<USS Avalon> The Plan To Go Home

The Plan To Go Home
by Captain Keith Ketchum and Lieutenant Anthony Manson
K’len entered the Captain’s ready room with a PADD in her hand. She found 
the Avalon interesting, having never seen the historical files of the interior. 
Upon her transport, she was escorted by two security guards to the bridge. Now 
she stood before Captain Ketchum, hopeful to get this mission over with. 
Sitting next to Keith was Commander Skyler, and Commander Sierra.
"Captain." She greeted, "Commander, Commander.".
Skyler and Sierra just nodded, as they were not to interrupt but rather to 
just listen.
"Captain K’len, welcome aboard. I trust you have the Tempest handled." Keith 
looked at her.
K’len nodded, "she’s in tow with us as we speak. But there is another 
matter 
I wish to discuss- the return of your ship."
"Yes, how do you plan to assist us?"
"My ship has...certain technologies that we will be willing to have you use. 
They have incredible accuracy. Starfleet’s plan is to send you back as 
quickly 
as possible and once you are back in your own time, the technology you used 
will be under an auto-destruct as to preserve the timeline. You will have two 
minutes to use your transporters and beam it to a distance of twelve-hundred 
meters."
"Just exactly how do we use this...piece of technology."
"We install it to the warp core."
Keith looked at K’len with astonishment, "And if we don't get it off the 
ship, I assume that we will be destroyed with it?" 
"That is correct, Captain."
Keith exhaled. This was indeed the twist. If they were off for a mere couple 
of moments, they would be destroyed by the same technology that would send 
them home. He knew that Snuffy had developed a way home also, but there was not 
the accuracy.  "Can we specify a specific time to return, is it that accurate?"
"What did you have in mind, Captain", K’len inquired.
"Well, if historical records indicate that we disappeared and never returned, 
then the records must indicate that we at least disappeared. I suffice to say 
that three months would be good, however, if we only get a few minutes, then 
I'm sure one of the members of my crew could put that information in the 
computer systems for future retrieval." With this remark, Keith looked in 
Sierra's 
direction.
"Very good, Captain, I will have my engineering team bring the equipment 
aboard and hook it up." She thought for a moment, "It will be set to take you 
back 
through the same opening that you arrived here. Hopefully, that will not be 
too much to cause problems."
"Understood, I look forward, as do my crew, in going home. There is one thing 
that we would like to do, before going home."
"And that is, Captain?"
"We would like to leave our dead comrades. And give them the ceremony that 
they are due."
"I understand, Captain." K’len looked to her PADD again and then continued, 
"I know this must not be easy to ask, Captain, but I also ask you do this 
quickly as possible. The UCP border sensors and deep space sensor arrays would 
have 
picked up the weapons signature of Starfleet origin by now. In other words, I’
ve instigated a war to insure that you all return safely home, and violated 
the treaty."
K’len looked at the three of them as they looked back with disbelief, or 
shock- it was hard to determine what went through their eyes and not their 
facial 
expressions, "understand one thing, your return will trigger a new timeline, 
and Starfleet suspects that just by your re-appearance which never occurred in 
our records, you will re-write history and set a new direction to this battle 
scarred quadrant. My orders were clear- to see you all safely home. It was a 
risk to incite a war, but I believe Starfleet is negotiating...stalling rather, 
and buying us time. How long of time given to you will depend on the amount 
of tolerance the UCP has with listening. We estimate...three days, four at 
most. My teams will be done with the installment of the devices within thirty 
hours. Make no mistake, UCP will be investigating this matter.
"The Octavius is under cloak, and I’ve taken the liberty to mask your ship 
and the Tempest. The deep sensors and border sensors won’t detect it, but 
another ship can at close enough range. So I ask we move quickly." K’len 
looked at 
them, "if there is anything else, I will return to my ship and send the 
engineering teams. I ask your engineers help us- we are not too familiar with 
the 
Avalon’s systems."
Keith nodded, "alright then. Thank you, Captain. Your assistance is 
appreciated."
K’len nodded, turned, and left. Three days, she thought to herself. It seemed 
like eternity.

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