<USS Avalon> Preventative Hindsight PT5
- From: Dodge Thomas <dodgethomas2000@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 10:42:28 -0700 (PDT)
Preventative Hindsight PT5
All's Well That Ends Well
-A background log by Leila Criswell
It has been said that the first step is always the hardest. This was no less
true for Leila Criswell as she stared at the glowing entity known as the
Guardian of Forever. However, the reason being was not that she faced some
grueling task or a great battle. She took the first step, then found (with a
bit of apprehension) that she could no longer move.
Time travel, it turns out, feels like swimming in creamed corn, but since Leila
had never taken a swim in creamed corn, she didn't make the connection. For
what felt like hours (actually, she was traveling through reverse-time, but she
didn't make that connection either), Leila floated backwards and upside-down.
In complete reality, she was in reverse-time for negative several years, but
over the past few days, Leila had learned to overlook reality.
Abruptly, the creamed corn went cold (it had been rather pleasant for a while),
Leila's stomach lurched, she vomited, then was deposited in the engineering
section that she had seen earlier. The actual journey had taken probably two
seconds, another piece of reality she was willing to ignore.
Lights were still flashing and she could feel the deck plating vibrating
beneath her feet. Something was definitely happening. She pulled the PADD out.
It flashed a map, showed her the Duryllium Filament and instructed her to
retrieve it.
"Hey! Who are you? You're not supposed to be here."
Leila jumped, startled by the outburst. No doubt, the man who had just yelled
at her was just as startled as she. Seeing a woman covered in mud, dirt, dust,
vomit and (was that creamed corn?) various detritus was enough to startle
anyone.
"Um...shut up!"
"What?"
The computer began to count down.
"Ten seconds until filament activation."
"Shit!" Leila shouted.
"Nine."
"Security!" The startled man yelled into his combadge.
"Eight."
"Won't do you any good." Leila said under her breath as she headed off in the
direction indicated by her PADD. "There it is!"
"Seven."
Leila grabbed the filament casing and rotated it as instructed. The entire unit
popped out with a satisfying 'pop'.
"Six."
"What the hell! You can't do that!"
"Five."
Leila looked for the portal. It was nowhere to be seen.
"Four."
The ship was now shaking quite violently. Acrid smoke began to pour out of
various circuit panels.
"Three."
"Damn you! How the hell am I supposed to get back?"
"Two."
The floor opened up beneath her and she fell through.
"One."
She was vaguely aware of an explosion of types, but accelerated-time (which
felt nothing like creamed corn) was already pulling her away from all that,
away from the Yamoto and the Duryllium filament (it was beginning to fade
thanks to the Guardian of Forever), away from
everything...away...away........away.
___________________________________________________________________________
The storage block was nearly half clean. Leila sat in the corner, watching
herself from across the room. The Guardian of Forever had bypassed the planet,
bypassed the Antioch (Slag still didn't know what had happened to her and he
assumed she had died in transport), and had sent her directly back to Memory
Alpha.
She watched as her past self received instructions, watched as she left, then
emerged from her hiding spot. The room was empty and painfully silent. Walking
up to the computer, she noticed a flashing indicator light which she pressed.
On the screen a picture of the Guardian of Forever appeared, and in bold
writing the words 'ALL IS AS IT SHOULD BE' hovered for a few seconds, then the
picture and dialogue vanished.
"Cadet Criswell? You haven't left yet, have you?"
Leila looked at the central computer unit. "No sir. What can I do for you?"
"We switched Johnson onto the archeology team. Sorry about that. I know how
much you like it here anyway, and we all figured that you wouldn't want to
leave."
"Actually, this has all been a great experience and all, but I think it's time
I spread my wings and took to the skies."
"Really? That's great to hear. Shall I inform Starfleet?"
"No, I'll take care of it."
"Okay. Command out."
The voice echoed away into the far reaches of the storage block.
All was indeed as it should be, and for the first time in her life, Leila felt
secure not knowing what was going to happen next.
---------------------------------
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