The Past is the Future Part I
Posted on Wed Oct 21st, 2026 @ 1:52pm by Captain Thorrin & Commander Marisa Sandoval & Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria & Lieutenant Sivek & Lieutenant C'Mila Juli & Lieutenant Addison Talbert & Lieutenant Junior Grade M'Ressa & Major Hastios Eilfaren
Edited on on Wed Oct 21st, 2026 @ 1:54pm
2,482 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
In The Nick Of Time
Location: The Planet Trieste
Timeline: MD009 1200 hrs
The transporter effect resolved and Thorrin stood at the head of the party. Across from him was Nagla the ambassador that had met them on the comms. "Ambassador I presume?" He said in that way that only he could and stepped forward to shake her hand. "I am Captain Thorrin. Allow me to introduce my Executive Officer Commander M’lessa, my Chief of Security Major Eilfaren, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Sivek of Vulcan, Chief Science Officer Lieutenant Joshti, Chief Medical Officer Lieutenant Scott, and our pilot Lieutenant M'Ressa." He indicated each person with their introduction.
Nagla smiled "Welcome to Trieste. May your stay be peaceful and full of grace." She greeted them in the typical fashion of her people. "There is quite a lot of you. May I ask why?" she asked as she stood next to Thorrin and gestured that they should walk down a path toward a large grouping of buildings. Thorrin nodded "Well my dear Ambassador, it is not often that we get to open the path for a new member of the Federation. Everyone wants to be a part of this occasion."
Hastios had known Nagla would be there, but knowing it from a viewscreen and standing a few metres from her beneath the open sky were very different things.
For a moment his mind supplied another version of her with uncomfortable clarity: the caves, the press of stone and shadow, the speed with which everything had gone wrong. He remembered where she had stood and the decision he had made when there had been no time left to make a better one. That memory had weight because, for him, it was still real. It had happened. He had carried it away with him, just as he had carried so many other things time had since decided to rewrite.
Now Nagla was smiling, welcoming them to Trieste as an ambassador, and the contrast settled somewhere deep enough that he could not simply dismiss it as another temporal oddity.
His people had always felt time a little differently. Not as prophecy, not as some neat ability to see what was coming, but as a sense that the present was sometimes less solid than everyone else assumed. Places could carry echoes. Moments could feel slightly out of step with themselves. Here, standing on Trieste again, he could still sense something of the world they had first encountered, but it was faint now, almost submerged beneath what had replaced it. The tension he remembered was gone. The planet no longer seemed to be holding itself ready for the next blow.
As they began to walk, Hastios let his attention drift beyond Nagla to the people and buildings ahead. Kroat and Vwaarti moved through the same spaces without any of the old separation. The settlements had grown instead of fortified themselves. There were no soldiers measuring strangers from across a street, no sense of a population arranged around old grievances. It was ordinary in a way the previous Trieste had never been, and that perhaps struck him more than anything else.
His gaze returned briefly to Nagla.
He remembered killing her.
She remembered none of it.
And, somehow, that didn't feel like erasure. It felt like being allowed to see the life she might have had if history had been kinder the first time around.
Hastios said nothing as he followed the others along the path, but some of the old tension in him eased. If time insisted on being unreliable, he thought, there were worse ways for it to prove the point.
Marisa gave Nagla a Vulcan bow in return. She found herself drifting closer to Hastios. This was so similar and yet so different from the first time they came here. The first time they met Nagla. So much looked the same and yet it seemed brighter. Even the world around them felt...better. More alive. She wanted to take time to see the changes and silently rejoice in them, but she had to content herself with what their guide chose to show them.
There was still that small inner voice that warned her to keep an eye on Nagla, to expect her to pull a weapon again. But she knew better. The data told her they had successfully corrected the timeline. That the prince and princess had their happily-ever-after. She mentally wrapped her hesitation in a cocoon of logic as she glanced at Hastios. Time was again on their side and she wanted to remember this visit. This future.
Juli hesitated for a moment, watching Nagla. She expected for a moment that Nagla would remember them and their lengthy hike through the countryside and then the caves. And she heard the Ambassador ask innocently why so many of them, though she had deceived them before. But then there was the welcome. Juli repeated it back herself. Warmth, not suspicion.
How did a different planet, one full of hybrids now, produce the exact same person, same parents, lineage, looks, DNA? The questions of time travel... Juli felt like she could spend her lifetime serving under Captain Thorrin and never understand.
Juli stepped forward with a smile. "Thank you so much for welcoming us. Your planet is beautiful," she remarked warmly.
Tarian kept to the back of the group of officers that were walking along with the Ambassador. It felt weird, being in this new timeline? But, it felt like it was more on par with what it should have been since the beginning. Temporal mechanics would give the average person headaches, but for Tarian? It made it where he just smiled to himself. He got to see what he would hope was the better side of the mission and the species as a whole.
A look at the setting of this meeting was most definitely far different than what she had heard during the briefings she'd been a part of.
Addison was careful in not allowing her curiosity about seeing someone who had been killed during a mission, and was now alive.
This was her first encounter, as to things being set to right.
The very nature of the Herodotus mission, hit Addison hard, a prime example as to what she and Thorrin had spoken about.
She spoke up, "Greetings Ambassador." Addison having a warm smile.
Tarian snapped back to reality and out of his thoughts and said, "Yes, it's very nice to make your acquaintance Ambassador."
Sivek walked in quiet contemplation, his attention moving between Nagla and the world around them. While he had not visited the planet in its previous incarnation, the differences between what was written in reports and what he was now viewing was immediately apparent.
Kroat and Vwaarti seemed to share the same streets without apparent concern, and the absence of fortifications or visible hostility was, in its own way, more informative than anything in a report could have been. Sivek found himself considering how much of a civlization's character could be changed by a single alteration in its history. The answer, apparently, was quite a bit.
He allowed himself a small glance toward the others before returning his attention to the path ahead. Whatever else this mission had accomplished, Trieste appeared to have been given an opportunity to become what it might have been destined to be. He considered that to be a satisfactory outcome.
As Nagla led the tour she would point out various points of interest in the Capital city. There was indeed a lot to see in the hustling and bustling city. She stopped in what appeared to be a town square of sorts. "Here my friends, here is the best vantage point to see the statue of he who saved us all. General Aranis was a Kroat who saved the marriage and unification all those years ago. Legend says that when we are in our greatest need again he will return. This is something you must see." She ushered everyone to have a look at the statue in the distance. The statue was elevated on the hill where Hastios was last known to have been before he beamed back to the Herodotus. It was a great likeness of Hastios in his Kroat make up. He was armed with all the weapons of the period. The statue seemed to watch the city and beyond looking for dangers.
Juli tried to keep a straight face, but she couldn't help but look over at Hastios to watch for his reaction. She was also a little nervous to stand there for too long, lest someone else notice the resemblance. But that was Hastios in Kroat disguise, it would take a lot for someone to make a leap that they had been here, back in time.
Hastios stopped when the statue came properly into view.
Of all the things he had expected to survive their interference with Trieste’s history, that had not been among them.
For several seconds he simply looked at it. The armour was recognisable, the weapons distressingly accurate, and whoever had sculpted the face had done an admirable job of preserving the Kroat features he had worn that day. There was something deeply peculiar about standing in the shadow of his own legend while an ambassador calmly explained it to him as ancient history.
Aranis.
Apparently the name had enjoyed a considerably more successful career than he had intended.
His eyes moved up towards the elevated figure, forever standing guard over a city that had grown from the peace he had helped preserve. The prophecy about returning in their greatest need was another matter entirely. Given his lifespan, Hastios had the uncomfortable suspicion that the universe might someday find that particularly funny.
He caught Juli looking his way and the corner of his mouth finally gave in.
“Well,” he murmured quietly enough not to carry beyond their group, “I have to admit, he is a remarkably handsome fellow.”
His gaze returned to the statue, taking in the frankly excessive collection of weapons.
“A little overdressed, perhaps.”
Marisa grinned. "Yes, he does cut a dashing figure. I think it a fitting tribute to the one who single-handedly saved an entire civilization. I wonder if they sell replicas of the statue to visitors?" At the same time, she was keenly aware that they did, out of necessity, bend a few regulations to keep the prince and princess alive.
Sivek studied the statue for a few moments after Marisa spoke. The craftsmanship was considerable. The stone had been worked with enough care to preserve Aranis' expression beneath the Kroat features, and the weapons were rendered with remarkable accuracy.
From a purely logical perspective, the outcome was difficult to dispute. They had intervened in a temporal crisis and the result had been peace between two people who might otherwise have destroyed each other. The planet was unified and the people appeared prosperous. Sivek could find little fault with any of that.
That statue was more complicated.
He glanced toward Hastios, who was still studying the monument carefully.
Sivek understood why the people of Trieste would honour Aranis. From their perspective, he had earned it. He had helped alter the course of their civilization, and the memory of that act had apparently become part of the foundation upon which their society now rested. Yet the individual being honoured hadn't intended to become a part of their history. He had been an officer of the DTI performing his duty under extraordinary circumstances, and the disguise he had worn had been a necessity of the mission. That was a distinction that seemed important.
He folded his hands behind his back and turned to face Marisa.
"I believe this statue presents an interesting ethical consideration," he said slightly above a whisper. "The outcome of our intervention was beneficial. That does not mean every consequence of the intervention was desirable."
"Indeed," she replied just as softly. "At the same time, we now know of the external intervention that was involved, which may, in time, prove invaluable." At least in this regard all turned out as it should. Mostly. But they didn't know who was behind the attempted assassination, and that could still cause future problems.
Sivek nodded, raising one eyebrow. "Agreed."
There was something interminable about how Temporal Investigations seemed to work that occasionally blurred the line between ethics and benevolence. It would appear one could ignore the former if the latter was fulfilled.
That statue was astounding, was Addison's first thoughts, wishing she could get a closer look at it from all sides.
However, that wouldn't be possible for that to happen. Though... the corners of her mouth curved upwards, she did have the images she had taken of him, along with the others.
Perhaps she could actually have the holodeck recreate those so she could walk around them.
Turning her attention to Nagla, Addison commented, "I am quite glad he was there in a time of need. That is truly a remarkable statue, and for having someone keep watch over everyone. Can be quite comforting."
She stole a glance towards Hastios, a twinkle in her eyes before Addison redirected her attention back to the statue.
"It is glorious." Addison murmured softly.
"Well, that's... interesting," Tarian said as he came up behind and as one of the last members of the away team to see the statue. "That does beckon the question of our little trip here," Tarian said, mainly to Sivek. But, the question lingered for anyone.
"Indeed," Sivek replied, one eyebrow still arched while he regarding the towering effigy.
A Joint Post By
Captain Thorrin
Commanding Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Commander Marisa Sandoval
Executive Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Major Hastios Eilfaren
Chief Security & Tactical Officer
Second Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Junior Grade M'Ressa
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Sivek
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant C'amila Juli
Chief Science Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Addison Talbert
Chief Medical Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Chief Temporal Operations Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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