by Denise Moreno
100712.2300
After Set on Stone
-=Main Bridge, USS Poseidon=-
100712.2300
After Set on Stone
-=Main Bridge, USS Poseidon=-
There was silence on the bridge of the USS Poseidon as they’d all just watched as the Serendipity had rapidly disappeared from their screens. It would have been a grave simplification to suggest that the emotions in this room were a fracturingly complicated and incompatible mixture. The better amongst them felt regret at what they’d just done. The most felt relief. The worst felt pleased at what they’d done.
Tucker Brody however could not so easily be classified into any such category. His posture was military and yet his hands were frozen in front of him as if prepared to stop him should he collapse upon the weapon’s console. His entire body screamed of tension, while his face held the intense stare of a man who’d not stop in an instant to violently dispatch with any who’d get in his way right now. He looked so very close to the edge but rather than attracting sympathy of a man who needed saving, he seemed like if he went he’d drag each and everyone of them over with him.
This was a man who’d just seen the last remnants of trust and innocence in his soul ripped away in a way no one had any right to do. He bore an expression far stronger than pain and deeper than anger. Yet as he spoke his next words each as a threat, overly enunciating every syllable, the rage he felt was clearly there.
“Were we followed?”
The bridge was quiet, with answers given as shaken heads rather than with military protocol announcements.
“Were we followed?!” Brody demanded louder, his movements suddenly far more animated as he barely stopped his fist before it slammed upon the console and launched a barrage of fire into the nothingness around them to summarise his emotions.
Of all present, it was the one who felt the worst about what had happened who quietly answered about it.
“No, we weren’t,” Denise said, from the captain’s chair of this vessel with now a far smaller crew to man it.
Any fool could see she felt bad enough already and should simply be left alone now. Yet Brody, though no fool, was also never a man to care about the issue of ‘should’. He knew she’d been concealing her activities from him already and so right now she was just one more woman who’d deceived him.
“Don’t feel sorry for them,” Brody insisted coldly in words loud enough to address not just the entire bridge but perhaps the nearby rooms as well. “They all knew the risks and they would have done the exact same thing in our position.”
“We could still go back…” Denise began but she could feel Brody’s stare on the back of her neck as she did.
“The Serendipity got lucky and you know it,” he replied with impatience at the lack of foresight of all those around him. “If we return there and the TI ship has completed basic repairs then we’ll be destroyed in seconds.”
Denise noticed he was no longer addressing her as ‘Captain’. She thought of arguing the point with him but she’d come too far and sacrificed far too much already to fight another fight she couldn’t win. Brody could sense that this was the case but felt no hint of satisfaction in this moment.
“The time drive will be operational very soon,” Brody announced, determined that what he said now must be what goes. “We will activate it the moment that happens.”
“How do we know the other TI ship won’t follow us through time?” Denise asked, knowing that if they were stopped before she could do what she needed to then all would be lost and there’d be no possible redemption for what she’d done here. “Somehow they tracked us once already.”
Brody however was very far ahead of her and his explanation sounded more like an insult that she’d not already reached the conclusion.
“Someone must have been broadcasting a signal to them. They must also have tampered with the sensors so we didn’t detect it. There’s only one person on board with both the knowledge and the stupidity to do it.”
Denise didn’t need Brody to explain any further. She’d seen the altered sensors herself. Suddenly it all seemed so obvious what had happened and what she’d have to do. She inhaled slowly, wishing the answer were different but knowing that it wasn’t.
“I’ll deal with this, myself,” she said softly. “I’ll make sure we can’t be tracked.”
Though Brody appeared to want to make sure the job was done right, he also had other things he wanted to do while they were still at this place in history, and he knew that no matter what she’d done Denise wanted them to be able to alter history as much as any of them. So he simply gave a look which said Denise better not dare try anything before he turned and stormed from the bridge.
He would deal with her later and she knew it. Denise’s stomach felt a little sick at the thought of just what Brody would do to her. She had no time to consider it though and after requesting a location from the computer she quickly left the bridge as well.
