Sam enters the Bridge. He wears a silver skullcap with a gold control mechanism on the forehead. "Mister Spaxter was kind enough to repair my headdress. More than just repairs, really—he was able to get rid of the field coils and power pack with new materials, notably a Vulcan krellide power cell and modern field emitters." He flicks his fingernail against the silver alloy surface. "Much more stylish and just as useful. Indeed, Dr Marcus helped out with the rejuvenation circuitry." Notably, Sam has returned to his youthful appearance.

Carol colours slightly. "Just a beneficial side effect of the Genesis effect, sort of a controlled reversal of the rapid aging Capt Spock went through on Genesis after he was resurrected."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Tue 16 Mar 2021.

Bowman says, "Jeez, Thelev, you had us worried! You jumped away from here, appeared a week later in the Triangle chasing Calista the Damned who shot up an Orion base and disappeared again, leaving a Romulan commander to explain things now you pop up here with a whole friggin' refugee fleet. I can't wait to read the report on this, assuming they don't classify it wa-a-ay above my clearance level."

In reply to Captain David Bowman (msg # 2):

Thelev chuckles, "Last time I will be able to read the report is likely when I file it, even at my clearance level." He replies to Captain Bowman.

"Thoma, Commander Bowman, send all information we have on our ragtag fleet to Star Fleet, encrypting what you need to about there various temporal displacements based on clearance requirements." he says, "Oh and exactly how long were we gone."

Putting on his diplomatic hat he turns to Captain MacCay and says "Welcome home Captain MacCay"

Opening a channel "On behalf of the United Federation of Planets, welcome to the United Federation of Planets, a starfleet official will be in contact to you shortly. We have transmitted the information we had about each of you already to Starfleet."

"HoD Kang, Captain Raven Syrene and Dame Flavia, a special thanks for helping in getting this ships safely here to the Federation." he finishes

Thoma announces, "Incoming hail from the USS Discovery, Captain Anne Potrikos commanding. I have a Commissioner Rosemary Kent, colonial liaison to the Bright Stars Cluster Sector, on the line."

Commissioner Kent is an attractive Human female in her thirties with upswept brown hair. She introduces herself, "I'm Rosemary Kent. We're proceeding to Bridgetown at high warp. I understand you've arrived with a number of alien starships fleeing a natural disaster. Is Commodore McCurrvey available to brief me?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:44, Thu 18 Mar 2021.

In reply to Commissioner Rosemary Kent (msg # 4):

"Make sure everything we have on the on all these ships, and their respective cultures are sent to USS Discovery and Commissioner Kent" Thelev says.

"Engineering what is our status, tactical what is the status of all the ships"

Manyard responds, "We have full power and have suffered only microfractures and minor structural stress. However, the Silver Ball is—well, Dr. Smith can give you a better feel for that! I'm completely out of my depth with that gadget."

Ramirez says, "Nothing more specific than Commander Thoma just explained. We're getting a lot of overlapping comms chatter on the frequency we assigned to the fleet. Shuttles 1 through 5 are en route to deal with medical emergencies."

Brad remembers when he was in Thelev's position—a hundred mini-emergencies all vying for his attention and never enough time for sleep. He sits back in his chair and listens to the intercom. His eyes drop to the old-fashioned business card on his desk. Picking it up, he noticed it's a real paper card. The embossed printing is actually raised on the front and indented on the back. The purple ink has almost microscopically feathered on the edges where the wet ink has penetrated the tiny fibrous mass of the cardstock. As he studies it, the hairs on the nape of his neck stand up, or so it feels. The Silver Ball has dropped them back six months later, and that's not all. Their sojourn at Lord Dhark's Chateau d'Amber had taken a week and experientially had been only a full day. Their stay at the Museum at the End of Time had seemed to be no longer, but on returning—he looks at his LCARS terminal—every time-keeping chip on the ship had had to resync with the Federation Time Signal; being out of sync by up to five years—in only two damned days! It's been over forty eight hours subjective since any of them had slept, but he feels only as if he'd put in a solid day's work ... and the last time he'd had anything to eat was at Lord Dhark's table. As if realising this last, his stomach growls.

