The Old Guard
Posted on Sat Mar 15th, 2025 @ 1:11am by Captain Thorrin & Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Edited on on Sat Mar 15th, 2025 @ 1:18am
2,020 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Like Sands Through The Hourglass
Location: Captain's Ready Room - Deck 1 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD001 1600 hrs
Commander Aloria walked out of the turbolift onto the bridge, taking it all in. He was amazed at how much could fit into such a beautiful, yet compact design. Aloria had gone over all the specs for the ship, including some of the temporal systems that the Herodotus were becoming known for throughout the DTI.
One task that Aloria had waited on was to meet up with the Captain. It wasn't that he was nervous about meeting him, as he was a fellow El-Aurian. It was the fact that Aloria didn't want to come into his first meeting with the Captain unprepared. He wanted to come into his first meeting with the Captain with the most knowledge and respect that Aloria could.
Walking over to the door of the ready room, Aloria pressed the pad for the doorbell before waiting for a response.
Thorrin had been relaxing for what seemed like the first time in a century. He had a glass of his prized calvados and simply looked out at the stars. He knew that his temporal operations officer stood at the door before the chime rang. It was the El Aurian ability to sense their own. In truth Thorrin had looked forward to meeting the Commander, it was rare that an El Aurian mated with a Trill and the idea of that mix intrigued the Captain. When the chime rang Thorrin's New Orleans accent could be heard. "You may enter Lieutenant Commander Aloria."
Tarian was in a bit of awe and shock for a moment when he heard the Captain call him into his office. The doors parted way and allowed for Tarian to walk inside. He made his way in and looked around at the office for a moment before finally landing onto Thorrin. Closing the gap between them, Tarian waited for a brief moment before saying, "Captain Thorrin, it's nice to finally make your acquittance. I'm Commander Tarian Aloria, the new Temporal Operations Officer. I thought I'd come up and meet the Captain before we got too much underway."
"Yes that would be best. For us to get to know each other somewhat given your key role to the successful running of this vessel. Do sit down. May I offer you a glass of fine calvados?" Thorrin pointed to a chair in front of his desk. "Now, I hope you do not mind me saying so. But you have an interesting heritage. It is rare that one of our kind would mate with a Trill. Well, more accurately it is rare for a Trill to mate with anyone not of their species."
Tarian nodded and sat down in one of the seats in front of the table. He looked at the calvados and said, "Yeah, I would love a glass if you don't mind sharing one with me."
"I don't mind at all." Thorrin said as he poured the glass. "Wine is a hobby of mine if you will. I find that it makes any conversation easier to have." He handed the glass over.
After taking the glass of calvados, Tarian swirled it around for a moment as he thought about the question about his heritage. It was something that he had thought about over the last few decades himself. He looked up at Thorrin and said, "As for my heritage, my mother was an El-Aurian diplomat that helped with first contact between the Vulcans and the Trill. My father was a historian that was documenting the whole first contact between them. According to my parents, it was love at first sight and no matter where they came from, it couldn't hold them apart. It was hard though because when my siblings and I were born, medicine wasn't as advanced as it was now."
"Yes of course. I can imagine reconciling the difference in DNA was some feat. Although, El Aurian DNA sequences are quite adaptable. It is why we have relative ease mixing with other species. I myself have a number of hybrid children. But, that is enough of that. Perhaps we should chat about what we are going to achieve here. You are going to do something that not many if anyone has had to do. You are going manage time travel." Thorrin allowed what he had said to sink in for the moment. It often was a heavy pill for most to swallow.
Tarian shook his head and replied, "Yeah, it was hard for my parents and I when I was younger. But, the good news is that medicine finally caught up to itself, giving my siblings and I an even better life."
Tarian took another swig out of his glass before he said anything else. He was excited to get into the nitty gritty about what he and the ship was going to do. He looked over at Thorrin and said, "Yeah, I'm excited to see what the ship can do! I know that the new engines are new and from what I think I read, experimental of course. How much have you had the chance to read into the technology behind the engines and ship herself?"