-=Cargo Bay One, USS Poseidon=-
As the turbolift door opened Denise found there exactly what she’d expected to find. Before, she hadn’t been able to figure out why anyone on board would communicate with Temporal Investigation when that would end what they’d all been trying to do here. There was however one man, with years of experience in security and who even worked with Paul Andrews himself, who since the beginning had just wanted it all to be over.
Denise was saddened to have had her fears now confirmed as she saw Mitchell, the old man with dropping stomach and thinning hair who really had never belonged here, slumped on the floor against the cargo bay wall. His head was in his hands and Denise wondered if he’d even heard her.
It’d made perfect sense when the computer had said he was here. When the TI ship had been unable to peacefully disable them, he must have come down to the cargo bay hoping to escape in a shuttlecraft. However with the skimming drive active, the spatial distortion from which eerily seemed to circle around in the dark outside the cargo bay windows and to bathe the room in its ever changing light, he’d be unable to leave the ship.
Her footsteps echoed along the floor of the bay, empty but for two lone shuttles by the bay door when it could have held many more. This was a lonely quiet place to be. The disruption of that quiet seemed to finally have awoken him to her presence and as he turned to look up at her she found his eyes were a violently painful red. He wasn’t crying but he had been at one point.
“Captain,” he said, attempting to push against the wall to force himself up to his feet but finding it wasn’t exactly easy at his age. “I didn’t expect to…I mean I thought…”
“You are an old fool, aren’t you?” Denise asked, though the words were spoken with sad kindness and not with any insult intended. “You know you don’t have to call me anything but Denny. You always did that before.”
“That was a long time ago,” Mitchell observed, still struggling to stand.
“Before you met Sandra,” she added and he nodded that this was correct. They’d known each other long before he met his wife, there’d even been a certain spark between them, yet ultimately things had simply never happened.
“You were very different then,” he said.
“And you were exactly the same.”
Denise couldn’t believe how long ago it was. They’d each aged so much. He however really always had been the same man; sweet, hopeless, completely lacking in bravery or an ability to think of the larger picture. She’d decided she could never love a man like that and he’d accepted it. Yet there were times when she’d wondered if she could have, surely she could have. As the same thought came to the both, each smiled sadly at the picture of what could have been.
Denise then offered him her hand and spoke words not as an accusation but merely an acceptance of fact.
“Kenneth, I know what you’ve done.”
Mitchell’s eyes flew open with fear, more so than usual, but he knew he couldn’t run and he quickly gave up considering it as he realised there was no point in trying to lie anymore. He was truly defeated. He simply accepted Denise’s hand and pulled himself up, for though there was little difference in their ages she was far stronger than he.
“Why did you do it, Kenneth?” she asked sadly and Mitchell found he really didn’t have words to reply with. “At our age it’s not like any deal you could cut would ever let you see daylight again.”
Mitchell knew she was right. Even with contacting Andrews and telling him everything, he was never going to see his grandchildren again. Yet he’d make the sacrifice again because no other option was right.
“Denny, I…” He stopped and shook his head. He didn’t know why he’d done so much for so long. He stopped and looked up at her, finding that even with both of them standing she was still several centimetres above his height. “What the hell are we doing here?”
They were the first boldly spoken words she’d heard from him in many years and it appeared he wasn’t done with them.
“I mean, I know what I’m doing here. If there’s a way to mess up my life I’ll find it. But you were always so smart. Why the hell did you get involved with Brody?”
Denise had asked herself that same question many times and it always came down to the same answer.
“Because I had to. It was the only way.”
“The only way to do what?”
“The only way to save him.”
Mitchell looked confused. So far the last thing they could possibly have been said to have done was to save people here. Still, he was the first to acknowledge how different intentions could be from reality.
“Save who?”
Denise exhaled slowly, knowing that if there was anyone she should tell this to it was Mitchell but having held the secret for so long.
“Our son,” she said, reaching into her pocket and removing a picture of a young man she’d been carrying there for a very long time. He was short and stout, physically unimpressive to say the least, yet to his mother he was absolutely perfect.
She handed the photograph to Mitchell and he examined it between his fingers.
“We don’t have a son…” he started in confusion, though the resemblance between the picture and his father was uncanny.
