View source for Call Back Yesterday

=An Urgent Mission=

==Strange Environs==

==Siren In the Distance==

==Unwelcome Surprises==

==Tangled Narratives==

==The Curtain Parts==

==Denouement==

=Mission Report, Medical Department=
We received a distress beacon from a desolate but formerly populated world. It had once hosted a civilization, but that might have been hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. Climate change did them in, maybe. Or perhaps some global catastrophe that turned the global thermostat way up and made the place unlivable. Who knows. I'm a real doctor, dammit. Not one of those kinds that push numbers or words and contemplates the topographies of their navels at a post-graduate level. And besides, in the long run, those details don't really matter for the purposes of this report.

We were to beam down to the surface and investigate. We would have a narrow window in which to operate; even at night, the air temp was positively inhospitable. I suppose this should have been my first clue that something was amiss; our mission details and objectives seemed unnecessarily vague. I think, however, that we collectively hand-waved some of that due to a sense of urgency. We were responding to a distress call, after all.

The mission began with me (LCDR Uvorvykyshky), LCDR Piper, LT S'Ralaa and LT(JG) T'Bok beaming down to the surface. Nominally, LCDR Piper was in charge. This was more of a social sciences exploratory mission, and he was more of a people person than me, a crotchety old sawbones and a pair of Vulcans who didn't seem exactly that...glib. That was fine with me. I'm quite accustomed to not being in the lead, and rather prefer it, I think. I was just there to patch up the potential distress-ees and make sure my crewmates drank enough water to not stroke out.

While attempting to home in on the distress signal, several of us began conducting tangential surveys of the area, recording what data we could while we were planet side to add to the record of what we knew of this place, which was pitifully little. Perhaps another reason the briefing had been so sparse on details. Shortly into our explorations, we encountered hostile local wildlife. It was immediately clear to us that these were not sentient beings, but rather animals. I don't know exactly what it was; maybe the younger and more qualified among us were taken aback by the situation and hesitated while I had seen this dance far too many times on far too many worlds. So, being the Doctor (and wanting to patch up the fewest number of crew as possible later on), I immediately opened fire with my phaser rifle, as one does in such a situation. The others followed suit, but their initial aim left much to be desired. Or perhaps, if I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt—which I am normally reluctant to do—they were hoping that some warning shots would scare off the fauna. Usually this works, I'll give them that much. But sometimes that also depends on how hungry the critters are. It could also be that my fellows need to spend more time at the range if they're being shown up by the Doc, but I don't want to start believing that right off the bat. Everyone can have some bad luck, after all. When I stunned the second of the three beasties, it perhaps convinced Lt.  S'Ralaa that she shouldn't let the old human do all the work, and she was able to tick her phaser up to a higher stun setting and knock out the last one, but not before it was able to try and chew on T'Bok a little. Thankfully, no serious damage was done; she was mostly concerned about being contaminated by pathogens the animal might have carried in its filthy maw. After this bit of excitement, we moved on deeper into the ruins of the city.

It appeared as if we were being followed and observed by more of the creatures, but they weren't engaging us. Maybe they'd seen what had happened to the welcoming party and were just waiting for us to keel over in the heat before they attempted to eat us. It was about this time that things started to go a bit off the rails. Lt. T'Bok ran off on her own, chasing after something that seemed vitally important to her at the time. Something similar happened to Commander Piper. Lt. S'Ralaa chased after T'Bok, admonishing all of us for splitting up as we were. I don't know what butterflies those others were chasing but I was sure at the time that I was the only one staying on mission, as I heard cries of pain off in the distance. Certain that this was who had triggered the distress beacon, I rushed to investigate and render aid.

As I dashed to the sounds of distress, an incident from my past played out in my mind. It is personal, and I would rather not get into it fully in this report but suffice to say that my mind raced as much as my old legs, reliving the scene and the regret of not being able to save people close to me. At the moment, I was fully engulfed in the hallucination, not realizing what it was, of course. It just seemed so reasonable that I might have flashbacks to that trauma at a time like this.

