Time After Time
Posted on Fri Apr 4th, 2025 @ 12:11pm by Lieutenant Commander Zosia & Lieutenant Junior Grade M'Ressa
Edited on on Sun Apr 6th, 2025 @ 11:07pm
1,738 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Like Sands Through The Hourglass
Location: Bridge - Deck 1 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD003 1000 hrs
Zosia had always preferred the quiet hum of Engineering to the structured bustle of the Bridge, but today, she found herself stepping onto Deck 1 with a purpose.
She had read the personnel reports, and Lieutenant JG M’Ressa stood out among the newest officers. It wasn’t just her skills as a pilot—Starfleet had plenty of those. No, it was her history. A woman pulled through an anomaly, displaced in time and space, left with no way back.
That kind of loss had a weight to it. And though Zosia rarely sought out personal connections, she understood better than most what it meant to outlive the world you once knew.
Her violet eyes swept across the Bridge, taking in the crisp efficiency of the crew. The captain wasn’t present, leaving the atmosphere lighter than usual, but the officers at their consoles still worked with quiet focus.
Near the Flight Control station, M’Ressa sat poised, her tail curling absently around the base of her chair as she monitored the ship’s status. The Caitian moved with the ease of someone who belonged here—but Zosia wondered if that feeling ever fully settled when you weren’t meant to be in this time at all.
Approaching with smooth, deliberate steps, Zosia stopped just beside her station. “Lieutenant M’Ressa,” she said, giving the pilot a moment to acknowledge her before continuing.
“I make it a point to meet the officers responsible for keeping this ship in one piece,” Zosia said, her tone measured but edged with dry amusement. “Considering your file, I suspect I’ll be reinforcing structural integrity more often than I’d like.”
She let a brief pause settle before adding, “I’m Lieutenant Commander Zosia, Chief Engineer.”
Locking her station, M'Ressa turned her chair to face Zosia, "It's good to meet you Commander. I'm afraid you have me at a bit of a disadvantage as I know next to nothing about you. Oh, and as for the structural integrity field, I'll try to keep the more drastic maneuvers to a minimum for you."
Zosia arched an eyebrow, the hint of a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “I suppose that’s fair. Most people don’t make a habit of reading personnel reports for fun.” She crossed her arms, her posture relaxed but assessing.
“And as much as I appreciate the sentiment,” she continued, tilting her head slightly, “I’ve been in Starfleet long enough to know that a pilot who promises ‘minimum drastic maneuvers’ is like a warp core that promises to never run hot. It’s a nice thought, but I won’t hold my breath.”
Her gaze lingered for a moment, studying M’Ressa with quiet curiosity. “That said… you’re not exactly standard issue either. Must be strange, flying a ship through a universe that isn’t the one you came from?” The observation was a subtle invitation to further conversation.
M'Ressa shrugged, "It takes some getting used to, but the ship's computer helps me keep the ship on course," she said, running her paw over the flight control console, "she's surprisingly intuitive. Nothing like flying the old ships from my original time."
Zosia watched the caress, feeling like she was witnessing something intimate and private between the pilot and the ship. It was a gesture she could relate to as an engineer. “You make it sound simple. Just ‘getting used to it.’ But I imagine there’s more to it than that.”
“Well you do have to accept the fact that you may never get back to your previous life, but after you realise that, everything else falls into place” M’Ressa said, giving a shrug, “of course I’ll always miss my family and friends, but looking backwards never helped anyone to grow.”
Zosia studied M’Ressa for a long moment, the Caitian’s words settling between them. There was a quiet certainty in her tone, an acceptance that bordered on resignation. Admirable, in a way. But Zosia had lived long enough to know that acceptance didn’t mean the ache ever truly faded.
“Practical,” Zosia mused, her voice softer now. “I suppose there’s truth in that. Growth only happens when we move forward.”
She tilted her head slightly, her gaze thoughtful. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t still hope. You never know what the universe has in store—sometimes, what’s lost has a way of finding its way back to you.”
A pause, then a glimmer of curiosity sparked in her eyes. “But since you are here—since this is your now—what do you see for your future? You’ll made a place for yourself on this ship, but is this where you want to stay?”
