( nahla wasn't entirely certain what she preferred-- a long day of putting out fires with the cadets, or the mountain of paperwork that she'd conveniently had forgotten existed during her departure from command positions. teaching on bajor always had more ice cream and far less paperwork.
it didn't matter. for all the small things that she could complain about, seeing the kids coming together, seeing them learn and grow was the part she loved. it really was where her heart lay, and why she'd taught on bajor after resigning her commission.
she'd taken a late night walk through the atrium, appreciating the quiet moment to let herself revel in the joy of what rhey were doing, and forcing herself to empty her mind a little before she returned to her office. she had one last thing to look over that evening before turning in, and a clearer mind would get it done quicker.
forty minutes later she was back at her office, stretching her arms out as she stepped through the door-- and then froze. the man passed out on her lounger was a surprising sight, and certainly hadn't been there when she'd left. though even more strangely, his appearance hadn't set off any alarms.
options ran through her head, and nahla knew that she should call security, but what she should do wasn't always what she did do. which is why she's approaching him, and waking him, leaning over the lounger as she speaks )
There are perhaps only three reasons why I'm waking you instead of throwing you in a jail cell. So talk quickly. Who are you?
( okay, maybe she'd also slapped the top of his head to wake him. not sorry )
[Ah, what a lovely night for a walk. His night has been equally lovely!]
[("Shields down to 24%!" "The bio-litrocene we have on board is putting off strange readings on our sensors. It seems to be interacting with the wormhole and the tachyon leak." "Julian, I think we need to focus on not getting blown up first." "I know it's for medical procedures but bio-litrocene can convert to litrocel when exposed to tachyons, and litrocel is explosive." "...okay, keep focusing on us not getting blown up that way. Is there some way to nullify it?")]
[Then they'd reached the middle of the wormhole, energy had arced around them, and all of a sudden everything had gone white. Then dark.]
Ow.
[He gasps and sits up abruptly, feeling his body as if to verify it's actually there. Trying to make sure that the white light hadn't been his consciousness spinning off into oblivion. He doesn't believe in an afterlife, but an "after" something has just happened and he wants to make sure he has all his bits and pieces. Arms. Legs. Torso. He certainly has a head because it's stinging from that slap.]
[Yes, in his medical opinion, fully accounted for.]
[When he turns from how he was crumpled in the lounger, she'll see the uniform in better detail. It is...well, ancient. A design that hasn't been used in centuries, grey shoulders over a Sciences blue collar. The commbadge delta is wildly out of date. He also looks pretty worse for wear. It had been a very rough mission. His uniform is torn and singed in a few places and there's a bit of blood from treating Kira's injuries. His face is grimy.]
[There's a very old design of a phaser strapped to his hip, being openly carried. Perhaps not unusual, post-Burn, but unusual for that design.]
[Julian looks around, squinting in confusion. If he didn't know any better...]
This is real, isn't it? [He reaches out and pokes her arm twice.] I certainly hope it's real and not some some dying hallucination as I wither away inside my own mind. I think I'd have to resort to declaring myself dead, given the circumstances.
( and though nahla doesn't say it, there's enough of a pause when she stops that someone could assume a yet is unsaid. she straightens up, crossing her arms as she circles slowly around the lounger. unlike him, she's out of uniform, black trousers and a dark grey sweater, bare feet to accompany the ensemble.
his uniform is niggling in the back of her mind-- it's ancient, and his confusion versus quickly reaching for the phaser he's carrying tells her this wasn't an intentional intrusion but something accidental. centuries past accidental. an anomalous event, a random spacial phenomena, something ripping through centuries.
nahla sighs as she finishes the circle, arms unfolded to tap his legs so she can sit on the end of the lounger. her expression is inquisitive, studying his face to see if she can figure him out past what the ripped uniform and blood is telling her. but history stretches so long, and even with everything she's seen and read there are so many faces )
I'm Captain Nahla Ake.
( she's forcing herself to move slower than she usually would, careful about the information she reveals to him. her speech is at least softer than her first question was )
What's your name? And do I need to call a doctor for you?
Where am I? How did I get here? I was just in the wormhole. [He turns around, looking for any sign of how he got here.] Where's my crewmate?
