Mission 4

[Amanda Rose]

Coming from behind the sun, America approached Earth. It was a
beautiful sight. O'Connor breathed deeply and asked, "Mr. Jamison, do
we get the signals we should from home?"

tag - Jamison

O'Connor breathed out. They were home. Everything was back to
normal, at least, it appeared so.

"Tell me, Mr. Jamison, are we back in 2296? What's the stardate?"

tag - Jamison

O'Connor inwardly cheered at Jamison's answer. "Great. Bring us into
the starbase. O'Connor pressed the comm button, =/\= This is the
Captain. We are back a day after we left on New Year's. Since we
have spent possibly months in the past, all crew members are granted
two days shoreleave, commencing immediately. =/\=

tag all

[Amanda Rose]

O'Connor went to her quarters, debating what to do with shoreleave as
the America was getting repairs when a coded signal came into her.
It was Admiral Joseph Kent. O'Connor agreed to receive it.

The picture of a grey haired, thin man appeared on her screen. She
asked, "What can I do for you Admiral?"

Kent stated unemotionally, "You can explain to me why you have been
travelling through time. Your hull shows the age and stress and you
have no mission that was scheduled when you left. I show no orders
for you."

O'Connor's jaw firmed. Jessie was right. Moore had his own agenda
and apparently, she was his pawn. That ended now but how could she
save face at the same time? She responded, "I'm sorry, Admiral. I
was told that this was a classified and top secret mission."

Kent did not change his expression. He merely stated, "I'm sure you
were. However, this mission was not authorized by Starfleet.
Admiral Moore is expected to be brought up on charges for his
actions. So, you need to tell me exactly what happened."

O'Connor gulped and gave a verbal report of everything that
happened. She finally stated, "As you can see, I was just following
orders. I had no idea."

Kent paused, waiting for O'Connor to say something more and assessing
her. O'Connor said nothing. After the lengthy pause, Kent said, "I
believe you. However, you will be required to testify if Moore
contests this. Do you understand? Will you?" The viewscreen faded.

O'Connor nodded. What else could she do? She was not going to take
any fall for Moore. She followed orders. She did what a good
military officer would do. She looked to her cabinet. Where was a
good shot of Irish Whiskey when she needed it? And where was
Delaney? She needed to talk.... She tapped the shipwide comm and
asked for Delaney to report to her quarters.

tag - Delaney

[Amanda Rose]

Lieutenant Commander Jessica Kirk let out a sigh. So they were back home, in their own time and parked in the comforting embrace of Spacedock. Word had spread around the rumor mill that Admiral Moore had been taken down, news that promptly brought a smile to her face. Actually she was slightly saddened by the news because she would have preferred that she was the one to take him down. She had even had dreams of shooting him dead. Still Moore had always been able to find a way out of any trouble that came his way, usually by setting someone else up as a patsy and letting them take the fall. Jessie could see that Captain O'Connor was to have been the next in a long line of scapegoats that he used to further his own agenda and that he would discard shortly afterwards.

Jessie wondered what her friend and commanding officer thought of this developement or if she had even heard about it. She had tried to warn her about the dangers that went with associating with Admiral Moore but her warnings went pretty much ignored. Now maybe Kelly would see that she had earned her place as a Captain and Moore had used her lack of confidence to his advantage. It was something that he did very well. Hell he had tried to do the same thing to her but Jessie was a little more outspoken than most and wouldn't let him do it.

The shuttle arrived and Jessie picked up her bag. The crew had been given shoreleave and she decided to take the offer and go spend some time with her parents on Earth. After months in space it would be good to just spend time at home, even if home was a cornfield in Iowa. Space in all its vast emptiness could be incredibly lonely and it was good for people to get a break sometimes. Even with a crew of over 300 she still needed to plant her feet on the ground and be around other people.

Jessie took a seat in the shuttle and waited as the rest of the passengers boarded and took their seats. Most of the travelers were from America though there were some from other ships. It was one of the people from the Archer that sat next to her. "Ma'am." the young woman said with a nod.

Jessie returned the nodd politely while opening her book in preparation for the two hour flight. "Hello." she replied.

"To bad about the Enterprise." the other officer said.

Jessie quickly closed her book and looked at the other officer. "What about the Enterprise?"

"You haven't heard?" the woman, who Jessie now finally look at and saw to be a Lieutenant, asked. "The ship took major damage in a battle and half the crew is dead. The remaining crew is being held by the Romulans."

"What is Starfleet doing about it?" she asked.

"Not much they can do. The ship is being held in Romulan space. They're even bragging about the fact that they have the Federations Flagship."

"So we haven't sent in a recovery team or anything?" Jessie asked. "I mean what about the Defiant or Excelsior? I'm sure that there's got to be something that we can do."

"They say that if we sent in any type of rescue mission they will not only destroy the ship but will also kill the suriving crew." the replied.