When it finally came to the point in my hallucination where I was able to render aid to my old squadmate and save her like I had not been able to do so many years ago, it was Commander Piper's voice coming over the comm that woke me out of the fantasy. I found myself hip-deep in a pool of water, barely aware of how I'd gotten there. I was livid at being woken from the dream at the point that I was. One of the creatures was nearby, watching me flounder in temporary delirium, at which point I gestured angrily at it, screaming, "What the hell are you looking at!" It had no answer, of course, and perhaps my irritation alone was enough to drive it off, like it was an incompetent and ham-handed orderly.

Eventually we all recovered from our mental distress. It seemed likely that we may have all succumbed to some environmental hazard, or perhaps some psychic attack levied by the wildlife. Whatever the case, I suggested the others meet at my location because if nothing else, there was water here, and it was cool.

Shortly after, we were set upon by Romulans attempting to capture us. At first, I wasn't sure if this wasn't just another hallucination, but after they disintegrated my favorite tricorder, we were convinced they were not figments of our collective imagination. Into captivity we went, because it looked as though they would win this fight if we wanted to push the issue.

We were held captive in some ruins where Romulan intelligence officers were working with some Romulan scientists toward some end. It was supposedly a partnership, but it seemed very much that the Intelligence guys thought they were in charge and could boss around everyone else. We used this as a means to begin building a rapport with the lead scientist, whose name I don't recall, and that doesn't matter for reasons that will become evident soon.

It transpired that the Romulans were researching some technology or artifact that would enable them to create a psionic field of sorts that would tune into deep-seated emotional stressors in the targets. Or something like that. This field would also encompass some large volume of space, which would allow it to be weaponized. Imagine what they might be able to do if they set up one of these generators as an area denial weapon or loaded one on a specialized torpedo or shuttlecraft to drive the entire crew of a starship into the throes of traumatic hallucinations! Clearly, this was not something we could allow, but our ability to do anything about it at the moment was limited. Our weapons had been taken, but oddly, they had left us with the rest of our gear. Maybe they trusted the containment shield of our cell enough that they weren't concerned about whatever else we had on our persons. At any rate, the scientist was admonished by one of her fellows that she should not be chatting up the "test subjects."

I knew that this type of shield didn't stop everything. It wasn't a hermetic seal, for example. Gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide would easily pass through it; otherwise, we would all be at risk of eventually suffocating as sure as if we had each had a plastic bag over our heads. With this thought in mind, I surreptitiously began using my medical kit to begin synthesizing a potent knock-out gas tailored to Romulan biology. This was complicated somewhat by the fact that I would first have to create some antidote to slip to T'Bok and S'Ralaa, first. Being Vulcan, there was every possibility their bodies would react similarly to the agent. It would take some time to achieve these goals, so I encouraged Commander Piper to continue with his dialogue and distraction. Meanwhile, Lt. S'Ralaa appeared to be examining some exposed electronics or some such within our cell to see if she could manage some manipulation such as lowering the shield.

S'Ralaa was able to make headway with her task long before mine was ready, and she managed to trigger some alarm, to see how the Romulans might react to this disruption. It certainly threw them off their game, but the cranky spy was not so impressed, and was tired of what he seemed to perceive as stalling by the scientist. He wanted to test the device on his fresh guinea pigs, despite the scientist's vehement and panicked objections. She was powerless to stop him, though, and the obstinate fool threw the switch anyway.

It became readily apparent why the scientist thought this was a bad idea, as clearly the device's area of effect was as yet...poorly defined. It hit us, all right. We were wracked with excruciating mental discomfort, racing thoughts, crushing guilt and anxiety, you name it. Any sort of mental haywire that you could imagine to totally lock one up. As you may have anticipated by the framing here, it also hit all the Romulans, as well.

It took a monumental feat of concentration and willpower to focus and free ourselves from the psychic onslaught we faced, but one by one we managed it. T'Bok seemed to be suffering physiological side effects, as well, and at S'Ralaa's urging, I descended on her with medical attention as soon as I managed to free myself.

And then, we were free. In a holodeck. Each surrounded by a couple of individuals that we had never met before; S'Ralaa,  Piper and me. It was probably a clever trick of the holodeck; I can only imagine the simulation culled readily available details from our extensive personnel records to populate pseudo-memories in our short-term recall. Something like this might allow us to feel as though we knew one another, at least on a surface level, and enough so to begin functioning as a team, without revealing the contrivance of the scenario. The truth was that we did not know much of anything about one another, except for the beginnings of a notion that we could each rely on the others in a pinch. It's a start. I'll take what I can get.

Commander D'Kursoli Kel entered the holodeck, introduced herself and addressed all of us. She explained that we had all just participated in a training exercise, with Lieutenant JG T'Bok being a full simulant in the program. Since a major focus of the subject matter within said "exercise" had been hallucinations and mind-fuckery, I asked the stern Klingon woman a pointed question about a fundamental precept of warrior philosophy. It was a question that she should readily grasp, but would most likely elude a filthy Romulan. She immediately picked up on what I was attempting and assured me that the simulation was well and truly over and that we were, indeed, back in "the real world" now. We were applauded for our ability to work together and find innovative solutions to difficult challenges on the fly, emphasizing that for our current mission to explore the Shackleton Expanse, such skills would be a necessity. She encouraged us to explore our new post, get settled in and begin the process of meeting the crew. This sounded like a good idea, but first, we all wanted to share a drink in the lounge, and I called T'Bok to meet us. She's in my department and I am her supervisor, so I am allowed to boss her around a little. There was a bit of an awkward feeling in the air of having faced such danger together (simulated though it was) while not really knowing much about one another, and T'Bok hadn't really been there at all. It seemed only fair for her to get to know us, too. So, with a healthy dose of alcohol—the universal social lubricant—we began our relationships in what I hope will become a long and successful mission.I kind of like these kids so far. Even Piper. Just got to get him to work on his timing, maybe.

=Mission Report, Security Department=
Security Officer's Report

Objective: respond to distress call and render aid and evacuation where necessary

Personnel: LCDR Piper (team leader), Dr. Uvorvykyshky, LT(JG) T'Bok

Results:
Planetary environment was extremely harsh. High temperatures even in the middle of nighttime. Extra precautions taken for adequate hydration. Local fauna discovered to be aggressive and dispatched when attacked. Instructed the team to stay together in this hostile environment.

Followed distress signal deeper into cityscape ruins. T'Bok suddenly took off running, calling for her mother. When I gave chase, the other two officers scattered in different directions. Knowing I could only help one at a time, I followed T'Bok. Along the way, Syv...—Computer, delete last sentence and start again. *beep-beep*

Along the way, I experienced what was later discovered to be a multi-level hallucination of a relative coaxing me along to find my missing team member. By the time Piper commed in with enough lucidity to break us out of our trance, T'Bok and I had found ourselves up a tree and needing to climb down. Meanwhile the oppressive heat continued to wear on us.

When we gathered back together relatively with control of our mental faculties, Romulan soldiers appeared and rounded us up. We were taken to what looked like a research facility with Tal Shiar officers present along with Romulan scientists, and referred to as "test subjects". It is logical for a remote research facility such as this to have to jury-rig a brig, so I set upon finding ways to disrupt the force field or cause other such distractions. A control panel with exposed electronics allowed me to trigger a klaxon alarm.

Chaos ensued for a few moments, T'Bok hit hardest of all. Just as Uvorvykyshky was assisting her, the facility, the Romulans, even T'Bok faded away, revealing a black room with an orange grid pattern. An arch appeared and Commander Kel walked in, explaining the nature of this simulation and its need due to the dangers of the Shackleton Expanse and needing to work together. 

Conclusion: Mission accomplished.