[He doesn't give his name because he's preoccupied by the situation and there are very important things he's obligated to try first.]
[He taps his commbadge.]
Kira, this is Bashir, come in. [Silence.]
[Wondering if he somehow reached the other side of the wormhole, since they were halfway through, he decides to try to contact Ops too. Maybe this is a ship near the station? And he somehow got transported to it?]
[He taps again.]
Bashir to Ops, do you read me? We were nearly through the wormhole. Am I in range of the station? [Nothing.] Is anyone there?
( nahla waits. she can see the panic, that little frantic energy that comes from having been in danger, and she knows that for the minute that words won't appease him.
so she sits, hands folded in her lap, letting him try to call his team. it tells her more, his name and position, some of the people he'd cared about, and she makes a mental note to look him up and kira later on. he'd been on a station, a wormhole had been involved. she has one guess in mind, a station that famously served by a very known wormhole, but she doesn't jump in with it yet.
when he pauses, when the silence rings clear, she smiles at him, a little sympathetic )
Doctor Bashir, I'm afraid that the situation is far bigger than you simply having been transported somewhere else.
( and sadly his friends are dead, though hopefully not because of what took him here )
The wormhole likely is why you were here, and I can get my people looking to see if your friends have also turned up elsewhere here. But if not-- there's one thing that you should prepare yourself for.
( internally she winces at her words, speaking the next part a little quicker before his fear can grasp him too tightly )
Of course I'm not. Of course! Because it's the wormhole. It can send you off to another universe, so you can have a bracing experience in a brand new vocation as a slave, why not spirit you off to another time as well?!
[It is the annoyance of someone who was interrupted in the middle of something important, and who's worried about who he left behind. And who keeps getting pranked by the same stupid anomaly and has decided to temporarily anthropomorphize it. Robble robble mirror unviverse was bad enough robble robble argh.]
[He sits down abruptly on the lounge chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.]
When the blazes am I? And where? [A pause.] If you recognize anything about me or what I've said, I'm guessing it's the future, not a time before I was born.
[Maybe his uniform? Starfleet changed them often enough his could be hideously out of date.]
( one of her hands presses to her mouth, covering the smile that threatens to form to hide it-- she can be famously bad at keeping her expression neutral, and this is not the time to accidentally laugh at his rambling.
she nods quickly, listening, and then as she speaks lets her hand fall again, both of then moving as she talks to him )
You're in my office on the USS Athena, currently orbiting Earth.
( which was honestly a bonus at this point, easier to explain than a planet that he hadn't yet heard about. and before they were in the middle of travel )
It's 3195. I know, a big jump, but I'm confident we can work this out and find a way to undo this. Despite everything Temporal Investigations says doesn't happen, they wouldn't exist if time travel hadn't or didn't happen-- intentionally or not.
( and given the most recent part with the uss discovery, it happened. she was aware of some of those details thanks to charlie, given her retirement at that point )
Now, based on what you said, the wormhole? Would I be right in assuming it's the wormhole by Bajor? You mentioned a station, Deep Space 9? Details will only help us, Doctor.
sorry for the delay, also did you see the new ep? screaming crying
Thirty-one-ninety f... [He just trails off without even finishing the whole number.]
[And gapes at her. Sure, he's time traveled a few centuries before but this is - oh this is strange, to be in the future this time instead of the past. To be thrust forward that far into the unknown.]
[Into the things he shouldn't know.]
Yes. I'm Dr. Julian Bashir, chief medical officer of Deep Space Nine, which is currently captained by Benjamin Sisko. The station is currently near Bajor. I'm from the year 2375. We're currently at war with the Dominion.
[He gives the specific stardate. It is a perilous time the very height of the war, only months before its climax and end.]
[It makes his appearance make perfect sense. It was a desperate time, where bloodshed and death was around every corner. When exhaustion was a constant companion.]
[That means it's a dangerous time for him to have been pulled from. There are moments where it was necessary for him to be there, and where his Augment intellect was important.]
[And there were things after, the things he hasn't done. Medical contributions - like a huge chunk of the research that cured the ketracel-white dependence of the Jem'Hadar. Or the research that helped end the Andorian reproductive crisis. And so much more.]
