SIM:Jhalib Ekal, "The tragic ending of the family Blake."

Ekal Chronicles In chronological order Take all chances The encounter Kidman I Return Die trying. An oncoming storm, for the needs of the many. The tragic ending of the family Blake. Jump start.

This sim was originally sent to the Veritas list in two parts.

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((Cait))

::When Ayden Blake stormed into his apartment, he did so as though he were a lightening storm, interrupting the lunch his daughter was having with his fiance. Inconsolable and moving too quickly for them to catch, he was refusing them answers to what had caused this sudden rash and abnormal behavior. But whatever had happened, it was clear that it was bad, and immediately threatening.::

Blake: Nairen, pack your things. Get out of the quadrant - go to Duronis. Parker and Eislas can protect you.

Nairen: Protect me- protect me from what? What is going on?!

::The man was racing around the apartment, his fiance and daughter trying to keep up with him as he tore the place apart for supplies, clothing, equipment, and anything else he’d find useful. On the way here, he’d managed to get word to Tiberious Parker to expect Nairen - and perhaps someone else attempting to threaten her (the worst case scenario). Thankfully, the Terran had asked no questions as to why - just a stern affirmative and a promise to keep her safe.::

Blake: I don’t have time to explain.

Merce: Then make some, Siala!

Nairen: Just tell me what’s going on!

::He stopped, approaching the two, placing a hands on Nairen’s cheeks, thumbs grazing lightly over the first ridge leading along to her ears. He didn’t have words - he couldn’t come up with reasonable explanations, things she could understand.::

::The vulcanoid swallowed.::

Blake: I can’t.

Nairen: Dad-

Blake: No, sweet, just listen to me, okay? Just listen. ::His hands rested on her shoulders.:: You, and your father - you are everything to me. I’ve messed up - I put you both in danger, because for years I thought I was on the right side, that I was- that I was doing the right thing. But in reality, I was just answering to people who think they know better, who have no real oversight or anyone to tell them that their choices are the wrong ones. I don’t expect you to understand what I’m saying, and I don’t expect you to forgive me for what I’m about to do.

::He pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her tightly. His Mazarite daughter - she could take care of herself, that much he was sure of, but he’d forever be concerned for her safety, never moreso than he is today. Duronis II was the safest place he could come up with on short notice - very obviously in the public eye thanks to Caslo Eislas, high protection thanks to Parker. The place had repelled so many Romulan attacks over the last few decades, it was now a fortress all in itself.::

Blake: I love you. More than you can ever know.

Nairen: I love you, too.

Blake: Please. Go to Eislas, get involved in the politics. Get your works published - do everything you've always wanted to do. But most importantly? Stay in the public eye.

::She nodded into his shoulder.::

Nairen: Okay.

Blake: Go. Go now. Take the next transport out of here.

::And she left his arms, pulling her bag off the bench and bolting out the front door without a second glance to her parents.

::Her father, however, remained frozen in his position, trying to comprehend everything that was happening.::

Merce: You just sent our daughter to Duronis.

::Ayden took a deep breath, thinking but not truly processing what had just happened.

::His ties to Eislas and Vataix hadn’t been as useful as he thought they would have been in the past, but now, they were proving to be a life saving tactic. The politics behind the Twentieth House of Betazed hadn’t interested him in the slightest, and he’d given it about as much thought as his mother had before him. With Ilakai’s death, the House had been in chaos for nearly a century now.

::But they could help keep Merce and Nairen safe - Caslo had reason to. Ayden was one of the last of the Vataix line - the Eleventh House had been all but wiped from the map, lost to slavery or death. Seri Polgonz had reason to keep Nairen safe if she intended to preserve the noble houses for as long as possible - she needed to, for morale’s sake.::

Blake: You’re my consort. ::His eyes flickered back up to him.:: You’re going, too.

