Stardate: 60911:1500
Title: The Experience Of Others
Author: Executive Officer Abigail Winters
Time: After "The Best Defence"
Scene: The 'Other' Relentless


Abbas' office was surprisingly similar to Abby's. There was very little clutter around but what few personal items were scattered about gave it a comfortable feeling.

They sat and there was a moment's awkward pause before Abba's broke the silence.

"It has been an amazing adventure travelling through parallel universes." There was a sad distant look in his eyes.

"Why has your programme been halted?" she looked hard at the Klingon to see if she could see any resemblance to herself.

"Whilst we have travelled to many amazing universes. Like the one where I or perhaps I should say 'we' were the captain of the Relentless or in another universe where we went there had been no recorded war for over a thousand years. These were life changing experiences and we even found new methods and technologies that have greatly complemented ours." He trailed off.

"I can hear a 'but' coming." Abba's just smiled at her.

"But in some universes there is cruelty and suffering of mammoth proportions. We have met other versions of ourselves who look and sound the same but have a festering evil just below the surface." The Executive Officer slumped slightly in his chair.

"Our last mission took us to a universe so similar to ours that we believed that the transport had been unsuccessful and we hadn't moved. This was confirmed by the station command. Slowly small differences made us think that something was off. We broke into a local Starbase and researched the universes history. Everything was the same except that on the USS Relentless' first test of the device they had designed for inter-dimensional travel caused both the destruction of the ship and death of the crew. They were trying to trick us to get our device and find out where our world was to see if they could pillage any more technology." 

Abby thought she had thought of all the worst case scenarios. She now realised she was going to have to expand her terms of reference.

"But you made it back safely?" She could only imagine how difficult it had been to escape their counterparts.

"We took heavy causalities and our logs of what had happened caused so much concern among our government and sponsors that they immediately halted the program. Recent debate about guidelines and security measures that would have to be put in place for us to travel dimensionally again means that we will not attempt anything for years." He sighed.

A photo on the XO's desk caught her eye.

"Is this your parents and you?" she stood and lifted the photo towards him.

"That's right - yes."

"And your father is alive?" Abby's own father died when she was a baby.

"Very much so. I take it by your question that your father is not?" Abby traced a finger along the pictures edge.

"No." she replaced the picture on the desk.

"Well just think inter-dimensional travel may give you the opportunity to see what your life would have been like if he had not died." Again another window of opportunity opened in her mind.

They chatted amicably for an hour about the things they shared in common and the differences in their lives and how it had influenced them. As they walked back to the bridge Abigail felt comfortable with Abbas like they had always known each other.


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Lt. Commander Abigail Winters
Executive Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
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