You'll be relieved to know that we're not still at war.
( she knows, she knows, you shouldn't reveal any futuristic details, but she doesn't give much, just something to breathe over. when that war ended, and how nahla won't say, but there'll be enough he'd be able to learn just by looking around -- starfleet still existed. maybe the outcome was obvious enough )
I know that you've said that you're alright, but I'd still like to have my chief medical officer examine you. He may be able to find out something about why you got here, even if you are healthy.
( you're 800 years in the future, doctor, medicine has done exactly what you'd expect )
I also have many questions for you.
sorry for the delay, been picking up a lot of extra hours this month so may be slow for a bit.
[Julian takes in a breath at the "we're not still at war." He sighs it back out in obvious relief.]
I noticed you didn't seem to be speaking Dominionese and was hoping for the best. I didn't want to ask.
I worked with some other Augments. Our statistical analyses of possible outcomes of the war were....dire. Captain Sisko had to talk me back into having a little hope.
[He's glad she told him. That doesn't mean he'll stop fighting his damndest because he knows it may be necessary. That should have minimal bearing on the timeline.]
[He nods at her in agreement at being examined, though he looks annoyed at the prospect. But it is true that doctors are the worst patients.]
[He stands to go to their Infirmary.]
Whether you want to do it now or after I meet with your CMO, ask away.
( she makes a mental notes at this point to make sure the good doctor is kept away from lura -- whilst they're centuries different, she's not certain that would be a nice surprise for him. at least without some pre-warning. which nahla doesn't do yet )
Let's do it now.
( it wouldn't take much for the doctor to be able to get to her office, and she didn't yet wish to break up the conversation they were having )
The wormhole. You've no doubt travelled through it hundreds of times. Was there anything different about it this time, readings that you've never seen before, or some part of your mission that could have had enough of an impact to result in this?
The sensors indicated the bio-litrocene we were transporting on board was interacting somehow with the wormhole and a tachyon leak from the damage. We were trying to figure out what was happening but then I wound up here.
[A pause.]
The wormhole was often sensitive to certain types of energies. This certainly wouldn't be the first time it transported me somewhere odd.
But it is the first time it's taken you quite so far?
( nahla assumes based on his reaction. one of her hands moves again, half-way back to her mouth before she pauses, it hovering mid-air, and then she lowers it back down )
I doubt we'd be able to replicate the precise scenario that caused you to arrive here, though we will be able to send you back.
( nahla says it as certainty, even though she doesn't know it yet. they'd have to do simulations, break a few laws-- all time travel technology had been destroyed and banned after the temporal wars. but this was an extraordinary circumstance )
We'll get you there, Doctor.
sorry for the long delay, how do you want to handle any stuff of him getting checked out?
Well, it did take me to the mirror universe. I'd say another dimension is quite far.
But this is certainly the farthest I've been taken in time.
[A shrug.]
Let's see if your medical staff can find anything unusual. I must admit I'm curious to see your Medbay. I know I should try not to pay that much attention to any technology but it can't hurt to look.
( the room they'd rented in the tavern was chilled, the evening setting quickly in, but that hadn't stopped them. neither had paused to light the fire, simply spending the hours drinking and sharing stories.
nahla lowered her glass to the floor, turning over where she lay on the couch to rest her head in sciel's lap, giggling softly to herself as she continued the story )
I mean, I couldn't believe it when they walked in. Did they expect I'd be anything other than naked?
( in this instance clearly nudity should be expected. but also, it's nahla. she's never expected )
[ Sciel, for her part, laughs warmly and lays a hand on Nahla's head, thumbing idly at the hair there. ]
They can't have. You were so clear. [ There's a sigh as she rolls her head a bit, shaking it hopelessly. ] Then again, some people really don't get subtext. You've got to spell it out for them like it's their first day alive.
[ Which she's fine to do! But it's nice when you get some with at least some powers of intuition. ]
Now that's a tragedy. No one should stand between a woman and a warm bath.
[ At least she'd gotten a funny story out of it. Sciel shakes her head hopelessly at the memory, heaving a sigh. ]
So they stood there ten minutes? Bold. [ Less both than Nahla's refusal to cover up, which Sciel deeply respects. ] Did they ever figure out where to look, in all that time?
