The Causality Loop - Chapter One

The Valkyrie was spinning out of control. The warp engines had been severely damaged. There was a massive power drain on every system.
    “Unable to regain control Captain.” shouted Tompkins at the helm. “Back-up systems failing.”
    “The warp core is going to explode.” reported Lom at the engineering station. “We’re going to have to dump her.”
    Lom fed the orders into the control panel.
    “The controls are off line.” Lom reported. “I’m unable to dump the core. We’re going to blow!”
    Watt pressed a button on his panel.
    “This is the Captain. All hands abandon ship! All hands…”
    The order was not completed, or carried out. The Valkyrie exploded into a million pieces and more. All crew members were killed.

    The U.S.S. Valkyrie was entering an unchartered sector of space on a routine mapping mission. It was during this time that some of the crew took time out to relax. Four members of the crew, Pendragon, Magus, Amarus and Singh were doing this at their regular poker game. Pendragon was dealing. It had been a difficult past few weeks, and each of them were looking forward to this chance to unwind.
    Pendragon sat in his chair tossing cards to the others. He dealt the first cards face down, as is the custom in poker. He then started to deal the rest of the cards.
    “A nine for Mr. Amarus, a king for the good doctor, an ace for the wizard.”
    Magus looked surprised at being referred to as ‘the wizard’. Pendragon began to deal again.
    “A seven, a queen, a two, no help for the wizard.”
    “Commander Pendragon, I would prefer it if you would call me by my official title, if you could be so kind.”
    Pendragon smiled and dealt again. Afterwards each player picked up their cards. Amarus seemed disgruntled at his hand. He threw them into the centre of the table.
    “Fold.”
    Magus looked at Singh.
    “Your call, Doctor Singh.”
    Singh looked down at his gold chips.
    “Twenty.” he said, throwing some chips into the centre.
    Magus looked down at his chips. He picked some up.
    “Your twenty, and another twenty.”
    Pendragon then looked at his cards.
    “Your twenty.” he said, throwing his chips into the centre with the others.
    Magus then looked at Singh.
    “I believe it’s your call, Doctor.”
    Singh studied his cards. He thought hard for a few seconds.
    “Your twenty, and I’ll raise you another fifty.”
    Pendragon gazed down at his cards and then threw them on the table.
    “This is getting too rich for me. I’m out.”
    Magus pushed all of his remaining chips into the centre of the table. A small pile was beginning to form.
    “Your two hundred, and another hundred.” said Singh, pushing his remaining chips into the pile. “I believe it’s your call Ambassador.”
    Singh suddenly got this strange feeling, as if something was about to happen. He looked somewhat confused. Then a call came through on his communicator. It was from Sickbay. Singh activated his communicator.
    “Singh here. What is it nurse?”
    “Commander Lom has just come in Doctor. He’d like to see you.”
    “I’m on my way.”
    Singh put his cards face down on the table and got to his feet.
    “I’ll guess we’ll have to postpone this game until another time Ambassador.”
    “It seems that you were saved by the proverbial bell, Doctor.” said Magus.

    Singh entered Sickbay and saw Lom sitting on the examination table. The nurse handed Singh his tri-corder. He then approached Lom.
    “What seems to be the problem Commander?”
    “I don’t know.” Lom replied. “I was on the catwalk, about to enter the Jefferies tubes when suddenly I felt dizzy. If it had been for Anderson I would have probably taken a dive there.”
    Singh began to move the tri-corder up and down Lom.
    “Any other symptoms?”
    “I seemed very unbalanced.” said Lom. “I also could’ve sworn I saw something, like a ghost.”
    “You mean an hallucination?” said Singh. “That’s not uncommon when an Insectoid has similar symptoms to you.”
    Singh walked over to the table and picked up another instrument. He switched the instrument on and began to examine Lom’s ear. After about a minute he was finished. A confused look appeared on his face.
    “Odd.” he said. “You are showing all the signs of an inner ear infection, yet I can find no trace of one.”
    Singh then got this strange feeling.
    “Tell me Commander, have you had any of these symptoms before?”
    Lom thought for a minute.
    “I don’t think so. If I had I would remember.”
    Singh walked over the table and picked up a hypo-spray and handed it to Lom.
    “Take this.” he said. “And if you have any more dizzy spells come and see me.”

    It was a few hours later that Singh stood in his quarters, a glass of red wine in his hand. He was taking trimmings from one of the many plants in his quarters, joyfully singing to himself as he did. After a few minutes he took a sip from his glass. He then stood back and looked at the large plant. Deciding he had trimmed it enough Singh walked over to his bed, glass in hand. He sat down on the bed and put the glass on the bedside table. He pressed the computer panel on the table, dimming the lights. He then pulled back the bed clothes and laid down on the bed. Pulling the bed clothes back over him he began to sleep. Suddenly a strange noise could be heard in the room, as if it was like a thousand voices speaking at once. Singh leapt up out of bed and began to feel for the computer panel so he could switch on the lights. He knocked over the wine glass, smashing it on the floor. He looked around as if he thought there was someone in the quarters with him. There wasn’t. Putting it down to his fatigue he got back into bed. He then found that he could not get back to sleep. So he got up again and reached for his communicator. He activated it.
    “Singh to Watt.”
    “Watt here.”
    “Is it alright if I see you Captain?”
    “Certainly Doctor. I’m in my ready room.”

