Stardate: 70109:2129
Title: Deja vu
Author: Lieutenant Maxine Jenna
Time: Current
Scene: USS Relentless, Bridge


With the simulation program for Relly now up and running and available in both holodecks and all the science labs, Maxine had wanted to put her feet up. It had taken several busy shifts but, ultimately, the combined efforts of both her team and Kal's engineers had fixed or replaced all the faulty and damaged ablative armour generators, the blown-out EPS conduits had been repaired and checked, the Relly interface program thoroughly tested and the evacuation completed successfully and safely.

After a short battery of tests once everything had quietened down the jump drive had been reconnected to its power source and had once again begun to trickle charge its internal systems. As such, Maxine had begun the calculations of both recharge time and the Multiverse Index.

And now there was the Omega bomb; a weapon capable of devastating subspace across entire sectors. Maxine recalled from her history classes the development of the atomic bomb and the power the human race had unlocked; she recalled the images of the use of such a weapon; but most of all she recalled the regret later expressed by the weapon's creators.

Could Starfleet be losing the war so badly they would consider unleashing such a weapon?

Maxine already knew the answer to that - they had connected to this universe's Starfleet network, and the news had not been good. After losing control of the wormhole to the Dominion, the Cardassian-Breen-Dominion alliance had proceeded to establish a strong foothold in the Alpha quadrant, continuing to win engagement after engagement.

She looked down at the console as the recharge time flickered down quickly from an unseen infinity, seeking its true value. After a few seconds it had begun to slow, stabilising at approximately 180 hours, or 7.5 days. Next to it, a complex graphical analysis of the universal timeline differences shimmered, interfacing with Relly's AI to calculate the Multiverse Index. The figure beneath it had likewise begun to stabilise, resting at a value of 0.212 - she knew it was going to be closer to 0 than 1 as they had deliberately sought a universe close to their own to minimise risk to the vessel. How wrong they had been! Once again the intricacies of inter-universal travel demonstrated that even that which is similar is still different, and small differences mattered.

Uploading the data to a padd she moved away from the console to proceed to the Ready Room and discuss the findings and the Omega bomb with Captain Khavok when she noticed some of the consoles momentarily flicker, their images wavering. Sensing something wrong she tapped her combadge, contacting Lt. Vilmer.

"Kal, we're experiencing some power fluctuations and system disruptions on the bridge," Maxine stated.

[We're looking into, Maxine. Something seems to be up with Relly,] the Chief Engineer replied, obviously busy.

The bridge had been outfitted with holo-emitters, and so Maxine called out to Relly quietly.

"Relly?"

There was nothing. Relly had never not appeared during their recent tests and conversations - the newly intelligent ship had, in fact, always appeared instantly, eager for the chance to learn through interaction with her human occupants.

Turning back to the science console (which had stopped flickering now) Maxine scanned the Omega bomb. There was no logical reason for it to have affected Relly, but something nagged at the back of Maxine's mind; a face she had seen many years before and once again recently.

Everything seemed fine.

*So much for that idea!* She though, but the face still floated just beyond the edge of perception, a nagging feeling of familiarity and deja vu.

~

This universe's Starbase 9 loomed ever closer on the sensors and Clayton had placed the image on the viewscreen and various imagers around the ship for all to see. But, unlike their own universe, this one's original Regula-class Starbase 9 had not been decommissioned and replaced with a behemoth Immense-class station.

Somewhere a few decks below John Galt watched the same image, HIS Starbase 9 getting closer with every passing second, and with it HIS Omega bomb would be ready for deployment...


===================
Lieutenant Maxine Jenna
Chief Science Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
===================