Posted by Commander Oliver Loughty (Executive Officer) in [OSFTSB] Conference/Ready Room

Posted by Captain Iphigenia Henao (Commanding Officer) in [OSFTSB] Conference/Ready Room

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Adam Magnusson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in [OSFTSB] Conference/Ready Room
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Iphigenia activated her console, reviewing the key points of the status report one last time. She mentally reviewed the areas of concern, the depleted dilithium reserves, the warp core instability, the structural integrity field damage, and the life support strain. These were their immediate priorities, the problems that could spell disaster if not handled properly.

She made her way to the ready room, it was impossible to ignore the heavy atmosphere aboard the ship.
The door to the ready room slid open with a soft hiss, and Iphigenia stepped inside. She stood behind the sleek desk, placing her hands on its surface as she studied the space. The large star chart on the far wall, usually a comfort, now only reminded her of how lost they were…light-years and millions of years from anything familiar.
She took in the few moments of quietness before the department heads began arrive.

Captain Henao
(Commanding Officer)

Steven wandered in, he always seemed a little bored with everything. He held a cup of coffee in his hand as he scanned the room. “I can’t believe I’m the first one here.” He left the part where that was uncool out.

Marsh

Brad wasn’t far behind, much more urgency in his motion. “Sickbay is prepped for triage and I have teams on decks throughout the ship.” He paused, took a breath, and stopped to Steven’s right. “We’re about as ready as we can be.”

Lieutenant Bradley Maxwell
Chief Medical Officer

Iphigenia’s eyes moved between Steven and Bradley as they entered, but she said nothing. She had expected them to arrive first. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Steven, who seemed as nonchalant as ever, but she knew his outward demeanor didn’t match his competence. The cup of coffee in his hand was a familiar sight, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it was a comfort or just another routine he clung to.
She looked down at her console, mentally organizing the words she would use once the meeting began. The ship was holding together but each creak, each flicker of the lights, was a reminder of just how fragile their existence was in this time and place. Millions of years separated them from their own era. And while they had a capable crew, no one was immune to the pressure. Least of all her.
Her lips tightened into a thin line as she waited for the others to arrive.

Captain Henao
(Commanding Officer)

Hazel joined them next, “Sorry I am late I had to get changed.” She was not wearing a different set of uniform, same commander pips but was now in the red uniform of the Leviathan crew. “I think Captain when everyone is here an explanation of my… arrival.”

Commander Hazel Loughty
Starfleet Temporal Agent
USS Leviathan

Iphigenia exhaled quietly, Hazel’s words lingering in the air. She was right. Hazel’s presence couldn’t be ignored. It had already stirred curiosity and, more than likely, concern among the crew. The timeline had been disrupted, and while their current situation was scary, understanding Hazel’s arrival was just as crucial. “You are right, Commander. “would you prefer to explain your arrival and the situation, or would you rather I handle it?”

Captain Henao
(Commanding Officer)

Adam stepped into the room just in time to hear Hazel speak, he eyed the Captain giving her a flat look, he was clearly annoyed at not being in the know and even more annoyed at having to playact at not being aware of the oddity, he’d made that clear when he had Sickbay spend extra time clearing the Captain fit for duty earlier. He leaned against a wall and crossed his arms, eyeing the other intelligence officer.

CIO

Iphigenia didn’t meet the eyes of her CIO, she mindlessly scrolled through the data on the console as he settled into the room. His presence, more than anyone else’s, unnerved her. As the ship’s Chief Intelligence Officer, Magnusson had always been sharp, meticulous, and deeply suspicious of Hazel’s sudden arrival.
She felt the weight of his scrutiny as if it were a physical force. Her posture remained straight, shoulders back, every inch the commanding officer, but inside, she could feel tension winding tighter. She had known this moment would come, the moment when Hazel’s story was revealed, and Magnusson’s doubts about the situation and possibly about her would rise to the surface.
As Hazel prepared to speak, Iphigenia kept her gaze steady, resisting the urge to glance at Magnusson. She could already imagine his thoughts, how he might question her judgment, her loyalty to the crew. Would he think she had been too lenient? That her involvement in keeping Hazel’s presence under wraps.
She couldn’t afford for Magnusson to lose faith in her. Not now, when the entire crew’s survival depended on trust and unity. His mistrust would create fractures, and those cracks would spread faster than they could manage in this fragile situation. But as she glanced at Hazel, preparing to give her the floor, she knew she couldn’t control how Magnusson would react.
Her voice was steady when she finally spoke. “Commander....., please explain your presence and the circumstances surrounding it.”

She had done her part. Now, all she could do was watch and wait.

Captain Henao
(Commanding Officer)

Hazel stepped forward, addressing the Captain and the gathered command staff. She knew this moment was crucial, the weight of her explanation heavy on her shoulders. The faces in the room were filled with suspicion, confusion, and curiosity, and she had to make them understand. Taking a deep breath, she began.

Magnus turned his gaze to his counterpart and watched her intently, his mind raced to solve the puzzle before she revealed it.

“I’m not Commander Holmes,” she said, her voice calm but deliberate. “My real name is Commander Hazel Loughty, and I’m from the future of the original timeline—what you know as the ‘prime timeline’ of the USS Leviathan. I’m not supposed to be here, not in this timeline, not under these circumstances.”

Her words hung in the air, the gravity of her statement sinking in as the officers exchanged glances.