As if moving the rest of him might have his eyes drift ever-downward... [ Sciel scoffs, all amusement and warmth, delighted at the recollection. ] Can't say I've ever been in that situation, but I'm so glad to hear about.
[ Since Nahla wasn't bothered at all, it can just be a funny story. An opportunity to jab at those hapless men who'd had no idea what to do with the whip-smart, beautiful woman they had right in front of them. ]
I could understand that. [ She chuckles. ] Thank goodness you're so lenient, giving them all another chance.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@ licencetoheal
it didn't matter. for all the small things that she could complain about, seeing the kids coming together, seeing them learn and grow was the part she loved. it really was where her heart lay, and why she'd taught on bajor after resigning her commission.
she'd taken a late night walk through the atrium, appreciating the quiet moment to let herself revel in the joy of what rhey were doing, and forcing herself to empty her mind a little before she returned to her office. she had one last thing to look over that evening before turning in, and a clearer mind would get it done quicker.
forty minutes later she was back at her office, stretching her arms out as she stepped through the door-- and then froze. the man passed out on her lounger was a surprising sight, and certainly hadn't been there when she'd left. though even more strangely, his appearance hadn't set off any alarms.
options ran through her head, and nahla knew that she should call security, but what she should do wasn't always what she did do. which is why she's approaching him, and waking him, leaning over the lounger as she speaks )
There are perhaps only three reasons why I'm waking you instead of throwing you in a jail cell. So talk quickly. Who are you?
( okay, maybe she'd also slapped the top of his head to wake him. not sorry )
Re: @ licencetoheal
[("Shields down to 24%!" "The bio-litrocene we have on board is putting off strange readings on our sensors. It seems to be interacting with the wormhole and the tachyon leak." "Julian, I think we need to focus on not getting blown up first." "I know it's for medical procedures but bio-litrocene can convert to litrocel when exposed to tachyons, and litrocel is explosive." "...okay, keep focusing on us not getting blown up that way. Is there some way to nullify it?")]
[Then they'd reached the middle of the wormhole, energy had arced around them, and all of a sudden everything had gone white. Then dark.]
Ow.
[He gasps and sits up abruptly, feeling his body as if to verify it's actually there. Trying to make sure that the white light hadn't been his consciousness spinning off into oblivion. He doesn't believe in an afterlife, but an "after" something has just happened and he wants to make sure he has all his bits and pieces. Arms. Legs. Torso. He certainly has a head because it's stinging from that slap.]
[Yes, in his medical opinion, fully accounted for.]
[When he turns from how he was crumpled in the lounger, she'll see the uniform in better detail. It is...well, ancient. A design that hasn't been used in centuries, grey shoulders over a Sciences blue collar. The commbadge delta is wildly out of date. He also looks pretty worse for wear. It had been a very rough mission. His uniform is torn and singed in a few places and there's a bit of blood from treating Kira's injuries. His face is grimy.]
[There's a very old design of a phaser strapped to his hip, being openly carried. Perhaps not unusual, post-Burn, but unusual for that design.]
[Julian looks around, squinting in confusion. If he didn't know any better...]
This is real, isn't it? [He reaches out and pokes her arm twice.] I certainly hope it's real and not some some dying hallucination as I wither away inside my own mind. I think I'd have to resort to declaring myself dead, given the circumstances.
no subject
( and though nahla doesn't say it, there's enough of a pause when she stops that someone could assume a yet is unsaid. she straightens up, crossing her arms as she circles slowly around the lounger. unlike him, she's out of uniform, black trousers and a dark grey sweater, bare feet to accompany the ensemble.
his uniform is niggling in the back of her mind-- it's ancient, and his confusion versus quickly reaching for the phaser he's carrying tells her this wasn't an intentional intrusion but something accidental. centuries past accidental. an anomalous event, a random spacial phenomena, something ripping through centuries.
nahla sighs as she finishes the circle, arms unfolded to tap his legs so she can sit on the end of the lounger. her expression is inquisitive, studying his face to see if she can figure him out past what the ripped uniform and blood is telling her. but history stretches so long, and even with everything she's seen and read there are so many faces )
I'm Captain Nahla Ake.
