnie watched the pattern for several seconds, mesmerized by the way the numbers smoothed themselves into harmony. The system felt stable now. The earlier violence of the energy surge had settled into a disciplined circulation that neither climbed nor bled away.

She expanded the scan toward the prison itself and let the tricorder map the Chronoton field wrapped around the structure. The readings resolved into a repeating waveform, one she recognized almost immediately. A cycle was forming inside the bubble, a temporal tide that advanced through the prison and then retreated along the same path once the Möbius current flowed back across it. Bonnie watched two complete passes scroll across the screen before she spoke.

“Commander Baldric,” she called, lifting the tricorder slightly as though presenting evidence to a skeptical jury. “The loop is holding. Energy flow is stable across the ley lines and the Chronoton shell is regulating the return current exactly the way we hoped.”

She adjusted the display and frowned slightly at the time index repeating itself. “The prison interior is caught in a closed temporal cycle,” she continued. “Thirteen minutes forward... then the Chronoton gradient pulls it back along the same path when the energy passes over again. The Möbius current basically… washes the whole structure through the same stretch of time over and over.”

Bonnie hesitated, glancing again at the life sign markers trapped inside the display. “Captain Kaylen and Captain Batel are both present within the loop, along with Commander House and Lieutenant Junior Grade Rowan Hale. Their shielded position inside the chamber is keeping them stable through the cycle.” Her voice softened slightly as she pointed at a blinking marker that appeared and disappeared with each reset of the timeline. “There’s also a security officer caught outside of that protection. The readings show the Vezda reach him near the end of each forward cycle, and then the loop rewinds.”

She lowered the tricorder a little, still watching the repeating pattern trace itself again across the screen. “So… every thirteen minutes it all happens again.”

"So he's gonna die every thirteen minutes? Holy geez' Jennifer rubbed her face with her hands. "That's beyond terrible" she was thankful for the majority of the team being safe though.

Thinking for a moment, Bonnie contemplated an idea. "I mean, we could try and transport him out just before he gets unalived, but we have no idea what would happen to the time loop if we remove that element from the mix. Who knows if his action stopped one of the others from, you know... dying."

"That's one hell of a 'what if'" Baldric mused, realising that Bonnie was right. If they remove one element, the entire thing could collapse.

"Soooo if he's outside the bubble and unalive...how do we get the alive away team out of the bubble and back to the ship? Cos from what I've heard this bubble was created by Captain Batel" Jennifer rubbed her eyes as her brain started to hurt.

Bonnie stepped closer to the prison, tricorder in hand, as if being closer would better the scan field resolution. "I can't get a clear reading on the bubble within the bubble. Batel's bubble." She clarified. "But if they created it, my guess is they can 'pop' it?" She could see the confused look on Commander Baldric's face.

"So, temporal mechanics aside for a moment, if they can move the bubble outside the prison and then lower it, they'll be outside of the temporal loop. If not, we can try a transport lock. Worst thing that would happen is we'd end up with a few more Thomas Rikers running around." She finished, laying it out in layman's terms.

"So first we need to communicate this to them, whilst they're in the bubble" Jennifer thought it through, aware that the other team probably had no idea as the situation was very fluidly evolving.


Vadia IX - Prison

Time wound backwards, the Vezda rewinding back into their well, the containment field raising and the concrete pedestal remaking itself. The away team however were somewhere else, a construct created between Batel and Dean's minds for fear this whole shebang wasn't going to work.


USS Sunfire - Bridge

Jacob reentered the Bridge, a fresh smile on his face and a spring in his step both of which were seemingly authentic. "Counselor T'Lar, shall we go welcome our guests? Ensign Gonzalez, you have the Conn. Notify us of any changes and we will be right back here before you can say the Quadratic formula in Klingon."

"Uh, me? Are you sure Lieutenant?" Came the shaky reply from his junior Operations Officer.

"Yes of course I'm sure. Listen it's easy, planet gets bigger - tell the Helm to increase orbit, planet gets smaller - tell the Helm officer to lower orbit. Anything else, just page us and we'll take it from there at least until the Command Staff gets back." Jacob answered with a warm, and reassuring smile.

"Aye Lieutenant, I have the conn."

"Good. Counselor, if you would?" He said gesturing to the turbolift as they began to stride towards. As the doors slid closed and they began to move Jacob let out a slow sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You know T'Lar, I don't know how the Command Staff does this all day everyday." Jacob said genuinely.

"I find that surprising given your performance, Lieutenant. I think you have a great aptitude for command based upon what I saw today," T'Lar countered as she began rubbing the tension out of the back of her neck with both hands, subtly exposing her Vulcan ears in the process.

"I... on the other hand, felt completely out of my depth and very nearly became ill in front of the entire crew..." Turning her head side to side she cracked her neck loudly; giving an audible sigh of relief as the turbolift descended to deck 17 and the ship's security department.

Jacob leaned against the wall of the turbolift. "Well, I didn't notice if that helps at all. I thought you were very composed." He flipped through reports streaming into his PaDD. "We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful about who we pretend to be." Jacob said, looking up with a smirk.

Ponfo Mirran thought T'Lar, her outward affect impassive as she gently bit the inside of her lower lip. Was he...? No. She was imagining things, she concluded, if for no other reason than the alternative both intrigued and terrified her.

"Someday, this may all become second nature." He continued gesturing vaguely up towards the retreating Bridge and Deck 1. "It isn't yet, and that's probably okay, the Commanders and Captain had to start somewhere too." Jacob straightened up quickly realizing that something slipped his mind. "I think we need to notify whoever is on duty in Sickbay that we have prisoners that may require medical attention. Maybe we can have them meet us there?"

"Ahem... Yes. I concur. Let's see..." she consulted her PADD, " Doctor Voight is on duty."

T'Lar tapped her combadge, "T'Lar to sickbay, we have prisoners in the brig who may require medical attention. Can you meet us there?"

"I will meet you there," Olivia replied. Olivia grabbed one of the medical kits that were kept on hand for away missions and headed towards the brig to check up on the prisoners there.


ET1

Jenna lowered her tricorder and looked out across the valley where the ley line glowed faintly in the distance, its furious charge now a distant retreat toward Vadia IX. For a long moment she said nothing. The victory felt strangely hollow in the stillness that followed.

“Gateway’s gone,” she murmured at last, more to the horizon than anyone beside her. Her eyes drifted toward the small settlement far below, clusters of structures scattered against the slopes like pebbles against the earth. “For them... the gateway wasn’t just a piece of alien machinery. It was connection to their Gods.” She folded her arms slowly, the weight of command settling across her shoulders. “We didn’t just close a door, we sealed a lifeline they've worships for a millenia.”

Leo had been studying the stabilized readings when he followed her gaze down the ridge. His expression softened a notch as the practical consequences lined themselves up in his mind like items on a damage report. “Aye,” he said quietly. “Portals like that become arteries after a while. You shut one down and the whole body feels it.” He closed his tricorder with a thoughtful snap, tusked grin replaced with something more sober. “Good news is, Commander, Starfleet’s fairly decent at first aid for civilizations we accidentally inconvenience.”

Jenna glanced back at him, one brow lifting.

Leo jerked his head toward the equipment crates and the team nearby. “We’ve got field medkits, replicators in the survival packs, and about twenty engineers who hate standing around with nothing to fix.” He gave a small shrug. “While we wait for our ride, we could send a team down the way. See what they’re short on. Food stocks, medical supplies... maybe a few temporary comm relays if their off-world contacts just got cut off.”

Jenna considered the valley again, then nodded once, the kind of decisive nod that quietly sets a plan into motion. “Do it,” she said. “Organize a relief detail. Basic medical support, replicator rations, whatever comm gear we can spare.” She paused, watching a faint column of smoke drift from one of the distant structures. “If we’re the ones who changed their world today... the least we can do is help them get through tomorrow.”

Leo’s crooked grin returned, gentler this time as he started gathering equipment. “Now that,” he said, slinging a med case over his shoulder, “sounds like proper Starfleet work.”


Wing Command - Red Squadron

Rosa keyed the squadron channel. “Red Squadron, we’re not finished yet. Run a sweep of the debris field. Any fragments still venting plasma or holding a live power core get cooled down immediately. Use your phasers on low yield. We’re putting this fire out before it spreads.”

“Red Two copies,” came the quick reply. “Beginning grid sweep.”

The Peregrine fighters fanned out across the engagement zone, their sensors probing each drifting piece of wreckage while short bursts of phaser fire flashed here and there. One ruptured conduit flared briefly before Red Three stitched it with controlled energy, the glowing fragment cooling rapidly as the reaction died.

Another pass caught a cracked fuel tank spinning slowly through space. Red Four vaporized the remaining gas in a brief flash of light that faded just as quickly. Within minutes the debris field grew quiet.

The atmosphere had done what atmospheres do. Friction had turned falling metal into fire. A few debris trails had survived the burn and reached the surface, scattering across a wide stretch of wilderness. The carrier’s sensors painted several small thermal blooms on the night side of the planet where fragments had ignited brush and dry growth.

Rosa keyed the squadron channel. “Red Squadron,” she said, calm and precise. “We’ve got debris impacts on the surface. Local vegetation fires. Nothing catastrophic, but we’re not leaving a mess behind.”

Acknowledgements came back immediately. “Red Two copies. Red Four reading the thermal markers.”

“Good,” Rosa continued. “We’ll make quick work of it. Drop into the upper atmosphere and run suppression passes. Phaser output to wide dispersal, low yield. Think rainstorm, not lightning strike.”

The Peregrines peeled away from their holding pattern and dipped toward the blue curve of the planet. The upper atmosphere shimmered across Rosa’s canopy as her fighter slipped through the thin edge of it, the thermal markers growing brighter on her display.

The first fire burned in a narrow valley where a fragment had carved a glowing scar through a line of trees. Rosa rolled her fighter into position and fired a controlled phaser sweep. The beam spread into a wide cooling wash that flashed across the flames, instantly stripping away the heat feeding the blaze. The fire guttered, flickered, and died.

Red Three handled the second impact zone with equal efficiency, venting a brief burst from the fighter’s reaction thrusters to scatter burning debris before sealing the last sparks with another cooling sweep.

Within minutes the thermal markers faded from orange to harmless blue. Rosa climbed back toward orbit as the planet’s curve fell away beneath her.

“All fires extinguished,” Red Two reported.

“Copy that,” Rosa replied. “Nice work, everyone.”

She turned her fighter back toward the waiting carrier, the broad hull of the Sunfire shining against the stars.

Rosa watched the last thermal readings settle into harmless darkness before opening the channel one final time. “Alright, that’ll do it,” she said, her voice easing slightly now that the work was finished. “Good flying, everyone. Form up and bring it home.”

Red One curved her fighter toward the carrier’s recovery corridor while the rest of the squadron fell in behind her, their engines glowing softly as they approached the broad hangar mouth of the Sunfire.

Handzon stirred faintly in the back of her thoughts. Smooth.

Rosa allowed herself a small smile. “We’ll call it a good day,” she murmured.

Her voice returned to the squadron channel as the carrier grew larger in the canopy. “After we land, we’ve got a debrief waiting for us. After action report first.” A brief pause followed. “Then drinks.”

Several pilots chuckled over the channel. Rosa’s grin widened slightly as the hangar bay lights welcomed them home. Rosa guided Red One toward the carrier’s open hangar, her voice carrying one last time across the squadron frequency. “First round’s on Me.”

TBC

 

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