Future's End, Part III

 Episode Name:  Future's End - Part III

   Written By:  Starfleet

         Cast:  Bailey, Dakin, Edwards, Evans, Ghorev, Laco, Raxil and Starfleet.

  Produced By:  Starfleet

  Directed By:  Starfleet

     Aired On:  Mon Feb 11 00:28:46 2002

     Stardate:  52180.6

Time: Sun Feb 10 20:23:11 2002

Stardate: 52180.4

Evans and Laco make their way into a control room that overlooks the fighter bay of the Aegis. Through the dusty haze of the bay, they can see one of the monsters trying to pound its way into the door that Edwards' team went through. The two have been cut off from the rest of the group. Lying on the floor of the control room are tattered uniforms of Romulan fashion, amidst weapons and gear of the same make. Shards of crystal litter the floor. In the corridor across the bay, Edwards and the others are faced with a Lithian pounding on the door, and the decision of where to go from here. The corridor is in much the same shape as the control room, only Starfleet uniforms litter the floor.

Dakin grips his already not-at-full-strength phaser and frowns. "Where to from here?" He looks around the corridor and frowns a little more at the shredded uniforms on the deck. "What in the..?"

*bang* *bang* *bang*

"The bridge." Bailey replies, steadying her breaths after the flight from the bay. She looks over at Edwards, "Agreed, Lieutenant?... I am your ride home."

Edwards makes note of the tattered uniforms, "Doesn't matter right now, Rann." While he might seem a little cold-blooded, his focus is on making sure they don't join these corpses. "Why the bridge, Bailey?"

The pounding on the door continues. The dents start to get larger.

Raxil cringes at the repeated impacts, looking to Bailey and Edwards. "Umm... y'know... this really -isn't- the place to talk about this!" he says, his voice getting a bit shrill.

Dakin glares at the dents. "Strongly recommend taking this conversation elsewhere, Lieutenant..!"

Bailey starts to lead the way to the bridge, calling back to Edwards. "Because I said so, Lt. Come with me if you want to live."

Edwards grinds his teeth. His anger helps off-set any panic he wants to feel. "Keep a hold of yourselves, people." he comments, "Ake, what do you think? Bridge or engineering? Raxil, see if you can contact Evans or Laco. We're not leaving anyone behind." That said, he starts off. They can settle the argument while moving away from the homicidal alien.

Raxil nods, tapping on his suit displays for a moment. "Y-yessir." he mumbles.

Ghorev sighs at Bailey's response and says something which the UT's translate as "Payback is inevitable." But clearly it's not said with half as much simplicity in the original ANdorian. "Main Engineering, but mostly out of spite, which means it's the wrong choice," he adds, in Federation Standard. "But Agent Bailey's just used the last of good-will credits with me."

Evans stands in a corner of the bay with Laco. "Lt are you allright?"

Raxil taps on his compin through the suit, saying "Lt. Raxil to Lt. Evans... can you hear me?"

Evans touches his pin and answers, "Yes. I can hear you. Trying to evaluate this situation."

Evans speaks into the pin. "Lt. Were on the other side of the bay. Laco is a bit bruised, but ok. Were about to head to the bridge via a jeffries tube. I doubt our friends will be able to follow us there."

Edwards replies over the channel, "All right. We'll link up with you on the bridge. Keep your eyes open and don't let anything get the drop on you."

Evans leads into the tube. He uses his tricorder to get directions. "You holding up ok Lt?" He asks of Laco.

Laco says "Uh, yeah....but are you sure its a good idea to take the jeffries tubes?"

Evans shrugs. "I dont think whatever things were will fit in the tubes. If you have better idea though I am willing to hear it."

Laco grumbles, "Yeah, but if they can, we're left with no room to manuever, and we don't have any phasers."

Evans nods. "I dont like our chances in the corridors much better."

Laco shrugs, "Think any of these corpses have a working phaser or two?"

There are three Romulan disrupters amidst the piles of crystal shards. There are no bodies here, just piles of rags and crystal.

