"So my daughter is on Earth, Captain. I'd like to see her again, but I really need your help." Commander Katianna Nadira sat down after pleading with the captain in the ready room.
Stephen thought about it for a while. He folded his hands and placed them on his desk. "How do you suggest I help you?"
Lt. Commander Jovan Kalimar leaned towards the captain in his chair. "Well, sir, we were hoping that, in this reality, Starfleet knew something about moving through to an alternate reality. Both our Starfleets have countless cases of people and crews traveling to alternate realities. We were hoping you had something that could help us."
Stephen thought for another moment. "I think you may be in luck." He tapped his com badge. "Benton, do we still have the mirror device in storage? The same one Sinclair used last year to transport our crew to the alternate reality?"
[Yes, sir. Do you require it?]
"No, not yet. Come to my ready room, please." Stephen looked at the two officers in front of him. Commander Benton has closely studied an incident which took place on this ship in June of last year. He would be able to help. He himself was trapped in an alternate reality..."
Benton walked into the room.
"... for... what was it? Two years?"
"What was what, sir?"
"How long were you in the alternate reality?"
"Oh, yes, about two years."
"Wow," said Jovan as he turned around to greet Benton.
"Commander Kalimar." He shook the man's hand. Then, he shook Katianna's hand. "Commander Nadira. Good to have you both onboard.
Katianna smiled. "Thank you. But please, call me Kat. The commander here likes to be called Jovo."
"Jovo. Unique."
"Jovo and Kat need to travel back to their original reality and retrieve Kat's daughter. Do you believe it can be done?" asked Stephen.
Benton nodded. "Anything can be done, sir. I'm sure Lt. Antilles and I can come up with some sort of way of using the mirror device's technology to make it possible."
Jovo got up. "I'd like to help too. I've got a whole universe of knowledge stuck in my brain from my Q days. I'd like to have a chance to utilize it. Besides, Kat and I have gotten very familiar with the USS Seth. She's been our home for some time."
Stephen stood up. "Well, this'll be quite a project. Let's get it started, then."
The four officers set out to make the impossible possible.
"Ladies and gentlemen, crew of the USS Virgo, if you will turn on a viewscreen near you, you will all be witnesses to the first captain-approved alternate reality tranconnection in Virgo history."
"Thanks to ingenuity on the part of Commanders Benton, Nadira, and Kalimar and Lieutenant Antilles for putting together our first alternate reality transconnector, this event is possible today."
Jon chuckled at the way Stephen was presenting this new technology to the ship's crew. "They're ready, sir."
Stephen sat down. "All right. Hail the Seth."
K'Lara opened a com line.
[Captain, thank you so much,] said Kat.
Stephen smiled. "Just hurry back."
[We'll be back within the week,] said Jovo. [Wish us luck, Captain.]
"Good luck, Jovo."
The com line was closed.
Benton began, "The USS Seth is starting the procedures. They have set their deflector to emit a temporal shock of variance 2.53. That should get them to their alternate reality near Earth a few days after they left."
The Seth began to shine a light blue as the procedure began.
"The ship is beginning to phase out of this continuum. All systems are optimal."
Suddenly, klaxons started sounding. Jon yelled, "What's that?!"
Benton went to another computer. "Oh dear. It's an ion storm, sir."
"A what?!"
Stephen turned to Benton. "Why didn't we detect it earlier?"
Benton ran to the Operations console. "We had all our sensors on the Seth so our systems couldn't detect the storm until it came in close proximity to the Virgo."
Stephen stood up. "Raise shields and give them as much power as you can. Red alert. Virgo to Seth."
No response.
K'Lara yelled, "They can't hear us, they're phasing out of our continuum. I can barely get them on sensors."
Suddenly, a wave rocked the Virgo and passed through the Seth.
Stephen picked himself from the floor. "Report."
Benton got up and looked at the sensors. "Shields are at 86 percent. We're fine." He became grim. "The Seth temporal variance has changed. It dropped to 2.51."
"English, please!"
"That will take them to the same reality near Earth sometime in the 21st century. The ride will not be a smooth one."
"Can the process be aborted?"
K'Lara turned around. "Sir, they're gone."
Stephen sat down, feeling defeated. "Jon, have the same enhancements made to this ship. Those two are members of this crew now, and I will not leave them stranded in time."
Jon nodded and motioned for Benton to follow him as he headed out of the bridge.
"A decade ago, I never thought I would be, at twenty three, on the verge of spontaneous combustion. Woe-is-me," sang a 17-year-old young man as he ran his daily six miles at Amelia Earhart Park in southeastern United States and listened to his walkman. "But I guess that it comes with the territory; an ominous landscape of never ending calamity."
Suddenly, a streak of light fell across the sky. It landed just within some trees a half-mile away from him.
"I need you to... Whoa!" The man ran in the direction of the fallen object. As soon as he saw it he was awestruck. I know this.
The man carefully moved near the ship and observed it. I've seen this before. He moved about the ship and looked at a name printed on its side: "USS Seth." He reached what looked like an opening, and pressed a button next to it. He was startled as the door opened, revealing the inside of a ship. He moved inside and looked around.
Suddenly, a sound from behind scared him. "Who are you?"
A man who must have been in his thirties pointed a weapon at him.
"Jovani!" said the runner, a bit frightened.
The man dropped his weapon in surprise. "Who?!"
"Jovani. I was running, and I saw your ship crash. I know this ship. And I know you."
The man approached Jovani, quite surprised. "How can you know me? I'm..."
"You're Jovan Kalimar. Lieutenant Commander."
Jovo's eyes widened.
"I created you."