::He fell back in step towards their medical supplies, beginning to pack a bag as Merce started speaking - in shock and incredulous, but tone somewhat hushed regardless. His mind was purely focused on Nairen.::

Merce: I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on. What happened so badly that you had to send our little girl to the other side of the Federation?

Blake: I saw something I shouldn’t have. I went looking for something I shouldn’t have.

Merce: And what did you find?

Blake: Something I shouldn’t have found! Merce, I don’t have time-

Merce: What did you find, Ayden?

::Ayden slammed the bag down onto the bench, stepping away and steadying his breathing. He couldn't help running a hand through his hair, a hand on his hip and looking away from his partner.::

Blake: Constable is going to kill two hundred twenty people.

::The Coverian blinked, eyebrows raising as he tried to process.::

Merce: What?

Blake: They’re going to try to stop this whole war before it starts by taking out the one thing we know was definitely there.

::The information clicked.::

Merce: The Veritas.

Blake: The Veritas. ::He confirmed, nodding.:: Before the Tholians blow it up, before Rahman can fire the killing torpedo, before that key event.

Merce: But you’re only in this to make adjustments! You said nothing about assassinating anyone!

Blake: I know.

Merce: If they’re planning on taking out the Veritas before everything-

::The information clicked again. The Coverian looked up, staring at Ayden as he wiped a hand across his mouth, pointing at Ayden and almost collapsing against the bench as he realized the implication.::

Merce: You were on the Veritas back then.

Blake: Yeah.

Merce: You are on the Veritas.

Blake: I know.

Merce:::louder:: They’re going to kill you!

::Not him. Younger him. Well, technically speaking, all versions of him were him - it was going to become a very confusing couple of hours if they kept rounding that logic, but the overall idea was that killing Ayden in the past meant Ayden in the future no longer existed. And there were simply so many things that could break everything if that happened - no Ayden? No Merce on Etamoa - he would have been killed on Betazed. No Ayden? Nairen’s entire life, totally changed in an instant, assuming she made it past her infancy. Destroying the Veritas meant his mother's premature death - Ilakai would never make it back to their mother, possibly a casualty of the Eleventh House's destruction.

::And those were just the most important things to him - who knew what else would occur if the adjustment wasn’t successful. It was incalculable.

::Destroying a single ship would not win the war - it might even make it worse, for all they know. They were still waiting to see if pushing the Veritas to meet with the Montreal early would change anything - but it seems that they'd given up hope nearly immediately, abandoning protocol Starfleet laid down for them.

::Maybe they were building to this - they’d run out of theoretical adjustments that could have made a fig of difference. Maybe this was their end-game all along.

::Ayden shoved the breather that had so far made his trips bearable into the bag. It'd failed to assist him all that much on his last jump, but he didn't have time to come up with a more suitable alternative to steady his already deteriorating health.::

Merce: If they're intending to destroy the ship, why haven't we already changed!?

Blake: Because while we experience time moving forward, for all intents and purposes, it flows backwards. I've got a small window to change it all. That’s why I have to leave, Merce - I have to go back and warn Rahman - she’s seen me before, I might be able to convince her. If not her then- I don’t know, Zhou, or Delano, or Saveron - someone else, anyone else! I can’t stand by and let Constable take so many lives, and change thousands of others, not when we don’t know the pay off.

::The vulcanoid’s brown eyes looked back up to the red rings of Merce’s, the Coverian having covered the distance between them as he stared desperately at his fiance.::

::This was the end.::

Merce: Ayden?

Blake: You know, I wanted a lot for us-

Merce: No.

Blake: When you proposed, we were in a good place, but-

Merce: You’re not giving me a goodbye speech.

Blake: Merce-

Merce: No. You're not saying goodbye to me, because you're coming back. You always come back.

::They were both in shock, standing in a ransacked kitchen. In a life that had once been whole, now shattered to pieces.

