Answers and Offers
Posted on Friday 6 July 2018 @ 13:01 by Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Lieutenant Michael Ki MD
Mission:
Lost Souls
Location: =/\= USS Grissom, Guest Quarters =/\=
Timeline: MD3, 0730
1364 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure
ON:
John had woken after a few hours of sleep after 48 of being up. He still felt groggy, but, his head was finally clearing and his suspicions about what happened to Merlins crew seemed to be even more likely. Barstow pulled on a tshirt, pair of jeans and his flight jacket before sitting at his desk with a cup of coffee. He read through the Master Chiefs file again and pulled up two other files with the same type of naming convention, "once or twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern," he said to himself, "Barstow to Ki, I need to see you in my quarters immediately," he called in a tone that said hurry, one he didn't use often.
Michael had just walked into his office and was settling behind his desk with a fresh cup of Oolong when the call came out over the comm channel. He grabbed a medkit and ran for the door. When he arrived at the quarters that the Commander had been assigned. He eyed the door chime button wearily for a brief moment. The thought was to ring it or use medical override. He pushed the button deciding on both. If the Commander did not answer than medical override it would be.
"Enter," John calleed wihout taking his eyes off the screen and absent mindedly drummed his fingers on the desk, "Doctor," he greeted then motioned to a chair next to him, "have a seat...there's a few things I need you to look at here," he added, totally oblivious that his call had triggered the Doctor to treat it like a medical emergency call.
Small beads of sweat had appeared on the doctor's forehead. He ran the corridors and the entire length of the Nebula Class Grissom, as he was under the impression that something was horribly wrong. Now he could see that his mother was right one did make an a*s out of oneself when one assumed. He glanced around the room and saw no emergency. The only thought in his head was Captains, they will be the death of me. He smiled, the smile his mother called the polite smile. "Yes of course sir. What seems to be the problem?" He stood before the desk holding the medkit.
"I think I found my missing crew," he said like it was just another status report and spun the terminal for Ki to see, the display showing Master Chief Burgess and 2 others plus their death certificates (one of which was signed by Apollo), but all with dates in different historical eras.
Ki looked at the files in amazement. If he wasn't a actually reading it he would have never believed it. He sat down and dabbed some of the sweat away. "You mean to tell me that somehow the crew of the Merlin was thrust through time and in some cases died in the past, but only after having a normal life. How is that even possible? It sure does not fit with what Commander Tillatix has been telling me."
"I don't know for sure, and she may not know the entire story," John replied and sat forward, "I wouldn't have thought to even look except that a memory hit me...like a freight train, a memory I'm sure wasn't there before," he added, thinking back to the sudden pain and nose bleed, "the Master Chief came to see me...he was the very first patient I had and I lost him....but, his final words were Sav has your daughter, and mind you, this was years before I had a family or had even come to Merlin."
"Time travel can give everyone a headache. But that leaves more questions that it is worth. What caused the time travel, it is possible that the Merlin hit a spacial rift. The rift absorbed the living matter and scattered it to time. While bouncing the Merlin to it's current location. If you are correct then my suggestion would be to attempt to find each and every crew member. Then forward their locations and time periods to the Department of Temporal Investigations. Do you recall anything else?" Michael had to confess this story just got better and better. It had piqued his curiosity from the start and now he wanted nothing more than to see this through to the end.
John nodded, "before I do that I want concrete proof before OTI chews my ass," he replied, "so, I need a favor. I need you to run the Merlin crew's DNA against the historical database...these three for the briefing if you can and the rest as you get them."
Michael looked over the medical files indicated. Judging by the information that they had it should not be too hard to trace the lineage. "Aye sir this will not be too hard. But here is the big question, the butterfly effect sir. If I find that these three people parented children in the past then they cannot be rescued as rescuing them would and could change the timeline."
John started feeling his heartbeat behind his eyes at the thought, "aye, and any contributions they or their descendants made will be undone, which brings us to the paradox of if we had rescued them than they'd not still be out there, but my impulse as their CO is to bring them home. So, did I already try and fail? Was I ordered not to? Did the not want to go....?" he said and rubbed his forehead as he looked at the 2 men and one female on the screen.
He knew all of them, Burg had been his Yeoman for well over a year, one had been a Marine Lieutenant and the other a security officer fresh from the Academy only months into her career, "and what do I tell their families, the Marine had a wife a children on Earth..."
"If I may be so bold sir. I shall look into these files and see what can be found. However, it is my suggestion that we do nothing with the information. The information can be used merely to see what happened to them. In terms of their families my suggestion is to tell them they died in the line of duty and should receive full honors. In fact if this is the plan that you would like to pursue I will make sure that all the medical records reflect the very same." Michael spoke concisely he was trying to sway the commander there was a fine line when it came to these matters and Ki did not want the Commander to sprint across it.
John thought for a moment before nodding, "alright, keep that in your back pocket until I run this all by TI. As my Chief Medical Officer I hppe you'll keep offering good advice like that," the CO replied and set another PADD down on the desk, this one showing Merlin command codes as well as quarters assignment on Merlin, "that is if you'll accept and can handle my occasional calling you doc," he added with a smile.
Michael now realized why his assignment to the Grissom had been listed as temporary. This might have been Barstow's plan all along. "It would be a pleasure and an honor sir. There is one thing though I hold my COs to the same standard that I am held to. That standard is to first do no harm." He said as he grabbed the PADDs. "Feel free to call me doc or Ishi if you would prefer, the later reminds me of home." Michael smiled broadly.
"Alright, Ishi, welcome to Merlin," Barstow said with a smile, "I'll let you to it, I want you to present those at the briefing this morning."
"Thank you sir" I will get started right away" Michael replied as he rose to leave. This meeting certainly wasn't what he expected but it was going to begin the next chapter in his life.
OFF:
Commander John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin
Commander, Task Group 47-A "Musketeers"
Task Force 47
Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael Ki
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin
