“Hmm?”

Nephenee Harper looked up from the display of her console as commander Alara spoke to her. The security of the communication was a little dated compared to current Federation standards, but for their current fast moving and critical situation, it was perfectly fine.”

“That would be a good idea,” she agreed. “We shouldn’t need to do much to get a compatible link.”

She was about to proffer another suggestion, but she immediately noticed that Alara was a bit shaken. 

“Commander?”

It seemed she had realized that their time was more than a century apart. 

“That is… Not exactly the case,” said the acting captain, speaking carefully. “I think Nephenee can better explain our situation.”

The science officer nodded, brushing aside her hair as she looked up again. 

“We haven’t gotten a 100% grasp of the situation, but we ran a quantum scan on several of the ships in the area during our sensor sweep, including the Aurora. There is reason to believe we are not just from different time periods, but of separate quantum realities, as is this current universe. Our records of the USS Aurora differ vastly from the ship we see now, which seems to confirm this theory. There’s still a concern for the Prime Directive, but this is not exactly a black and white situation…”

Nephenee’s explanation was cut short by the sounds of weapons fire, followed by Alara’s indication of another vessel approaching. 

“Evasive maneuvers,” commanded Noelle. At the same time, she received a communication from Lee in the engineering department. Shields were up.

“Shields up, get us out of here at full impulse,” she continued. “I want us out of this system before those ships can get into a proper firing position.” 

She turned back to Alara. 

“I know this may be a bit much at the moment, but we actually have no dedicated tactical officer. He was due to come aboard tomorrow… A day too late. The console interface we have may be different, but the essential functions should be the same in principle... I suppose we’ll have more time to discuss our situation after getting out of here.”