Broken Clock

Posted on Wed Dec 31st, 2025 @ 10:05pm by Ensign Roju & Lieutenant Commander Eve Hall & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D'BrooNi- Haistro & Lieutenant Zhi'rev & Lieutenant JG Maran

3,087 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Life
Location: U.S.S. Bluebird
Timeline: 2401-07-04, 03:30

Starship Log, Ensign Roju Recording:

The team from the Saratoga are returning to the ship after attending a two-week conference at Biranu Station.

Ensign Roju sat alone in the cockpit of the Runabout Bluebird watching the flight controls closely. After a day of high warp travel - well high warp for a runabout - they were finally about to make their way back to the Saratoga. While the conference they attended was enjoyable, he really was looking forward to getting home and taking a sonic shower in peace.

Reaching forward the young Vorgon pressed a few of the control buttons, "Computer, activate automatic helm control."

"Helm control activated."

Rising from the controls, the Engineer walked to the aft compartment to see the rest of the crew.

Zhi was stood at the replicator, looking as if he was ready to receive food orders from the rest of the group, while having just issued the device and order for toast and eggs, no bacon, for himself along with a glass of tropical fruit juice. "I shall be glad when we're home again," he mused out loud, "and see my family again."

"Me too," Mel said. "Who knows what sort of trouble Charlies been up too while I have been away. I was able to call her once and well she seemed very fishy. Call it a mother intuition but I had a feeling someone else was in our quarters with her. She couldn't get me off the comm. fast enough."

"Did you not leave a chaperone?" The Vulcan asked her, returning to the table with his breakfast, since none called out any desired food. "she is of appropriate age to find a mare, is she not?" He wondered if this was what would await him when his children were older. "Does she not trust you with the information of male company?"

Grabbing a cup of Vulcan Spice Tea, Ensign Roju wondered if he'd entered at the wrong time. Approaching the only table in the aft compartment, "I apologize if I am intruding. May I sit?"

Maran stretched as he appeared from the rear bunks. "Morning all." He said with a smile as he began tie his shoulder length hair into the uniform standard ponytail.

"Of course," Mel responded to the Ensign. And yes good morning," she said to Lieutenant Maran.

"She's 16 almost 17. Has half Trill DNA so in terms of maturity she's able to be left alone. Trills mature faster than her human side. I did get several colleagues to check in on her through. I'm sure she didn't like that, but I'm still her mum and allowed to worry," she said with a smile.

"How did you all enjoy the conference?" she asked the other two that had joined them.

The young engineer shrugged, "About what I expected it to be, honestly. With this being such a remote region, the relative lack of participation was as I expected. I was a little hopeful for a more robust seminar environment."

Zhi pondered the answer as he issued the others a polite nod in greeting. "Yes, you are allowed to worry," he agreed, sipping his drink in the process. "I would have liked more time to explore the area but as we weren't allowed to leave the area that was a moot endeavour. I found the discussions a little lacking too... As if they didn't want to answer questions or dig too deep in the details."

Maran proceeded towards the replicator and ordered himself a English breakfast tea and 2 slices of wholemeal toast. Once materialised, he picked up the cup and plate of toast and headed towards the seating area.

"Which was odd for a conference on archaeology," the Vorgon laughed.

"Somewhat," the Vulcan agreed. "What was your impression doctor?" He asked, returning his attention to the doctor.

"Well," Mel said thinking, "I was surprised they asked me to come to a archaeology conference. But there was a lecture on alien mummification techniques and some interesting medicinal plants or drugs that they have dug up. I asked if I could be in the loop for the trials on one substance that did look interesting."

The Engineering Ensign yawned, "I for one am excited about getting back to the Saratoga. How about the rest of you?"

"I must admit my bunk on the Saratoga is more comfortable." Maran commented before taking a sip of his tea.

"Good news is we should be arriving back at the Saratoga in about an hour. I'm looking forward to getting to work on resetting the starboard power couplings. Hopefully, Commander Hall didn't get to it before we got back."

"Don't you trust her to do it right?" Zhi queried , "as I already said I'm looking forward to seeing my husband and children again. Sethan was rather annoyed he couldn't come because he would've loved to get out and explore."

"I'm going to try get all the gossip from Charlie," Mel said grinning, "And see if I can find out if there's a fella."

The bridge of the Saratoga was bathed in the low ambient glow of night mode, most of its illumination coming from the soft pulses of the LCARS panels manned by the skeleton crew. In the command chair, Commander Hall cradled a fresh mug of raktajino, the steam curling upward as she reviewed a data padd filled with departmental updates. The only sounds were the subtle thrum of the warp core and the occasional chirp from a console; routine echoes of a ship in motion while most of the crew slept. The calm was interrupted by a soft chime, followed by the measured voice of Ensign Th’rou from the operations station.

“Commander, preliminary results from the gravimetric sweep are still processing but we’ve already picked up anomalous readings. It appears it is our runabout.” Without waiting for a command, Th’rou transferred the data to the main viewscreen, the telltale distortions blinking into view.

Hall narrowed her eyes at the display. “Well, that’s not something you see every day,” she murmured, then gave a brief nod toward ops. Her tone shifted, more clipped now. “Saratoga to Bluebird—hold your approach. Maintain current position until further notice.”

She didn’t wait for acknowledgment. Whatever was out there, it wasn’t routine and her instincts knew better than to ignore a disturbance that chose to reveal itself in the quietest hour of the ship’s day. "Let's wake the Captain up early," she spoke to no one in particular

“Saratoga to USS Bluebird—hold your approach. Maintain current position until further notice.” Came over the comm. Maran frowned as he swallowed the last piece toast. He took a quick sip of his tea to wash it down before he moved to the runabouts helm and sat down.

"Saratoga, this is Lieutenant Maran. We will hold position." The Cardassian said as he brought the runabout out of warp. "Everything ok, Commander?"

Zhi looked up as well, his mug hovering somewhere between the table and his mouth as he was just about to sip his tea. "Why would they want us to hold position?" He queried, "is the ship under attack? About to get hit by anomaly?" A worried frown crossed his features as he set the mug down. "I can run some scans..."

Sitting at the Engineering console and holding onto a second cup of Vulcan Spice Tea, the Vorgon Engineer reviewed the readings on the display console. The Saratoga asking them to hold position wasn't a common instruction, but it wasn't out of the realm of probable either. There were any number of reasons that they'd ask them to hold position.

"Well, I was hoping to be able to run a diagnostic on the dilithium articulation frame."

Bluebird... you missed your scheduled return. We've been looking for you..." The Commander responded over the comm-link.

"Huh?" Zhi looked surprised as the message came in. "Saratoga please explain, we were just told to hold our approach, how is it we missed the rendezvous now?"

Roju listened the back and forth that had been going on and turned back toward his workstation. Typing on the display screen, the young Vorgon began the process of checking with the Federation timebase beacons to see if, perhaps, there was some merit to what they'd been told.

Maran frowned, "Is it possible?"

Roju turned away from his computer console, "Time-base confirms that our chronometers are off by four point seven days."

Zhi moved over to the science station and nodded in confirmation. "Current time indicates we are four days late," he said as he looked at his sensors, "but I'm not reading any temporal anomalies. And it doesn't explain why we were told to hold position only minutes ago." He paused, going over the readings a second time. "We should launch two probes, one towards the Saratoga and one towards the planet and compare readings."

"They could've ordered us to hold position so that they could intercept us," Roju suggested. "Maybe we've been missing, and this is the first time they detected us?"

Mel jumped up groaned in her head, she hated missing time incidents and started scanning her colleagues. "Just getting some readings in case. This is not good news."

Zhi continued to study the readouts the sensors were giving him and a close observer could see the colour drain away from his features. "Ensign Roju, please confirm...my readings tell me that we're not missing by 4 days, but nearly fifteen..." His voice sounded tight as he spoke, his eyes never leaving his monitor.

Roju turned back toward the runabout's controls, typing on the wall mounted portion of the console as he ran checks with the timebase beacon. "Definitely strange. Now the timebase is saying 14.7 days." He typed quickly on the keyboard, "Those are set by a complex algorithm by the Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations. They can't be wrong." The alien youngster sighed as he leaned back into the chair. "Very, very strange."

Checking the readouts, "Well, if we can trust the sensors, Saratoga's on her way to join us. ETA is a little under six hours from now."

"Standard operating procedure. They will need to investigate, obviously our stories are going to differ as we have 2 weeks missing." Maran commented.

"And two weeks of our families and friends being very worried," Zhi fretted.

"I know that they asked us to hold position," Roju spoke up, "but should we set course to intercept and Warp toward them?"

"That could be seen as a perceived threat. I'd recommend just following their orders and hopefully they can figure out what's happened." Maran said.

"I'm inclined to agree with that," Zhi said, nodding towards Maran. Even though every fibre of him screamed to return to his family, he forced himself to be rational. His expression belied his words, however. "We should hold, and let them come to us instead. Their sensors might see something ours don't."

The alien engineer nodded in agreement, "Alright then, but I don't know how I feel about waiting around, especially if we've been missing for... well however long we've been missing for."

"Trust me ensign, I understand how you feel," Zhi said softly, "my husband must be out of his wits with worry by now. And to be honest, so am I."

"No sign of hibernation or anything like that. How can we have been gone that long and not needed sleep or food. No signs I can determine of anything different to our scans before leaving," Mel said her nose crunched confused.

"Could we have been put in stasis?" The young Engineer asked, grasping at straws.

"Anything is possible." Maran commented as tapped away at his console.

"I'm more inclined to follow the line of a temporal eddy of some kind, we just need to find the scientific evidence to support that theory," Zhi disagreed, "stasis is something we'd be able to notice, it has all kinds of physical and psychological ramifications, doesn't it doctor?"