( she's forcing herself to move slower than she usually would, careful about the information she reveals to him. her speech is at least softer than her first question was )
What's your name? And do I need to call a doctor for you?
no subject
[As far as he can tell anyway.]
Where am I? How did I get here? I was just in the wormhole. [He turns around, looking for any sign of how he got here.] Where's my crewmate?
[He doesn't give his name because he's preoccupied by the situation and there are very important things he's obligated to try first.]
[He taps his commbadge.]
Kira, this is Bashir, come in. [Silence.]
[Wondering if he somehow reached the other side of the wormhole, since they were halfway through, he decides to try to contact Ops too. Maybe this is a ship near the station? And he somehow got transported to it?]
[He taps again.]
Bashir to Ops, do you read me? We were nearly through the wormhole. Am I in range of the station? [Nothing.] Is anyone there?
[Silence. 819 years' worth of silence.]
no subject
so she sits, hands folded in her lap, letting him try to call his team. it tells her more, his name and position, some of the people he'd cared about, and she makes a mental note to look him up and kira later on. he'd been on a station, a wormhole had been involved. she has one guess in mind, a station that famously served by a very known wormhole, but she doesn't jump in with it yet.
when he pauses, when the silence rings clear, she smiles at him, a little sympathetic )
Doctor Bashir, I'm afraid that the situation is far bigger than you simply having been transported somewhere else.
( and sadly his friends are dead, though hopefully not because of what took him here )
The wormhole likely is why you were here, and I can get my people looking to see if your friends have also turned up elsewhere here. But if not-- there's one thing that you should prepare yourself for.
( internally she winces at her words, speaking the next part a little quicker before his fear can grasp him too tightly )
You're not still in your own time.
no subject
[Followed by annoyance.]
Of course I'm not. Of course! Because it's the wormhole. It can send you off to another universe, so you can have a bracing experience in a brand new vocation as a slave, why not spirit you off to another time as well?!
[It is the annoyance of someone who was interrupted in the middle of something important, and who's worried about who he left behind. And who keeps getting pranked by the same stupid anomaly and has decided to temporarily anthropomorphize it. Robble robble mirror unviverse was bad enough robble robble argh.]
[He sits down abruptly on the lounge chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.]
When the blazes am I? And where? [A pause.] If you recognize anything about me or what I've said, I'm guessing it's the future, not a time before I was born.
[Maybe his uniform? Starfleet changed them often enough his could be hideously out of date.]
no subject
she nods quickly, listening, and then as she speaks lets her hand fall again, both of then moving as she talks to him )
You're in my office on the USS Athena, currently orbiting Earth.
( which was honestly a bonus at this point, easier to explain than a planet that he hadn't yet heard about. and before they were in the middle of travel )
It's 3195. I know, a big jump, but I'm confident we can work this out and find a way to undo this. Despite everything Temporal Investigations says doesn't happen, they wouldn't exist if time travel hadn't or didn't happen-- intentionally or not.
( and given the most recent part with the uss discovery, it happened. she was aware of some of those details thanks to charlie, given her retirement at that point )
Now, based on what you said, the wormhole? Would I be right in assuming it's the wormhole by Bajor? You mentioned a station, Deep Space 9? Details will only help us, Doctor.
sorry for the delay, also did you see the new ep? screaming crying
[And gapes at her. Sure, he's time traveled a few centuries before but this is - oh this is strange, to be in the future this time instead of the past. To be thrust forward that far into the unknown.]
[Into the things he shouldn't know.]
Yes. I'm Dr. Julian Bashir, chief medical officer of Deep Space Nine, which is currently captained by Benjamin Sisko. The station is currently near Bajor. I'm from the year 2375. We're currently at war with the Dominion.
[He gives the specific stardate. It is a perilous time the very height of the war, only months before its climax and end.]
[It makes his appearance make perfect sense. It was a desperate time, where bloodshed and death was around every corner. When exhaustion was a constant companion.]
[That means it's a dangerous time for him to have been pulled from. There are moments where it was necessary for him to be there, and where his Augment intellect was important.]
