The U.S.S. Valkyrie was entering an unchartered sector of space on a routine mapping mission. It was during this 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 few weeks, and each of them were looking forward to this chance to unwind.
Pendragon sat in his chair tossing the 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. It was then that Amarus began to get a strange feeling. Pendragon was about to deal the card to Amarus, but when he saw the look on the Traxxon’s face he stopped.
“What’s wrong?” asked Pendragon.
“It’s nothing.” replied Amarus.
Pendragon continued to deal.
“A nine for Mr. Amarus, a king for the good doctor, and an ace for the wizard.”
Magus looked surprised at being referred to as ‘the wizard’. Pendragon was about to deal when he got a strange feeling, similar to the one Amarus had felt a few seconds earlier.
“I could have sword I knew that cards I was about to deal.” he said. “As if I had dealt those same exacts cards before to you.”
“That’s just how I felt.” said Amarus.
“I also.” said Singh. “Please, continue to deal.”
Pendragon continued to deal the cards. As he dealt the cards to everyone each receiver spoke just before they landed on the table.
“Seven.” said Amarus.
“Queen.” said Singh.
“Two.” said Magus.
Pendragon dealt to himself, but he knew what card he was going to receive.
“How could we know what cards we were going to get?” asked Pendragon.
“Deja-vu.” said Singh. “But odd that we should all get the same feeling.”
Pendragon continued to deal, and again, each was able to name their cards. They each seemed concerned.
“This is very odd.” said Magus.
Singh then activated his communicator.
“Singh to Sickbay. Has Commander Lom come in in the past few minutes?”
“No doctor. I haven’t…wait. Commander Lom has just come in. He said he’d like to see you.”
Singh got to his feet.
“How did you know Lom was about to enter Sickbay?” asked Pendragon.
“To be honest I have no idea.”
Singh entered Sickbay and saw Lom sitting on the examination table. The nurse handed Singh a tri-corder. He then approached Lom.
“What seems to be the problem Commander?”
“I don’t know.” Lom replied. “I was on a catwalk, about to enter one of the Jefferies tubes when suddenly I felt fizzy. If it hadn’t 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?” Singh asked.
“I seemed very unbalanced.” said Lom. “I also could have sword 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 confused.
“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 that strange feeling.
“Tell me Commander, have you had any of these symptoms before?”
Lom thought for a minute.
“I seem to remember coming here with a similar problem, but I can’t remember when.”
“I’d like to carry out a few more tests.”
Singh carried out his tests. When he had finished he alerted Watt. Watt soon entered Sickbay.
“What is it Doctor?” he asked.
“Commander Lom here came in complaining of symptoms similar to those of an inner ear infection, yet when I carried out tests I could find no trace of one. I then carried out more tests and found the root of the problem. As you know the Insectoid eye has a completely different structure to the human eye, and it is able to pick up much more. Commander Lom was seeing a strange form of energy pattern that only he could see. The pattern was too much for his eyes, which made him feel dizzy.”
“What sort of energy pattern?” Watt asked.
“I couldn’t really tell.” Lom replied. “To me it seemed like some sort of ghost.”
“Carry out a full internal sensor sweep Commander.” ordered Watt. “Work with Commander Sutek.”
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 as he did. A few minutes later he took a sip from his glass. He then stood back and looked at the large plant. Deciding he had trimmed 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 was about to lie down when he again got that strange feeling. He pondered for a few second, then he lay back on the bad. He began to pull the bed clothes over him when once again he got that strange feeling. Suddenly a strange noise could be heard in the room, as if it was like a thousand voices speaking at once. Singh leapt out of bed and grabbed the tri-corder on the bedside table and began recording the strange noises on the tri-corder. He then took his communicator and activated it.
“Singh to Lom. Are you in Engineering?”
“Yes Doctor.”
“I’ve got something that I think you’d be interested in.”
“I’m sure Commander Sutek would help me.”
“Good. I’m on my way.”
Singh reached for the computer panel to brighten the lights, so he could get dressed. His hand brushed the wine glass, knocking it to the floor where it smashed. The sound of breaking glass was heard on the communicator channel.
“Are you okay Doctor?” asked Lom.
Singh paused for a moment. He again got the feeling of deja-vu, as if he had smashed the glass in the same way before.
“I’m okay, Commander. I’m on my way.”
