Variables
Posted on Tue May 26th, 2026 @ 7:04pm by Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria & Crewman Lekran
Edited on on Fri May 29th, 2026 @ 12:51pm
1,931 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
In The Nick Of Time
Location: Astrometics - Deck 5 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD006 0615 Hours
The Astrometrics Lab was silent and its displays had been dimmed hours before. There was a cool, blue light that seemed to cast an icy glow on the bulkheads, the consoles, the chairs, and the lone occupant of the lab itself: a middle-aged Ferengi.
Starfields turned slowly across the subdued screens and on at least two holographic projections, a three-dimensional representation of a timeline split into dozens of directions, each one splintering into several more.
Crewman Lekran sat beneath that quiet sky of numbers and probabilities, his fingers flexing repeatedly as he waited for yet another possible future to populate his screen.
He listened. Not to the lab or the ship but to that thing which was less cooperative than either: the arrangement of outcomes that seemed to continue endlessly. None of these possibilities were certain but they represented more than just suggestions in a future timeline: they were paths that must be considered if the mission was to succeed.
On the central display, the Kroat homeworld rotated. Around it, threads of projected causality branched outward like the veins of a broadleaf. Some veins were thin and brittle while others were thick with consequence. One of the thick branches came from a century earlier where a wedding approached. Two individuals from two species and while the ceremony itself would bind these individuals, it also mysteriously set something in motion that would see an entire species disappear from the timeline.
Lekran reached for a small container resting beside the console and plucked a glistening, spiral-shelled mollusk from a the brackish liquid. He examined it briefly between his well-manicured fingers as though he were considering its market value, then popped it into his mouth, crunching down on it. The taste was sharp and faintly electric.
"Mm," he murmured, his eyes flicking back to his projections. "Underpriced."
The mollusks were a favourite of his but were not easy to obtain. Thankfully, Captain Thorrin had obliged the Ferengi's request for fresh Redshore Mollusks prior to their departure from Deep Space Five.
A new set of variable resolved across the display:
Scenario 17.4
--Intervention: Minimal
--Outcome: Vwaraarti extinction persists
--Secondary effect: Kroat cultural consolidation increases by 12.6%
--Long term impact: Negligible
He tilted his head to the side--a frequent tic of his as he processed the data. He flicked a finger across the projection and the model disintegrated only to reassemble a moment later into something else.
Scenario 22.1
--Intervention: Extraction of primary Vwaraarti subject prior to ceremony
--Outcome: Vwaraarti survival probability rises to 41.2%
--Secondary effect: Kroat societal destabilization
--Projected conflict window: 3-7 years
Lekran's lip curled slightly.
"Expensive."
Another mollusk was snagged and quickly disappeared between his teeth with a satisfying chomp.
He leaned closer to the projection, its glow catching on the outer curve of his lobes. His eyes moved quickly, seeing the patterns aligning themselves.
The threads shifts once more.
Scenario 31.9
--Intervention: Preservation of marriage event, controlled environmental variables
--Outcome: Vwaraarti survival probability 63.8%
--Secondary effect: Kroat-Vwaraarti hybridization
--Long-term impact: regional stability with pockets of severe volatility
Lekran went still for a long moment: there it was.
He exhaled softly through his nose. "Ah," he said, almost fondly. "Now that... that has margins."
History, he thought, was never a straight line. It was simply a ledger written by amateurs that was inconsistent and full of corrections no one ever wanted to admit to making. The Department of Temporal Investigations liked to pretend otherwise. They liked to believe in inevitability.
But Lekran knew better. There was no inevitability. Only cost.
He tilted his head again, listening as more probabilities shifted in response to his minor adjustments to the algorithm. Somewhere in the ever-expanding lattice of outcomes, a wedding would either proceed or fail in infinite degrees depending on what the Away Team did.
Lekran reached for another mollusk as the door to the Astrometics Lab opened, bathing part of the room in warm, golden light.
Tarian walked through the doors into Astrometrics and saw that Lekran was running calculations. "Let me guess? The tubegrubs on the ship weren't squirely enough for you tonight, so you had to run calculations to let out the anger of the injustice?" Tarian said with a hearty laugh.
"Tubegrubs were... unavailable at our last resupply," Lekran said with a note of regret. "A travesty of logistics, if you ask me."
The Ferengi lifted the container of mollusks slightly, as if in demonstration.
"I've been forced to accept a substitute--not as good, but almost as tasty."
"I've found that Klingon Gagh, if done right and paired with the right seasonings, can get pretty close too. But, I don't quite have the tastebuds like a Ferengi. So, if you're ever up for it, I'd definitely like to see what you think of it," Tarian said as he smiled and walked into Astrometrics a bit further. He pointed over and asked, "How are we doing on calculations?"
Lekran considered his boss' musing on Klingon cuisine and made a mental note to ask Tarian about this in the near future. He turned his attention to the projections, examining a thin strand of probability that seemed to wither away at the far edge of the display.
"Poorly," he said at last. "One thing I am certain of is the marriage must occur. Prevent it, and the Vwaraarti extinction will persist."
His eyes scanned the data once more and he sighed forcefully.
"Sir, I believe we are missing some information."
