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Tsv-08-100 LSTX-2000: Lost in Space and Time Chapter One: A Temporal Displacement Chapter Two: An Exitor and an EM Egg Chapter Three: Under Cloak and at the Edge Chapter Four: Shanghaied by Martian Slavers Chapter Five: The Ntzeon Effect Chapter Six: Lost Survivors in Space Chapter Seven: Stealth About Midnight Chapter Eight: Back Through Time Chapter Nine: Zeta 4 Chapter Ten: The Ntzeon Plant Chapter Eleven : The Voyage Across Time	LSTX-2000: Lost in Space and Time Chapter 5: The Ntzeon Effect While the Captain and Ryker were gathering their senses and wondering which direction to go, there came a short, abrupt shout from overhead. They looked high, up the wall of mountain at their backs, and saw the darker one about 30 meters away. He pointed in a direction along the mountains and called out the same abrupt sound. “He can see something,” Ryker said, “water?” “I recognize that word,” the Captain said, and followed Ryker to the edge of the ledge to look again in the direction that Warf was pointing. “It’s Klingon,” he said, “but I don’t think it means water.” He looked with Ryker, into the distance, but could see nothing but desert mountain and barren stone for kilometers. “Whatever it is,” Ryker said, “it can’t be seen from here. I’ll go up. If he can get up there, there must be a way.” Ryker left the Captain, went off in the same direction as Warf, and disappeared over the edge of the ledge and around the mountainside. Five minutes later, he joined Warf on the higher ledge, and looked off into the distance. About 2 or 3 kilometers away there was some kind of structure at the base of the mountain. He also saw a moving vehicle of some sort, on a dirt road leading to the structure. He smiled to Warf, and nodded. “Good work, my friend,” he said to him. “If there’s life, there must be water.” He went back down and rejoined the Captain. “There is a large structure and at least one vehicle, a ground transport, a few kilometers down the mountainside.” “If that’s the closest sign of civilization,” the Captain said, “we should go to it. But I seem to recall an enemy force. We may have need for these weapons.” As they secured their ray-guns in belts made from strips of clothing, Warf appeared at the edge of the ledge, holding a prodding-stick like a scepter of some value. He saw what they were doing, and decided to use the idea himself. Ryker stepped over to him with the ray-gun, handle first, and handed it to him. “You may need this,” he said, and Warf accepted it. “I’m having trouble recalling,” Warf said to him. “I don’t know why. I have noticed that even though we appear to be physically different, our clothes are very similar.” “We are having the same problem,” Ryker told him. “We think it may be an after-effect of that high-pitched whine we experienced.” “Yes,” Warf agreed. “I do recall that sound. It left a ringing in my ears. I also recall fighting while the mountains shook, and a crash, a ship crashed. But it is all so vague, without detail.” “Perhaps, in time, we will all remember more,” Ryker said, “At the moment, we think we should worry about priorities; such as water and food.” “You are going to the structure?” Warf said. “Yes, it seems our best chance for survival.” “Yes,” Warf agreed, “but what if it is being inhabited by our enemy?” “Then, we may need these things,” Ryker said, raising the ray-gun. “Yes,” Warf said. “But perhaps not. They may be friendly and give us what we need.” “There’s only one way to find out,” Ryker said. “Are you with us?” “Yes,” Warf agreed, and the 2 of them joined the Captain. ----------------------------------------------------------- Data, Troi, and Crusher were already seated in the Conference room when Laforge arrived and took a seat at the other end of the table. “I’ve called you here to give us all a working theory,” he said, “that should explain our situation.” He paused, briefly, in a humanly, emotional way, that peaked their suspense, and with cold conviction relayed his conclusion. “It is my belief that we have survived an antimatter explosion somehow, but our universe did not.” Neither Troi nor Crusher knew how to respond, the concept was too fantastic to fathom. Laforge suddenly jumped to his feet and went to the window to look out at the endless grey space. “No,” he disagreed, looking back at Data, shaking his head “Data, there got to be another explanation. How could we survive but not our universe? It’s impossible! No, there’s got to be another explanation. We could have been thrown into a very dense nebula