Singh soon arrived in Engineering. Lom and Sutek then spent the next half hour or so analysing Singh’s recording.
“This is most puzzling.” said Sutek. “I’ve never heard anything like this before.”
“It may be possible to filter out the noises, but it may take time.”
“We have all the time in the world.” said Singh. “This may also have something to do with those strange energy flows.”
Singh paused as he thought for a moment.
“As strange as it may sound, but to me it sounds like a load of voices.”
Watt sat in his ready room, one of his many books in his hand, He had been meaning to read this particular book for some time but had not managed to get round to it. He leaned back on the soft and opened the book and began to read. After about a minute he stopped and began thumbing through the book. He had a strange feeling that he had read the book before, but he knew that he hadn’t. It was a feeling of deja-vu. It was very strange.
It was seven o’clock the next morning at the daily meeting of the senior officers. The main topic of discussion had been the routine mapping mission they were currently on. After the discussion about the mapping mission the subject changed to that of the strange occurrences.
“Ten others, apart from those here, have reported getting these strange feelings of deja-vu, and hearing what appeared to be strange voices in their quarters.”
“I understand you managed to get a recording of this noise.” said Watt.
“I have spent a lot of time analysing the recording.” said Sutek. “When played at once they are inaudible, but with the help of the computer I have managed to separate them. Altogether the recording included over a thousand different voices. I have managed to break them down. They included five acts of love-making, three hundred general conversations, seventy six song…”
“Be brief Commander.” said Watt.
“Yes Captain. There were two recordings which I managed to isolate which I found relevant.”
Sutek pressed the computer panel on the table. A cracking noise appeared over the speakers. Then they heard Amarus’ voice.
“The sensors have picked up a temporal disturbance in the space-time continuum.”
“That was not the only voice I singled out.”
Sutek again pressed the panel. This time Watt’s voice could be heard.
“All hands abandon ship! All hands…”
“Those were the two most significant portions.” said Sutek.
Watt sat back in his chair and began to stroke his chin.
“What about those strange energy patterns Commander Lom?” asked Watt.
“The sensor sweep could not detect them.” replied Lom. “But with the help of Sutek I adjusted the internal sensors. They were not energy patterns, they seemed to be some sort of ghost-like image.”
Watt continued to sit back in his chair, he now appeared deep in thought.
“Your theories please gentlemen.” he said.
“I have encountered something like this before.” said Magus. “Apart from a few variations this seems like a quantum causality loop.”
“A what?” said Pendragon.
“A point in the space-time continuum where everything repeats itself.” said Sutek. “I have read before about such phenomena. I would tend to agree with Ambassador Magus’ theory.”
“Then if we are in such a loop it’s obvious to me that we are going to be destroyed.” said Pendragon. “I recommend we pull out of this sector.”
“I disagree.” said Watt,. “That is what we may have done in the previous loop. But then again we may not have.”
“There may be something I can do.” said Magus.
“Such as?” asked Watt.
“I may be able to leave a sort of ‘message’, using my powers, for myself in the next loop.” replied Magus. “The only drawback would be that I would be the only one able to receive the message, and then only on a sub-conscious level.”
“It’s worth a try.” said Watt.
“I still think we should pull back.” said Pendragon.
Before they could discuss anything else the ship shook violently. The red alert alarm sounded. A call came through from the bridge.
“Captain Watt report to the bridge.”
All of those present got to their feet and left the conference room.
A few minutes later they entered the bridge. Watt took up a position just in front of his chair.
“Report Mr. Amarus.”
“The sensors have picked up a temporal disturbance in the space-time continuum.” Amarus reported.
Those who had been in the meeting turned and looked at Amarus.
“It just appeared out of nowhere.”
The ship again shook violently. They found it hard to keep their footing. The lights went out. The back-ups kicked in a few seconds later.
“It’s happening.” said Pendragon.
“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 to push us out of the way.” suggested Pendragon.
“Maybe not enough.” said Magus. “I think the tractor beam will be more effective.”
Watt thought quickly.
“Activate tractor beam.”
Amarus carried out the order. 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 order into the control panel.
“The controls are offline.” Lom reported. “I’m unable to dump the core. We’re going to blow!”
As all of this went on nobody noticed Magus standing nearby, his eyes closed, chanting quietly to himself. Meanwhile, 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.
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