Uninvited Guest

Posted on Mon Sep 23rd, 2024 @ 2:06pm by Lieutenant Commander Caradan Eunidas & Captain Nycolas Temple
Edited on on Mon Sep 23rd, 2024 @ 2:08pm

Mission: The Only Thing Left Was Hope
Location: VER-1 en route to Risa
Timeline: Prior to "Urgent Reunions"

ON:

Nyx wasn't sure when he fell asleep; he had sought the comfort of the armchairs near the front of the cabin and settled down, wanting to take a break from his research and subspace calls to the crew. He had felt his eyes drooping and his head starting to lean, although his mind was telling him there was no time for naps. Then, he dreamed of Lucis, of the Pandora, of his family, of the Expanse. Good dreams, and bad, reliving memories and having conversation he'd never had in reality.

The shrieking klaxon of the Red Alert woke him up immediately, the loud alarm filling the cabin as the lights dipped into their emergency red tone. Nyx startled awake and stood up urgently.

"What is it?" He called out, looking to see where Lieutenant Caradan was, before opening the door to the cockpit.

On the helm, Ensign Burleigh replied, "We've picked up another craft ahead of us. It's on an intercept course with shields raised, sir."

Caradan's uniform laid neatly on the floor in the far corner. It was not folded at all but appeared as though the wearer had simply lied down and then vanished, leaving the uniform behind. Socks were still inside the boots which were lying on their sides. The socks stretched up into the pant leggings. Her belt was still fastened and the undershirt was still residing inside the uniform top. Even her al-amira lied there sticking out from the uniform top. The wearer had simply vanished or, in Caradan's case, the wearer had leaked out from within. Her regeneration bowl resided just beside her uniform and, at the sounding off of the alarm, the liquid form of her being streamed out of the bowl and up a sleeve, inflating her uniform, filling her socks and boots, streaming into her gloves, spilling out the top of her uniform and filling her al-amira. She opened her eyes and looked up as the final bit of her being left her regeneration bowl and flowed into her uniform. She sat up and adjusted her uniform and al-amira as she stood. Caradan intertwined her fingers to ensure her gloves fit snuggly and all the way down to her plicae interdigitalis.

She started toward the cockpit. "Intercept course with shields raised," she repeated. "Don't need a universal translator to know they are already on edge," she said to the piloting crew. "Do not answer any hails yet. How far out did they appear? The limits of our sensor range or did they appear suddenly and close to us?"

"Suddenly," The Ensign replied, "There was nothing on long-range scans and then... they were just there. Five lightyears and closing."

"Anything identifying?" Nyx asked as he peered at the tactical screen, already seeing the answer. "Nothing."

"Four light years." Helm commented, counting down the distance.

"Quickly," Caradan spoke up to the piloting crew, "verbally tell the computer to perform a 'Wide Spread D.A.O. Scan' Don't ask. Just do it. The computer will return with an answer of either 0 or 1. Do let me know what it says." She turned to her captain and motioned that she needed to speak with him alone with the time they had before these uninvited guests arrived. "And also scan for any residual thelon radiation. Not theleron, but thelon." She closed the door sealing her and Nyx off from the cockpit

"What do you think it is?" Nyx asked as soon as the door closed, "Or who?"

Caradan did not realize she had started pacing. She was not fidgeting with her hands or her gloves at least. "Ship appearing suddenly out of nowhere," she said to herself, "could only mean one thing." She spun to Nyx. "The arriving ship could have an experimental drive that grants access to the lowest level of subspace, a subatomic level where time does not exist. They are calling it the Time Vacuum or TV. You see, all travel is based on time; light-YEAR, miles-per-HOUR. You take away time...well then travel can be instantaneous. Other side of the galaxy, next galaxy over," she snapped her fingers. "All you need is an accurate set of coordinates so you don't find yourself inside a star." She went back to pacing. "This experimental drive runs on a particle accelerator filled with...omega particles. Though you may not be familiar with the Omega Directive, your command codes will grant you access to all the related files. The D.A.O. scan is simply a way for the computer to scan for Omega without triggering the Omega Directive. There is no time to get into the specifics...or how I know all this...but...only four ships with this drive are known to exist. Three are in the hands of Section 31. The other ship, we they do not know."

There was a hint of recognition from the Captain but he buried it quickly with a scowl, "I want no part of whatever 31 intends for us. If it is indeed them. But I don't believe in coincidences. Someone wants our attention."

"Seems they got it." A light flashed outside the view port as a ship flashed out of subspace. "Or about to get it," she said. "If that ship is flat and circular, maybe three decks tall, then it definitely has an Omega Particle Accelerator Drive. As for dealing with Section 31," Caradan shrugged. She had dealings only with her S31 handler, a man who called himself Lynch. "...It is all in WHO we are dealing with. Not all of them are governed by self-interests." Although Lynch did have access to a such a ship, the odds that this was him was actually low. Caradan stopped herself from pacing again. She looked at her captain. "Our pilots certainly have the results of that scan I told them to run. By now, there is certainly a hail."

Temple nodded and turned back towards the cockpit doorway. There was a fluttering of the lights in the cabin and the unmistakable feeling of the ship's engines powering down. Where they had once been travelling at warp, the shuttle was now coming to a complete stop. In a matter of moments, VER-1 was now adrift in space.

Caradan noticed the pilots were awash with confusion as they could produce no cause for the ship to drop out of warp, to power down even.

"Subspace dampening field," Caradan said to herself, barely audible. But that did not account for the ship powering down. Something else was afoot. "Captain..."

Nyx remained standing facing away from Caradan, turned towards the doorway. But he was motionless, completely frozen in place. Not blinking, not moving.

"Captain," she said again. Caradan thought to reach forward to tough him but quickly decided against that. Instead, she sent the tricorder she was holding within her being to her mouth, reformed her jaw into her natural liquid state and spat out the tricorder. She caught it and reformed her jaw as it was. "There seems to be some..."

"Forgive the intrusion." Nyx suddenly spoke, eyes and body still frozen in place. His mouth moved robotically as he spoke and his voice was monotone and distant, as if it didn't really come from within the captain. "You are a hard group to track down."

Caradan was already scanning, but was not getting much in the way of information. Her eyes clearly told her something was amiss. She had read up on Captain Temple and had come across the mental block he was equipped with. No telepath could read his mind and no one...should...be able to control him or stop him telepathically. Whatever this was that had paid them this visit, it was powerful. Caradan did not want to give it the impression they would simply lay down arms and surrender. "Flattery will get you nowhere," she said, realizing she was not speaking to her captain. "It is our nature to be hard to track. With me on the crew," she was scanning around for anything else; attempted to scan for any vessel parked outside, "I intend to make it more difficult."

Temple slowly turned around to face Caradan, and she could see that his eyes were pure white. He was facing her now, but those white eyes were devoid of connection. He stared through her, not at her. The haunting tone of his voice gave a strained chuckle. "I expect nothing less. Your diligence will be required in the times ahead. I fear your new crew are in grave danger."

Normally, Caradan would find it uncomfortable being stared at as such, but she was in full Security mode and, for the moment, nothing bothered her. "I take it you are this dark man the others have reported seeing," she said as she placed her tricorder on standby. She was getting nothing from it. Caradan waved away any action from the pilots, silently ordering them to stay put and stand down. "But you have not appeared to me...until now." She could not help to think that she was somehow special in all this, but decided against making any mention of that. "And I have stared grave danger in the eye. My crew," her Tornado crew in fact, "have brought destruction to grave danger," but at a great cost. "Perhaps you can provide some insight into the grave danger you speak of. Tell us where you came from. How you know all this. Your name. You can at least divulge that."

Temple turned briefly to look back towards the cockpit, as if he was only now aware of the pilot's close presence. The door to the cockpit closed shut again, leaving just Caradan and the possessed Temple alone together. He turned back to the Lieutenant with that expressionless stare.

"Mystery man?" Temple echoed, head tilting slightly to the side. "Then you are aware of the interloper... I may be already too late." Nyx shifted slightly, he swayed in his stance and gave out a groan, closing his eyes shut with a pained expression. It was as if he was regaining control of his body for a moment. But then he quickly snapped back to his frozen, stiff form again. His eyes opened, and they were still white. "I know you will not trust my words on face value, but there is information I cannot divulge without jeopardizing the neutrality I pledged my life to uphold."

"Convenient," Caradan interjected.

"I am not the mystery visitor. My name is meaningless to you, but you can call me a Watcher. My role is to observe and to learn and to ensure a natural order of events. For anyone to know too much about the path ahead could drastically alter your responses and your choices because of that knowledge, potentially causing you to act in a way you would not otherwise normally act. Butterflies and hurricanes. Please, it is vitally important you do not tell anyone of my visit here. Not even to the captain, or your- ...or anyone else."

'A slip,' Caradan recognized. Whatever this Watcher was, he almost slipped up in his dialogue. He caught himself and Caradan was certain he would not make that mistake again. It would be an insult to his intelligence to try and trip him up. Besides, Caradan was wondering who he had in mind when his words slipped. Who was he about to reveal? And Caradan felt again that she was somehow special in all this, which made her scoff. 'Another reason among the many for why I can never go back to the Great Link. This guy speaks of butterflies and hurricanes, but does he know of salt and wounds.'

"Well that is great," she said. "I take it Captain Temple will have no recollection of this conversation. You might even neuralize the pilots too."

'But not me? What am I in all this? Am I some form of wild card? Unexpected?' She was a Changeling. Despite having a neural block, this Watcher was able to take control of Temple. But a Changeling...no biological brain. A possible dark void to anyone telepathic. Simple liquid state biology but overly complex all the same. Perhaps invisible if these Watchers had any form of prescience.

"So I cannot tell anyone of this. Spoiler alert but Changelings do not have the trust of everyone, especially Starfleet. If anyone feels something strange is going on and they look to me and I say 'I don't know'..." and Caradan let those words trail off knowing she would just have to improvise when the time came. "And this Mystery Man? These intrusive visits...?"

"I am aware there has been an intrusion in the crew's lives from this visitor." The Watcher continued, "He is getting himself involved in your journey, appearing in person, providing instructions. And he is using advanced technology to evade detection that I cannot fathom."

Caradan could wager a fathom, but she spoke not and listened on.

Watcher Temple continued, "He may be another Watcher, I don't know yet. I believe, however, that our role is purely to watch and to protect, and only step in when necessary. I feel that he is going beyond a helpful nudge in the right direction. Too much involvement and he risks pulling apart the fragile tapestry of events, whatever they may be. Just one choice made with knowledge that you should not have could cause devastation beyond our control. If this man is an enemy, he could be leading the Pandora away from her true path and into something else entirely."

"Ok, so..." to recap, "You are talking to me, telling me things that I can tell no one else. Informing me that we may be dealing with another of these Watchers who may be trying to unravel the fragile tapestry of events. But, do you have any good news? Something that can help me, or us, to make sure we stay on the right and natural ordered path? As far as I know, our mystery man could be the one trying to maintain order and you may be the one trying to unravel things."

Better yet, Caradan wondered why the Mystery Man showed himself to everyone else and White-Eyed Watcher showed himself only to her.

Temple nodded, "You are right, I do not know the role that the mystery man plays just yet. I am not telling you to ignore or defy him. But I am wary of his influence." There was a slight turn, a consideration of the next thought. A choice was made to speak honestly to Caradan, whether she believed them or not, "I vowed not to involve myself because I believe we should make our own choices. We must help ourselves. We should know the choices without someone else telling us what the answer is. Otherwise, what is the point of our existence if we are but pieces on a board to be moved around?" A shrug, "But I have also made a choice to seek you out and have this conversation. I did so for two reasons."

Caradan was listening.

"First, because the visitor did not seek you out personally, correct?" The voice inside Temple asked.

Caradan nodded.

"Have you wondered why that might be? My current theory is he did not know of your involvement as yet. If that's true, why not? What information is he using? Why did he make this decision to involve himself in the rest of the crew?" The Watcher made Temple's face frown, "That felt a significant enough first reason to come see you for myself, so that I could perhaps understand why he hadn't visited you before Risa, what information he had given the others, and to know where you fit in the natural order."

"This Mystery Man obviously has access to Starfleet records if he knows who was on board the Pandora last. If he has access to records, he may have access to logs, past information. From a security standpoint, that is what I would do. Dig into the past. Maybe that can help predict the future." Caradan thought shortly. "But, according to my information, Mystery Man showed himself also to Mindo, who has since left Starfleet. Why ask him to return to the Pandora. I know Mindo. We were..." and she felt a bit awkward admitting to this aloud to White-Eyed Watcher, "...we were lovers. And when Mindo sets his mind on something, he stays with it. If he has left Starfleet, he has built another life, another love that he will not leave."

Caradan shrugged. "So why visit Mindo?" Unless. "Unless...if Mystery Man does know of my involvement and has dug into Mindo's past. He would know that we were lovers and maybe expect my presence to lure Mindo in. But, then again, he might have access to logs. I am sure both my and Mindo's logs reflect our final words to each other. Mindo said he did not want to see me again. Besides, my assignment to the Pandora was sudden and out of the blue. And..." Caradan quickly reached for her PADD and brought it back from standby. She swiped and pulled up her orders. "My orders, in fact, are not an assignment to the Pandora. I am actually assigned to Captain Nicholas Temple. Again, this order is only days old. Miles O'Brien helped me get this."

She was shaking her head speaking as though aloud to herself. "There is no way, Mystery Man could have known I would be involved." She paced. Caradan did not fiddle with her hands. She was not concerned with those white eyes ever focused on her. She was in Security mode. Again, nothing bothered her. "I...am...a wild card, a dark void gravity well that suddenly appears and pulls everything off his course. Once Mystery Man figures this out, he will attempt at all costs, to set things right in his mind. And if he is going to pull strings one way, mine even," She turned back to White-Eye Watcher and spoke directly to him, "then I need you to help me pull in the other direction. I do not need answers. I do not need to know my future or whatever it is you know. Just...provide some guidance, a nudge in whatever direction is right. If he has access to records, you have access to records. Regarding my records, you can get a jumpstart on him. And you will know that...that I do not trust easily these days. But I have decided that I am going to trust you until I see reason otherwise. If Mystery Man shows himself to me, I will play along until he goes away, only to do the opposite."

