Back in the autumn we had a Short Story Competition. There were unfortunately only a couple entries, but in appreciation for their efforts, we’re publishing their stories so everyone can read them. This is the first of two:
~Linds, CMM

Renewal
by Krys McLean

SS Bonaventure 2155

The elderly Vulcan entered the shuttlebay and headed toward the Archimedes shuttle that sat in the middle of the cavernous area. Two young officers, Ensigns Jenson and Melnyk, stood before the lowered ramp and spoke softly to each other as they waited for him.

Jenson was a good-looking human of Danish origin, blonde and blue eyed, while Melnyk was the antithesis of him standing only 5”6’ tall, burly and dark complected. Both Stovik and Jenson towered over the shorter man.

“Ensigns,” Stovik nodded as he strode toward them, portable medkit in hand, as his Healer’s robes swirled around his legs.” Have all the medical equipment and supplies been loaded?” He queried as he ascended the ramp into the shuttle.

“Aye sir, “Answered Jenson as he and Melnyk followed Stovik up the ramp into the main area of the shuttle. Jenson moved passed Melnyk as he joined Stovik at the pilot controls while Jenson took his seat at the Engineering station.

“Warm up the engines, Ensign Melnyk.” Stovik said as his deft hands played over the console and he opened a channel to the Bonaventure. =^=Bonaventure, this is the Archimedes, ready to disembark=^= His gravelly voice resonated soberly over the comm channel.

=^=Understood Archimedes. Safe journey, we will see you in 72 hours. =^=Came back the prompt response as the Shuttle’s rear door cycled closed. Within a few moments the bay de-pressurized and Ops signalled that the Archimedes was free to launch when ready.

=^=Ready to launch, Ensign? =^= Stovik asked as he glanced at Jenson as the engines warmed up.

=^=Aye sir. All boards green. =^=The younger Ensign answered promptly, his own hands worked his board.

=^= Do so. =^=The silver haired Vulcan said, his craggy features focused on the communication board as the shuttle lifted off and with a purr of engines, exited the bay.

=^=Set course for Triannon. =^=Stovik said as the shuttle hurtled through the Muratas Star Cluster toward their destination.

Triannon

=^=SS Archimedes to Pri’Narn M’Jamat, =^=Stovik commed as they entered the Triannon planetary system. The shuttle was approximately 6.3 light years from the planet, close enough for communication range.

The shuttle was waiting for a response from the planet when suddenly it jerked violently and fell out of warp. Stovik and Jenson were thrown into the forward console as Melnyk crashed, shoulder first, into the back of Jenson’s seat as he was totally thrown out of his Engineering chair. The lights of the shuttle darkened as alarms blared and flashed across the consoles. It sounded like a proximity alert, thought Melnyk briefly before the emergency lighting blinked on.

Stovik pushed himself up, with his hands, away from the console, a contusion on his forehead, that bled profusely down the side of his face. He quickly wiped it away as he barked out.

=^=Report! =^=

Ensign Melnyk pushed himself up off the deck as he rubbed his shoulder and limped back to his seat. “We must have hit one of those distortions around the spheres in this area, sir.” He answered as he slid back into his seat and his hands flew over the console. ”Navigations out. Warp engines and communications are down.” He reported after a few moments.

Stovik stood and moved over to Jenson who still lay draped over his own console, blood pooled onto the controls. As he gently pulled the man back into his seat he saw that the other man was unconscious. The Ensign was obviously knocked out by his contact with the console, he mused. Human skulls were not as tough as Vulcans.
His knowledgeable hand moved to the pulse at the young man’s neck then up to his eyelids which he pulled back. Definitely a concussion, he thought, his medical training coming to the fore. The Ensign’s pupils were unevenly dilated. Could be a hematoma, the Vulcan Healer thought.

“Do what you can to get the systems back up, Ensign.” Stovik said as he bent down near his own seat, looking underneath for his medkit, which had been thrown underneath during the shuttle’s abrupt stop. Pulling it out, he opened it, and retrieved a medical hand scanner. He ran the scanner over Jenson’s head and saw that he had been correct in his diagnosis. The Ensign did have a concussion.
Suddenly the shuttle shuddered and both he and Melnyk felt it begin to move again. As Stovik worked on Jenson, Melnyk frowned. “We must be caught in a tractor beam of some sort. Perhaps a Triannon ship.” He said as he pulled out a toolkit and moved back to the engineering compartment to work on the engines.