Three things happened to Magnus, or three things tried to happen at the same time, he tried to laugh, curse, and scowl all at the same time all the while as he suppressed his outward reaction. That resulted in an audible click as his jaw popped and a vein on his forehead throbbed for a moment or two, something that only those paying close attention to him would notice and something only those who knew him well could understand, he was angry. Of course, they wouldn’t know that he was furious at himself for not figuring out immediately that she was from the future, all the pieces clicked together. He was so angry with himself that it took his mind the rest of her speech to register her name.

Brad took an involuntary step backwards. Hazel. It had only been a couple days for the crew, of course, but that didn’t change that she’d vanished on his watch with nothing he could do to stop it. And now she was here, as an adult - one that outranked him, even.

“I arrived here because this timeline was on the verge of a discovery it was never meant to make—The device known as the ‘Teapot,’ an anomaly with the potential to rewrite the entire fabric of time and space. In my timeline, we knew about the Teapot, but we avoided its discovery for a reason. It can change everything, and not for the better. When I arrived, I tried to disable the ship, to prevent that discovery, but things… things have already diverged far beyond what I anticipated. Events are unfolding here that were never meant to happen.”

Hazel took a moment to gauge the reactions of the command staff, noticing the tension in their posture, the silent questions in their eyes. They had every right to be skeptical.

“I didn’t want to intervene this way,” she continued, her voice softening. “But once the timeline started to shift, I realised I couldn’t stop it outright. So, I did the next best thing—I tried to help. But this new timeline is unpredictable. It’s evolving in ways I never anticipated, and I’m trying to keep it from spiralling out of control. But now we have more pressing concern such as our current location and when I say location I mean when.”

Commander Oliver Loughty
Executive Officer
USS Leviathan

As Hazel explained her situation, Iphigenia thought about everything. A device that could rewrite time and space? What had they stumbled upon? This was beyond anything she had anticipated. Her insides felt like a storm. Iphigenia’s instincts urged her to speak, to support Hazel, but she held back, letting the commander answer. She needed to understand the dynamics of this new reality. She couldn’t afford to interrupt this flow of information.

Once Holmes, no Loughty, finished speaking, Magnus finished his racing thoughts. The implications behind her presence were huge, he’d heard hints of whispers of rumours regarding Starfleet temporal group from somewhere in the future, he personally had never met anyone from the future that he was certain of but an anomaly that could rewrite entire timelines was far more dangerous than some fool going back in time to kill Khan as a baby. As he considered the implications something else clicked in his mind, an odd expression he’d gotten from Commander Loughty, Hazel. The XO’s young daughter who’d been kidnapped, by herself. She’d looked at him as if she knew him personally, he’d just thought that she knew of him and simply had a high enough clearance to know everything about him but now he wondered what her life had been like.

He finally looked at the Captain and gave her a simple nod of understanding, this reveal was enough to absolve her of any mistrust in his mind. He looked back at Hazel “Commander Loughty, the teapot, how much do you know about how it operates?” Out of all the questions that was the most important one.

CIO

Magnusson’s question brought her back to the moment and the nod of acknowledgement gave her some solace.

“I will not let the officers on this ship be a part of the long list of lost crew on lost starships,” she said, breaking her silence as Hazel contemplated her response to Magnusson, “Not while I still have breath in my body. We will find our way back home. Commander Loughty, You mentioned the timeline is unpredictable. Well the first thing we need to do is stabilize the situation. After this meeting I will work with the CSO to see what our options are.”

Captain Henao
(Commanding Officer)

Hazel took a deep breath, feeling the eyes of the command staff on her. She knew she needed to start at the beginning to give them the full picture of what they were dealing with.

“The Teapot,” she began, her voice calm but weighted with the gravity of the situation, “is not just an ancient artifact. It represents the very flow of time itself. The Teapot never empties—it’s a perfect metaphor. It just flows, continuously, eternally. It’s a relic from an era so far back that even the oldest civilizations barely remember it. But, somehow, a now-extinct species, the Ratheonai, discovered a way to manipulate it.”

She glanced around, making sure they were following. “The Ratheonai were a time-traveling species, masters of temporal mechanics, and they learned how to disrupt the Teapot’s flow, which, in turn, disrupted the natural passage of time. This caused fractures in reality, time itself began to warp, splinter, and collapse in certain places. The result? A catastrophic series of events known as the Tea Wars. Entire timelines were erased, rewritten, or left fragmented, and civilizations blinked in and out of existence.”

Hazel sighed, the weight of history pressing down on her shoulders. “I was sent back to hide the Teapot, to protect it from those who would abuse its power. But, as you can see… I failed. Somehow, in this timeline, it’s been found and activated, and now, we’re living with the consequences.”

She paused, her expression darkening as she continued, “When the Teapot interacts with phenomena like the black hole we encountered, it creates unstable, unpredictable results. In this case, it appears we’ve been thrown back in time—so far back that subspace itself is still in its infancy. We’re at a point in history where the fabric of space is fragile, and any attempt to establish a warp bubble could cause unknown, potentially catastrophic effects.”

Hazel turned her attention fully to the Captain and the rest of the staff. “That’s why I agree with your assessment, Captain. Given the circumstances, we can’t risk engaging warp drive right now. We need to find a planet where we can land, make repairs, and assess the full extent of the damage to both the ship and the timeline.”

She let out a slow breath, the enormity of the situation hanging in the air. “We need to proceed carefully. Any misstep could make things far worse than they already are.”

Commander Oliver Loughty
Executive Officer
USS Leviathan

“Do we know how this might affect people in contact with it?” Brad asked. “Rapid aging, de-aging, etcetera?”

Lieutenant Bradley Maxwell
Chief Medical Officer