Stitching Two Timelines Together (Temporarily)
Posted on Sun Oct 18th, 2026 @ 9:02pm by Captain Violet Bluegarden & Commander Jason Reeves & Lieutenant Hikari Takanashi & Lieutenant Irril Sharvo
1,815 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission: What's Past is Present
Though the meeting was done; there still hung doubt in the air as to whether or not what Lieutenant Sharvo was proposing to "stabilize" the timelines was really necessary, considering more of the ship had since become tangible to the crews of both timelines. But any risk to the ship had to be considered seriously, hence why the Lieutenant's experiment had been permitted to proceed.
The quiet hum of Cargo Bay 2 was the only comfort Lieutenant Sharvo Irril had left in his life. On his PADD, the scrolling telemetry of the localized Structural Integrity Field grid was a beautiful, predictable math problem. Outside this room, reality was fracturing; inside, he could control the variables. It was lovely, if not a little lonely.
He didn't miss the lingering looks of doubt as the briefing broke. They thought because more bulkheads were solidifying, the anomaly was resolving itself, but they didn't see the underlying friction. It was just like the early days of the Occupation's end: a false sense of stability before the foundation collapsed. He refused to let The Sullivans collapse on his watch. That was the last thing he would do.
"Isolating power relays now," Irril thought aloud, his voice flat and clinical in the empty bay. His fingers raced across the console, setting the safety thresholds. He knew he was overstepping, pushing a plan that terrified the engineers and irritated the 23rd-century Captain, but strategic confidence required action, not consensus. He adjusted the deflector emitter frequencies by a fraction of a percent, his pulse steadying as the phase variance lines on his monitor began to narrow.
He tapped his communicator, the chime sharp in the cavernous space, "Sharvo to Main Engineering. Lieutenant, I'm initializing the test in Cargo Bay 2. Structural integrity is locked at 92". Can you monitor the antimatter injectors? If the structural integrity fluctuates by even half a percent, abort the sequence immediately."
He held his breath, his eyes fixed on the EPS display, waiting for the hardware to prove what the room had doubted.
"Structural Integrity holding at 92%." The computer read off.
"Thanks, Computer," Irril muttered under his breath, his eyes never leaving the diagnostic readout on the display screen. He adjusted the phase variance parameters by another fraction of a degree, his hands moving across the interface with deliberate, practiced precision. Outside, the rest of the crew might be content to rely on optimistic assumptions and temporary luck, but Irril knew better. Structural stability wasn't a matter of luck or hope; it was a matter of discipline.
A tight knot remained in his stomach, sharp and persistent. Every second this anomaly remained the Department of Temporal Investigations would be on board. Every scan they ran, every system audit they requested, brought them one step closer to digging through the secondary personnel logs: one step closer to pulling up the name Sharvo and finding the records his family had tried so hard to leave behind. He couldn't afford a mistake. Not here. Not now.
"Engineering, do you copy?" Irril called out, keeping his tone crisp, professional, and entirely devoid of the tension coiling through his chest. "The buffer's established. I'm preparing to route the low-frequency harmonic pulse through the Cargo Bay's relays on my mark. Confirming your containment fields are stable before I proceed?"
There was a moment of pause. "You're good to go, all containment fields are stable and fully operational." Hikari's voice replied.
"Acknowledged, Engineering. Initiating harmonic pulse... now," Irril answered, his fingers executing the sequence with precise, deliberate taps across the console before him. A low, resonant thrum rippled through the Cargo Bay, vibrating through the deckplates and directly into the soles of his boots. Across the bay, the visual shimmer rippled along the far bulkhead where the 23rd century architecture intersected with their modern deck. The anomaly began to flicker erratically under the forced frequency, his monitoring showing as the phase variance lines surged, spiking against the safety thresholds he had just set.
Irril held his breath, his eyes glued to the scrolling telemetry as the localized field strained against the temporal displacement. His hand hovered a fraction of a millimeter above the emergency cutoff, waiting for the energy grid to either lock the phase differential into place or snap under the tension.
"Sharvo to Bridge, primary pulse deployed," Irril said as he kept his voice controlled despite a growing knot tightening in his chest. "Cargo Bay 2 power relays are taking the load now. Awaiting secondary diagnostic readouts to confirm if the temporal boundary holds."
"Copy that, Sharvo." Came Violet's voice.
Just as Violet had finished speaking, the secondary diagnostic readouts came through. The scrolling code appeared to be indicative of success... Or, at the very least, things weren't getting worse.
"Structural Integrity holding at 92%," the computer informed.
Irril let out a long, slow breath, wiping a thin sheen of sweat from his forehead as the telemetry stabilized. The low-frequency harmonic pulse he had routed through the deflector grid was holding. Across the bay, the temporal boundary ceased its frantic flickering and smoothed out into a steady, translucent shimmer.
He tapped his combadge, his voice crisp and betraying none of his exhaustion, "Sharvo to Bridge: Cargo Bay 2 is stable, We've got our anchor."
"Acknowledged," Reeves replied. Turning his attention to the Captain, he allowed himself to smile a bit. "This plan actually might work and get us out of this predicament."