    A few minutes later Watt and Singh sat in the ready room. Singh seemed very concerned.
    “Has anyone reported feeling anything strange?” asked Singh.
    “Such as?”
    “I don’t know. It’s like a feeling of deja-vu, as if you’ve done something before.”
    “Nothing has been reported.” said Watt, reaching for a book on the table. “But I had a similar feeling earlier this evening while reading this book. I’ve never read this book before tonight, but while I was I could sworn I’d read these pages before. But then again maybe I did years ago, perhaps when I was at school, and forgot about it.”
    Singh did not seem convinced. He still looked worried. Watt placed a hand on Singh’s shoulder.
    “Don’t worry Doctor.” You’re probably only feeling this way because you couldn’t get to sleep.”
    Watt got to his feet and walked over to the replicator. About a minute later he walked back to Singh with a steaming cup in his hand.
    “What’s this?” asked Singh.
    “An ancient recipe handed down through the Watt generations. It helps you to sleep.”
    Singh took the cup and took a sip.
    “Warm milk.” he said.
    “It has aided sleep throughout the centuries.” said Watt. “Now don’t worry Gourlak. Everything will be fine. You probably need a good night’s sleep, and in the morning you’ll feel fine.”

    It was seven o’clock the next morning at the daily meeting of all the senior officers. The main topic of discussion had been the routine mapping mission they were currently on. Present were Watt, Pendragon, Sutek, Lom, Trospheo, Magus and Singh. After the discussion about the mapping mission Singh spoke.
    “Captain, I would like to report something that happened to me last night. I heard what seemed to be stranger voices in my quarters. Ten others reported a similar occurrence.”
    Watt turned to Pendragon.
    “Was anything picked up on the internal sensors?” he asked.
    “Not that I know of.” said Pendragon.
    “Perhaps it would be prudent to carry out a full internal sensor sweep.” said Watt.
    “That’s not the only thing.” said Singh. “A lot of people have also got the strange feeling I did yesterday, a feeling of deja-vu.”
    “It is quite illogical for many people to get a feeling of deja-vu at the same time.” said Sutek.
    “It’s probably just nothing.” said Watt. “Work with Commander Lom on the sensor sweep number one. Report to me as soon as you get the results. Meeting adjourned.”

    Two hours passed. Watt sat in his ready room studying the mapping reports. A few seconds later his door buzzer went.
    “Enter.”
    The door opened and Lom entered. He sat down in the chair opposite Watt.
    “The sensor sweep is complete, Captain. They have detected nothing.”
    “Are you sure Commander?”
    “I carried out the process twice, Captain. Each time the result was the same.”
    Suddenly the ship shook violently. A call came through from Pendragon on Watt’s communicator.
    “Captain Watt report to the bridge.”
    Watt and Lom got to their feet and left the ready room. When Watt entered the bridge he found that the ship was in a state of red alert.
    “What is it number one?” he asked.
    “Mr. Amarus?”
    “The sensors have picked up a temporal disturbance in the space-time continuum.” Amarus reported. “It just appeared out of nowhere. The sensors have just detected it.”
    The ship again shook violently. The bridge crew found it hard to keep their footing. The lights went out. The back-ups kicked in a few seconds later.
    “Main computer is down.” reported Lom at the engineering station.
    “Casualty reports coming in from all over the ship.” reported Singh.
    “Helm isn’t responding.” said Tompkins.
    Pendragon looked at the image on the screen. It showed the rift getting larger.
    “Look!” said Magus. “Something’s coming through!”
    On the screen they saw another starship coming through the temporal rift.
    “She’s heading straight for us!” said Magus.
    “Evasive manoeuvres.” ordered Watt.
    “Warp engines are down.” reported Lom.
    “Captain, if we decompress one of the shuttle bays the pressure may be enough push us out of the way.”
    “Maybe not enough.” said Magus. “I think the tractor beam will be more effective.”
    Watt thought quickly.
    “Activate the tractor beam.”
    Amarus carried out the door. The tractor beam was activated and directed at the other ship. It did not work.
    “Tractor beam isn’t powerful enough.” said Amarus.
    Suddenly everything shook as the other starship crashed into the port-side warp engine. The Valkyrie began to spin out of control. The warp engine was severely damaged.
    “Unable to regain control Captain.” shouted Tompkins. “Back-up systems failing.”
    “The warp core is going to explode.” reported Lom. “We’re going to have to dump her.”
    Lom fed the orders into the control panel.
    “The controls are off line.” Lom reported. “I’m unable to dump the core. We’re going to blow!”
    “This is the Captain. All hands abandon ship! All hands…”
    The order was not completed or carried out. The Valkyrie crew exploded into a million pieces and more. All crew members were killed.