Digging for Answers - Part I
Posted on Tue Jun 17th, 2025 @ 3:40am by Commander Marisa Sandoval & Lieutenant C'Mila Juli
Edited on on Tue Jun 17th, 2025 @ 4:00am
1,202 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
In The Nick Of Time
Location: Science Lab - Deck 5 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD002 1300 hrs
Marisa walked into science an hour after the briefing. She wanted to give Juli a little time before pouncing on her about doing research. It also gave her time to organize her thoughts and write down some things she wanted to search for. "Hi," she said when she saw the other scientist. "Do you have some time to discuss the Kroats and the Vwaraarti?"
"Yes! Of course, come on in." Jules stood up from the research console and walked around to greet the first officer. "I'm excited to work on this with you, our interest areas balance each other well, don't you think?"
"I do indeed." Marisa smiled as she approached the other scientist. "I am eager to learn more about the history of Kroatia and where the past was altered. Do you have any thoughts on where to begin?"
"I definitely want to hear what you think, but to me it seems like we should cross reference the archives that we know haven't been changed. The history that we are trying to revert back to - with the present that we have now, and the current history, and figure out where it diverged. Try to pinpoint the most likely triggers, things that could have been catalysts to send history or the future rather in one direction or the other," Juli suggested. "When the Captain was explaining bits of the puzzle I was trying to think of it like an equation. Something that we might be able to solve for."
"Agreed. The DTI computer on Earth can tell us what key events were missed, but may not pinpoint the exact event. Since we know that the battle 100 years ago was won by the Kroats, we can start with that and look backward at the history from both computers. Neither will have every detail, but we can cross-reference key events and look more closely at where they diverge. It will most likely be within fifty to a hundred years of the battle. We are also limited by who wrote the history, which means it may not always be accurate. That being said, I believe it will be something that caused the Kroats to win the war."
The half-Vulcan knew she was partially repeating Juli, but with a different emphasis. "We could look at the same period of time, going decade by decade, each searching one of the computer databases, or we could each take a decade and look at events on both computers. Either way, we could compare notes and impressions to come up with a list of most probable points of divergence."
Juli groaned. "Historians. Good point about history and whose perspective we are reading from. I guess I was hoping the archive would have some sort of unbiased collection of events. Just data." The Orion science officer held her arms out to her side in an extended stretch, and then out in front of her as she rolled her neck to give it a good stretch as well.
"Let's start together. I'd like to get a feel for how you're looking at things, and then I'll branch out on my own so we can cover more ground," Juli suggested. She paused for a second before adding. "And please, I realize I'm young for this type of position. I also realize the concept of I don't know what I don't know. I want to do this right, so if you think there is something I could benefit from - please you won't offend me. I know I still have a lot learn."
Marisa nodded. "That goes both ways. I know a great deal about history and civilizations, but you have skills I do not. So, feel free to tell me and I will gladly let you take the lead, depending on what we find. I would like to start with a broad search, beginning at the battle , comparing major events with what we have in the DTI database. We'll mark each discrepancy and then choose where to take a closer look."
Juli nodded. "The distress call might also provide some direction. What did say, We are the Vwaraarti, something about an attack unknown?" Juli pointed out. "Hopefully Commander Aloria and his team can figure out how it got us now. Most likely causes are a recent temporal event actually allowed the message to be transmitted, or... maybe something activated an old distress log. But that distress call must be connected somehow."
Marisa nodded and closed her eyes, recalling the words of the message. 'It said "To...who...hear. We are Vwaraarti. Under attack unknown'." She opened her eyes. "Not a lot to go on. While they figure out how, we can work on when. History is often written by the winners, we can assume that the Kroats had something to do with the attack--or knew of it and did nothing. I suggest we start with the battle where the Kroats won and go back two hundred years, noting all discrepancies for further research. Then we look at who said what when and look for supporting or disputing evidence. If we find nothing, we extend the parameters." She raised an eyebrow. "I have an academic background, so I base my suggestions on that. It does not mean there are not other, perhaps better, methods. If you know of any, I would like to hear them."
"Let's start there. Isolate and compare. I can't think of a better way to sort through it," Juli replied. "And I'm curious to see what's there. My first dive into these DTI archives. Pretty exciting." Juli smiled at the first officer, her enthusiasm genuine.
Marisa grinned back. "Mine, too. I have to keep myself focused so I don't wander off down a road that has nothing to do with our search." She was excited to have a good look at the computer, too, and see if it handled history any differently than the ones she was used to. "Do you have a preference as to how we begin?"
"The wedding? The unifying event, and what we can find out about the two people who were married to bring peace, and maybe their families. Were they even born in the alternate timeline, I wonder. Or did either of the families lose influence in one of the timelines?" Jules suggested. She might have been distracted by the intrigue of the added drama of a potential love story, but when looking for a needle in a haystack, it was at least somewhere to begin.
"An excellent question. If you want to look into that, I will create a baseline of events."
"Got it, I'll get started." Jules took a seat in one of the antigrav chairs and pushed herself to the far side of the research station and started to dive in.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant C'Mila Juli
Chief Science Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Commander Marisa Sandoval
Executive Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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