"To be honest, I haven't got a clue where I would go or even what I would do outside of this job on this ship." M'Ressa answered, looking back at the fight console then to the viewscreen. "Not only am I outside of my own universe, but I'm in a different time. I barely even know what's happened the past hundred or so years and even most of the events from what would be considered my time aren't the same. Vulcan for example."
Zosia’s ears perked slightly at that last remark, curiosity sharpening her expression. “Vulcan?” she echoed, leaning just a fraction closer. “That sounds like more than just a historical discrepancy.”
She studied M’Ressa for a moment, then asked, “How different are we talking? Philosophy? Society? Something fundamental?”
There was a measured quality to her tone, not just polite interest but the keen attention of someone who understood how small changes could ripple into something much greater. “I’ve always found Vulcan fascinating—rigid in some ways, yet deeply complex beneath the surface. But if the one you knew wasn’t the one I know…”
She let the question hang in the air, an open invitation for M’Ressa to explain.
“Well there’s not much of a surface to look under anymore, Vulcan was destroyed in my timeline” M’Ressa explained, quietly hoping that talking about this wasn’t going to get her in trouble for ‘contaminating the timeline’ or some such, “from what we were told, a rogue Romulan with a very powerful starship destroyed Vulcan for revenge. He was about to destroy Earth but the Enterprise stopped them. I was at the Academy at the time.”
Zosia absorbed M’Ressa’s words, the weight of them settling between them like the silence after a hull breach alarm. Her expression didn’t shift dramatically—she wasn’t the type to offer empty sympathies—but there was something in the way she held the moment, letting it breathe, that acknowledged the significance of what had just been said.
“That’s…” She exhaled softly, searching for the right words. “A staggering loss. And you lived through it.”
Her gaze sharpened, not with scrutiny, but with the quiet intensity of someone who understood the gravity of history—not as stories in a database, but as something that shaped the bones of a person.
“That must have shaped everything—your training, your outlook on Starfleet, your sense of belonging.” A pause, measured but not hesitant. “How did it change you?”
"well it definitely shaped Starfleet. Nearly every Vulcan dropped out of the academy to help repopulate. Starfleet started to retrain everyone on more advanced combat tactics and those of us in the pilot program had to learn how to use every thruster and engine on a starship to perform the most insane maneuvers you can think of. of course we were trained on smaller ships like the Miranda, but they said the skills could be used on the larger ship classes" M'Ressa explained, thinking back to her academy training.
"I heard there was some trouble at Starbase Saratoga, but I crossed into this universe before I could find out any more."
Zosia listened carefully, nodding slightly at M’Ressa’s recounting of how Starfleet had adapted in response to the destruction of Vulcan. It made sense—tragedy reshaped institutions as much as it did people. But while the structural changes to Starfleet were important, they weren’t what she had been asking.
She let a beat of silence pass before speaking again, her voice quieter but insistent. “That’s how it changed Starfleet,” she said, tilting her head slightly. “But how did it change you?”
Her gaze held steady, not pressing, but refusing to let the question be sidestepped a second time. “Losing your home, the future you thought you were building—being thrown into this timeline, where none of that happened. That’s not the kind of thing you just adapt to overnight.”
She arched an eyebrow, a hint of dry amusement tugging at her lips. “Or are you going to tell me it was as simple as recalibrating a flight path?”
After a moment of thought, M’Ressa shrugged, “I don’t know, I guess it hasn’t hit me yet. I’ve been to focused on my studies I guess.”
Zosia studied M’Ressa for a moment longer, then gave a small, knowing nod. “Maybe it hasn’t. Or maybe you’ve just been keeping it in your peripheral vision, waiting for the right moment to deal with it.”
She let that thought hang in the air for a second before shifting her weight slightly, the subtle movement signaling a transition. “Well, if you ever feel like talking to someone who understands what it’s like to exist outside of what’s familiar… you know where Engineering is.”
Her smirk returned, faint but present. “Just don’t make me regret saying that by testing the ship’s inertial dampeners too much.”
With that, she turned smoothly and stepped away, leaving M’Ressa with her thoughts.
Watching the Engineer walk away, a devious smile worked it's way across M'Ressa's face, "Oh I'm going to test them alright. Don't you worry about that." she said under her breath before she returned to her station.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Zosia
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Junior Grade M'Ressa
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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