Lost Time

Posted on Fri Jun 12th, 2020 @ 11:22pm by Lieutenant Commander Rook Bartly & Commander Evan Merlin
Edited on on Fri Jun 12th, 2020 @ 11:24pm

Mission: When The Circus Comes To Town
Location: Cold Station: Theta
Timeline: 242006.12

"Look who's awake." Rook Bartly turned to to see who was speaking to find tall human wearing a Star Fleet medical uniform. Well, what looked similar to a Star Fleet medical uniform. It was a little different than any uniform she had seen before. The man smiled at Rook. "You are lucky to be alive. When you were brought in everyone expected that you wouldn't make it. Your wounds were quite severe." He picked up a data pad off the table next to the bed where Rook found herself.

Rook looked around the room trying to get her bearings. This was some kind of sickbay. It didn't look like anything she seen on any starship so she must be on a space station... somewhere or planet. She spotted several other people milling about completing what ever tasks they were assigned to. All of them in the same similar Star Fleet-ish uniforms. Rook's first thought was she must be onboard one of the Klingon war ships in some kinda holodeck but her time she spent in the officer exchange program taught her that Klingon ships don't come equipped with holodecks so she brushed that idea off. This place diffidently wasn't Quantico.

As she was trying to work out where she was, Rook closed her hospital gown that she torn open a moment ago in almost panic looking for the massive hole in her chest. "My.... wounds?" She said inquisitively only remembering having one wound. The one she took to her chest from that Klingon disruptor. She absently rubbed the scar as she was trying to piece together what happened to her.

The man, who Rook guessed was in his mid thirties, nodded. "Yes, when you arrived you had..." He looked at the data pad and scrolling. "...a concussion, over 120 lacerations on your head and body, oxygen deprivation, a compound fracture in your left arm, along with 3 broken ribs and internal bleeding. I have no idea how you managed to operate a star fighter in that condition." He looked at her in the eyes. "You one tough cookie."

She had no idea what he was talking about. She was shot... in the chest. She train of thought stopped on one thought 'Wait, what star fighter, I was on the bridge...' She looked down at her chest then back to the man. "Doc, what about this scar..." She showed the man the scar on her chest.

He smiled at her. "I'm not sure where that one came from, point in fact, I was wondering about that one myself but it was already there when you arrived." He looked at the data pad in his hand. "Based on these results I would say it was about two years old."

Rook shook her head. "No no... That's impossible... I was just..." she trailed off trying to make sense of what was happening.

The man shrugged. "Look, I know you have a ton of questions about what happened to you, where you are and the like but honestly, I'm not the one to answer them. You need to talk with Commander Merlin. I'm sure he can answer far more questions then I ever could." He tapped his comm badge. "Lt Marshal to Commander Merlin, I think you should come down to sickbay. Our guest is awake and sitting up. She has a ton of questions..."


During PADD control time – aka administration hour – the station's CO was ready to welcome any distraction. Keeping up with the paddwork was a necessary evil and he dutifully kept up with it, but (unlike some other people) he never really liked it.

So the doctor's call was a welcome distraction. Of course, it would mean more PADDs to process later, but that was a problem he didn't have to deal with right now. He rose and tossed the PADD on his desk. "I'm on my way."

A few minutes later he arrived in sickbay. The mysterious arrival had been in his mind a lot, of late. Not only due to the riddles surrounding her, such as who she was and where she came from. It also awoke thoughts in him which he usually kept away. Questions about his own past, his own origins. There was always the faint hope that in answering her riddles, he could unlock part of his own past.

"Hi," he said when he entered sickbay. As usual, he tried to restrain himself here. The CMO had made it clear on past occasions that the full force of his enthusiasm could have a detrimental effect on her patients. But his restraint couldn't force his wild hair to behave – as usual, as soon as he was officially 'off duty', it escaped its bounds and danced in chaotic curls around his head. And it couldn't keep his eyes from twinkling, as if the whole universe was a joke which most people just didn't get.

He gave a friendly nod to the Lieutenant and walked over to the bed. "How do you feel?"