Evans picks up a disrupter. "Looks serviceble enough. I still the tubes are our best bet. Especially with main power down."

Laco crouches to grab one for himself, "Yeah, at least, we encounter one in the tubes, we probably won't ahve to worry about it dodging..." He checks the charge on the disrupter, the grabs a third one that he sees lying on the deck, you know, just in case. "Ready?"

Evans nods and leads the way. "Yeah. Maybe we can use that disrupter as a grenade or something." He says and leads the way into the tubes.

Cut from Evans and Laco as they crawl into the Jeffries Tubes, destination: bridge, to Edwards' team as they hurry down a corridor.

The pounding of the creature against the door fades into the distance as the crew moves down the corridor.

Edwards decides to pull off his helmet as he moves, since the fact that there's some gravity and that Bailey hasn't suffocated to death already tells him that there must be some oxygen. Once it's off, he glances to Ghorev and motions for him to do the same.

Dakin follows suit and unclasps his helmet and he keeps up with the group, glancing down any twaining corridor for any sort of ambush.

Ghorev does so, and then says "You know, if I could find some access to depolarize the floor plates from their ambient charge of gravitons, we could keep the creatures in mid-air, since we all have mag-boots and they don't." He continues to look around, warily, as they move briskly through the corridors. "But I'm hoping that among the many things Agent Bailey isn't saying is that we won't be on the bridge for long enough for it to matter."

Raxil gives a quick shrug, popping his helmet off and looking back down the corridor from which they came.

Bailey keeps leading the way, looking only forward. "I'll take care of the travel plans, Edwards. Just keep your people alive long enough for me to get them home."

Edwards doesn't mention that Bailey would go flying to, but it does bring a slight smile to his face. "Whatever you say, Agent Bailey." he replies to the woman. With a shake of his head, he sidles closer to Ghorev and mutters, "This is it, you know. The results of Sinclaire's plans."

Dakin glances over to Edwards' hushed words but decides to pay them no further mind and continues reconnoitering the area as they head to the bridge.

Ghorev suddenly seems to have an idea, for those who *aren't* staring straight ahead, and starts fiddling with the settings on the phaser he carries as he moves down the cooridor. "Jeffries tubes. Always causing trouble and never around whne you need one."

Raxil grips his medkit a bit tighter, looking a bit more nervous.

Edwards furrows his brow at Ghorev. Wasn't exactly the response he was looking for. "Eh?"

Ghorev says "Sometimes I have ideas while I'm fleeing for my life which may or may not turn out to be brilliant. Keep your fingers crossed and let's keep moving."

Bailey pauses to check the power reading on her phaser, then glances to Ghorev, listening to him for a moment.

Edwards comments idly, "All of my brilliant plans involve plenty of explosives."

When Edwards' crew arrives on the bridge, Evans and Laco are already there. Both men carry Romulan disrupter weapons, and Laco has a second one dangling from his belt. Evans is putting away his tricorder, and Laco is checking out the doors to the turbolift, which do not seem to be functioning.

Ghorev looks around the room to see if *anything* is functioning. "We should take up defensible positions in case those lovely crystal fellows show up before Agent Bailey can arrange our ride home."

Edwards makes note of Evans' and Laco's armaments, "You two are on guard duty." Glancing toward Dakin, he orders, "You too, Rann. Set 'em up." That taken care of, he looks back to Ghorev, "See if you can access the main computer."

Raxil swallows. "Ahh... anything you need me for?"

Bailey moves around the bridge, taking out her tricorder and starting to scan. She doesn't lift her head from the tricorder, but addresses Ghorev, "I wouldn't do that, Lt."

The bridge is dark and silent. A couple of piles of crystal are mixed with shreds of standard issue Starfleet uniforms.

Dakin nods. "Aye, sir. Mark, I'll take the emergency hatch in the deck. You and Laco watch the turboshafts." He goes over to keep his phaser at the ready near the hatch.

Laco takes a place near an entrance, and shines his suitlights through it.

