Woah, this is a really old story. The original idea comes from the summer of 1993/94, during the summer hiatus between seasons of seaQuest. Originally the idea was for the dilithium to be rock candy, and Krieg was going to discover this by eating a piece. What can I say, I've never been normal. The final result is a bit different than what was created back then, but I'll just blame that on reality hitting me.
SUMMARY: seaQuest is doing its thing on the bottom of the ocean when it discovers a vessel from the twenty-fourth century.
CODES: SQ, TNG, B/W, P/C
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: Paramount and Amblin own all the rights and characters, the story is mine, however, and the song near the end is under copyright to someone, not me.
NOTES: 1) I have no idea how much of the science in here is fact, most of it I made up to keep the story moving; 2) The way everything returns to normal is not how I would have liked it (never liked the guy anyway), but it was the only plausible solution I could think of.
"The Next Generation of seaQuest"
by Liz VanZandt
Stardate 46934.8
somewhere near Vega
Captain Jean-Luc Picard took a sip of tea and watched his breakfast companion tear off a bit of her croissant. "Jean-Luc, you're staring again," Beverly Crusher said and popped the bite into her mouth.
"What?" Picard said, drawn out of his reverie by her voice.
"You've hardly said a word all morning and you were staring at me just now."
Picard tried to cover his embarrassment at being caught by feigning ignorance. "Oh, was I? I'm sorry, Beverly."
She smiled at him, not fooled one bit by his innocent look. "What's the matter, Jean-Luc?"
"Nothing."
"No," she shook her head. "Something is bothering you, what is it?"
"Beverly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with me, I've just had a lot of work lately and I'm a little distracted, that's all," he insisted, taking a sip of his tea. He was contemplating rewarming the rapidly cooling liquid when Beverly's next comment caught him off guard.
"So than when is our shore leave?"
His eyes snapped up to look at her, taking in the large grin and satisfied look on her face. "Beverly," Picard said, exasperated. She had been pushing for an unscheduled shore leave for the last week, and all of her requests had been meeting with the stony wall of Picard's rejections.
"Riker to Picard," Wil Riker's voice interrupted Picard's objection.
Picard tried to hide his relief at the welcome intrusion of work. "Yes, Number One," he answered, tapping his comm badge.
"There's a priority one message for you coming in from Starfleet Headquarters," came the reply.
"Very well, Number One, I'm on my way."
"Aye, sir."
Picard stood up and tugged at his shirt. He looked over at his companion in apology. "I'm sorry, Beverly, I have to go."
"That's all right, Jean-Luc," she smiled slightly. After over twenty-five years in Starfleet, Beverly knew quite well the demands on a captain. "But I'm still serious about shore leave." His response was the door whooshing closed behind him.
* * *
Picard sat down to face his senior staff. The message from Headquarters was still bothering him, but he couldn't put his finger on the reason. More often then not his gut reactions were right -- it was a mark of a good captain -- and the few times he'd ignored his gut in the past had led to his most significant failures. For this reason, he intended to approach the upcoming mission with caution. Nearby, Deanna Troi could sense his uneasiness and was disturbed by it.
"A renegade ship has been attacking outposts along the edge of the Sekal galaxy near the border territory," Picard explained, opening the briefing. He looked around the room, studying the faces around the table, trying to phrase the next part of the news. "Unfortunately, there have been some rumors that this ship is neither unaffiliated nor Cardassian, but rather a Federation ship."
Deanna nodded to herself. That explained some of the Captain's unease, but she was sure there was something more bothering him.
"And of course, as with all missions," Picard continued, "this one comes with some level of danger. Mr. Data?"
"Sir, the Sekal galaxy and surrounding areas have been experiencing an abnormally high amount of temporal anomalies and wormhole activity lately." Data's statement brought a round of groans as he launched into a more detailed description of the recent activities.
Beverly settled back in her chair and, ignoring Data, let her thoughts wander back to breakfast with Jean-Luc. He had definitely had something on his mind, and it obviously hadn't disappeared since then. She noticed Deanna staring at her and realized her mind had wandered too far. Pulling herself back to reality, Beverly noticed Jean-Luc looking at her, expecting a response. Silently, Beverly cursed herself for not paying more attention; she hated to seem like she was anything other than on top of things. "I'm sorry, Captain, what was that?"