Rook turned to face the new arrival. He kind of looked familiar but wasn't sure. "A pounding head ache, and sore all over...." She took a deep breath as she looked the new person over. "First off, where the hell am I and the f$%^ is going on?" She pushed herself off the bed. As soon as her feet touched the floor she wobbled but quickly regained her balance by placing her hand on the bed. "This place looks clearly like a some kind of Federation Station. It's clearly not a star ship or hospital but I don't recognize the uniforms. They are not standard Star Fleet uniforms and no one is answering my damn questions."

Since the doctor made no move to stop the patient from sitting up, the commander didn't act to stop her either. "Well, hit me with your damn questions and I'll do my best to answer them. "You're on Cold Station Theta and these uniforms are pretty standard these days." He grabbed a chair, turned it around so that the back was facing the biobed and sat down, resting his arms on the back rest. Then he waited to see if she would make the connection.

Still leaning on the bed, Rook looked down toward the floor in thought. "Cold Station Theta...." She thought for a moment. "that's a refueling station... that's near Romulan space." She looked up at him. "How did I get here? I was on board the Warrior in the Quantico System on a resq..." Rook stopped in mid sentence. "Wait, what? Did you just say these days? I know that is NOT a standard uniform."

The commander's smile was somewhat bleak, this time. "What is the last stardate you remember?" he asked, and his voice was now soft and gentle.

She looked at him as her eyes narrowed. "240510.01... You're dodging." She was standing on her own now her hands on her hips indignantly. "Look..." Rook glanced down to at the man's collar. "...Commander. Just spit it out. I hate when people dance around crap."

The man raised a single eyebrow at the other's outburst, though otherwise his expression didn't change. "The current stardate is 242006.07," he said calmly. "Now, from what I've heard there was already a discrepancy between your last memory and the condition you were found in, but that isn't nearly enough to cover the missing fifteen years. You were found coming out of a nearby nebula, where strange things have been known to happen. It has never been fully explored, and with reason. There was chroniton radiation around the fighter you were found in, which indicates some kind of time displacement took place." He kept a close eye on her as he talked, knowing (though not from personal experience) how fragile that burst of strength could be which had propelled her to her feet, and how quickly it could drain away at any shock… such as this. If she fainted, he knew he'd be fast enough to catch her before she hit the ground.

Rook shook her head. "No... that can't be right. There is no way..." Rook paused. She closed her eyes but anyone looking could see her eyes darting around quickly underneath her eyelids as she accessed her memory implant's storage. She opened her eyes and looked the man hard in the eyes. "Look Commander, there is no way its been 15 years since I was on the Warrior. I was just..." She stopped talking for a moment and rubbed the scar on her chest. "What 'discrepancy' between my last memory and the condition I was 'found in'." Rook made air quotes as she spoke.

"The first time we talked, you mentioned your last memory was of you being on the bridge of a ship. You were found in a fighter." Absentmindedly he produced a crystal ball seemingly out of nowhere and began to roll it over his hand and arm. Years ago, a masked ball had been organized on the station and he had learned that trick for the role he chose, and it had become something of a habit ever since. He often barely realized he was doing it. "Don't worry too much about it if you don't remember that conversation, you were barely conscious at the time."

She stood up on her own again. "Yeah, no idea about talking to anyone. I was on the bridge of the USS Warrior. We running an evacuating of Quantico. I was operating the drone fleet when..." Rook looked away for a moment then back to the man. "Ok, since your obviously not going to be so kind to introduce yourself. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that your that Commander Merlin guy doctor whowhatsit called for when he decided he didn't want to talk to me." Rook said as she watched him absently playing with the ball. "You said I was in a fighter. What kind of fighter was it and where is it now?"

The man smiled again. "Well, actually I did introduce myself to you… the first time. You're right, I'm Evan Merlin, CO of Cold Station Theta. Your ship is in one of the smaller hangar bays… One advantage of a station this size, there's plenty of storage room." The ball floated from the back of his hand over his fingertips to his palm, seemed to float there. It caught the light of the medbay and refracted it in odd directions.

"Yeah, established that I don't really remember that so... don't count." She stepped back. "Ok, so lets say your telling me the truth and it has been 15 years. Then how did...." Rook looked at Merlin. "Can you knock that off. It's really distracting."

"Oh." The man grinned and the ball disappeared as if by magic. "And I don't know. We're still running tests."