Ghorev says "I'm rather opposed to the idea myself, Agent Bailey, as you should well know." He turns to Edwards. "Michael, you know where I stand on ripping information out of this time frame. I'll do what I must with the systems, to bring them online so we can defend ourselves until we can get out of here, but don't ask me to play with ship's logs and the like. I won't do that."

Evans nods, follows and takes up a position.

Raxil heads over to Edwards and Ghorev, hefting his medkit. "You two allergic to conventional stimulants? I'd check your medical record... but it's not here, for obvious reasons." he concludes with a weak grin.

Edwards remarks, "Didn't ask you to, Ake. I just want you to access the main computer." Raxil gets a look. "Laco has another disruptor. Why don't you get it and help out with guard duty, Doctor?"

Evans looks to Bailey. "I thought you were getting us out of here?"

Raxil nods silently, heading over for Laco's position.

Duncan checks his Tricorder.

Bailey nods to Ghorev, "I do remember our conversation, Lt. Ghorev... but thank you for the reminder." She starts tapping at some buttons on the tricorder, moving towards the computer access.

Ghorev, that settled, that crisis point averted, spends a few moments taking a brief survey around the room, still toying with his phaser settings while occasionally poking at panels. "Michael, we're completely without ship's resources here except for the minimal environmental defaults of breatheable atmosphere and weak gravity. No computer access possible. Not from here."

Edwards wanders closer to a terminal, so he kick it. A weak /bang/ ensues. "I hate low gravity." he mutters. "Can you do anything to give us the littlest advantage in a fight?"

Raxil stops by Laco. "Doesn't some of this seem a little... familiar?" he mutters to Laco, looking around at the bridge entrances.

Ghorev says "I'm working on it, actually. If I'm right, and I can get my phaser to cooperate, I may have a surprise for the first few Lithians through the door. If I'm wrong, it's best not to make the same modifications to yours, since mine will be useless at that point."

Evans raises his voice to Bailey. "How are we getting out of here?"

Laco says "Doesn't what seem a little familiar?"

Ghorev finishes his phaser fiddling for now. "By the way, the second a Lithian shows up, those of us who aren't immediately incapacitated should turn their EVA suits back on, mag-boots and all, because if I'm right, and this idea *does* work things may get a little turbulent."

Bailey taps on her tricorder some more, then asks, "I'll be opening a portal, similar to what I traveled through to get here... But I need some time." She kneels, sets down her rifle and starts to working at her tricorder.

Raxil shrugs, distracted for a moment by Ghorev's comment. "Well... the whole thing down in the shuttlebay... remember that situation with the Jem'Hadar a few months ago?"

Dakin holds his phaser with a single hand and with the other reapplies his helmet and locks it down. His mag-boots have been on the entire time.

Edwards considers Ghorev and remarks dryly, "If we die, I'm gonna be pissed, you got that?"

Laco replies to Raxil, "We weren't in the shuttlebay, we were in Operations."

Evans turns on his and leans against a wall. "Wbat are you going to do? Turn the power off?"

Ghorev says "If we BOTH die, then my harmonica gets mailed to Dr. Leshnei, wherever in Borva's name he's serving now." He waits, a nervous energy rising from him like static electricity and belying the jest to his words. "And I can't see him playing it, ever, so I assure you I have no intention of dying today, whatever today is."

Raxil sighs, shaking his head. "The uniforms... on some of the people down there looked kinda like the uniforms those people were wearing when they beamed aboard." He's still muttering.

Laco says "The Starfleet uniforms?"

Bailey (claiming advantage) contests her Concealment skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!

Edwards nods a little and glances around the dead bridge, "You know, we should take a poll on what everyone thinks today is. Personally? I'd bet on Tuesday."

Raxil snorts irritably. "Bah... nevermind. I don't suppose you could loan me a disruptor?" he asks, pulling his helmet back on and sealing it.

Ghorev says "I'm going to regret asking this: Why Tuesday?"

Bailey remains kneeling down with her tricorder, working on it.

Ghorev continues to keep one eye peeled for things that look like crystal but move like crystal doesn't.