“Do we have visual?” Stovik asked.

“No sir. I’ll work on the view screen, engines and communications first.” He said as his head disappeared within the panel he had just opened.” Some conduits have been blown out.” His muffled voice reported. “If I can get main power back online, I can reboot the systems.” He added.

“Excellent.” Stovik answered as he prepared a hypospray and injected its contents into Jenson. Suddenly the shuttle shuddered again and then they were rocked forcibly as they picked up speed. Before coming to another crashing halt.

The emergency lighting suddenly went dark as both Stovik and Melnyk were thrown into the bulkheads again as the inertial dampeners failed.

Somewhere/Some when

Stovik came back to awareness slowly, his eyes opened as a feeling of nausea and dizziness swept over him. He blinked furiously as he realized that he could not see a thing. It was pitch black wherever he was. He raised his arm above his head as he pushed himself slowly up off….it felt like the deck of a ship. Rough carpeting was under his hand and it was cold. Cold like the depths of space. Nothing met his outstretched hand until he moved it around and hit something fabric covered. His fingers traced it and he realized by its shape that it was a seat.

The second thing he realized was that his legs were pinned by something heavy. He would need to shift it to rise. Pulling together his Vulcan biocontrols, he quelled the feeling of vertigo and used his hands to push the weight off his legs. It was fairly heavy ….and felt like a body. His brow furrowed as he attempted to recall where he was and who this might be.

He reached up to grab the seat above and pulled himself to his feet, while he worked his way around by touch to the side before he slid into it. His questing fingers found a console just ahead of him. So he was in a shuttlecraft, he mused to himself. Power must be offline….his hands swept over the board as he attempted to see if he could awaken it to find out which station it was. Nothing happened. Main power was offline, and he was no engineer.

Sliding back out of the seat his hands swept over the floor and around himself as he moved slowly past the downed man and into the main area of the shuttle. He knew that there was an emergency compartment beneath one of the aft benches which held gear such as tricorders and hand beacons. As he made his slow way over to the port side of the shuttle he found what he was looking for and adeptly opened the compartment. In the dark his probing fingers found the hand beacon which he pulled out and activated. He shone it within the compartment and pulled out both a tricorder and medkit. Then he turned and panned the light around the shuttle, saw the body of the officer who he had moved on the deck.

The light showed him the red uniform of a command officer. Probably Ops, he mused to himself. As he moved over to the man he noted the implements of a Federation medkit already strewn on the deck. He traded the tricorder in his hand for the medical tricorder and activated it before he ran it over the officer. He was dead and by the readings it seemed to be from a serious depression on the side of his head as well as a broken neck.

Stovik sighed softly as he ran the tricorder over himself and saw that he too had a concussion, the obvious reason for his nausea, dizziness and headache. He picked up the hypospray from the floor and saw it was filled with a vial of Trianoline. He quickly thumbed the dosage display and injected himself with .4 ccs. He had to assume he had been treating the man at his feet with it when whatever happened, happened. Had they been attacked? His head still ached, and he grimaced as he pressed his fingers to his temple to perform Vulcan neuropressure on himself.

Lowering his hands Stovik blinked rapidly as he shone the palm light around toward the back of the shuttle. Most away teams consisted of at least three crewmembers, was there another here? He spotted a body lying half way out of an open panel near the rear of the shuttle. He pushed himself slowly to his feet and made his way across the deck to run his tricorder over the man.

This crewmember, in the gold of engineering, was dead as well. Apparently from an arc of plasma from the equipment he had been working on. Stovik felt a rush of frustration and disappointment fill him as he realized the only engineer on board was dead. He pushed himself back to his feet and made his way forward and sat in the navigation seat. He put away the tricorder, in the slot on his belt, then ran his hands over the boards but they remained as dead as before. The shuttle felt colder as well, obviously main power had been off for an extended amount of time. Which would mean, logically, that the oxygen in the shuttle would be low. So, he had to find a way to get main power online and send out a distress call.

