[snip]

“I can’t sleep because of this thing,” Glen said, upon entering Engineering, “what’s your excuse? I need you wide awake and fully alert when we run this machine. But your offer of coffee was too good to miss!”

Her office was much clearer of the chaotic clutter he was used to seeing there. The solitary chair across from her at her desk was now two chairs facing towards engineering instead of her desk and the coffee and fixings were on the tray on her desk along with two mugs. She was busy trying, and failing, to clear the small table in the corner of her office. Between rock samples, Padds and maps, there was too much to simply move aside and allow for more workable space. She was absorbed in that project when he arrived.

She turned as he came in and smiled. “Is there no way to make it smaller and more manageable?” She didn’t fully understand the need for it, but she knew that it was necessary. “And depending on the range, I set the stool by the second chair. It should keep it close enough to you to keep you safe, but not interfere with comfort as long as you remain in the chair and don’t start pacing.” She smiled trying to make light of it all.

Glen answered, “Don’t ask me! I have no idea how it even works. It was something Dr. Grunch knocked together, for which I’m very grateful. William did mention about being keen to get his hands on it, and to develop it further, but to be honest, I wasn’t listening. I want Daniel’s machine to be a success, so that I can be rid of this completely. I’ve never liked being in confined spaces. I was accidentally locked in a cabinet as a child… but that’s a story for another day!”

Glen noticed the rock samples that Tia had moved from the table. “I didn’t know you were also a geologist,” he said. “I’m an amateur archaeologist. I like to wonder about all these civilisations that were present in the galaxy long before humans first ventured into space. It helps when thinking about the cultural aspects of remains if you know a little bit about the physical context, so I’ve picked up a little geology too.”

Toveka nodded about the bag. “From a scientific aspect, I would love to know how the bag works as well. But on a personal level, I think all of it needs to go once we are done. If we haven’t discovered the technology ourselves, I’m kind of a mind like ‘reverse Prime Directive’. We don’t need to be meddling where we shouldn’t be.”

She turned her back to glance at the rocks and realized he wasn’t aware of her ‘hobby’ with regards to the rocks. “Oh, umm… yeah.” She turned to face him once more. “Sorry, guess not many people comment on it. Took me a minute to realize what you meant. I try and collect samples from every location we go to and from places we pass, when possible. I think mapping the change in the rocks across the expanses of the various quadrants could help with the discovery of other worm holes and anomalies.” She laughed realizing how ridiculous that sounded. “Maybe even help us understand why our ships act and react differently in different areas of space.”

“I expect you are right about the bag,” replied Glen, “but apparently Grunch only copied from tech that has been used before. Time travel may be top secret, but it certainly isn’t uncommon… and I think that’s an interesting reason to collect them.”

She moved to the coffee and quickly changed the subject. “How do you want your coffee?” She poured two mugs and handed him one, the cream and sugar on the small plate she held towards him with a spoon on it.

“Just cream please!” said Glen.

A short time later NE Harf spoke near the door. “..Um ma’am? Sir? Sorry to interrupt but Daniel has returned to the engine room. Anywhere you want me to direct him?” Harf asked.

Tia sighed. “Tell him the sims are fine, he can look for himself. I’m with the Captain and will be out shortly. Close the door please.” She shook her head and sighed. “I still don’t like this. But I can’t argue with the sims when I said I would go by what they said. And they said we are pretty good.” She shook her head and smiled at him. “But I didn’t want to just talk to you about this. I want to know how you are doing? You check on us so often, I wanted to be sure someone was checking on you. I know Kord has been busy as well. I know that can’t be easy. But are you ok otherwise?” The concern and sincerity on her face was open and evident. She was seriously concerned about him.

“I’m fine… really!” replied Glen, “but I was thinking about this earlier when I gave the okay on this. My decision should never be about how the temporal anomalies are affecting me personally. Nor, should they be based upon how the Merrimack has been affected. This is much more important than that… Listen… the Merrimack has travelled into the future. I don’t care if I’m not meant to tell you that, but it has happened, and it happened more than once. I’ve seen things in the future; I know of events that will happen, and those things and events cannot be ever changed. However, there will be great threats to our future and great powers at work trying to dominate. If we want the Federation and Starfleet to continue then our timeline cannot be altered. The things we have done and will do yet, these are important. These temporal anomalies put all of that into flux, and that’s why they need to be stopped and corrected.”

“Where is Kord, anyway?” Glen asked. “I thought you two had become quite close, and he doesn’t sleep much either, but he isn;t on the Bridge.”

“So basically, this is needed whether we like it or not, huh?” She had been resigned to the idea but knowing things had been that dire gave her pause to her complaints. “I can’t imagine having that burden of knowledge, Sir. And I do applaud you for shouldering it the way you are.” She nodded, “I’ll stop being stubborn,” she laughed then, “well, as much as I am able, anyway. But you are right, something tells me the margin of error and ‘possible destruction’ are minimal when weighed against the ‘not doing it at all’ equation.”

When he asked about Kord, she did blush slightly and look down at her cup. “Yes, Sir. We are quite close now.” She looked back up with a slight look of worry on her face. “I actually let him sleep when I left him earlier, Sir. I can wake him if you want.” She started to rise to head for her console.

“No, let him sleep on,” replied Glen. “It’s just that he is my usual sounding board for my impossibly difficult choices. That 40,000 years-of-age thing tends to make us all look ingenuous, but he is also a man of so little words. I often feel that he never tells me exactly what he is really thinking. “

“Good coffee,” Glen said after taking another sip, “is it your own blend?”

She nodded and smiled. “Yeah, as much as I would love to offer up myself as a sounding board, he does have a few years of experience on me.” She laughed. “It’s funny… You seek him out for his age and wisdom, and I’m constantly reminding him to look at things with a new eye. Did you know he paints? And amazingly well. I’m trying to talk him into a showing sometime. I think there are a lot of folks who would appreciate and want some of his work.” She bit her lip with a grin, “But you can’t tell him I told you. As to the coffee… kind of my blend. Your own chef helped me come up with it last year when I couldn’t stomach what was in the replicators. It’s about 70% replicator stim and it’s supplemented by actual coffee from Earth. Because of storage, we can’t bring on much each time, so we went down to the lowest percentage that still made it palatable.” She laughed.

“No, I neither knew about Kord’s paintings, nor about your secret meetings with Chef,” replied Glen. “And I consider myself to know everything that happens on this ship. Obviously, I was very wrong there!”

Tia laughed slightly to put him at ease. “No fear, Captain. I am sure you know the things that pertain to the ship. But Kord has had thousands of years of practice in hiding and being a private man. And as for the coffee,” she shrugged, “well it’s still a relatively new thing. And I’m sure your chef would have introduced it to you once he knew how to explain how he came to the idea.” She shook her head. “And of course, that is the only secret from me you need worry about.” She laughed once more and sipped her coffee.

“That’s good to know, I think,” replied Glen, “although they do say that that some things are best kept secret.”

“How do you find the ship, now that you’ve had time to settle in?” asked Glen. “The Mariner style, Class-VII Warp core is a little different being mounted horizontally along the centre of the ship. You had some concerns about the power output that Daniel wants to achieve too. All I can say is that she has never let me down yet!”

About this point there was a knock on the closed door, through the window pane they could see it was Daniel.

-GM CockRoach

“That’s almost supernatural!” exclaimed Glen, and he raised his eyebrows. “I mention his name and he suddenly appears!”

“Hi Daniel,” Glen said. “The door is not locked, please come inside.”

-Glen, CO