SIM:Jhalib Ekal, "An oncoming storm, for the needs of the many."

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.

((Temporal Integrity Commission))

Constable: So we’re back to square one.

Ekal: . . . it would seem so.

::The Romulan ran a hand through her hair, approaching the window that looked out towards the Guardian of Forever. It’d been silent for the better part of a decade now, having refused to allow them access to the past like it once had on a regular basis.::

Constable: If Rahman is adamant that it was a quantum torpedo, it could only mean the Veritas fired. It would have been the only ship equipped with those torpedoes.

Ekal: Rahman isn’t sure *what* she saw - from her perspective, it occurred five years prior. And there is no window for us to be able to go back to her younger self to ask. It is still he-said she-said.

Constable: Those are her memories.

Ekal: I’m not an expert in the field, Constable, but I’m fairly sure that memories degrade through time.

Constable: It doesn’t matter.

::She looked back at him, approaching her desktop and gazing across a few readouts not visible to Jhalib.::

Constable: We’ve no further need of your services, Blake. You’re free to go.

Ekal: You’re *laying me off*?

Constable: There’s nothing else to be done. We’ve got one last plan, and we can’t use you for it.

::”Can’t use him for it”?::

Ekal: But we don’t *know* that-

Constable: Blake, the board has decided to-

Com: =/\= Operations to Constable.=/\=

::She sighed, pressing the com on the desk.::

Constable: Go ahead.

Com: =/\= Captain Ducane has arrived. He’s requesting your presence . . . immediately. =/\=

::There was a moment where the Romulan closed her eyes, eyebrows pinching together as she apparently considering her options.::

Constable: Tell him I’ll be there soon.

::She hit the com button with more vigor than before, crossing her arms with a huff. After a quiet moment of contemplation, she started towards the door, Jhalib following her.::

Constable: Head to mission control, return your gear. You’ve done more than anyone here could ask for, Mister Blake. Now it’s time for you to go home, be with your family. Soon enough, we *all* will go home.

::By the time they passed through the doors, she’d started a pace Jhalib had no hope keeping up with in his current condition. Honestly, he was barely holding himself together as it was. So he stopped, Narm’ei’s back disappearing around a corner.

::But her office door hadn’t yet recognized him as being out of the way.::

::”Another plan”. One they didn’t want to involve him in. And then she ended their conversation as if this master plan was a huge fix - but he hadn’t been made aware of it at all. That was unusual, for one traveler not to know where or when the others were going - it defied all their contingencies if something went wrong. Time, despite always moving *forward*, flowed *backwards - it took time for time to reset, so there was always that small window to go back through and correct the tiniest of things that had broken.::

::The gears were ticking over in Ayden’s mind as he over-analyzed Narm’ei’s words. She didn’t know his condition. She’d barely read his report about what he’d discovered from Captain Rahman - and Noree knew she definitely had not presented it to Starfleet.::

oO Don’t go looking. Don’t go looking. *Don’t* go looking . . . Oo

::His brown eyes flickered back into the office, Narm’ei’s terminal still logged in.::

oO Tosser. Oo

::His head whipped around the corridor, ensuring there was no one else in the hall to see him return to the office and hijack Constable’s terminal. With quick strokes, he was looking at recent reports, messages, discoveries from other time periods. Most of them would have been considered unimportant, as per usual - there was only so much data they could actually use.

::And then he saw it. An action plan.::

::Ice shot through his veins, his breathing stuttering.::

::Now he understood. They couldn’t “use him” for their plan not because he wasn’t capable, but because they knew he’d instantly refuse, because he’d cause a scene upon it’s suggestion. It was why she wanted him to go home, "be with his family".

::Destroy the Veritas, effectively murdering every living being aboard, himself included. 220 lives, on a *“maybe”* plan.::

::An anxiety settled over his chest as he double checked that he wasn’t going insane. This was definitely Constable’s last plan. And it had not been approved by Starfleet, or anyone but themselves, as had a number of other of adjustments.

::They hadn’t even been authorized to correct Rahman and Mei'konda’s memories.::

::Noree, he’d just seen information he shouldn’t have.::

::He needed to leave. Now.::

Jhalib Ekal

Trivia

• A coms officer tells Constable that "Captain Ducane" wanted to speak to her immediately. This is a reference to Ducane from Star Trek Voyager.
• Jhalib's actions and thoughts as he decides whether to access Constable's terminal are nearly identical to Sky Blake's deciding whether to follow Zhou Tai-Sheng in Five Long Years.