cloud, or some other strange spatial anomaly.” “Since the sensors tell us nothing,” Data admitted, “that is also a possibility. But I have been piecing together the disparate facts and I believe we must be willing to accept the antimatter explanation. We have recorded evidence that there was antimatter present on Zeta 4 during the explosion.” “True,” Laforge admitted, “and it would take something like that to misalign the entire dylithium matrix, but I just don’t see how we could have survived if our universe didn’t.” Troi felt uncomfortable and uneasy, and decided to stand up and look out the window. Crusher finally spoke. “What if you’re right, Data?” she said. “Is there any way to undo something as extreme as the destruction of a universe?” “Actually,” he said, with a measure of insight, “according to Mr. Querzo, there is. It involves the reversal of the flow of time.” “Alright,” Laforge said, “there’s one way to check this theory out, but we’ve got to have warp. The sooner we get the matrix in order, the better.” “Quite true,” Data agreed. “The longer we are helpless, the further away we get from the explosion, and the chance of reversing it. Very well, if no one has anything further to add, we may return to our stations.” They all agreed, and the conference was complete. Laforge returned to Engineering, Crusher to the med-lab, Data and Troi to the bridge. After the conference, Troi continued to be uneasy, and Data observed her apparent discomfort. “You appear to be troubled, Counselor,” he said. “Are you sensing anything strange?” “I’m sorry,” she apologized, “I don’t know what it is. After you presented the antimatter explosion theory... I looked out there, and I couldn’t sense anything at all, and it led me to wonder if you could be correct. Of course, it may be a nebula cloud, as Laforge suggested, but..., I don’t...” Suddenly, Troi’s eyes rolled as her head began nodding, and she fainted. Data stood up, went to check her pulse, and called the med-lab. “Emergency on the bridge,” he said. “The Counselor has just fainted.” He looked at her limp body, then at the other two crewmates present, as they looked over from their stations, and decided to do something either Ryker or Warf would have done under similar circumstances. It was a rather ‘human’ thing to do, and not exactly a proper procedure, according to the ‘book’. He picked her up into his arms and carried her swiftly from the bridge, and proceeded by turbo-lift to Deck B. He hurried down the hall, into the med-lab and very carefully laid her onto one of the recliners. “What happened?” a doctor said and began checking her vitals, “She simply fainted as she sat on the bridge,” Data said, “Is she alright?” “She appears alright,” the doctor said, “just unconscious, I don’t know why. I’ll run some tests.” The doctor spoke to another assistant and they proceeded to run the tests. “This may take some time,” the doctor said to Data. “I will return to the bridge,” he said. “Please inform me if there is any change in her condition.” He left them and returned to the bridge. There he sat in the Captain’s seat for 20 hours, thru 3 separate bridge crew-shifts, with only one call from the doctor saying there had been no change; that Troi was in some kind of comatose state. Then, Laforge reported that the Warp engines were ready to be tested. “Very wall,” Data said. ‘Helm, put us at Warp 1, any heading,” “Warp 1, ready,” the helm responded. “Engage,” Data commanded. But nothing appeared to happen. The starless, grey space on the main view-screen remained unchanged. They expected to see stars, but saw only the grey. “Mr. Laforge, do we have Warp?” Data said over the com. “The engines seem to be running down here,” he reported, “See any stars yet?” “No,” Data said. “Can we have Warp 2?” “Better let me make some checks first,’ he said. “I will be sure in a minute.” A minute later, still no end to the grey, Laforge let them have Warp 2. But the increase in speed made no difference. They went to Warp 3, 4, 5, and still, there was no change. At Warp 6, however, they began to see wavy lines of dark within it. But aside from that, it was still the never-ending, starless, grey space. They left it at Warp S for almost an hour, and then Data ordered a return to Warp 2, with still no stars. According to the helm, they had traveled across 21 light-years of space, if such a concept still had any meaning, under the circumstances. It was looking more and more like the antimatter explosion theory was correct. [Back] [Next]
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