Alternative Universe

Posted on Thu Jun 23rd, 2022 @ 5:43pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Captain Stenn & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D. & Lieutenant JG Ethal Reade & Ensign Michael Sloan

Mission: Mission 6 - Memory
Timeline: Day 300 17:00
1898 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth glanced around the science lab and frowned. She had thought that Sam would have been there quicker but she had been unable to find the woman despite several calls across the ship but the meeting could not longer wait. She needed to have a team meeting over the situation of what was going on. It felt far to complicated to just leave it much longer. It felt like it was something more unusual than they had experienced and Beth’s head still hurt from the telepathic experience of the Bable planet.

“Lab is looking good Lieutenant. Glad to see it is all coming together again.” Beth said as way of conversation as they waited for people to turn up.

Ethal was gathering the information together she needed for this meeting. They were dealing with a delicate and difficult situation and they needed to figure out a plan. As the captain spoke to her she looked up and smiled nervously “Thank you, I tried my best to get it up to running order.”

“I am glad to see the pet rock has remain.” Beth said pointing to the corner where the pet rock and his cage remained. It was part of history now that the science pet remained.

“It’s not my place to remove something that has a higher rank than me” She replied jokingly. Ethal had not much context to why the rock was important but she knew that it meant a lot to the rest of the crew members.

It had been six hours since the duplicate Escape Pod had been brought aboard. Besides rotating out the two operatives assisting Armory with guarding the occupants in Sick Bay Stenn had not heard any more, hopefully this briefing may shed more light on events.

He entered the Science laboratory, nodded to Leroux and Reade and waited for the rest to arrive.

“Hello Captain.” Beth said politely to the man as she finally stopped looking around and settled for sitting onto a stool musing on the possibilities that had been discussed individually so far.

The next to enter was the ship's Chief Engineer. As Michael walked into the science lab, he took a look around the area. It was not a part of the ship he visited frequently. In fact, the last time he was in here was when Lieutenant Carter, Lieutenant Davis, and himself had figured out a sensor update package that eventually took them to the algae planet. He was the only one of the group still standing, and the gravity of it was not lost on him. "Good evening," Sloan said to Beth and Stenn, giving each a respectful nod.

“Ensign.” Beth responded wishing she has brought a coffee or snack with her as she waited.

William entered the science lab, having just come off his bridge watch. After having escorted the pod survivors too sickbay, he had been going over the sensor readings from his station on the bridge regarding the pod. There was no denying it was a Starfleet escape pod, but the equivalent pod was already in its position aboard the ship. He nodded towards the group taking note that Samantha was not present. She had not been on the bridge, but she was usually one of the first to arrive at these meetings.

Avira stepped into the room with a stack of PADDs under her arm her hair in a more sloppy than usual bun. She didn't speak as she was looking at the info on one of the PADDs, her antennae twitched and she avoided the people standing around the bay to fall perfectly in line with all of them. Once she finished the paragraph she was reading she looked up and gave a nod, "Commander." She switched out the PADD with another one under her arm and continued to read the medical records of the people that they had just taken on board.

Beth waited for everyone to arrive before she smiled. “Well we all know we’ve had an eventful day with the shuttle pod appearance.” She said quietly trying to gauge how everyone was feeling. “How is everyone feeling around it?” It was the simplistic question to ask at first but spoke volumes of how she approached her crew and their well-being.

William took a moment before answering. "I'm not sure what to make of it captain. I saw Jamesson's body, so how can he be standing in sickbay right now," he said.

"He's not exactly standing." Avira noted as she tried to switch to another PADD, then giving up on holding them all in her hands put the stack on the nearby counter and pulled one of them out, "Also, not exactly Jamesson." She scrolled through a couple of medical notes. "One of the advantages of our annual physicals, which I'll remind you are coming up in the next month or so for all of you, is that we have extensive records on the medical history of all the officers." She swiped through a couple of notes, "There. Jamesson, our Jamesson, fell from a tree when he was eleven, it created a fracture in his capitulum. Although fully healed he always indicated that there was a tactile and audible click when he got up in the morning and stretched his arms for the first time." She put the PADD on the counter and pulled another one, clearly much less filled with information, "Pod Jamesson does not have the scarring on his capitulum. He either didn't fall from the tree or didn't fracture his bone."

Beth nodded. She could remember the man moaning about it back on Earth around the hotel pool that had on the last transfer before San Francisco. “I think that leads to you Lieutenant and what we think is happening.” Beth said ignoring the comment on medical and turning to look at Reade. She would eventually get to it the medical when she had a chance.

Ethal was quick to get into the situation. “While I was on the bridge, I took some scans of where we found the escape pod and it had a different quantum variance to our universe. This means they are from an alternate reality to our own.” She looked to see others reactions of her information as she passed about some padds which had all the sensor readings that were taken from the bridge which supported her statement.

William looked from both Ethal and Avira. He was trying to wrap his mind around that fact as he took the offered PADD and began looking it over. He looked back up at Ethal, "If that is the case, how did they end up in our universe?"

“Now that is something I have not been able to gather as of yet, I have a few theories on what could have possibly lead to this happening. It could have been purposeful or accidental but I think that could be answered by our guests.” She was very perplexed by the situation. The evidence was overwhelming yet Ethal had never dealt with a real situation of parallel universes.

“They do not know how they ended up here. They just know there was a being on the ship that led to the destruction and evacuation.” Beth explained her own part of what she had been doing since she had last seen them. “They only know that the pod was drifting for days and then they were found by us.”

"I would suggest a formal interrogation is conducted to determine what exactly they claim occurred" Stenn suggested."They should be confirmed to sick bay, under guard, until that is completed"

“A formal interrogation has happened Captain by myself, Gerhard and the doctor that is how we know there was a being on the ship that led to them being in the pod but I do want opinion on them being let out of sickbay. They are not injured and know nothing else if I was to confine them to quarters until we work out what is going on properly would that be doable with the officers under your command Lieutenant?” Beth asked turning to the Armoury Officer.

"Yes ma'am. I believe keeping them confined to quarters until we can further determine the causation of their ship's destruction is a prudent course of action," William said looking between the captain and the MACO commander. "I'll have the preliminary report from their interviews available to anyone who would like it," he said knowing Ensign Martinez was typing up the transcripts in the command center now.

“Can you support Captain Stenn?” Beth asked glancing at the chronometer not able to understand where Samantha was.

"Indeed" Stenn nodded

“Good. We can arrange that after we leave here. Separate quarters on Deck G. Guest quarters. I want to revisit it tomorrow when we have more information on it. They are crew after all even if it’s another version of this vessel.” Beth could not see how under escort they could cause to much trouble.

William nodded and made a mental note to have Ensign Martinez get guest quarters set up. While he would prefer to keep them away from more sensitive areas, he knew the captain had a valid point. And given their crew status, the more experienced people they had the better off they were.

“Sloan can you tell us anything about the duplicate pod?” Beth asked quickly moving from the alternative crew to the alternative pod. It was a contested situation that she needed medical to look at more in-depth but the information that they had was unbelievably alternative universe collided with this one at the right time and disposed of the pod in their universe.

Clearing his throat a bit, Michael brought his PADD into a position that was easier to read. He shook his head a little as he reported, "Aside from having a different quantum variance signature, the pod is virtually identical to the one tucked away in our ship." Looking around at those gathered, he added, "However, since ours have not been used, the new pod does show more signs of wear and tear that a journey through space would cause. Microcraters from things like space dust and neutrinos. A slight difference in paint scheme due to variance in angle it was placed into its Atlantis." Stopping himself from venturing too far into the weeds, Sloan looked toward Beth, "This is going to be a rather Vulcan answer, but on the surface it is the exact pod we left Earth with but there are enough minuscule differences to conclude that it is not a perfect match for our own." Looking at the rest, he simplified it by saying, "Maybe a twin but not a clone."

Signs of wear and tear was only logical after what they had learned from Hughes and Jamesson. “So Alternate Universe… well we’ve had time travel so alternate universes was only the next logical things.” Beth commented with a roll of her eyes. “Okay well we do not have much more to discuss so let’s keep an eye out for anything strange and keep working on gaining more information and if anyone sees Leyton rugby tackle her to keep her there until I get there.” Beth said lightly but she was concerned it was not like the woman at all to just not turn up. “Dismissed.”