Meeting In The Middle

Posted on Fri Aug 1st, 2025 @ 9:20pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Aeon's End
Location: USS Athena - Ready Room
Timeline: MD-01
1039 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

It wasn't every day that you came face-to-face with yourself.

For the quartet in the room, it was uncanny valley: Two hairless men staring at one another from across a desk. The 'guest', for lack of a better word, was older looking. His skin had more lines, and his beard flecks of grey that weren't present on his counterpart.

"So, I'm assuming you already ran some scans to determine if this is some sort of trick," the older Kane remarked, raising a eyebrow.

"Wouldn't you?" Kane retorted, drawing a nod from the other man.

"Probably." The man in Admiral's pips straightened a little, creating a more formal posture. "So, still Commodore. That figures; we calculated a chroniton divergence of around twelve years. Welcome to the future." The comment felt somewhat dramatic, but the older Kane continued anyway. "Care to explain when in the timeline you're from?"

"The Planet-Killer?"

"Ah, that makes sense. The only thing able to put out enough tachyons to make this all possible." Admiral Kane noted. His eyes flicked to Zora. "N'Garzi. It's been a while."

Zora was not surprised by the Admiral's comment. The fact that her own counterpart hadn't accompanied him to their Athena indicated that she was either no longer a member of the crew or that she had died. This thought didn't scare her as it might some people; she didn't welcome death, but she also didn't fear it. "It appears you found a good replacement," she noted with a small smile.

"A lot has changed in twelve years." Admiral Kane motioned to his accompaniment. "Naturally you know my Number One, Commander Keating..."

Finn looked between the Commodore and her younger self. "Right, so in our version of events, the Planet-Killer didn’t go quietly. The core exploded, knocked out half our systems in the process. But based on the data I've seen so far, I'd say if something similar to you happened and the core didn't vaporize, it's possible that the core spat out a chroniton burst that could have landed you here."

The younger Keating looked at herself. Well, her older self. Of all the things she’d imagined for her future (which mostly consisted of retiring with a hyperspanner in one hand and a wrench in the other) she had never pictured herself in the red uniform, let alone as someone’s XO. It was weird. All of this was weird.

"So, things are different here. I noticed we couldn't get through to Starfleet," Kane commented, drawing the conversation back to the here-and-now.

"Yes." Admiral Kane's expression tightened. "I'm afraid there hasn't actually been a Starfleet, or a Federation, for nearly five years." He clasped his hands tightly behind his back, an indicator to his younger self of the stress of wrestling with that fact. "We've been fighting a war. And, well, losing. Badly. There are barely any of us left, and those that are...well, we're doing our best not to lose hope."

More questions came into Zora's head than she was able to process. What had happened to Starfleet and the Federation? What about the Federation members? Where were they now? How many people were really left? But at this point, only one real question mattered. Who? "Who are we at war with? Who has the capability to wipe out so many lives? The Borg?"

The Admiral's eyes went distant. "If only it were." He exchanged looks with Keating before answering fully. "From what were were able to determine, they were known simply as the 'Final Imperative'. Some sort of advanced AI consciousness, we think. Advanced, powerful, seemingly endless...in the early stages it felt like we could hold them back, only for more and more of them to appear and overwhelm our fleets with sheer numbers." He took a sad pause. "We lost most of the fleet in the first few months. The Klingons, the Romulans, the Breen...hell, we were close to forming ties with the Tholians and Tzenkethi, too. None of it seemed to make a difference. Earth, Vulcan, Bajor...worlds just reduced to rubble indiscriminately."

"No communication? No terms of surrender?" Kane asked. His elder alter-ego shook his head.

"We never heard a word. Just scraps of data picked off the few ships we could disable. That was what gave us the name." Another heavy breath. "We lost the war a long time ago, as much as we still try to fight the battles."

The younger Finn folded her arms as the weight of it all settled. “So, this is what we become,” she said quietly. Her gaze lingered on the Admiral, then flicked briefly to her future self, who didn’t look away. “All this firepower and tech and it still wasn’t enough.”

It looked like the older Keating was going to give a sharp riposte, but the Admiral got in first. "We fought. People died. A lot of people died." There was bitterness there. Frustration. Anger. Unresolved grief. "And we're still fighting, Lieutenant Commander. As much as you wouldn't understand."

Commodore Kane was quick to stop the conversation falling into darker territory. "This doesn't help us. We need to focus on the current situation. We're out of our own time and we need to find a way to go back - to fix this." His eyes met those of his older counterpart. There was an unspoken understanding in the look. "You're me, so you know what I'm talking about; we figure out how to reverse what happened."

"If you can," the Admiral noted. "But you're right, resolving the current problems come first. Getting your ship back up to fighting strength is the priority. Then we'll talk about what happens next." He glanced at his own Keating. "We'll lend what help we can, but we're running understrength ourselves."

"Appreciated, Admiral." The reference to his older self's rank felt odd for both of them. Kane looked to the others. "Dismissed. Let's regroup with our command teams."

As they filed out, the older Kane paused in the doorway, glancing back at him in the brief moment they were almost alone. It was another wordless exchange; they would talk properly, later. For now, they needed to see to their own.