Laco plucks it from his belt, and hands it to Raxil, barrel first. "Here you go."

Raxil takes it gingerly, eyeing the power readings. "Thanks." he says dryly.

Evans looks over to Bailey. "Something the matter?"

Edwards, too, is warily keeping his eye open for anything that may want to crush his skull. "Well, because, this seems like a bad day. Bad days are always Tuesdays. Traditionally, people associate Mondays with bad days, because of the start of the work week. But, you see, bad days like to hang back. They like to hit you when you don't expect it. When's that? Right after you get through a Monday."

Evans says "Nothing matters but the weekend from a teusday point of vie."

"Everything is fine, Evans." Bailey says, keeping eye contact with the man. She draws herself up, picking up her phaser rifle, and announces, "It's time to leave..."

Ghorev eyes Bailey from across the room. "It's *been* time to leave, frankly."

Evans looks around the room. "ANyone notice there sure were a lot of dead Romulans around. Guess we kept our alliance..."

Bailey nods and begins working her tricorder once more, starting the process.

Laco, noticing that the Lithians don't seem to be storming the bridge, crouches down to rest.

Raxil remains standing, but leaning against the wall, from time to time glancing quickly at the doors.

Ghorev says "Don't see why not. The last few years have taught me that the Romulans aren't the only interstellar power with a few bad seeds mixed into the orchard."

Edwards taps his thumb against the handle of his phaser, "Yes, Mr. Evans. 'Course, they aren't normally on the Aegis..." Briefly, he considers the fact that maybe he shouldn't talk about it, then dismisses that idea. "Maybe they joined the Federation."

Ghorev says "Or maybe when the Lithians attack, the Romulans realize they're next and throw in their lot with us. We bumped into Aegis by sheer chance, after all. WHo's to say there's not a powered down warbird floating in the blackness out there?"

Evans shrugs. "I dont think that would be too likely in only six years. Though they could be survivors from an attack."

Bailey pushes the button on the tricorder to enact the temporal field, and.. nothing happens.

Dakin looks over to Bailey briefly from his guarding of the access hatch. "Bailey, haven't you gotten that portal open yet..?"

Bailey narrows her eyes at the tricorder, then looks it over, running a diagnostic if any.

Evans frowns. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Edwards admits, "Well, okay, that probably isn't likely..." As he honestly considers the Romulan question, he glances to Bailey, "Any day now, Agent..."

"Looks like we have to come up with plan B." Bailey says calmly, reattaching her tricorder to the holder at her waist. She pauses a moment, then asks Ghorev, "What systems did you say were up?"

Evans raises an eyebrow. "Plan B? What do you mean plan B?!"

Ghorev says "We have reserve life support, at least by all sensory cues. From here, we have nothing more. Had we gone to Enginering, of course, I might be whistling a different aria." A pause. "Not that I would be gauche and rub that in."

Raxil looks back over at Bailey, then at the disruptor in his hand, then back at Bailey before scanning the bridge entrances again.

Edwards remarks, "I, however, will." With a pointed look at Bailey, he states, "So you're saying that, because we listened to you, we might all get killed."

Dakin sighs and mutters a Bajoran curse under his breath that his combadge translator fails to pick up.

"We need to go down to the secondary core... Edwards, I need speak with you a moment." Bailey shoulders her rifle and waits for the man to approach her.

Edwards holds up an index finger to Bailey, signaling for her to wait. "Ake, you know the deck layout of this ship? We need to find the fastest way down to engineering."

Ghorev says "That would be five levels back down, Michael. Around the corner from our arrival point."

Evans readies his disruptor and stands by the door.

Edwards nods slightly, "I know where it is. I need you to find the quickest route there." He decides not to put Bailey out any longer and moves over to her.

Ghorev starts thinking, and seems to be doing a reasonable job as an idea passes over him.

Bailey moves close enough to Edwards to speak quietly and does so, her eyes analyzing his reaction, then flitting amongst the rest of the officers.

Raxil swallows, re-hefting the disruptor in his hand as he looks around.

