After-Action Report
Posted on 02 May 2021 @ 6:10pm by Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Captain Mallory Thorne & Odin
1,965 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Home
Location: Science Labs
Mallory had sincerely lost count of the number of people she'd talked to--one-to-one, small groups, large groups, in person, over the comms--over the past couple of days since the Odin had come home. The brass seemed to be on the horn every other minute with more questions and wanting more answers, and she'd almost left her comm badge in the ready room for this trip to spare herself...but she didn't.
Now, she was down in her ship's small science department. This place had gotten more of a workout for the past year than had been originally planned, that was for sure, and now she was looking for the chief science officer...
Madalene was in her office working on several reports for well several fleet departments, what they went through has caught the attention of apparently everyone in the brass. Standing up and she walked over to the replicator to replicate some more tea before looking over one more report and to also give her eyes a rest before going permanently cross-eyed.
“Oh! Captain, sorry did not see you there,” Madalene said jumping a little, “...um please come in and sit, would you like something to drink?”
"No, thank you," the captain said with a sympathetic smile. "I didn't mean to startle you. As you are no doubt aware, however, our past year has the attention of many in Starfleet. I came to see how your information collection and collation has been going."
Madalene replicated a fresh cup of relen tea before walking around her desk and taking a seat, “slow to be honest, and it is not helping that people from Fleet continue to pester to get reports,” Madalene said with a tired chuckle, “....but the information is also fascinating so we are learning as much as we did when we were there,” she added with a sip from her tea.
“I have ensign Sov working with a small team comparing our maps with the Terran’s maps and seeing how close everything was, and I have several teams working on studying all the radiation and other spacial debris we came across,” Madalene added before finally reaching the trickier part of what they encountered, “and I am working trying to figure who or what we met that got us back here,” Madalene said allowing all of this to sink in for the captain.
"I'd suggest having a conversation with the ship's newest...passenger, but admittedly, she has been short on giving actual information," Mal said wryly. "I know engineering will be working with her a great deal, and she has been a source of fascination from the fleet. As would be expected. Though she's no more forthcoming with them than with us. All they've determined is that whatever happened, she doesn't seem to present a risk now."
"She sounds intriguing, surprised that Starfleet is already done talking with her, I would have thought she would be holed up for several months getting debriefed?" Madalene said with a small chuckle as she was a little surprised with well how quick the debriefing was.
Mal chuckled. "Oh, I don't believe they're done with her, but so far, she cannot be separated from the ship that we can tell. There's a lot that we can't tell about her yet. Some engineers are still here examining our ship's systems and talking to her. I imagine that will indeed take some time."
Madalene nodded, "is there anything that is off-limits when speaking with this newcomer?"
The captain shook her head as she replied, "I would say there aren't. There is a lot we need to know and she's the only one who knows it, although I am mindful of the fact that she got us back to our own time and place...so I am grateful to her for that. Just no clue how she did it, or why she's ended up a permanent guest here."
Madalene again nodded, finding this whole thing fascinating, "well I hope that I can get some answers for you and her," Madalene said with a small smile looking forward to meeting this woman, again.
"I'm sure you will, Lieutenant," Mal said easily. "I am curious if there's been a big differential in space, between what it was like there versus now."
"Nothing big so far, stations and colonies named differently, stations not built, and colonies not formed," Madalene said, "and of course the borders do not match up with what we see today," Madalene finally added.
Mal nodded thoughtfully. "Starfleet Science is probably boggling at the idea of where the Federation lines would be without the Vulcans," she said with a quiet chuckle.
Madalene smirked as she looked at the stack of PaDDs, "...funny thing is I believe some of the borders we saw in that universe, I think were set by the Vulcan's until well, you know the Empire happened," Madalene said simply.
"Not too surprising," the captain commented. "After all, the Vulcans weren't gone from that other...universe or timeline, however, you call it. Just not friends of humanity anymore.
Madalene nodded, "and I am also thinking that philosophers are gonna have a field day with figuring out how to make sure this doesn't happen in our universe or timeline," she added.
Mal shrugged. "Well, given how it all went down, it's unlikely to happen again. Recall, it all boiled down to us getting stuck in the 2037 and skewing the first contact to the Andorians rather than the Vulcans. Since this is already settled in this timeline, people just have to avoid being stuck back in time and screwing things up as we did." She smiled wryly. "We were the first ship to ever hit a black star, though, and they haven't figured out how to prevent it. So who knows."
Madalene nodded her mind just running of well everything they experience, "well I guess there is no time like the present to go meet the old women again or whatever she is," Madalene added.
"So far, she seems rather attuned to intention," Mal commented. Then, raising her voice, she called, "Odin!"
It took a few moments, but then the woman herself appeared. She wore the same shape as she had before: tall, well-built, long blonde hair in a braid and one eye pure white. "You rang?" she asked with a pleasant smile.
"Ah, Odin," Madalene said looking at the fascinating women, "pleasure meeting you again," she said simply.
"And you as well, Lieutenant!" Odin said cheerfully. "Captain." She nodded at the senior officer, then looked between them with open curiosity. "How may I be of service."
Mal nodded to Madalene. "Your show."
"Thank you, captain," Madalene said now all of a sudden feeling nervous speaking to Odin, "...so as I am sure you have been getting a lot of is questions, luckily my questions are hopefully less intrusive," Madalene said giving her a small quizzical look.
"My queries are more for how we got to that universe and how we got back," she said simply but knowing those answers were not going to be simple.
"My understanding of how you got there is a little limited comparatively," Odin replied easily. "You hit the black star and were sent back in time. Then you tried to slingshot home and discovered the altered timeline." She looked at the captain with brows slightly raised.
"That's about our understanding of it," Mal agreed.
Odin turned back to Sabine. "As for how you got back... Well. I don't think I can explain the details very well. I knew enough of where you'd come from and where you were, and I exerted my..." She smiled slyly. "...considerable will, shall we say, and changed it. I used your ship as a sort of...standing point and shifted things."
"So....," Madalene said as she plotted her next question, the problem was she had so many, "when we did the sling-shot to try and get back to our proper time and universe, were you able to tell how much potential damage we did, or even how much damage we did when we stayed in the altered timeline?"
"Not easily," Odin said. "I wasn't aware of you yet when you first did that slingshot and landed in the altered timeline. It wasn't until later when you've been around awhile, that that happened. I could, perhaps, try to do some analysis between my memories and your historical records here in your time to figure it out...but no promises."
Madalene smiled, "I would really appreciate that," Madalene said, "but why us, why help us? Unless we were the only ship and crew, well no there was someone else that was out of time and place," Madalene said mainly talking to herself as she worked out the complexities of what they went through.
Odin laughed. "That's easy. You were one of the most fascinating things I'd seen in a long time."
"Fair enough, but why come with us or did you have a choice?" Madalene asked, finding this being fascinating, well actually finding the whole experience fascinating, and reliving it in her mind just made all that more fascinating and also confusing.
"Well, once I determined to try to return you, there wasn't much choice in what would happen to me. It just...happened, whatever it would be, but I knew that and so I made the choice to do it." Odin smiled. "So I guess you could say that I did and didn't have a choice--all at the same time!"
“Interesting,” Madalene said glad that she decided to join or come along whatever it was, “sorry if this sounds rude, but what species are you, as there is just a handful that we know about that can do what you did,” Madalene said hoping that it was somethng new.
Odin giggled, both eyes twinkling its own shade of shimmer. "Guess."
“A Q, an actual Q is standing in front me, or us?” Madalene said her eyes going wide.
"More like former," Odin said casually. "After all this, I am but a shadow of my past self."
“Well, this is still fascinating, did you become former because you helped us, or by helping us you were intergrated into the Odin causing you loose the Q part of yourself?”
Odin tilted her head. "Do you mean did this happen during the process or was I punished?"
“Yes, sorry if again it is personal, but we know so little about the Q, so having one here to learn more about you and the Continunm is, well just, it shouldn’t happen,” she chuckled of how rare of an experience it is.
"I won't talk about the Continuum," Odin said softly, although without any trace of being upset at the comment. "However I can answer that no, this was not any sort of punishment. It happened as a byproduct of the energy expenditure."
"Of course," Madalene said curious about the energy expenditure, "would Odin have recorded that energy expenditure?"
The AI tilted her head with a mischievous smile. "The ship or me?"
"Hopefully both," Madalene said with a sly grin.
"I don't know," Odin replied with a shrug, but then she laughed. "Isn't it amazing? I've never had a chance to forget something before, or not know it... The ship may have recorded something, but my own memory of the between time is pretty hazy."
"Alright, damn was hoping everything would be wrapped in a nice little present," Madalene said with a chuckle.
"Maybe the ship's computer will come through for you," Odin said, amused.
"Hopefully, well I think that is all the questions for now, but I am sure I'll be calling upon you in the future as I can continue to go through all this data," Madalene said with a smirk.