He was about to rise when he noticed something that he had missed before. His hands…they were not the hands of an older Vulcan, but as smooth as they had been when he was much younger. He frowned as pulled out his tricorder and ran it over himself. He knew he had been nearing his second century, there was no way he could have such young hands.

Indeed the tricorder told him he was a Vulcan in his early twenties. He blinked in confusion, his mind trying to make logical sense of this transformation. While he had no memory of what he and the other two crewmembers were doing in the shuttle, or where they were going, he did remember who he was and his past service on the Bonaventure.

He pondered this for a moment as a chiming sound filled the cabin and he found himself dematerializing, the shuttle faded from his sight. When he rematerialized he found himself on a transporter pad but not of a design from his era. It was of Starfleet design but much more futuristic then the technology from the Bonaventure. He looked up and saw a Starfleet Lieutenant standing at the transporter console. His uniform too was not of the same design of those aboard the Bonaventure.

“Welcome aboard, uh sir.” The officer said obviously not sure how to address Stovik as he stood in the blood-stained white robes of a Vulcan Healer.

“Where and when am I?” Stovik asked abruptly as he stepped down off the pad and his heartrate and respiration picked up in the alarm at this new development. He paused and took the time to use his biocontrols to slow down his breathing and heart rate to Vulcan norms. He had to keep his mind clear to handle whatever he found here.

“When sir?” The man asked confused as the doors to the transporter room whooshed open and a man entered, wearing a Captain’s uniform though like the Lieutenant’s obviously not of the Bonaventure era.

“It is 2387 and I am Captain Brand of the USS Columbus. We just rescued you from your ship.” He said in greeting as he stopped before Stovik. “Are you injured? You appear to have been bleeding.”

“I had a concussion which I have treated, it only needs to be healed.” Stovik said distractedly as he tried to figure out how he had gotten here. “Where in space are we? And how would I have arrived here?”

“That was my question,” The Captain responded. “Come, we can speak as we go to sickbay.” The two exited the transporter room and headed for the turbolift. As they walked the Captain spoke.

“We are currently in Fleet 4, smack dab between Klingon and Romulan space, near Crell. By the way, who exactly are you?” The Captain asked as he led Stovik into the turbolift. He ordered the lift to Sickbay before he turned back to Stovik and eyed him curiously.

“I am Healer Stovik of Vulcan and was stationed on the SS Bonaventure.” Stovik answered as his mind whirled as he tried to figure out how he could have gotten here. Did it have something to do with the spheres?

“How did you get here? My crew tells me that your ship is at least 200 years old. I know Vulcans are a long-lived race but you, Healer, do not look 200 years old.” The Captain asked as he noted the unusual designation of Stovik’s ship. The Federation hadn’t used the SS designation since before the Federation was founded.

“It was 2155 Federation time when I entered my shuttlecraft from the SS Bonaventure. I am not sure how much I should say, sir, given the fact that I appear to have been moved from both time and space. I do not wish to affect this time line.” Stovik said as he stood, hands folded in front of him as he watched the Deck indicator.

“I think you have already contaminated our time line with our seeing you and your ship, but you should be safe if you just stick to the facts. How did you get here?” Brand asked again.

“I do not know. I and two other crewmembers were approaching the planet Triannon when suddenly we were thrown out of warp and lost all our systems. We attempted to reboot the systems when the ship appeared to be grabbed by a Triannon tractor beam.” The lift doors opened, and Brand stepped out and headed down the corridor toward sickbay, Stovik followed.

“We had assumed that we had unknowingly run into a gravitational/distortion field around one of the spheres that were situated throughout the Delphic Expanse. They were known to us as the Bonaventure had run into these fields before. Suddenly, the ship was pulled out of warp and went into a spin.” Stovik frowned as he thought back to the last conscious minutes he had had on the ship.” I was then knocked unconscious after hitting either a bulkhead or console and woke up where you found me.” The two had reached the doors of Sickbay at this point and they whooshed open at the Captain’s approach.

Stovik followed Brand into sickbay and greeted the CMO after being introduced to him. He sat on the biobed as ordered by the Doctor and accepted the medical ministrations while Brand spoke from nearby.

“We were taking a wide berth around a distortion field when there was a sudden flash within and your ship appeared. After scanning we found your life signs and beamed you aboard.” Brand said as he stood beside the biobed, arms folded.

“One other thing you should do, Doctor, is a thorough scan. When I left the Bonaventure and entered the Archimedes I was 187 years old.” Both the Captain and the CMO looked at him with dubious expressions. “When I regained consciousness on the transport I was how you see me now. I scanned myself and I am no longer 187 but in my twenties am I not?”

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken from the concussion you have taken?” The CMO of the Columbus asked him as he reset the biobed scanners and looked at the readings again.

“I am not mistaken, Doctor. I have regained my memories from before the incident though I had lost them immediately after I regained consciousness. I know how old I was.” Stovik said firmly.

Brand’s frowned as he studied Stovik then looked to the CMO.” Doctor? Anything show in your scans to substantiate that?”

“Well, he definitely shows the signature in his DNA typical with temporal time travel. The chroniton decay rate is consistent with him having traveled about 230 years from the past. Amazing…yes …Captain he does appear to have cells in his system that are usually found in an elderly humanoid. They are still being rapidly changed and absorbed by the younger, healthier cells. Astounding, you are rejuvenating.” The CMO said, awe apparent in his voice. “Basically, Captain the only explanation I can give is that the time travel in effect rewound his DNA to an early stage through the warping of the temporal radiation.”

Stovik frowned as he speculated. “That would make sense, sir. Relativistic physics come into play as well, the closer to light speed you get, the closer to the pausing of time you get, so in theory to travel through time faster than light outside of warp could rewind time. At least that is the hypothesized theory being discussed on Vulcan in my time. Perhaps this has proven it.” Stovik frowned himself as he considered his physical state. “Can you reverse the effects, Doctor? How far has the Federation advanced medically in this century?”

The CMO shook his head. “Not that far. We are just gaining an understanding of the effects of temporal travel and have no idea how to reverse it. I can only treat the symptoms. How are you feeling now? You more than likely had effects from both the concussion and the temporal travel. Extreme headache, sensory overload and disorientation. It is no wonder you had no memory at first, have these symptoms subsided?”

“They are subsiding, more than likely from my own treatment and now yours.” Stovik said as the Doctor finished using the Dermal Regenerator to close the contusion on his head. “Though I must admit to feeling slightly overwhelmed and as if this is not quite real. Though of course, I must believe my senses.” He looked toward Captain Brand.” What happens now, Captain?”

“Well, the current policy with crewmembers found stranded in time is to return them to Earth. Where you will be acclimated and assisted with whatever you want to do now. You need time to get to know this century, learn the new technology if you still wish to serve, and come to terms with what has happened to you. You are not the first one to be brought forward in time. There have been others.”

“I see. Yes, I think I need some time on Vulcan would be beneficial as well. Perhaps that will help in my acclimation as you say.” Stovik said as a feeling of weariness overcame him.

The Captain nodded, “As to how you got here. We know the spheres you spoke of.” He said as he led Stovik out of sickbay and back toward the turbolift. “The SS Enterprise ran into those same spheres in the Delphic Expanse and managed to find a way to deactivate them all. It was reported that they were made from a race of beings wishing to reform the Delphic Expanse into a paradise. Unfortunately, they also turned out to be hostile and sicced the Xindi on Earth because they could see into the future and saw us destroying their spheres. It was found that some of those spheres were amid temporal distortions, obviously the one you theorized you ran into must have been.” He added as he and Stovik entered the turbolift.

“Deck 4.” He ordered. “I am taking you to guest quarters. You can replicate or request anything you need. We are at your disposal.”

“Aye Captain.” Stovik said as he followed the Captain off the turbolift and down the hall to a suite of guest quarters. The Captain stood at the door of the quarters as it whooshed open.

“We will do what we can, Healer, to help you adjust. Welcome to the 24th Century.” Brand said as Stovik stepped into the room.