Episode 136. It's Not the End... It's Never the End

Story

The doors slide open with a discreet breath. T'Met leads the way, followed by Tarsi and Lingua, then Angie and me. We advance through the soft silence of this ship. As we step onto the freshly installed bridge, a strange sensation comes over me. As if this place, both familiar and alien, expects me to sit in the captain's chair and give the order to depart.

I drift for a moment, then pull myself together. I observe the vast room, functional despite its transitional state. A few consoles still under covers, seats not yet assigned, the smell of new metal and freshly installed electronics. And at the far end, dominating the space with quiet brightness: the main screen.

That is where she stands. Silent. Majestic. A Caitian, tall and straight, tail neatly folded around her leg. Her cream-colored fur is streaked with dark marks that look almost silver under the bridge's cold lighting. Her hands, or should I say paws, are crossed behind her back, her gaze lost in contemplation of Earth suspended in the black of space.

I do not need to see her face. I already know who she is. Angie knows too. Admiral Censsukr', the new direct superior of T'Met and Tarsi, who succeeded Admiral Quihoui at the highest post of Starfleet's Temporal Division.

As we approach, she slowly turns and looks me straight in the eyes.

She taps her combadge. In a bluish halo, Admiral Censsukr' dematerializes silently, without another word. The space she occupied suddenly seems larger. Angie slowly approaches me, eyes shining, and holds me very tight. She says nothing, but her tears say everything. T'Met, Tarsi, and Lingua join us in silence, as if something fundamental has just been sealed between these still-bare walls.

And there you have it, dear reader. That is how we crossed time, leaving our good old 21st century, with its absurd wars, lukewarm pizzas, and half-finished AIs, to land in the heart of the 26th, with gleaming ships, holograms with hair, and admirals who speak as if they already know the end of the story.

We lost one world. Found another. We faced warheads, Tholians, Orions, and truths we would rather have left behind. And now we are being asked to begin again. To set out once more. To take command of a ship that is not yet finished, in a universe we do not really understand, searching for a vanished traitor and a half-erased reality. I do not yet know whether I accepted because I truly wanted to... or because there was nothing else to do.

But one thing is certain: This is not the end. It is never the end.