[And there were things after, the things he hasn't done. Medical contributions - like a huge chunk of the research that cured the ketracel-white dependence of the Jem'Hadar. Or the research that helped end the Andorian reproductive crisis. And so much more.]
so much screaming!!! many tears
( she knows, she knows, you shouldn't reveal any futuristic details, but she doesn't give much, just something to breathe over. when that war ended, and how nahla won't say, but there'll be enough he'd be able to learn just by looking around -- starfleet still existed. maybe the outcome was obvious enough )
I know that you've said that you're alright, but I'd still like to have my chief medical officer examine you. He may be able to find out something about why you got here, even if you are healthy.
( you're 800 years in the future, doctor, medicine has done exactly what you'd expect )
I also have many questions for you.
sorry for the delay, been picking up a lot of extra hours this month so may be slow for a bit.
I noticed you didn't seem to be speaking Dominionese and was hoping for the best. I didn't want to ask.
I worked with some other Augments. Our statistical analyses of possible outcomes of the war were....dire. Captain Sisko had to talk me back into having a little hope.
[He's glad she told him. That doesn't mean he'll stop fighting his damndest because he knows it may be necessary. That should have minimal bearing on the timeline.]
[He nods at her in agreement at being examined, though he looks annoyed at the prospect. But it is true that doctors are the worst patients.]
[He stands to go to their Infirmary.]
Whether you want to do it now or after I meet with your CMO, ask away.
no worries at all!
Let's do it now.
( it wouldn't take much for the doctor to be able to get to her office, and she didn't yet wish to break up the conversation they were having )
The wormhole. You've no doubt travelled through it hundreds of times. Was there anything different about it this time, readings that you've never seen before, or some part of your mission that could have had enough of an impact to result in this?
no subject
[A pause.]
The wormhole was often sensitive to certain types of energies. This certainly wouldn't be the first time it transported me somewhere odd.
no subject
( nahla assumes based on his reaction. one of her hands moves again, half-way back to her mouth before she pauses, it hovering mid-air, and then she lowers it back down )
I doubt we'd be able to replicate the precise scenario that caused you to arrive here, though we will be able to send you back.
( nahla says it as certainty, even though she doesn't know it yet. they'd have to do simulations, break a few laws-- all time travel technology had been destroyed and banned after the temporal wars. but this was an extraordinary circumstance )
We'll get you there, Doctor.
sorry for the long delay, how do you want to handle any stuff of him getting checked out?
But this is certainly the farthest I've been taken in time.
[A shrug.]
Let's see if your medical staff can find anything unusual. I must admit I'm curious to see your Medbay. I know I should try not to pay that much attention to any technology but it can't hurt to look.
@ searingbond
nahla lowered her glass to the floor, turning over where she lay on the couch to rest her head in sciel's lap, giggling softly to herself as she continued the story )
I mean, I couldn't believe it when they walked in. Did they expect I'd be anything other than naked?
( in this instance clearly nudity should be expected. but also, it's nahla. she's never expected )
no subject
They can't have. You were so clear. [ There's a sigh as she rolls her head a bit, shaking it hopelessly. ] Then again, some people really don't get subtext. You've got to spell it out for them like it's their first day alive.
[ Which she's fine to do! But it's nice when you get some with at least some powers of intuition. ]
So? What then?
no subject
They didn't know where to look, and I wasn't covering up.
( it was their fault! )
It took five minutes to get the request out of them, ten more before they'd leave. My plan of a bath and hot towel ended ruined.
no subject
[ At least she'd gotten a funny story out of it. Sciel shakes her head hopelessly at the memory, heaving a sigh. ]
So they stood there ten minutes? Bold. [ Less both than Nahla's refusal to cover up, which Sciel deeply respects. ] Did they ever figure out where to look, in all that time?
no subject
( she laughs again, tipping her head up a little more )
You could see the fear, like I was going to fire them then.
( she laughs more because that's absurd to her. sure, she's the commander, but surely she doesn't have that kind of reputation? she'd be horrified )
no subject
[ Since Nahla wasn't bothered at all, it can just be a funny story. An opportunity to jab at those hapless men who'd had no idea what to do with the whip-smart, beautiful woman they had right in front of them. ]
I could understand that. [ She chuckles. ] Thank goodness you're so lenient, giving them all another chance.