“No, but we were supposed to.” Denise answered, with a hint of anger finally entering her tone at what she’d been denied. “This photo is from a record of a forgotten timeline; the original timeline from before TI’s interference. But I’m going to get him back.”
“How are you going to do that?” Mitchell asked, still feeling quite overwhelmed by this revelation as he stared at the image.
Denise didn’t answer, simply snatching back the photo. She remembered now why she’d come here in the first place and knew nothing could be more important than her goal.
“I need to know where you’ve hidden the transmitter, Kenneth. Otherwise they’ll be able to follow us back and stop me.”
He stopped, seeming completely uncertain of which action would do the least damage.
“If you’re allowed to change things there’ll be an entirely different version of history.”
Denise couldn’t believe that now was the time he chose to think things through. Yet she managed to remain calm even as he threatened all that she’d worked for.
“You’d never have done any of this,” she offered, knowing how the relief of the guilt would have significant pull with him.
“Yet my children with Sandra will never have been born.”
Suddenly Denise scowled, losing her calm.
“Why should our son matter any less?” she spat, believing none could matter more.
Mitchell was against flustered and couldn’t find a single answer that could possibly have been the right one. He didn’t know why but some hypothetical son in another timeline simply wasn’t the same as the one he’d held so proudly in his arms in the nursery. He did however know what was right.
“I’m sorry, Denny, I can’t…”
Now Denise was getting angrier and was becoming much less able to hide it. Though she was not a violent woman, her countenance suddenly seemed to argue with that fact.
“You have to tell me,” she insisted, her well aged hand crinkling up the front of his shirt.
Mitchell said nothing and Denise was quickly losing patience. There was only one thing for it. She released him and stepped back, then awkwardly drew the phaser from behind her back.
His eyes quickly fell upon the weapon. He’d been expecting to die.
“Are you going to kill me, Denny?” Mitchell asked numbly.
“No,” Denise said as she altered the settings on the phaser, hating doing this but knowing that she had to. Then without a further word she fired and a thin beam struck the top of his left leg, causing Mitchell almost to collapse as he screamed from the burning pain. “I’ve set it to a low intensity high temperature beam. It won’t kill you, it won’t even stun you, but it will hurt you.”
Mitchell’s face was still grimacing in the pain as he shuddered, finding it an almost unbearable burn. Denise could barely stand to look but she made herself do so.
“Please, Denny,” he whimpered.
“Tell me,” she said coldly, though in truth it was paining her to do it, as she aimed the weapon at his other leg. She knew he had a very low tolerance for pain and just hoped this would be enough.
Mitchell again said nothing and reluctantly Denise was forced to fire again. Once more he screamed in agony, now not even sure which leg to keep the weight off of as he fell against the wall and slid down onto the floor.
“Okay…okay,” he said, though his words were unclear due to the rapidness of his breaths. “It’s on a main power conduit…it runs directly b…behind the bridge.”
“Are you telling me the truth?” Denise asked, aiming the weapon now for his shoulder.
“Yes!”
Denise again changed the settings on the weapon and lifted it in aim. She then fired it once, straight in his chest, and Mitchell’s head slumped down. He’d live; it was set on stun. She’d believed him, though she struggled to believe what she’d just done. The more she thought about it, the more she found she was shaking.
For a second she just stood and stared at the wounded man before her; she didn’t like what she was becoming. She had no time for such thoughts though, no time for any of it, and so she exhaled quickly to steady herself before she hit her combadge.
“Moreno to the bridge.”
[Yes, Captain?] the lieutenant asked, clearly picking up from Denise’s tone just how shaken she was by what she’d just had to do.
“The transmitter should be tunning on a power conduit directly behind you. See that it is neutralised”
[Yes, Captain…] the lieutenant responded, surprised that Denise didn’t immediately close the channel. [Is there anything else?]
Denise paused, once again staring at the man before her. It may have been kinder just to leave him here but she’d done too many unforgivable things today.
“Yes…have someone with medical training sent to Cargo Bay One,” she said, as she already began moving towards the turbolift and away from what she’d just done. “Moreno out.”
Ensign Denise Moreno
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon