Personal Log Stardate 69386.4

Posted on 01 Nov 2024 @ 6:34am by Lieutenant JG Montgomery Vala

493 words; about a 2 minute read

Montgomery Vala, Personal Log Stardate 69386.4

It has been a week of disturbances, both within the laboratory and in my mind. To the extent I can admit to a hallucination, I am willing to consider that it has somehow reactivated something half-buried within my memory, things I'd rather not revisit. These, as medical claims, might easily be dismissed as little more than figments - frustrating, but ultimately insubstantial. However, when combined with what I have observed in my own controlled temporal variance experiments, and the scattered fragments that appear unbidden, I cannot ignore the implications.

My recent recollections are unmistakable, showing me part of a sequence I'd consigned to myth; I see glimpses of the entire crew, united in one act of temporal alteration. Forcing changes onto the past, bending our reality to serve a purpose I cannot recall, this… aberration feels all too real. The clarity of the memory fragments alone tell me I was more than a witness - I was complicit. I have no memory of agreeing to participate, yet the images convey what could only be my own hand in the matter. I question if Starfleet would approve, or if the Temporal Prime Directive was simply forgotten in our attempts to reorder events to our own advantage. The disgust I feel - that anyone on Galileo, much less myself, could trifle with the timeline, reshaping it to whatever end we thought justified - is profound.

This experience has led to a growing suspicion that perhaps Commander Tarin has misread the severity of this situation, if she is aware at all. If we are in truth reliving a memory our minds were 'programmed' to forget, then her responsibility is clear: to attempt restoration of what should have been, however uncomfortable that truth may be.

I know the consequences of tampering with time all too well. Years ago, as a young scientist at the Variance Lab, we pursued the development of cloaking technologies that, unexpectedly, opened up a temporal anomaly. Our efforts to recalibrate timelines based on limited projections soon transformed from theoretical calculations to grotesque reality. The resulting instability ultimately unleashed a ripple effect, destroying the lab, taking lives, and threatening lives beyond our own. Time is not so easily toyed with. The unintended alterations only deepened the chaos, their impacts relentless. There are too many reasons the Romulan Science Directorate and Starfleet alike established safeguards. My own past is proof of their absolute necessity.

Even if it means facing whatever we've erased from our minds, I intend to press this matter with Commander Tarin, to uphold the principles I thought I joined Starfleet to support. I cannot rest while my thoughts are invaded by these temporal remnants, a past no longer accessible but ever present.

Should we, as I suspect, be compelled to recall all that we have done and all that was undone, I can only hope we are prepared to face what awaits us.

RSS Feed