The Watcher stood perfectly still as Caradan explained and paced around until she had finally drawn a conclusion. The Watcher had drawn their own conclusion too and produced a smile on the Captain's face. "I have the answer I came to seek. I do believe if time and circumstance has pulled you and Mindo apart and prevented your reunion from happening until now, if the Mystery Man has not attempted to intervene with the reunion - to encourage or dissuade - then this is the natural order. You are not a dark gravity void pulling anything off course - you are exactly where you need to be. But it is up to you, as it always should be, to decide what you say to Mindo. Say what you feel, not what you think you should say. Whatever that might be, it's important enough to the natural order that you have been given an opportunity to say it now."

"What I feel is nothing," she said immediately. "Anyone who has reviewed my records will draw that same conclusion. All I am left with is my own choice and I will not let anyone draw me in whatever direction I feel is wrong. Not Mindo, not this Mystery Man, not you, not anyone." Caradan felt this was the logical end to what White-Eyed Watcher was searching for. Before he could simply vanish as fast as he had shown up, she spoke up with "Before you go, can I ask you something? It is about my past and does not include you telling me what choice I should make, so I think you would have no problem with this one."

"I will try." The Watcher merely replied.

Caradan second-guessed herself and what she was about to ask White-Eyed Watcher, but decided this was her choice and to be out with it. "When I was held as a POW, I was harshly treated. Beaten repeatedly, tortured all physically, mentally, and emotionally. I ask you now, was all that part of your fragile fabric of naturally ordered events?" Caradan was not sure what to expect, him to answer in the negative, or positive, or give some hope that a brighter future was ahead, or even for him to withhold answering and simply to vanish away. Whatever his answer, Caradan already knew it did not really matter at all.

If the link between the Watcher and Temple was total telepathic control, then the flinch that Temple made at Caradan's question didn't come from the body - it came from the host. Temple's mouth opened to speak then closed again, a look of consternation crossing over those white eyes. The Watcher considered ending the link there, but they felt it was their duty to answer.

"I would hope not." Was the reply, "If I had been surveying you at the time, that is a rare moment in which I would have intervened. No one should have to endure... that. I am sorry that happened to you, Caradan. However, I can only assume that your survival was guaranteed. There is no solace but our continued existence."

'Survival,' Caradan thought as the looked at her gloved hands, felt the al-amira encompassing her head, felt clothing all over her and engulfing all but her face. Caradan called to mind the list of phobias Dr. Lauda had diagnosed her with. 'Survival,' she thought again while also pondering if this was survival at all.

She looked back at White-Eyed Watcher, understanding that was the best possibly answer she could ask for. Despite its utter lack of comfort, the answer was far better than anything else. Caradan nodded her understanding. "Do us, and yourself, a favor...and keep watching. You may not be able to influence but we will put on quite a show."

"I fear until we know the truth about our visitor, I will have to remain very close. Remember, you must not tell anyone of my presence, the choices to come must be your own." The Watcher said, "Which brings me to the second reason I made this visit. I had to judge the potential consequences, and I have deemed it necessary to tell you..." The white eyes peered into Caradan for the first time, focused and purposeful, "The one who leaves willingly may be returned, but the one who leaves without a choice must be allowed to go."

'Riddles,' Caradan though with an equally thoughtful scoff. Riddles on top of not being able to ask anyone for help. Great. Caradan said nothing but only acknowledged those words with a nod.

With that, the white in Nyx's eyes faded and he stood there blinking for a moment in confusion. A moment ago, he had been facing the doorway to the cockpit, the mysterious ship on their tail. But now he was turned the other way around facing Caradan, and the shuttle was at a complete stop. It didn't make sense to him.

The Captain looked to Caradan with urgency, "What happened?"

"Subspace disturbance, sir," she said. Caradan pointed to her head. "I keep my tricorder here. Right behind my eyes." And she quickly came up with, "I managed a scan and all I got, I can only surmise, was a temporal and slow moving quantum micro-singularity throwing off subspace disturbances in all directions. These things are seldom but are naturally occurring and are only effective for a short time before passing on or evaporating entirely. I, too, experienced a skip in time." She sought to reassure him with, "nothing to worry about, sir."

"The ship?" Nyx asked, still confused. He felt as if he had been asleep again for a moment, and began to wonder if he had confused a dream for real life. "Did we find out who it was?"

"The singularity was the ship, sir. It read as one, up until it was upon us, that is where my tricorder stopped picking up any semblance of a ship. This is not the first time I have seen this phenomenon. And I will go over my readings more in-depth to make doubly sure. For now, I am sure power has been restored, so we should get back underway to Risa."

OFF