Jessie shook her head. If it was up to her she would go on a one man mission to catch them. Of course she had always been considered wreckless. Of course this was the sort of thing that seemed to suit her talents. Still she knew that there was no way that Starfleet was going to let her take on a mission like this so her best bet was to sit back and see how they wanted to proceed.

"Damn that's messed up. How did they get captured?" Jessie asked.

"There's not to many details on what happened. From what everyone can seem to piece together the Enterprise was ambused near Galorndon Core." the Lieutenant answered. "That's all anyone knows."

Jessie felt the shuttle lift off from and started on it's descent towards the Earth. She had a lot of friends on the Enterprise and wanted desperately to save them but for now there was nothing that they could do.

To Be Continued...

Lieutenant Commander Jessica Kirk
Chief of Security / Second Officer
USS America NCC-1776-A

[Amanda Rose]

Two days' shoreleave... Two whole days of... nothing.

Brian hated nothing, by which I do not mean he didn't hate anything, but that his nature abhorred vacuum. As such, he was desperate to find something to fill the time with.

Quiet contemplation? Boring!

Intent study? Possible, but of what? Certainly not time travel - he had had enough of that to fill several lifetimes!

Something a bit more active then. Sports? Yeah, right - the last spod in the class to be selected every time choosing to do a sport... Hah!

Ah... what about....?

=/\= Pendragon to Sinclair. Would you be available for some martial arts training some time over the next two days? =/\=


TAG - Sinclair


As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. He was going to end up hurt and embarrassed. What the heck had he gone and volunteered for that for???

Only time would tell...

[Amanda Rose]

Mission Date: January 1, 2296 1300 hours (altered)

Maria and the twins had been progressing rather well despite all the
temporal shifting going on around them. For a woman just recently 30
weeks pregnant with twins, Maria was doing rather well for herself.
Unfortunately, her body started saying otherwise.

Almost simultaneous with the jump into the altered future, Maria
started convulsing violently. MacLeod read the biobed readings in
alarm. Maria's blood pressure was 221/117 one minute and 65/20 the
next. The blood pressure roller coaster and convulsions were
accompanied by spikes in temperature inversely relational to the blood
pressure spikes.

The twins weren't doing much better either. The frantic state of
Maria's convulsions left them in a hyper-intensive state.

MacLeod paled as she looked in horror at the escalation of the medical
mystery before her. Delaney was asleep in her quarters, but Cassandra
knew what she had to do. She didn't know if she could save all three
of them if the twins stayed in utero. The twins only had a problem if
they were still in the womb. How that would affect Maria, Cassandra
didn't know.

However, the Vulcan proverb came to her mind: "The needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few." To save the twins, she might just
have to kill their mother. It wasn't a great trade-off. She couldn't
ask Young because he was trapped in the altered past. The entity of
Stonewall that was in the Commander's body wouldn't understand any of
the problems or technology involved to make an informed decision.
This would have to be a medical decision by Maria's doctor--her.

She turned to the medical staff on duty. "Get ready for a Caesarean,
folks. Sedate her and get a couple of NICU stasis tubes ready. We're
going to have some newborns to take care of for a bit."

Maria was sedated. The calm on her face masked the continued roller
coaster that her body was taking her on. Nahuel rolled the two NICU
stasis tubes next to the biobed and got ready for the Caesarean. The
Caesarean went quickly and within fifteen minutes two twin girls were
delivered. Both were in rough shape from the abuse their mother's
body had given them, but they greatly improved over the following
half-hour until both were stabilized.

The twins were extremely identical. MacLeod had delivered identical
twins before, but there was always some slight difference to tell them
apart. But these two seemed to have absolutely nothing that
differentiated them. Cassandra knew that would be a problem. She
didn't have names for them because Maria hadn't decided on a second
name. She finally dubbed one Young One and the other Young Two. This
is how they would be differentiated in the computer until they were
properly named.

The twins were stablized, but Maria was getting worse. There was
nothing more that she could do for Maria. Maria needed the help and
resources of StarFleet Medical. However, there was nothing that could
be done for her on the America as it was stuck in an alternate
universe.

Finally, Cassandra said, "Put Maria in stasis. We'll have to get her
to StarFleet Medical before we can do anything else with her. Nahuel,
keep tabs on her. I'm going to talk with Delaney about the
situation."

Cassandra left as Nahuel was now left with three patients--one in
stasis and the two newborns in the make-shift nursery.

[Amanda Rose]

As Jamison sat quietly on the bridge, he wondered just what he was going to do on shoreleave. All of his family were on Mars, and he probably would be able to get passage over there from the Starbase, but he didn't just want to go home. The news coming around was grim. Tuesday Harriman and the Enterprise-B had been captured by the Romulans. Of all the nerve, especially after Captain Kirk and the previous incarnation of the Federation flagship had preserved the Khitomer peace accords. Even then, though, people had viewed the Romulan participation with suspicion, prehaps to make Starfleet let its guard down. 'Maybe Admiral Cartwright had been right after all....' Ben thought.

America was in the middle of a mess of her own. As far as the young helm officer understood it, Admiral Moore had issued fake orders to Captain O'Connor for reasons at yet undisclosed to the lieutenant. He only hoped he didn't have to testify for a court martial, that would take a massive chunk of time from his leave.

He tapped the communication control on the helm panel. "Jamison to O'Connor. Captain, I'm about to leave the ship. Is there anything you want done with helm and navigation?" he asked.

<TAG> O'Connor

[Amanda Rose]

Tegau had had her hands full the past few days between Maria and her twins and the
Stonewall Jackson switcheroo. She finally was nearly forced to go to her quarters and get
some rest, a thing her tired body longed for. She woke up when the Captain asked her to
come to her office, but just then, the door chimed.

"I'll be there soon, Captain," she sent back, and then opened the door.

As Tegau slept in loose pants and a t-shirt, she suffered no embarrassment lettting
Cassandra in after just getting up. "What can I do for you?" she asked, rubbing her tired eyes.
"How's SickBay?"

[Amanda Rose]

Tegau had had her hands full the past few days between Maria and her
twins and the Stonewall Jackson switcheroo. She finally was nearly
forced to go to her quarters and get some rest, a thing her tired body
longed for. She woke up when the Captain asked her to come to her
office, but just then, the door chimed.

"I'll be there soon, Captain," she sent back, and then opened the door.

As Tegau slept in loose pants and a t-shirt, she suffered no
embarrassment lettting Cassandra in after just getting up. "What can I
do for you?" she asked, rubbing her tired eyes. "How's SickBay?"

Cassandra replied, "It is fine. I came to you to tell you that I'm
leaving America. I put in for my transfer to the Cassini and it was
granted. I could not leave without saying goodbye."

tag - Delaney

[Amanda Rose]

O'Connor was sitting in her quarters waiting for Delaney, debating her
next glass of whiskey, when she heard a rather annoying voice over the
comm, "Jamison to O'Connor. Captain, I'm about to leave the ship. Is
there anything you want done with helm and navigation?" he asked.

She responded, =/\= You are on shoreleave, Jamison. Do something with
it. Maybe pin the tail on the Huanni. I don't care. You just don't
need to be here. If you insist, I'm sure after all our time jumping
that some of the ops systems could use checking over. O'Connor out. =/\=

O'Connor sighed. Jamison was nothing more than an eager puppy. He
had gone from rude and annoying to eager puppy and she was not sure
which annoyed her more. She just knew that she needed to talk to
someone about her mess and he was not the person for it.

[Amanda Rose]

O'Connor inwardly cheered at Jamison's answer. "Great. Bring us into
the starbase. O'Connor pressed the comm button, =/\= This is the
Captain. We are back a day after we left on New Year's. Since we
have spent possibly months in the past, all crew members are granted
two days shoreleave, commencing immediately. =/\=

Once America docked, O'Connor returned to her ready room to file the
final paperwork. She started, "I do not know whether this mission can
be deemed a success or failure. Frankly, I did not see a lot of point
to this mission and it was highly dangerous, as we managed to change
history once. Correction, Dr. Alec Hamilton changed history by
warning the Confederate troops to not shoot at Stonewall Jackson.
More mystifying is how Young and Stonewall Jackson soul swapped, as it
were, so that we had Stonewall Jackson trapped in Young's body as we
went to the alternate future.

"What this mission proves to me is that time travel should never be
attempted into our past until we can be certain that any of our
actions would not affect those of our current future. Furthermore, I
cannot see the relevance of how the Civil War is related to this
Andorian situation other than some similar rhetoric. We did obtain a
live sample from the Civil War, a Mary McConnel who was apparently
slated to die from exposure. Connel, as she likes to be called is
approximately 11 years in age and seems to be fairly bright for a
child of that era. I have no idea what to do with her but she has
seemed to acclimate somewhat to this era and is learning basic reading
and writing skills. That does not seem to deter her temper, which I
refuse to attribute to her Irish heritage. I attribute it more to her
uncivilized era. Hopefully, with some appropriate counseling, she
will adjust to the 23rd century.

"I am concerned about the effects the time travel has had on my crew.
Commander Young's wife has had two babies that have exhibited some
rather unusual changes during our travel and Dr. Delaney has done the
best she could in our unfortunate settings.

"I merely hope that whatever information Mr. Blake and Dr. Hamilton
acquired was worth it to Admiral Moore and Starfleet because for my
crew and I, it has taken an enormous emotional and physical toll.
Then again, I have one advantage in that I still have the tribble from
the Andorian dominated alternate future we encountered after history
was modified, which was interesting to say the least. It seemed that
the Andorian society was constantly bent on war and that humans were
relegated to a third class party status in their regime. It was a far
cry from the Federation with which we're acquainted. Again, I am not
sure the purpose of this mission but hopefully we did what we were
required to do. End log."

O'Connor sighed and left for her quarters.

(merge into Admiral Kent post)