With a bit of a mind flip, you're into the time slip, and nothing, can ever be the same.

Posted on Tue Apr 8th, 2025 @ 5:43pm by Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis & Lieutenant Jock McCrudden

720 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Voices of the past
Location: USS Blackeagle, Main Engineering.
Timeline: Current.

Karadis entered Main Engineering and looked around for the CEO. Seeing him at once of the main consoles she walked over.

"Lieutenant McCrudden, the Commodore wants us to get back to Federation space, can you work out a way to do that?" she asked.

"Well, I suppose we could try reversing what we did to bring us here in the first place, but there's no guarantees we'll get back to the same place" McCrudden replied.

"Probabilities?" Karadis asked, now sounding a little concerned.

"Sixty to sixty five percent" McCrudden answered, "remember, we're configured to how a Marshall Class ship would have been back in the day, that's how we managed to get to this place before."

"Well it's a lot better than fifty-fifty" Karadis said, "can we do anything from the bridge side of things to help?"

"Just get ready to put the hammer down when we give you the word Commander" McCrudden replied.

Karadis looked at McCrudden, she'd been expecting a lot of push back from the normally crusty Chief Engineer, but he was being...nice, and it kind of freaked Karadis out a little bit.

"Ok, I'll leave you to your calculations and head back to the bridge, just let us know what you need when you need it, and thank you Lieutenant" Karadis said, turning to leave.

"Being nice about things always helps Commander" McCrudden replied, a lopsided smile on his face.

Karadis turned at his reply, "I'll remind you about that someday Lieutenant."

McCrudden watched her turn once again and leave, "I'm sure you will Karadis, I'm sure you will" he said to himself. Turning to his engineering crew he said, "Right, let's get set up and see if we can get this bucket of bolts back home. Set the scanners a full one eighty degrees, get the shields up and let me know when you're all done."

A few minutes later he and his team were ready. Contacting Karadis on the bridge he reported to her they were set to go.

On the bridge, Karadis gave Owens the order to turn the ship around and head back the way they'd come in. On the main viewer, the planet slipped out of view, replaced by open space and stars, and once they'd turned around Owens reported they were set.

"Ahead one quarter impulse power, once we're out of the planets gravity pull, increase power to half impulse for twenty seconds" Karadis ordered. Owens got the ship underway, and after the twenty seconds of half impulse he said, "We're in open space Sir."

Karadis relayed this to McCrudden and the CEO told her they were ready with the scanners. Turning to Owens, Karadis gave the order for warp one, and an increase in power every thirty seconds up to warp five.

"Aye Sir" Owens replied. After a few minutes, they reached warp five and Owens gave his report.

Tapping her COMM badge, Karadis said "Lieutenant McCrudden, full scan now."

In engineering, McCrudden gave the nod and the scanners were turned on, full beam spread.

On the bridge, Karadis watched in anticipation for a sign they were able to recreate the way they'd come in. Suddenly, the ship increased speed, warp six, warp seven, warp eight....and there was a blinding flash!

Karadis covered her eyes to escape the bright light, and when she dropped her arm she said, "Report!"

It took Owens a few moments to gather the information, but when he got it, he turned to Karadis with a big smile on his face, "Sir, we're back in Federation space, the co-ordinates all match up in our database, we're about a light year out from where we originally went in."

"Not bad...not bad" Karadis nodded in satisfaction, and tapping her COMM badge again she said, "Well done to you and your team Lieutenant McCrudden, we're back in Federation space again, good job. Reconfigure Engineering back to what it should be and once you're done, let me know please."

"Aye Sir, and thank you, McCrudden out" Jock replied.

Karadis tapped the open COMM button on the Captains chair console, "Karadis to all crew, thanks to our engineering team, we're now back in Federation space, out."

She sat down in the chair, hoping that sooner rather than later, Kerr would be back in it rather than her.

 

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