"That it does," Mel confirmed. "And I can see nothing out of the ordinary. When we get back to the ship I will try do some more in-depth scans with the equipment in sickbay."

A series of rapid beeps came from the workstation. Ensign Roju leaned in and opened the message that was being transmitted, "Looks like the Captain already changed his mind. We're to lay in an intercept course for the Saratoga and engage at maximum speed to rendezvous with them. Looks like they found a gormagander..."

"Found a which? Zhi asked as he checked the message. "It looks authentic but it confuses me. First we are to come home, then we have to wait and now we can go home again. I'd almost expect a message next to hold once more. I feel we should rendezvous anyway, no matter what they tell us now."

"Unless there's something life threatening, orders are orders," Mel chimed in. "A space whale. Really?"

"A rare one at that," the Vorgon answered. "I had a professor back at the Academy that raved about them and how rare they are. A race so focused on eating that they forget to have sex. Definitely a strange civilization, but the Captain probably got told he had to help it. They're endangered, after all."

"I'm a scientist, and I've never seen one before," Zhi admitted as he moved to look out the window. "I suggest we get as much data on it as we can, for as long as we can." He studied the gigantic creature for a very long moment. "It certainly is very big," was his unscientific conclusion, "almost to the point where I might suggest it is very pregnant. Can we get it tagged, so we can follow it for a while, at least on sensors?"

"We've lost half a day and you're now worried about a space whale?" Maran said confused.

The Vulcan shook his head. "No Mister Maran, we didn't lose half a day. Somewhere between our departure from the planet and now, we seem to have lost almost fifteen days. And we have no plausible explanation about how or why."

"That's what I meant and you're proving my point. Do we need to be worrying about space whales when we have more pressing concerns to concentrate on." The Cardassian replied.

"Unless those whales somehow are connected to our situation," Zhi pointed out.

"Whatever it is we'll have to do more than just tag and watch it. The same professor taught us a lot about what happens if you find one. You have to take it to a preserve," the Ensign explained. "Engines are primed. We can engage when ready."

"It has to be connected," Mel said. "Its so rare to find a space whale. And they are attracted to alpha particles. Can we do a scan see if there's any evidence of them on the shuttle?" she asked.

Maran nodded and started to scan for Alpha particles.

"How are we to take such a giant to a preserve?" Zhi queried, "beam it into our pattern buffer and hope for the best?"

The Vorgon laughed in response, "You're the Science Officer. I think they're going to make you figure that one out."

"Can a animal that size be held for long periods in the transporter buffer?" Maran questioned. To no one in particular, merely thinking aloud.

The Engineer answered, "Depends on a lot of factors, really. Years ago, Captain Montgomery Scott used a Transporter Pattern Buffer to keep himself alive after an accident involving a transport ship he was traveling on. The other person who entered the buffer with him though didn't make it. It's all, in a sense, luck of the draw."

Roju looked at the Scientist, "Looks like you have your work cut out for you."

"A person is easy. But a whale that size, there's a lot of variables to consider." Maran commented.

"Reducing a space whale to transporter particles and retain it in the buffer shouldn't be too hard," Zhi shrugged, "if a Klingon bird of prey can transport two adult humpback whales, surely we can retain one space whale?" He turned to one of the workstations. "We just need to adjust the capture variables of the transporter so that it envelopes the entire creature and not just part of it."

"There's a big difference between keeping a whale swimming and keeping one in a transporter buffer. Will you announce, 'there be whales here' when we beam it aboard?" The Engineer teased.

"My actual thought was due to the size and length of the journey can the ships memory hold something so large in the transporter buffer. Surely the memory would need to be extended plus safety measures introduced in case of a power outage." The Cardassian glanced at the engineer. "Don't you agree?"

"Could we not just put it in shuttle bay, tempt it in with some of those particles and remove the atmosphere?" Mel suggested. "I'm not sure I like the idea of it being in the pattern buffer. Especially if its pregnant. And that way we could scan it and learn about it."

Zhi smiled sympathetically. "I don't think a space whale would fit doctor," he explained, they're rather larger than Terran Wales." Turning his attention to his console, he rubbed his left arm a few times as if he were trying to get warm. He generally felt cold anyway so it wasn't an unusual gesture for him to make. "Let's see if we can run some calculations, give the computer something to do while we wait."

"A caged animal that's pregnant is only going to lash out. I'm sure the Captain would like some of the ship left." Maran said to no one on particular.

"I still don't think a space whale would even fit in the cargo bay," Zhi pointed out, "they are considerably larger than the Terran whale." He pointed at the scanner's readout which appeared on one of the monitors. "She doesn't seem to be aware of our approach," he added, "which is probably for the best." He stared at the image on the screen for a moment longer. "Marvelous creature," he marveled, "if only we could be so carefree."

Roju nodded, "If only life were as simple for us as it were for them." He reached forward, monitoring carefully as they warped toward the Saratoga and wondering just what had happened that they were behind arrival.

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