The silent hum of Cargo Bay 2 began to settle, shifting back into a steady, comforting purr. For a long moment, Sharvo simply stood next to the console, watching the phase variance lines on his display flatten into smooth and predictable waves. The experimental harmonic buffer had held which meant that their "anchor" was secured.
His hand, still hovering near the console, slowly lowered. A quiet, exhaled breath escaped his lips as he took the first real breath he felt he had taken since stepping into that crowded, suffocating briefing room after having dealt with the insufferable Deltan.
Outside these bulkheads, the ship was a mess of conflicting eras, impossible physics, and the looming, terrifying shadow of the Department of Temporal Investigations. DTI agents were trained to look for fractures, to pull on loose threads until an entire timeline unraveled and every time Agent Sanchez spoke, Sharvo couldn't help but feel the phantom weight of his father’s sins pressing against his neck. If they dug through the ship's secondary personnel archives while auditing the anomaly, how long before Sharvo Aktar was linked directly to the Operations Officer standing before them?
He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, forcing the anxiety back down into the dark, hidden corner of his mind where it belonged. Not today, he told himself with rigid, Bajoran discipline. Today, you are useful. Today, you saved the ship. Opening his eyes, his fingers flew across the interface, running a secondary diagnostic to lock the structural integrity field parameters into the ship’s primary isolinear cross-connects.
"Computer," Irril said, his voice regaining its smooth, decisive clarity as he spoke into the quiet bay. "Log experimental trial parameters under Operations Sub-routine Delta-9. Maintain the localized SIF buffer at current settings and route real-time telemetry directly to my personal PADD."
"Parameters logged," the computer chimed softly.
He tapped his combadge, the chime ringing out clearly against the high ceilings of the cargo bay.
"Sharvo to Bridge," he reported, his tone crisp, professional, and entirely composed. "Cargo Bay 2 test sequence is complete. The harmonic buffer is fully stabilized, and the SIF grid is holding without feedback to the primary warp core or antimatter injectors. Phase variance across the bay's bulkheads has dropped by 87%."
He paused, stepping back from the console and picking up his PADD, hugging it tightly against his chest like a piece of armor. "The anchor is solid, Captains," he said while walking toward the exit, "We have our baseline and I'm on my way to join you there."
The Turbolift doors parted with a soft hiss, and Sharvo stepped out onto the busy Bridge. Hugging his PADD against his chest like a shield, he moved directly toward the command well, his stride controlled and his posture rigid. The soft hum of the ship’s systems seemed slightly more synchronized now, a tangible testament to the stabilized SIF grid in Cargo Bay 2.
Stepping down toward the center seats, Sharvo offered a crisp, respectful nod to the Captain and the assembled command staff. "The anchor is locked in, Captain," Sharvo reported, his Bajoran voice even and devoid of the residual adrenaline still thrumming in his veins. "Phase variance across Cargo Bay 2 has been reduced by 87%, and real-time telemetry confirms the localized buffer is holding steady without drawing excess power from the Warp Core. We have a solid baseline to stabilize the rest of the ship."
Reeves turned his attention to the Captain. "Not sure if it's going to get any better than that. But will it really hold enough for both ships?"
"The buffer will hold for both ships, Commander," Sharvo replied smoothly, stepping into the center seat area while keeping his PADD clutched tightly. "The harmonic frequency effectively locked our primary SIF grid to the temporal displacement boundary. So long as the deflector array maintains inverse phase synchronization, the structural link between the timelines remains entirely stable. We can expand the harmonic field deck-by-deck to solidify the rest of the hull when ready."
"Make it so, Lieutenant." Violet ordered with a nod. "If we can take care of this phasing issue once and for all, it'll help us significantly in getting the right crew back to the right time."
"Understood, Captain," Irril replied, a tight, confident nod emphasizing his response as his fingers immediately began executing the sequence across the Ops interface. The console hummed beneath his touch, feeding real-time telemetry from Cargo Bay 2 directly into the computer core. "Expanding the harmonic field now. I'm establishing buffers along Decks 4 through 8, locking the structural integrity field to the inverse phase variance."
"Deck 6 phase variance is down by 72%... Deck 7 is stabilizing," Irril reported as his eyes were glued to the readouts. Every calculation had to be precise because, if the field fluctuated, the DTI agents would be auditing every log down to his family name. "The temporal boundary between both vessels is solidifying into a unified baseline. We have total containment, Captain... the rest of the hull will hold."
Rebecca and Violet looked towards each other and nodded.
"Well, now that that's over with," Rebecca declared. "Let's figure out a way to get ourselves back home."
A Mission Post by
Captain Violet Bluegarden
Commanding Officer
USS The Sullivans (2373)
Captain Rebecca Bluegarden
Commanding Officer
USS The Sullivans (2293)
Commander Jason Reeves
Executive Officer
USS The Sullivans (2373)
Lieutenant Irril Sharvo
Chief Operations Officer
USS The Sullivans (2373)
Lieutenant Hikari Takanashi
Chief Engineer
USS The Sullivans (2373)
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