The Art of Gilding Fractures, Part I
Posted on Tue Oct 21st, 2025 @ 9:45am by Lieutenant Sivek & Lieutenant Addison Talbert
Edited on on Wed Oct 22nd, 2025 @ 2:20pm
1,986 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
In The Nick Of Time
Location: Main Engineering - Deck 3 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD005 1030 hrs
The Herodotus's warp core pulsed evenly like a living thing--a heartbeat steady as a drum. Beside it, the temporal drive was singing a different tune: one that was fainter, a little more uncertain, and definitely bent in some off-key note. It was obviously running in an idle state.
Sivek stood with his hands folded behind his back, the same way some might show observance or prayer. He said nothing. He simply watched the rhythm of the warp core, eyes moving from one readout to the next. It was a complex series of systems that while different, made sense the same way a marriage between alien races would.
The security officer behind him was a state in uniform. He did not cough. He did not shift his weight. He was simply a large-framed pair of eyes waiting for movement.
At one console, an engineer was already working, her brown hair bound tightly in a bun, her attention sharper still. Sivek's gaze lingered a moment. He took a step forward and reached out, index finger hovering less than an inch above a glowing-green panel.
"Don't touch that," the young woman snapped, not looking up from her work.
His finger stopped. He looked at her, face impassive.
"What is the operating threshold of the temporal drive during recapture?" he asked, voice smooth and silkily casual.
She answered flatly, almost mechanical and indifferent to his presence. "One-point-seven seconds before reintegration becomes unstable."
He tilted his head slightly, as if he were processing her reply like an ice machine prepares ice. Then, almost idly, he inquired, "And what protocols are in place if reintegration coincides with an antimatter reaction cycle?"
Her hands froze over the controls. She turned her head and just stared, jaw slack, as if there had been some revelation that her parentage might be in question.
"Because," Sivek continued, lifting one hand now to point at a tiny flicker on the diagnostic readout, "you are already carrying a minor fluctuation here." He leaned in closer, and with deft fingers, began to punch in a sequence meant to correct.
The engineer's palm snapped down across the console. "Step back," she said.
Sivek looked at her hand on the controls, then at her face. He didn't blink. And she didn't move.
Behind a single boot scuffed against the deck. "Sir," the security officer said evenly--almost politely--taking a step closer. "Please."
Sivek's hands floated in open space for a half-second, then he withdrew. He returned them to their natural resting place behind his back. His gaze swept over both of them--the wary engineer, and the silent guard.
"Very well," he said. "Perhaps I should stand perfectly still, like an especially dignified piece of furniture. It would seem to suit everyone's comfort."
Just at that moment the soft hiss of the door to engineering opened and a woman stepped inside, It was Doctor Addison Talbert. She had come to check in on the newest person who had arrived on the ship. The addition to the crew, had pinged upon her messages, letting her know of medical status. It was simple enough to find where he was currently at.
There was a palatable feel of some tension in the air, so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"Excuse me, am I coming in at a bad time?" she moved forward a few steps. "I am Doctor Talbert, making a housecall."
Her piercing blue eyes traveled from the security guard, to the other woman and Sivek.
Sivek turned at the sound of her voice. His eyes fell first on her uniform, then her shoulder-length blonde hair.
He glanced from the engineering officer to the security guard, their expressions stoic and impassive. "Your arrival, doctor, is simply... inconveniently well-timed."
The security officer straightened slightly but didn’t speak. The engineer kept her hand over the console as if it were a wound she meant to keep closed.
Sivek’s gaze slid from one to the other, then back to the newcomer. "I memorized your personnel file that was on record in the computer." He looked her up and down--not flatteringly, nor judgmentally--as if taking stock of an item. "You are from Amazonite. Born in the Earth month of March. Your parents' names are Bryan and Thalia." He paused a moment, seeing the security officer bristle slightly.
He went on, "You're aged forty-six years which would no doubt mean you are perimenopausal and--"
The engineering officer cleared her throat, cutting-off the Vulcan.
Her eyes were crinkled with unabashed amusement, the corners of her lips curved upwards in a slight smile. There was quite the play of emotions happening here.
"Ah looks like I wasn't the only one who was looking through records. " Another looked to the other two then back to Sivek.
"I came to check in on you, Sivek, and I also have another reason to come as well. That is to see engineering, and see the layout. One due to curiosity and the other, I prefer to see it as a whole in case I need to come in here for an emergency, I would rather not stumble around, when seconds may count."
The three-quarter Vulcan engineer nodded to Addison in deference. "That is a wise course of action, doctor." He took a step toward her while the female officer slowly backed away from the console, content that Sivek would be out of range from making any modifications to the Herodotus's key systems.
"Although," Sivek said, voice plain and cold, "I would presume a full physical would necessitate my presence in the medical bay."
