87Disclaimer: Star Trek and all associated characters and situations are the property of CBS studios, Star Trek Online is the creation of Cryptic and Perfect World, all are used by myself for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.
Character: Captain Benjamin Walker
Timeframe: nonapplicable
-o0O0o-
"An Exercise in Elaboration"
'Work Never Done'
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'
-o0O0o-
It's been said that, even if another officer has the watch, a ship's captain was never off-duty as long as they were underway. Benjamin Walker was feeling every bit of that saying in his sore muscles and tired body, worn out after dealing with the latest rogue Na'kuhl threat to the timeline. He still wasn't sure how they thought killing two kids in twentieth century California before they could form a rock band would stop the formation of the Federation; then somehow those same kids had gotten their hands on a time travel device of their own and the Pastak ended up having to chase them up and down the timeline while they kidnapped important historical figures for some kind of school project. Luckily, the kids had easily agreed to put them back once their little adventure was finished, even assisting in doing so, which Walker considered an excellent outcome to the situation.
All in all, it made the prospect of a few hours rest more inviting than ever. Unfortunately, he'd made one of the all-time boneheaded mistakes, just short of getting involved in a land war in Asia, going in against a Sicilian when death was on the line, or betting against certain historical Starfleet Captains when the odds were against them and the situation was grim. He'd made the mistake of commenting out-loud about finally having some time to relax. The universe seemed to love to spite anyone that did that. Now, instead of enjoying a quick nap or a good book, he was listening to his First Officer inform him of their new orders over a video-link to the bridge from his quarters.
"It's happening in the 2250's, though we haven't managed to lock in the source of the temporal incursion," Nereda informed him.
"How bad is the divergence?"
The Cardassian woman shrugged, "Relatively negligible at the moment, but the longer the incursion continues..."
"I know; the greater the chance for a massive change in the timeline like the Enterprise-C and Narada/Kelvin incidents."
"What the Temporal Observatories have managed to confirm is that the Federation/Klingon tensions of the time somehow escalated to a year-long shooting war that led to millions of deaths, the loss of numerous vessels and Starbases, and even worse - nearly saw the Federation conquered by the Klingon Empire."
"You call that negligible?" The hard look on Walker's face made it clear that he did not.
"Elements of the proper timeline seemed to reassert themselves while under observation; Ambassador Sarek, for instance, was captured and killed, then something happened to correct that and he survived to continue his career for the next hundred years."
"I'm on my way to the bridge. Ready the ship for temporal shift and have communications stand by to send a message to 2410; I know just the ship and crew if we need assistance dealing with the situation."
-o0o-
Author's Note: Yep, it's how 29th Century Starfleet learns about "Discovery"!