Bailey speaks as quietly as she's able and yet loud enough for Edwards to hear, "We need to find out what happened to the Artifact in this time. It's our key to getting home."

Edwards doesn't reply verbally. Instead, he cocks an eyebrow, and stands there expectantly.

Bailey smiles at Edwards, a simple non-threatening one, then hefts her phaser rifle. "The secondary core is on the way down I believe, let's go."

Ghorev takes time, in the meanwhile, to formulate a plan. "Mr. Laco, Mr. Evans, I need one of you to make use of your tricorder. Search for any sarium krellide power signatures outside the confines of the bridge, but near enough to be a quick fetch. I can't believe that every spare EVA suit in every escape pod within quick sprinting distance has been completely drained of power."

Evans shrugs and looks at Laco.

Edwards wanders back to Ghorev and inquires, "What's the plan?"

Evans pulls out his tricorder and begins to work.

Evans purses his lips. "Im getting some nearby readings sir."

Ghorev says "There's the main airlock on Level 2. We have magboots. Lithians don't. We will be clever and walk along the hull until we get where we need to go. Unless they're out there waiting, we'll avoid most of them, though we'll likely still have to risk *some* possibility of an encounter."

Raxil nods his approval, before turning back to his guard work.

Dakin looks around. "Anything I should do here aside from watch the fort, Lieutenant?"

Edwards squints over at Bailey, heaves a sigh, and comments, "Well, there's been a change of plans. We need to get down to the computer core."

Evans frowns. "Good. I need a new suit."

"It was a good idea, Ghorev... Lieutenant... But it will take us away from the core." Bailey nods to Edwards, "Thank you, Lt."

Ghorev suddenly realizes something. "Belay that request, Mister Evans. An idea strikes me."

Ghorev says "We *have* the power cells to make two dead EVA suits work -- yours and, now that we have some spare disruptors to make up for it, one from one of our three phasers. All we need to do is find the nearest unlaunched escape pod, borrow two spare Mark I suits, and swap out the cells. And if memory serves, there's a corridor right over there where a few escape pods should be."

Edwards eyes Ghorev as if he just spontaneously grew another antennae, "Great plan. Only... what's it going to accomplish?"

Evans nods. "Yes...I think thats where my readings are coming from."

Dakin looks around at the assembled, just soaking in all the ambient conversation.

Ghorev turns to look at Edwards. "We listened to Agent Bailey once and were led five levels out of our way, wasting time and energy. If you as my commanding officer want to give her a second chance, that's just wonderful, but just in case she's wrong again, it's better to have the suits than not, Michael. Working suits. With power packs."

Edwards looks Ghorev squarely in the eye and... nods, "Get the suits. Although, if the good Agent Bailey leads us astray, we're probably not going to need that second one."

Clanging can be heard from deep within the turbolift shaft, behind the turbolift doors.

Evans and Laco gather up two more suits with suitable power charges left in them. The crew cautiously starts to make its way down toward Engineering via the secondary core. It's rather slow going because of the heightened sense of paranoia and the occasional clang from somewhere deep in the ship, but all hands make it to the doors outside of the secondary core. Upon wrenching them open, the smell of death assaults everyone who isn't wearing their helmet. The core is in shambles. Piles of crystal litter the floor, and there are dozens of tattered rags of Starfleet, Romulan, and Black Ops uniforms scattered around the floor. The artifact is gone. Two relatively freshly dead Romulans lie below where the artifact once hung, their chests burned with phasers. Four black-ops officers, also relatively freshly dead, are lying sprawled about, casualties of disrupter blasts.

Bailey has partially disconnected.

Evans growols. "If I never smell this smell again..."

Edwards takes in the scene grimly. After inspecting the dead bodies who were obviously caught in a firefight, he states, "They were fighting over it."

GAME: Dakin spends a courage point.

Raxil looks baffled. "Umm... fighting over -what-, exactly?"

Ghorev makes a face of displeasure at the vile stench and resumes wearing his helmet, to avoid that stench. "Since it's not here, the question is, where is it? Does the thing actually leave a chroniton trail we can track?"

Dakin (claiming advantage) contests his Medical Sciences (Forensics) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!

Bailey narrows her gaze at the corpses, moving slowly forward to where the artifact was kept. "Certainly looks that way, Lt." She reaches for her tricorder and sets it to scan for any traces of the artifact.

Ghorev says "And how long have they been dead, anyway?"

Edwards motions to Raxil, "Find out." Slowly, he backpedals, away from the bodies, "They definitely... smell fresher than the others."

Dakin examines the bodies cursorily. "I'm estimating 12 hours or so, sir."

Evans looks at one of the bodies not the least bit queasy a strange glint in his eyes. He looks back at Edwards and grimaces.]

Raxil shrugs, kneeling and pulling out his medical tricorder, running the sensor over the corpses. He looks at the display, squinting at it.

Bailey glances down, noting some equipment attached to the base of where the artifact used to be. Not to anybody in particular, she says, "Romulan..." She moves in for a closer look.

Laco speaks up, "Uhm, Lt Ghorev, what exactly would it take to re-power up our Runabout?"

Ghorev says "Dilithium and a little time. And some luck never hurts."

Edwards moves to stand next to Ghorev as he looks to Bailey, "Well?"

Laco says "Well, uh, can't we just grab some Dilithium from here, fix the runabout, and find a star to time-warp around?"

"I believe the Romulans beamed the artifact out... It's there equipment and..." Bailey pauses, tapping her tricorder, "There's a residual transport signature.. Romulan. We need to find them."

Ghorev says "If you've got enough confidence in your astrophysics and warp field theory skills to do the calculations for such a thing, Mister Laco, sure. However, let's realize something, shall we? We didn't *bring* ourselves here that way. I'm starting to suspect what did, and why, and I'm not fond of the ramifications." A pause. "Of course, I'm known to be paranoid."

Raxil looks up to Edwards. "Sir? It's been about twelve hours..."

Edwards ponders that one, "So, after a joint massacring of forces aboard the Aegis, the Romulans and these... other people come here, fight over it, and the Romulans beam it away. Is this making sense to anybody?"

Dakin sighs. "Not going to be easy considering all we have is two dead ships, one of which is crawling with hostile aliens..." He looks to Raxil. "WHich means they were killed at roughly the same time we arrived here?"

Ghorev says "No more sense than the possibility that the Artifact itself brought us here to stop it. But that's my paranoid fantasy, Michael."

Evans looks at Ghorev and Edwards. "What are you two talking about?"

"Are there any shuttlecraft left onboard the Aegis?" Bailey asks, standing up to brush off her knees.

Ghorev says "We really didn't have time to check before you arrived, Agent Bailey."

Edwards shoots a look at Evans, "Is that how you address superior officers, Evans?" His nerves are getting a bit frayed here. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Bailey. You expect us to go after the Romulans in a shuttle?"

Dakin says "They'd be back in the laucnh bay where we arrived if there were."

Ghorev says "It's possible we can use a shuttlepod to get to 419, you know. If this whole battle has been in the past day or so, the Runabouts *there* may still be in working order. Maybe. Better a Runabout than a shuttle, though only in the sense that a knife is better than a rock in a bar fight."

"We need to find out what happened to the Artifact, Lieutenant." Bailey insists, replacing the tricorder at her waist.

Raxil swallows, looking back at his tricorder, then back at the Romulan, looking puzzled. "What the hell...!?" he says to himself, edging away. "Uhh... guys?"

Ghorev turns. "What?" He pulls his phaser up to the ready.

Evans looks over to Raxil.

Edwards isn't screwing around, either. His phaser comes up. "Raxil? Don't say things like that. What is it?" he questions.

Dakin whips around to Raxil's direction, phaser drawn.

Bailey seems about to say something, then turns to look at Raxil.

Raxil jabs at the tricorder display with his thumb. "Uhh... I'm reading silicon traces in his-" jerking his head at one of the dead Romulans. -body... I'm not quite sure what's going on."

Evans hoists his disruptor and takes a step back from Raxil...

Edwards thinks quickly, "Can you see how long they've been there, Raxil?"

Dakin exhales. "Oh, Prophets, please don't tell me that whacked-out idea I had could be on the level..."

The Romulan's hands and face are starting to deform as its veins start to crystallize into almost pure silicon.

Raxil frowns, glaring intently at his tricorder. "Umm... only a few seconds ago... this stuff's moving pretty fast."

Ghorev says "Sometimes I forget none of you knew St. James. This happened to one of our crewmen once before, over a year ago. We'd better do something *Now* before the change is complete."

Evans says "Blast it? *Points his disruptor."

Bailey doesn't hesitate, but brings her phaser to bear, getting a clear shot and firing at the corpse.

Edwards levels his phaser at the poor Romulan bastard. "Destroy it!" he orders. Without hesitation, he presses the firing stud.

Dakin raises his phaser and fires as well.

Ghorev does not, for some reason, fire his own.

Evans ducks since he might be in the way,.

Raxil stumbles back from the poor Romulan bastard, screaming something that the UT, thankfully, doesn't interpret.

The Romulan starts to glow, then vaporizes in golden flames under the assault.

Raxil stumbles over another one of the corpses, landing on his back.

Edwards ceases fire. "Okay, I've had enough of this place." he comments. "We started out in the fighter bay. I don't think we want to go back there. So we're going to engineering."

It takes some time to get down to engineering for the aforementioned reasons. Engineering is as black and as desolate as the bridge, but relatively free of the piles of crystal and the shredded uniforms. The corpses here appear to have decayed rather than transformed. One of the corpses near the door is a shrivelled blue, had white hair, and is wearing Lt. Commander's pips. Beside him lies a woman with long, black hair in an engineering uniform.

The woman's skin is far too decomposed to determine identity.

Raxil runs along, catching up with Bailey just as they enter. "Y'know... next time you plan to shoot something... could you give me a little -warning- first?" he says, sounding slightly indignant.

Dakin strides into the engine room and pauses upon seeing the blue-skinned corpse. Taking a quick moment to compose himself, he looks to the others for any ideas as to what to do next, without drawing attention to the corpse.

Edwards glances around once inside and makes note of the shriveled blue man. His only reaction is to look pointedly at his good buddy, Ghorev. He doesn't say a word.

Evans frowns and just shakes his head..

Ghorev gets a little dizzy as he steps in through the door, for obvious reasons. "Well ... I ... " And he leans for a moment against a bulkhead. "I suppose that settles the burning question." He shuts his eyes tightly for just a moment. "Don't bother checking. I'd like to keep the illusion even if I'm wrong."

"I might." Bailey replies as she enters engineering. She takes a long look around, noting the shriveled blue corpse, then avoiding eye contact with Ghorev. No one should have to see what he's seen.

Raxil glances back at Ghorev, then down at the corpses, most of his indignation evaporating. "Oh... okay."

Edwards looks duly concerned at Ghorev's reaction. "C'mon." he rplies, "Let's just get what we came for and get out of here."

Dakin nods solemnly. "No problem, Akeen. No problem at all."

Bailey questions, "What you came for, Edwards?"

Ghorev shoves away from the bulkhead, rubbing at the faceplate of his suit as if he could massage his temples through conductivity or sometihng. "I suppose in my heart I wanted to think I got away *and* remained unturned. Borva knows I don't know why I thought I *deserved* to feel that special. But it's nice to know I stayed with my heart to the last." He moves forward to search for his goal, still clearly shaken.

Edwards takes a page from the Book of Bailey and ignores her question. "Guards? Guard." he orders. "You need any help, Ake?"

Dakin nods takes up position near the open shaft surrounding the warp core while pointing Evans and Laco to other entrances into the room.

Evans looks around the room moving his disruptor back and forth.

Raxil glances over to Edwards before taking his disruptor and covering the main entrance.

Ghorev says "No. I'll be alright. I just ... well, .... I'll be alright. I think. That's all that matters." He starts peering around. "Let's see if we changed the locks."

Bailey moves to follow (and watch) Ghorev, pointedly raising her phaser rifle, though not aiming it at anyone.

The core is barely glowing in the darkness.

Ghorev proceeds towards the general area of the core. "I feel like a ghoul saying this, and I would prefer you all wait until I'm out of earshot, but someone may want to figure out how long I've been dead and see how this reconciles with the 12-hour-old deaths in the secondary computer core. Because there's still something we're not quite finding." He says this all in a low, level rush, as if temporal paradoxes somehow make it easier to discuss the certainty that one is on borrowed time.

Edwards doesn't reply to Ghorev's suggestion. Instead, he simply looks to Raxil, and motions toward the dead Andorian.

Raxil looks back at Ghorev, nodding and scurrying back to the corpses, pulling out his tricorder and beginning to scan.

Raxil swallows. "Uhh... the Andorian died about a year ago... hang on a second." He mutters the last bit as he scans the woman. "Orion here... umm... about the same."

Edwards blinks at that. "Excuse me?"

Dakin blinks as he glances towards Raxil. "Orion..." he whispers under his breath.

Raxil looks up, startled. "Yes... one year."

Ghorev reaches the far side, near the core, enters the usual codes into the storage locker, slides out a rack of dilithium, and fetches some crystals. It takes all of a minute, perhaps, since his last statement about ghouishness and such, and then he starts to return.

Edwards moves over to Raxil, and the dead bodies, "No no no. Orion?"

Evans frowns again. "A year?" He says to himself.

Bailey keeps a watch around Ghorev as he moves nearer the core, following him back once he's done. "Powering back up the Amazon, then?..."

Raxil nods, looking puzzled. "Yessss..." he says, drawing it out as he sneaks another peek at his tricorder display.

Ghorev says "It's our only option. If Nevaren's got my eye for dilithium well trained enough, I'd say we've got between one and three days of power left in this, for a microwarp core the size of Amazon's. Let's split the difference and say two days. It's sorry shape, but it gives us two days of reasonable safety away from here to find a way to the artifact, or home."

Raxil continues. "About thirty years old..." He fingers her collar. "Lieutenant, by the look of it."

Dakin exhales and maintains his post, trying not to say anything regarding the dead Orion woman.

Edwards swallows as he looks over the body. But he doesn't do it for long. Swiftly, he steps back, and turns to regard Ghorev, "What the hell happened here?"

"That's would be nice... if the artifact where still in this time period." Bailey replies to Ghorev, looking from him to Edwards.

Evans looks at Edwards. "Sir this timeline may not happen. This is only one of many possible futures..."

Ghorev says "Clearly, Michael, I died." He makes one brave attempt at Ghorevian gallows humor through the face plate. "But being the remarkably resilient fellow that I am, I have endured death and still wish to fight the good fight. Although I probably swallowed the harmonica rather htan let it fall into enemy hands."

Dakin says "Anything else we need to retrieve before we head back to the runabout? I'd almost recommend checking out the armory, but I also think we need to evac quickly."

Ghorev still has the mysteriously-tinkered-with-phaser in one hand, and the dilithium in the other.

Edwards can normally dig deep and find the humor in just about anything. But all he offers Ghorev is a blank look after that attempt. Dismissing the Andorian, he looks to Bailey, and questions, "Where is it? And, so help me, if you give me the runaround, I will turn you into a puddle of malformed molecules on the deckplate."

Raxil stands, brushing off his suit reflexively. "Well... I'm with you on that one, sir..." he comments.

"The Romulan's took it." Bailey replies evenly, "And time-traveled with it.... It's no longer in our current present, but either in the past or the future." She frowns.

The crew wrangle the dilithium back to the runabout, following the same tethered lines, without encountering any other Lithians. Ghorev installs the dilithium shards and the runabout is soon powered again. The crew have discussed numerous plans for getting back to their timeline which are, each and every one, as far fetched as the other, and all of them with significant risk attached. Finally, Agent Bailey speaks up with the last resort: "Let me tell you about the Guardian of Forever.."