"That would be factual first off, a tour, if you would please, then we will go to medical." Her sharp blue eyes looking from him to those who were in engineering. There was still tension in the air.
Sivek looked to the engineer who stood between him and the wall of engineering displays. She shrugged her shoulders and looked across to Addison.
He turned back to the doctor, hands still clasped firmly behind his back. "While I am only just acclimatizing to the ship's systems," Sivek began, "I am confident I can guide you on a brief tour."
"Thank you, then let us proceed." Addison giving a motion towards the room.
Sivek started forward again, though only someone with sharp eyes would have noticed a near-imperceptible searching quality to his gaze.
"This console," he said, pausing beside a slender bank of instruments, "monitors... plasma distribution." He tilted his head and examined one of the readouts. "Presumably."
The engineer at her post sniffed once but said nothing.
A raised eyebrow from Addison towards the engineer, then turned her gaze back to Sivek, "Hmmnn, how about we adjourn to medical. Shall we?"
She wasn't certain as to what was going on here but, the actions of that engineer was certainly making Addison feel just slightly irritable.
Sivek let his gaze rest on the readout for a moment longer, as if reluctant to be proven wrong by the silence. Then he suddenly straightened and turned to Addison.
"As you wish, Doctor," he answered, meeting her bright blue eyes. "I do apologize for my current inability to provide you with a better understanding of the ship's propulsion systems."
His eyes turned back once more to the warp core and the humming temporal drive, cataloguing details he hadn't yet sorted into order, like loose fragments of a fever dream. He did not look at the engineer again, nor the security officer. Both, to him, were already furniture in the room.
"Medical then," he said, folding his hands behind his back, fastening himself into that posture. "Perhaps there I may be of more use. At the very least, the equipment there should not object to my pointing at it."
He stepped toward the turbolift, with Doctor Talbert alongside and his security escort just a step behind. "Lead the way, Doctor."
The door opened to Sick Bay, without any pomp or circumstance. Addison moved to the center of the room, "Here we are and were you transported onto the Herodotus? If so there is a record of your health condition, but you are allowed to look at the equipment if you would like."
Sivek paused just inside the threshold, his eyes making a slow circuit around the room: the biobeds in neat rows, diagnostic panels humming idly, cabinets undoubtedly full of instruments and medical devices.
"I was transported," he said said, breaking his own reverie. "My condition, as you suggest, was recorded." He folded his hands behind him again, not stiffly but more out of a search for comfort.
His gaze returned to the diagnostic panels--their glow, the slight pulsing of a light on the panel. He reached-out to touch the console, but halted, as though reconsidering the action.
"Your housecall now becomes an interrogation of my biology. Very well. Which part of me shall you mistrust first?"
The corner of her mouth started to turn upwards. "No, I asked just to have gotten your readings and I won't be needing to put you through a physical examination. All the readings have been recorded due to the transporter. This includes your temporal signature."
She had taken notice of him reaching out to the console. "Please go ahead and take a look. I do give permission."
Sivek inclined his head toward Addison, letting his hand hover over above the panel a moment more. Then he lowered it to the glass. The surface was cool, the glow beneath it very much live in a way that reminded him, uncomfortably, of a warp core's pulse.
"It has been fifteen years since I've been permitted to touch a working console," he said plainly. There was a slight heaviness to his words which were possibly the result of his human heritage.
"I don't know the details as to how you came aboard, though I do know that Captain Thorrin had something to do with this. Otherwise you wouldn't be on this ship. I don't know why you have that escort with you but, I can hazard a guess that, it is felt necessary for you being here." Addison standing to where she could observe him, but not block the perception of security.
Sivek's hand remained on the cool console surface for another moment before slowly pulling back and clasping both hands behind his back--his most neutral posture.
"The Captain believes my presence merits... precaution," he said at last, without any rancor. "It is logical." His eyes moved from the console to the row of biobeds behind the doctor. "Trust with a convict is not earned overnight."
"A convict?" there was surprise in her voice, as she looked towards Sivek. "What sort of charges had been brought up? Though this might be above my paygrade." Addison mused.
Sivek turned his head just far enough to meet her gaze. He was never hurried to answer a question--Vulcans rarely were--but the pause that he felt here was not patience, but weight.
"There is little correlation between your... paygrade... and my crimes." Sivek then realized she would be the very first person he would share his convict status with since leaving Limonu.
"I was responsible for multiple deaths as a result of unlawful experimentation," he intoned, a slightly emotional lilt in his words that betrayed his one-quarter human genes. "The official charges were negligence causing death and unlawful experimentation."
He let the words remain in the air between them. Sivek wondered if, perhaps, the doctor might choose to judge him.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Addison Talbert
Chief Medical Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Sivek
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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