"I asked whether Sickbay would be ready by the time we reach Sekal," Picard replied crisply, not even sparing her a smile of sympathy.
"Oh, well, we're returning to normal after the incidents last week," she said. "I can have all the non-critical patients out and be ready for incoming casualties by the end of the day."
"Fine, make it so," Picard nodded, then turned back to the rest of his staff. "All right, you all know what you should be doing. Dismissed." Everyone stood to leave, but Picard had other ideas for one daydreaming doctor. "Doctor, could I speak with you for a moment?" he said calmly, halting her retreat. Beverly slowly sat back down in her chair and watched the others leave. As the door closed behind them, Picard turned to Beverly. "What's the matter?" he asked, coming around the table and perching himself on the edge of the table near where she was seated.
"Nothing," she replied innocently, knowing where he was headed with this.
"Beverly, you were staring off into space, lost in thought," he objected. It wasn't hard to see the concern in his eyes. "That's not like you, what's wrong?"
She sighed. "Jean-Luc, I'm fine, just a little tired and besides, you know how monotonous Data can be at times." She hoped he wouldn't push her for more than that, and was rewarded by a reluctant nod. Smiling to herself, she pushed back from the table and stood up. "And now, I have to go clear Sickbay. Unless, of course, you've decided you don't want the ship ready to handle the large numbers of casualties Starfleet is expecting." Knowing she'd won, Beverly reached over and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry, Jean-Luc, I'm fine." She smiled and left the room to find Deanna waiting outside.
"Are you free for lunch?" Deanna asked. Beverly nodded with a sigh, knowing full well what Deanna's motives were. Sensing this, Deanna quickly added, "As friends," drawing a laugh from Beverly.
* * *
September 13, 2019
somewhere in the Pacific, near the bottom
"Ahem." Doctor Kristin Westphalen looked up to see Nathan Bridger standing in the doorway of her office, leaning against the doorjamb, a mischievous smile on his tan features. "I thought we were going to have lunch."
"Oh my God, I totally forgot," Kristin said glancing at her watch. She grimaced at the late hour she saw glaring back at her, reminding her of the fact that she'd let time get away from her for the third time that week. "We just got some follow-up data from the global warming project we ran a few months ago and I wanted to glance through it before lunch. I completely lost track of time. I'm so sorry," she apologized, throwing in a pair of large, wet eyes to back up her apology.
Bridger couldn't help himself. He laughed. It wasn't everyday he was on the receiving end of one of Kristin's apologies, let alone her puppy dog eyes. "That's all right, I was sidetracked going over diagnostics reports with Hitchcock and only just finished." His tone of voice changed as he came over to the desk. "How's the data look?"
"Encouraging, the changes we implemented seem to have taken hold," she said digging through the papers piled on her desk to find the summary sheet. He leaned over her shoulder, pulling out his glasses to study the columns of data.
"Captain to the bridge, Captain to the bridge," came the voice of Tim O'Neill.
Bridger sighed and sent Kristin an apologetic look as he went over to the commlink on the wall. "What is it, Mr. O'Neill?"
"A ship, sir," the communications officer replied. "But you have to see this to believe it."
"I'm on my way." He turned back to Westphalen, "Sorry, I guess we'll have to reschedule for dinner."
Kristin nodded and watched him leave before returning to her reading.
* * *
Bridger strode onto the bridge a few moments later and almost stopped in his tracks as he noticed the ship on the screen in front of him. It was gray and looked like a saucer with something coming down from the back it. "What is that and where did it come from?" he asked, eyes wide.
Jonathan Ford joined Bridger by the navigation table, his eyes still wide in surprise. He hadn't known what to make of the strange ship that just appeared on the ocean floor several minutes earlier, and he still didn't. "I don't know, sir. It just ... appeared right there in front of us."
"NCC-1701-D," Bridger mumbled.
"Captain, I have an incoming message that apparently originates from the ship," O'Neill said.
Bridger could not manage to hide his surprise. "Put it up, Lieutenant."
"Aye, sir."
A moment later the screen changed from a view of the ship to a room inside. There were about a dozen people standing around among banks of what appeared to be computers. In fact, the entire room seemed to be straight out of a science fiction story, the screens around the room all lit up with several colors, and some even appeared to be blinking periodically. The people appeared mostly to be human, with a few exceptions. Most of them were picking themselves up off the floor, and several were holding their heads in pain as others rushed over to offer assistance. All of them wore black pants and shirts of either blue, red, or yellow.
The bald one in the middle of the screen looked up and, noticing the crew of the seaQuest, took a step toward the viewscreen and spoke, his voice deep and rich, with a British accent, a lilt of aristocracy to it. "I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets," he explained
Bridger glanced over his shoulder at his XO quickly before replying. "Nathan Bridger, Captain of the seaQuest, United Earth/Oceans Organization."
"Then this would be Earth?" the man asked.
Bridger frowned at the question. "Yes," he nodded carefully. "What were you expecting me to say?"
A nervous set of looks passed between the faces on the screen, especially Picard and a handsome man with a dark beard who'd joined him before the viewscreen. "Captain, what would the current date be?"
Again, Bridger frowned. This time more at Picard's avoidance of Bridger's question than at the strange query. "Friday, September 13, 2019," he said finally.
"Captain, we need to talk." Bridger raised an eyebrow as if to say, What a wonderful idea. "Will you allow me to come aboard your vessel and discuss the situation with you?"
"I would be very happy if someone could explain to me what is going on here," Bridger said. He nodded to Hitchcock, who immediately nodded and pushed up from her station, heading for the Mag-lev and the docking bay. "I can have a launch over there in fifteen minutes."
"You needn't worry about that, Captain, I'll find my own way over."
"OK," Bridger said skeptically as the screen returned to a view of the Enterprise.
"Captain, is there somewhere we can talk in private?"
Bridger spun around to see Picard standing behind him. "How did you ...?"
"I can explain, but I'd rather not discuss it here," Picard said looking around, taking in the surroundings. He was both surprised at the advanced technology surrounding him, especially considering the date, and repulsed by the backwards nature of the technology. Though Picard wasn't particularly familiar with how much of the technology on his own ship worked, he was grateful for almost all of it.
Bridger, meanwhile, glanced at Ford who just shrugged. "All right, this way." He left the bridge and led Picard down the hall to the ward room. Closing the door, Bridger turned to Picard, "OK, Captain, what the hell is going on and how did you get aboard my boat?"
Picard sat down in one of the chairs and motioned for Bridger to do the same. "I can attempt to explain, but it may take a while."
"I'm all ears."
* * *
Three hours later the two captains emerged from the ward room. Bridger looked slightly shocked, but managed to overcome it by the time the senior staff had assembled. Despite objections from Crocker and Ford, followed by assurances from Picard of the safety, the six senior officers from the seaQuest, as well as Lucas and Picard, beamed back to the Enterprise, where they met with Picard's senior staff.
Jean-Luc Picard looked at the faces assembled around the table in the briefing room off the bridge. They had segregated themselves after introductions were made and were seated at separate ends of the table. The one glaring exception was the two doctors. They had hit it off almost immediately and were now carrying on a lively conversation near the middle of the table. Picard only spared a second to imagine what the results of such a pairing could be like if the attractive Doctor Westphalen was anything like his own Doctor Crusher.
At the other end of the table, Nathan Bridger was observing the same scene, amazed that the two doctors had not argued yet. "Whenever the two of you are finished," he said, drawing one more glance between the two women before they settled back in their seats. "Thank you."
"Captain," Ford said breaking the silence that ensued, "I'd like an explanation for these ... unusual circumstances."
"I'm going to defer that question to Captain Picard since he seems to have a better grasp on the facts," Bridger said, looking down the length of the table at his counterpart.
All eyes in the room turned to Picard. "First of all, let me just ask my crew to bear with me as I give some background information. The starship Enterprise is a galaxy class ship from the twenty-fourth century. It is the flagship of the United Federation of Planets and this current ship is the fourth to bear the name Enterprise. We had just finished a relief mission on the planet Samekh V and were headed for the Sekal galaxy to look into reports of a renegade ship destroying colonies there. There had been, however, an increased amount of wormhole activity and temporal distortions in the area--"
"And you were caught up in something like that, and brought back to Earth in the twenty-first century, right?" Lucas said from the other end of the room.
"I believe so, yes," Picard nodded. He noticed that his crew had hardly blinked an eye at the explanation, taking it all in stride, while the seaQuest people were all looking around between each other, shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
All except Lucas, that is. "Very cool," he whispered, lips curving upwards into a pleased smile. He was itching to get a look at some of the technology on this ship of the future.