"I know the ins and outs of this ship. She has been in service of six years now. You and your colleagues that are coming aboard are the second crew that this ship has. As far as technology we have a standard warp drive, and all of the standard systems that come with a starship. Additionally we have a temporal drive which allows us to travel forward or back through time itself. We also can travel through parallel universes, the temporal sensors and scanners allow you to see time itself and pinpoint where and when we need to be." Thorin decided to give just some of the highlights. He figured that Tarian would read up the in depth information.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to the last crew? Did they all transfer off the ship or did something happen with one of the previous missions that you guys had?" Tarian asked, curious as to what happened to the previous crew, since the ship had been around for the better part of six years.
"Two words sums up what happened to them. Temporal Psychosis..." Thorrin sipped his wine quite deliberately at this point. He was not sure if Tarain knew what that was. "Temporal Psychosis is a very real disease that there is not much known about. As time travel is still in its infancy. However, it does effect El Aurians and any species that interacts directly with time more than others. When one moves through time it can have an effect on the brain, causing insanity. If it is caught early this is treatable, however, in the late stages it is fatal. My previous crew all sucumbed to it. Luckily they were able to be treated, their memories wiped and they were returned to their previous lives." Thorrin thought it better than to tell the other man that he had to kill a couple of them along the way thanks to Jerimiah.
"I think that I've heard of a couple cases back when I was undercover for the DTI. Mostly with temporal transporter technology because like you said, a lot of time travel and the stuff associated with it are in their infancy. That's why I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty and seeing what the ship has to offer," Tarian replied, taking another sip of his own wine. Something else that came to mind was the ship itself and how small it was. It reminded him a bit of the Nova-Class starship and thus, Tarian asked, "I've noticed that the ship was smaller too. Does that help with traveling through time?"
"Yes and no at the same time. A smaller ship does mean less stress on the hull when we move into temporal space. However, the main reason is to keep the image of classification. You see our transponder tells the rest of the fleet that we are a Merian Class Science vessel the USS Herodotus. So, we need to look the part. I mean someone can just look out the window." Thorrin smiled. "The Federation is the only major power that has time travel capability. We want to make sure that no one knows about it. Especially the Romulans."
"Yeah, the Romulans have been an issue over the past few years with time travel. They've made all of our lives a living nightmare with time travel and have been trying to capture a few of our agents. They try to use the Tal'Shiar to extract information about it, but the DTI trained agents over the last few years to not give out any of that information," Tarian replied as he thought about some of the times that he was almost caught up with Romulan agents. Half the time, if the DTI were to work with Romulans, we had to keep a trained eye on them or else, we would be caught.
Tarian took another sip of his wine and asked, "Do you know if and when we might get a shakedown cruise? I'd like to test the temporal engines a little bit before we actually have to do it by trial and error."
"The Herodotus will not be getting a shakedown. The ship functions well within normal parameters. That said, we are not ready for a mission as of yet. We still need a pilot and doctor. Once I fill those positions we will be off on our first mission. That is if one finds us." Thorrin chuckled and then sipped his wine. "We are the type of ship that haas to wait for something to happen before we can do anything. The benefit of a time ship."
"Are we looking for a regular pilot or someone that has some training with this kind of ship?" Tarian asked as he took the final sip of the wine within his glass. Tarian laid the glass on the table and said, "Either way, I'm sure that I'd like to meet with both the new conn officer and doctor, just to make sure they're both up to speed with everything that a timeship and her crew might need. I don't want to end up in places that we're not supposed to end up, like Ancient Pompeii or the signing of the Federation Chater."
"Once we have retrieved the last two positions needed everyone will be notified and a staff meeting will be had. This way we can all get aquainted. I am hopeful that it should not be too long as I do have my eye on an certain individual for the conn." Thorrin drained his glass as well and smiled. "Well Commander if there is nothing else I would not want to keep you from settling in and getting to know your staff."
"Honestly, I'm just ready to get underway! I've been lucky enough to meet with several of the senior staff already, so I'm just ready to see what the ship and crew can do with one another," Tarian replied as he got up from his seat. Looking at Thorrin, Tarian said, "Just let me know if there's anything that you ever need from me before we get underway. I'm looking forward to getting to know more about this ship and her crew!"
"Welcome aboard Commander. I am sure you are going to do great things aboard this ship." Thorrin raised his glass and took his last swig of wine. His crew was certainly coming together and now he had met perhaps the most important person on the ship save for him. Thorrin came to the conclusion that he could trust this man but like everyone else Thorrin would keep this Tarian at arms reach.
A Joint Post By
Captain Thorrin
Commanding Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Chief Temporal Operations Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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