Rook frowned. "Look, Commander, I might be able to by this missing time thing. I have no idea what happened but I something caused me to have lost all of my memories..." Rook paused as she rubbed her neck. "If it wasn't for some... upgades... I wouldn't member a damn thing. I have a memory backup that seemed to have... um... 'uploaded' but that seemed to stop when... I was... um... injured on the Warrior." She narrowed her eyes. "You never answered my question as to 'what' fighter I was found in, was it a Star Fleet fighter? I need to see that fighter..."

"It was a prototype fighter, not many of them have been produced." It had taken a while before the computer had managed to spit out what type of fighter it was, and the only reason why it hadn't taken a lot longer than that was because as a former StratOps officer, he had been able to take a few shortcuts and knew where to look. "Rapier class. If you uploaded more memories there, you might be able to recover them…" he frowned, remembering the state the ship had been in when they found it. "But that's going to be a challenge. You might want to talk to our chief engineer, see if he can coax some life back into her computer." Not that he himself wasn't interested in the data the small ship contained.

She smiled for the first time since she woke up. "Finally some good news. That's my personal fighter. She doesn't have a 'memory backup' but she does have a sensors logs navigation computer with redundancy. She isn't fitted for detail science scans but she should have some kind of logs detail where she's been." Rook started to head toward the door and stopped a few steps later... "Um, can I get some clothes?" She winced in pain as she moved but tried to hide it.

"Not until the doctor gives you clearance to leave," the commander said. He had remained where he was, but he already saw the doctor on duty (a Denobulan fellow called Anile) walk over and shake his head.

"No no no no no," the doctor said. "We didn't go through all the trouble of patching you up just to see you up and leave less than an hour after coming to. I want you to spend at least the night here, young lady." One of Anile's eccentricities was to call everyone 'young …', regards of the person's actual age. "If by tomorrow your vital signs are still stable, we can talk about releasing you. Certainly not before."

Rook turned to face the doctor and stomped her foot in annoyance which caused her noticeable pain. "Thanks for 'patching me up' but I can't just lounge around the med-bay 'doing thing!' she said to him. "You can't keep me cooped up in here like some kind pet." Rook started to make her way to the door ignoring the protest from Anile who pointed at the young lieutenant then toward Rook. Lt Marshal understanding what that meant scooped up a hypo spray and quickly bolted to Rook coming up behind her pressing it on the back of her neck. "Hey......." was all she managed to get out as she collapsed into the lieutenants arms.

Lt Marshal frowned at Commander Merlin. "Sorry about that sir." He started toward the bed when a med tech came over to give him a hand. "In her medical records, there were several notes about her ignore medical advice and has trying to leave med-bays before along with the advice to 'keep a sedative handy". The two loaded her back onto the bed where she was before. "I promise we will keep an eye on our..... feisty friend here." He paused for a moment and looked at Commander Merlin. "I'm not sure if you looked up her Star Fleet records sir, but according to Star Fleet, this young woman is dead. The log shows that she was Killed in Action onboard the USS Warrior on star date 240510.01 by a disruptor blast to the chest from a Klingon boarding party... The scar on her chest matches the location of the hit that killed her but according to the log, it burned a hole clean through her chest. I even watched the holo attached to her file. How can this be Commander Bartly?"

He nodded. Of course he'd read through her file, and discovered some interesting gaps there. "Unfortunately, if her record doesn't reveal that, it's doubtful she'll ever be able to answer. She does remember being injured, and obviously knows that it was more than a normal injury judging by what she said. It also seems she has been carrying the memory implant before that time. As to the rest, who knows?" He grinned. "Don't you love a good mystery, Lieutenant?"

Meanwhil, Anil had been studying her scans with greater attention. "I might give some insight to this mystery, Commander," he said. "I can see evidence of cloned organs, most notably her heart and part of the lungs. Judging by the presence of the scar tissue, it had to be done in a hurry. Whoever did this figured that cosmetic surgery would be an option for a later stage, saving her life was a priority." He gave an appreciative nod.

"Cloned organs?"

Anil smiled. "Oh yes. The heart is much younger than the rest of her. It's actually quite fascinating…"

"And you can tell me all about it at some other time." One of the advantages of having a few Denobulans on the station was that there were more people to talk to in the middle of the night. "Anyway, please let me know when she's cleared to leave. Better yet, Lieutenant, escort her to me at that point. Until we have some answers, I'd rather not have her wander through the station by herself."