Ford, as well as most of his fellow officers, looked confused by all of this. "What are wormholes and temporal distortions?" he asked.
"Temporal distortions are like tears in the space-time continuum," Geordi LaForge said before Data could begin his more formal definition. He hoped to spare the seaQuest people the long, rigorous explanations his friend tended to launch into. And he wanted to get back to work on getting them home as soon as possible as well. "Wormholes are kind of like shortcuts between two points, usually some distance and time apart."
"I thought things like that were just hypothetical," Katie Hitchcock interjected.
"The presence of wormholes has been proven, but they are still under heavy study even in the twenty-fourth century," Picard said, wondering how much of the future it would be wise to divulge to these people. So far he had been able to keep the details to a minimum, even though he knew it might be necessary to allow some of them access to parts of the ship in order to get it fixed with all possible speed. "Very few permanent ones have been discovered, and those that have been are the focus of much study.
"Right now, however," he continued on, bringing the subject back to their current situation, "I think it would be wise to focus on repairing the Enterprise in an effort to return to our correct time. Mr. LaForge, I assume you've had time to assess the damage."
"Yes, sir," LaForge nodded. "She took quite a jolt when we hit, but the exterior damage seems mostly superficial and relatively easy to fix. The engines, however are a completely different story. The dilithium chamber housing the matter/antimatter reactor is cracked. While it's managing to keep the matter and antimatter contained for now, the crack is deepening as we speak."
"Wait a minute, you have a matter/antimatter reactor on this thing?" Hitchcock said, her eyes growing wide.
"Yes, and if we can get it fixed I will be glad to explain the basic concept to you, but right now we have bigger things to deal with," LaForge said, trying to remain patient. "If we don't get it fixed, there may be no Earth in the future for us to return to."
The room went silent for a minute at the implications of LaForge's statement. Bridger finally broke the silence, "OK, than let's get it fixed. Hitchcock and Lucas, see how you can help Mr. LaForge and Mr. Data. Krieg, if they need anything, get it. Spare no expense, and use any contacts you feel are necessary. Chief Crocker, assist Mr. Worf with any security he needs and see if you can't keep this from leaking to too many people." Heads nodded as he talked. "Captain Picard, is there anything I'm forgetting?"
Picard looked over at the two women in the middle of the table. "Doctor Crusher, how does Sickbay look?"
"No major casualties reported yet, just bumps and bruises," she replied. "My people should have everything under control within the hour."
"OK, than I think we've covered all the bases. Dismissed." Everyone slowly got up and looked around for their counterparts to begin discussing their assignments. The engineering team was the first to leave, heading immediately for the engine room several decks below.
"Captain Bridger, would you and the Doctors stay behind please." The three looked over at Picard, nodding and joining him at the head of the table.
Beverly, irritated at being detained for a second time in the same day, crossed her arms over her chest impatiently. "What is it this time, Jean-Luc?"
He gave her a frosty glare. "I don't mind the two of you being friends, in fact I think it's a wonderful idea, but I would like it if you could show a little more professionalism in the future."
"Captain Picard is right," Bridger agreed, glaring at his CMO as well. "Your giggling during the meeting was distracting."
"I apologize, Captain," Beverly said, trying to be serious, though her tone came off closer to insubordination and indignation than what she'd hoped for. "I don't know what came over me. It won't happen again."
"I certainly hope not," Picard said.
"Doctor," Kristin said, trying to diffuse the situation, "why don't you show me what the twenty-fourth century has to offer in medicine. Maybe I can help with some of those bumps and bruises."
"Excellent idea," Beverly grinned, grateful for a reason to leave the room and escape Picard's reproachful gaze. "Of course, I'll have to give you a quick demonstration with the tricorder, but I'm sure you'll --" Beverly was cut off as the door closed behind their retreating forms.
"I apologize, Captain," Picard said, turning to his fellow captain. "Beverly is not normally like that."
"It's all right, Kristin wasn't helping the situation any," Bridger said and then paused momentarily. "You care for her, don't you?"
Picard turned to stare out the window behind him, his gaze coming to rest on the seaQuest floating in the water nearby. "I care for all of my crew, Captain. I'm sure you can understand that."
"Yes, I do," Bridger replied quietly, reading what Picard was saying between the lines.
Back to my homepage
Back to seaQuest stories
Back to TNG stories