Shift Change Chaos

Posted on Mon Oct 20th, 2025 @ 2:34am by Captain Violet Bluegarden & Commander Celeste Tiae

1,156 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: What's Past is Present
Location: Bridge

Lieutenant Commander Greyleth was on the bridge, looking forward to the end of her shift in just a few minutes. Captain Bluegarden should be waking up by now and would be on the bridge to relieve her.

However, as the Eifie first officer watched the chronometer count down the last few minutes of her shift, she began to notice something strange happening: There were more people on the bridge than there should be for this early an hour. Furthermore, half of them were wearing different clothing- a more drab looking uniform consisting of blacks and greys that contrasted the Monster Maroon.

Standing from her chair, Greyleth looked around and saw one of these people arguing with the ensign at the helm.

"Report, Ensign:" The Eifie woman demanded.

"I don't know:" The ensign spun around. "This guy's claiming I'm in his spot."

"And he's right." Another voice came from where the science station sat, standing up from where she'd been seated a moment ago, looking around. Somehow, in the last minute, the population had nearly doubled, but as the watch was due to change shortly, Celeste wasn't truly surprised at all with the motions going on around her. Now that she'd heard the very unfamiliar voices sounding, she'd looked up and noted the uniform changes. "Ensign Walters, one second." Her voice was calm and collected as she stepped forward towards the center chair where she *should* have been seated, but which was occupied, "Identify yourself, Commander, and tell me why you're on board The Sullivans."

"Lieutenant Commander Greyleth," Greyleth responded as she sized Celeste up and down. "And likewise, I should be asking the same of you and how the hell you think you have authority over the First Officer of The Sullivans. I wasn't aware Captain Bluegarden was being replaced anytime soon."

"Commander Tiae, Starfleet Command." The Aethiri responded, ball of fur of her windfox sitting patiently by her feet, then echoed her position, "First Officer of The Sullivans. Captain Bluegarden isn't being replaced, she was just placed in command several weeks ago." She gave her a lookover of her own, then gave her a quizzical look as she stepped down into the command section and started to walk around her, "Just where did you come from, Commander Greyleth? I've been here on the bridge for the last several hours and I can tell you for fact that you weren't here fifteen minutes ago, because I was in that chair myself."

Greyleth lifted a curious brow. A few weeks ago? Last she checked, this was 2293, not 2289.

"Captain Bluegarden has been in command since Captain Newton retired four years ago." The Eifie calmly explained. "And I don't remember that uniform being standard issue back then.”

“Four years ago this ship was drifting in mothballs, Commander.” Celeste stated as she paused in her movement, an inquisitive look crossing her face as she went over her memories of the ship’s history. She made a further note of the look of the uniform, although she wasn’t a historian, especially of the Federation, and it did appear to be rather outdated. Finally she asked a question, “What year do you believe it to be, Commander Greyleth? For the record, we are currently in 2373.”

"2373, that would put you..." Greyleth pondered as she made the mathematical calculation. "Eighty years into the future. So, then that begs the question, Commander Tiae: What the hell are you and... I assume your crew, doing in the year 2293?"

"I think the question would be, what are you and your crew doing in 2373?" Celeste countered, reaching over and around Greyleth to punch a command into the armchair, nodding at the reading, "Unless your port lateral sensors have a window of about two degrees that they aren't reading properly, we're still in our own time." She gestured at the readings, "We have a team looking at them, but they haven't pinned where the fault's at."

"Are you calling me a liar, Commander?" Greyleth asked as she turned back towards the empty chair and proceeded to punch in the exact same command that she had observed Celeste enter into the chair. "See, the stardate reads exactly as it should. Thus, it is 2293."

"Computer, state the year that we are in." Celeste snapped crisply, "As well as the Captain and Executive Officer of this starship."

"The year is twenty-three-seventy-three. The Captain of The Sullivans is Captain Violet Bluegarden, the Executive Officer is Commander Celeste Tiae." The computer recited faithfully.

Celeste raised an eyebrow at Greyleth, smirk on her face, "I would like to point out, Commander, that I have not ever called you a liar, but... What we have is a quandry, don't you think?" She held a hand up to forestall any comment, "We entered the nebula recently, makes me wonder if there's something in it that may be affecting reality?"

Violet Bluegarden?? Greyleth thought as she heard the computer's readout.

"Indeed it appears so." Greyleth said. "The Nebula was our next area of study, as the Rhydonians claim that it is some kind of ancient battlefield."

Greyleth reached into her pocket and pulled out her communicator.

"Perhaps we should make both your Captain Bluegarden and my Captain Bluegarden aware of what's happening?" Greyleth proposed as she held the communicator in her hand.

"Perhaps we should." Celeste nodded, gesturing to Greyleth's communicator and stepping back a step, tapping her commbadge "Commander Tiae to Captain Bluegarden. We have a situation on the bridge, I'm not quite sure how to describe it."

At the same time Celeste was tapping her combadge, Greyleth flicked her wrist, activating her communicator:

"Bridge to Captain Bluegarden." She spoke into the hand held device.

/"Bluegarden here:"\ Came the voice of Greyleth's Captain Bluegarden: Captain Rebecca Bluegarden. /"Go ahead, bridge:"\

"Sorry to interrupt, Captain, but you're going to want to come up here:" Greyleth explained. "We've got a bit of a situation here."

/"Understood"\ Rebecca responded.

=A="I'm on my way."=A= Violet's voice also responded over Celeste's combadge.

As Greyleth folded up her communicator and slid it back into her pocket, she turned back towards... She supposed she'd have to take the other woman's word about being future and past counterparts at face value until proven otherwise.

"Well, I suppose I need to start gathering up the crew in the monster maroon for a staff briefing." The Eifie woman sighed, looking towards the doors to the briefing room. "We're gonna need a bigger briefing room..."

"Or we're going to be standing room only." Celeste nodded, tapping her chest, "Tiae to all senior staff: To the briefing room ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation.."

Reaching over to the chair and pressing a button, Greyleth opened a shipwide comms channel:

"Greyleth to all senior staff: Please report to the briefing room immediately."

A mission post by

Commander Celeste Tiae
Executive Officer (2373)

Lieutenant Commander Greyleth
Executive Officer (2293)

RSS Feed