08 August 2278

Edwin plied his fingers over his console as he looked over his sensor readings. Everything was going well. They were three weeks into their six month mission to map the Typhon Expanse. He couldn’t wait to get back home and how much his baby boy Jonathan had grown. At only two years old, he was the greatest joy in Edwin’s life. An alert snapped him out of his reverie.

“Captain, sensors are detecting some sort of temporal distortion.” He stated. 

“Can you give me anything more than that Lieutenant?” Asked Captain Bateson.

“Not really Captain.”

“Alright well let’s avoid it. Helm plot a course around the distortion.”

“Helm isn’t answering Captain.” Said Lieutenant Smyth.

Edwin checked his instruments again. “Captain, Communications, shields, and weapons are also down.”

“All decks, status.” Ordered Bateson

“Captain, something’s emerging from the distortion….by the realms what is that?!” Edwin remarked as he saw the massive starship appear before them.

“It’s on a collision course!” Yelled Smyth.

“All hands, brace for impact. MacTavish hail them.” Said Bateson in his ever present infuriating calmness.

“Comms are still down. Wait…I’m reading a massive decompression in what appears to be their shuttle bay. Or at least one of them. It’s diverting their course out of collision range.”

“Good. Status report.” Said Bateson.

“I’m getting five by five all across the board Captain. Everyone is good to go.” reported Edwin.

“Good good. XO, what do you make of that ship? It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen.” Said Bateson.

“Same Skipper. I’ve never seen the likes of it. MacTavish, anything in records?”

“Negative Ma’am. It’s advanced…very advanced.” said Edwin with a bit of awe. “Sir, systems are coming back online.”

“Good, hail them.” said Bateson. Soon the viewscreen lit up to show a bald man in a strange uniform. There was some strange yellow looking person in view as well and most strangely a Klingon could be seen in the background. The Captain spoke up. “This Captain Morgan Bateson of the Federation Starship Bozeman. Can we render assistance?”

The bald man spoke. “I’m Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We were just going to ask you the same thing.”

Edwin was glad he wasn’t visible on the viewscreen because he knew his face screwed up at that. Enterprise was assigned to Starfleet Academy under Captain Spock.

Just then Bateson spoke up. “Captain Picard, your vessel…is not familiar to us.”

“Captain, have you any idea what has just happened?” Asked Picard.

Edwin snorted as he thought to himself that what had just happened was that they had almost careened into each other.

Captain Bateson replied “Our sensors detected a temporal distortion.Then your ship appeared, we nearly hit you.”

“The Enterprise has been caught up in a temporal causality loop and I suspect that something similar may have happened to you.” Said Picard

“You must be mistaken, we left starbase only three weeks ago.” Said Bateson.

“Captain…do you know what year this is?” asked Picard, which Edwin thought was a strange question.

“Of course I do. It’s 2278.” Said Bateson.

As he said this though,  Edwin watched as the other crew looked at each other. He did not like their expressions.

“Perhaps you should beam aboard our ship…..There’s something we need to discuss” Replied Picard.

29 November 2402

Edwin sat in the ready room of his new command. The USS Inglewood. It was smaller than his last ship. Normally reserved for new Captains. However, he was technically a hundred and fifty two years old even if ninety of those years had been omitted thanks to a temporal distortion. He reflected back on the events that had changed his life thoroughly quite often. One moment, he had been looking forward to going home to see his two year old child. Two hours later, he was on a subspace channel talking to his child who was now ninety two years old and was himself a great grandfather. He’d learned that day that ninety years had passed him by and his beloved wife Emelia had passed away twenty three years prior. It was that day that he had learned how accurate was the axiom…’The universe is a cruel mistress.’