"We're always missing something. But, what kind of information do you think that we're missing?" Aloria asked.
Lekran reached for another mollusk out of habit, then stopped halfway, his fingers hovering over the brackish glass. Slowly, he withdrew his hand.
"Yes," he said, squinting his eyes a the projection. "We are always missing something."
He turned his attention to the console display near his hands.
"Several possibilities present themselves," he said, his voice turning nasally. "None are mutually exclusive. That's what makes it so... infuriating." He sighed heavily before adding, "Commander."
The Ferengi's mind worked tirelessly--sometimes faster than the Herodotus' computer--as he speed-walked through a dozen different scenarios. He looked back up at the projection, specifically at the thin fractures near the edges. These were insignificant upon initial observation but Lekran knew better: they could very well be the load-bearing structures of an entire people's history.
"The wedding," Lekran continued, slowly rising from his chair, "may not be the cause. Though I surmise it is a hinge."
Aloria looked over the information that the Ferengi handed over about the wedding may not be the cause. The temporal calculations were definitely pointing towards something being wonky. But, Aloria wasn't so sure. "Well, tell me why you think the wedding may not be the basis of the temporal issues with the planet?"
"Let's examine the possibilities, shall we?"
He paused and grabbed the container of mollusks with one hand and stared a the projection in front of him.
"The first possibility is assassination."
Lekran pointed to a thin thread on the holographic lattice, his teal-coloured fingernails reflecting in the light.
"A Kroat agent, or sympathizer, operating outside their proper temporal position. If an individual with sufficient influence were removed during ceremony, the resulting power vacuum could initiate cascading instability. It wouldn't be an immediate extinction," he added, tilting his head slightly, "but a gradual collapse."
"Well, since it's a marriage and if I remember correctly, it was people of higher status. What if it wasn't the people that were supposed to get married that were targeted? What if it was someone like their parents or someone else in their families?" Aloria asked Lekran. "That could cause something to happen, even if it's more gradual than anything else?"
"Yes, yes. That is far more likely."
The Ferengi moved closer to the projections and the bluish light became warped as it washed over his face.
"If the bride or groom were murdered, everyone would remember it, no? It would become a moment fixed in history." Lekran shook his head. "You are correct. That would be too visible."
He tilted his head again, examining the tiny strands in the projection while he fell into silence.
"But a parent..." he said. "Perhaps a brother. Someone involved in politics? Someone adjacent to the marriage but essential to what follows after...?"
"Try the groom's siblings and the groom's father. Heck, even try the mother? Those would be close enough, but far enough away to not make people blink. But, close enough to cause ripples in time?" Aloria said as he looked over the equations and inlays.
Lekran pulled the relevant dataset forward with the flick of his hand. Names associated with the wedding appeared as transliterated glyphs across the holographic lattice--participants, witnesses, bloodlines, obligations. There was nothing overly dramatic. And nothing that would have mattered in a vacuum. Which, of course, was exactly the point.
"Good, good," he muttered. "That narrows the waste a little."
With another motion, Lekran expanded the relational map which showed family structures, political dependencies, financial entanglements, and ceremonial obligations. Each connection widened and narrowed as the data was processed.
"There," he murmured.
A new scenario had begun to take shape.
Scenario 116.7
Intervention: Indirect removal of secondary familial influence (pre-ceremony window)
Target class: Paternal lineage / advisory council adjacency
Outcome: Marriage proceeds under altered authority structure
Secondary effect: Early destablization of Kroat/Vwaraarti integration policies
Long-term impact: Systemic divergence increases across all sectors
Probable result: Delayed extinction event (range: unknown)
Lekran was stunned, and not in a good way.
"Delayed," he said flatly. "Delayed?"
He turned to Tarian, hoping the Temporal Operations Officer had a better read on the new projection.
"Delayed? Maybe like it happens, but it happens later on than expected? Maybe like instead of happening in a few years, it could happen in like a few decades or even a century from now?" Aloria said out loud, almost like he was talking to himself. He looked back at Lekran and said, "Run some things through the main temporal sensors. Input some of your scenario information from 116.7 and see if the changes we've gone over could change what I just said."
Lekran sighed. "Rule of Acquisition number 236: You can't buy fate."
His long fingers tapped at the console, pulling data from the Herodotus' temporal sensor logs. Another new layer appeared across the holo-projection.
"There," he said, half-satisfied. "Now, computer, summarize."
[Scenario has been updated. A temporal observation indicates persistent convergence behaviour. Projected extinction event resists displacement beyond critical historical threshold. Probability of extinction remains above 78.4% despite timeline delays. Observed phenomenon will result in causal self-correction."
Lekran turned to Tarian.
"Causal self-correction?!" he cried.
He took another long breath before sighing on the exhale.
"I hope the Away Team has better data."
"Well, maybe you can add the data once it comes back? Till then, I guess you can keep tinkering with the data," Aloria said as he patted Lekran on the shoulder before he started to work on some data on a side station himself.
As Tarian moved off, Lekran popped another mollusk into his mouth and crunched down. "You know, Commander," he said between chews, "if someone on board could find me tube grubs, I'm sure I'd be working more efficiently."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Chief Temporal Operations Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Crewman Lekran
Temporal Risk Analyst
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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