::Ayden spoke anyway.::

Blake: I thought I’d have more time to make up for what I’ve done over the last few years, and I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry that I have to leave, that I’ve put you into the arms of danger because of my own recklessness, my own stupidity.

Merce: Trying to make life better isn’t stupidity. ::He looked down, a frown touching his eyebrows.:: You're using the CRI to come home, right?

::If time could freeze right at this moment, it would have.

::Time took time to set. He was going back to 2395 without any kind of preparation whatsoever - by some irony, he simply didn’t have the time to make that preparation. Chances were, even if he managed to keep the Veritas from it’s premature demise, he’d affect something that would change today, giving him an even smaller window to return to this time without it being immediately changed by cause and effect.

::Not to mention that he’d be alerting the Veritas to the existence of the Temporal Integrity Commission in the future - if he was successful, there’s no way the crew would simply forget about it, forget that this small organization with far too much power would attempt to destroy a Starfleet vessel on the account of an unchecked “maybe”. The Commission would cease to exist, regardless of his intent. Or, at least, it'd exist in a very different capacity than it does today.

::Which meant their lives would be very different.::

::His chest grew cold as he feigned some semblance of confidence to Merce.

::In this moment, Ayden chose to lie to him.::

Blake: I’ll use the mercy jump. ::He swallowed.:: I’m done with the commission, anyway.

::The mercy jump was an “in the worst case scenario” cop out that he didn't have the time to think about right now. He was sending Merce half-way across the galaxy. He’d be safe from the TIC on Duronis II.::

::If he didn't believe Ayden, he didn't say anything about it.::

Blake: I’ll meet you on Duronis.

Merce: For all I know, you’re probably already there.

::The vulcanoid huffed a laugh, pressing his forehead into Merce’s shoulder for what might be the last time.::

Blake: I love you. I promise, it'll be fine.

Ayden Blake

Trivia

• There's quite a few name drops in this sim to PC and NPC characters that haven't been seen by the Veritas crew either at all or for a while.
• This is the only Ekal set-up sim that hints to Faith Blake's status, which is confirmed to be deceased - though cause or her age at the time is not revealed here.
• This sim had been sitting in the writer's draft box waiting to be posted since Kidman I was written - it has, however, undergone significant revision since it's first draft for a variety of reasons.
• Its suggested that the Houses of Betazed have suffered serious casualties, including but not limited to the near-decimation of the Eleventh House of Betazed (which is both Sky and Ayden Blake's 'native' House).
  • It's also suggested that the Twentieth House of Betazed (or what's left of it) has gone to ground on Duronis II.
    • With that said, it's possible that by 2491 in Ekal's timeline, the Duronis system is considered Federation space.
• Ayden Blake (and by extension, Sky Blake) is suggested to still have been aboard the Veritas by the time the vessel is destroyed by the Tholians in Ekal's timeline - this is in spite of Zhou Tai-Sheng having offered Sky the role of the USS Montreal's executive officer.
  • If you squint and turn your head, it also suggests that the Montreal was not at all present at the Veritas's original destruction, as the Veritas was initially not meant to meet with the Montreal at Havley's Hope, perhaps missing them by a fortnight or so.
    • If you want to get even more confused, the above suggests that the events of Hope Lost would have been undertaken by the Montreal crew (with Zhou in command) in Ekal's timeline, rather than the Veritas crew - but because Ekal fast-tracked the Veritas there, the Veritas dealt with the missing miners instead. Which ultimately means that the divergence between Ekal's timeline and the timeline now occurred during the shore leave just prior to Hope Lost.
• Sky Blake survived the destruction of the Veritas in Ekal's timeline - unless she's a deserter, this proves that the ship did launch escape pods, and officers from the Veritas would have survived the ship's destruction. Only few would be around by the time this sim occurs IC, however, since there's only a few officers that could feasibly live for over a hundred years.
  • For reference, Ayden Blake is 4 years of age in 2395. This sim occurs in 2491.