Built into the bulkhead at the end of his desk is one of Dr. Marcus's fancy replicators. He idly scrolls through the menu and spots an old favourite—a Monte Cristo sandwich. He selects it and taps the panel. The sandwich appears, complete with a spear of garlic dill pickle, and he sits back to eat it.

As he chews, he wonders, who is this mysterious Dworkin? "Call me," it says. How? There's no comms frequency listed, and the computer comes up with only a listing of historical persons and fictional characters...

Ronald Myles Dworkin FBA (December 11, 1931 – February 14, 2013) - an American philosopher, jurist, and scholar of United States constitutional law.
Dworkin's Theory of Law - the law is whatever follows from a constructive interpretation of the institutional history of the legal system.
Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) - an American radical feminist activist and writer.
Gerald Dworkin (1937 - uncertain) - a professor of moral, political and legal philosophy.
Dworkin Barimen (published: 1970–1991) - a fictional character in The Chronicles of Amber, a fantasy series consisting of ten books and several short stories written by Roger Zelazny.
"Dworkin" pseudomyn for Felix A. Croes, Dutch computer programme (late 20^th/early 21^st century) reference to Dworkin Barimen, above.
Dworkin's Game Driver aka DGD (released August 12, 1993) - computer programme (LPMud server) written by Felix A. "Dworkin" Croes.

...as well as a great many others...
This message was last edited by the player at 04:13, Sat 27 Mar 2021.

McCurrvey leans over to the intercomm.  Science labs, I need to see your best forensic chemist in my Ready Room.

McCurrvey gets a mischeivious look on his face and represses the comm button.  “McCurrvey to Dworkin Black”

"Aye sir, I'll get someone right up there." replies the deputy science officer.

Moments pass and there is a rap at the door as if someone had struck it with something metallic. Thunck thunck thunck. It's followed by the door chime. The door swoops open and there stands a young petty officer in science colours, holding a PADD and a tricorder.

"Sir, Petty Officer 1st class Manuel Espinoza reporting as ordered. Um, this... gentleman was knocking at your door," he says.

Behind Espinoza is a diminutive leprechaun-like humanoid of extreme age, barely a metre and a quarter tall, dressed in a starched suit with an Inverness coat and a large slouch hat, all in black. He has pale skin, a bushy white beard and piercing ice-blue eyes. He is clutching a walking stick with a silver skull topper—in all probability what he'd struck the door with. "Ah, Commodore Bradron McCurrvey, I presume. I'm known as Dworkin the Black, esquire, investigator extraordinary. I've been awaiting your summons. May I come in?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:53, Sat 27 Mar 2021.

In reply to Lt. Commander Matt Bowman (msg # 9):

"Dr. Smith, what is the status on the silver ball?  Will we be able to make repairs here or will we need to go back to a base?" Thelev asks, adding "Do you need a hand."

"The Oscillation Overthruster is slag. We can build one from scratch, but Excalibur has a duplicate in stock. We're preparing to beam it over. We'll need an hour to install it and run diagnostics. The Institute has placed it on the inventory of spares while we were missing," replies the android.


"It seems the subspace shear as the pocket universe self-destructed around us caused a quantum feedback cycle which literally melted it down in situ."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Sat 27 Mar 2021.

“PO, I need you to tell me al you can about this.”  McCurrvey places the card in an envelop (file folder or whatever) out of sight of Dworkin and hands it to the PO. “Results by end of shift, understood?”.  Before the PO can respond, McCurrvey continues “Dismissed”. Once the PO leaves, McCurrvey gestures for Dworkin to have a seat.  “And what can I do for you Mr. Dworkin?”

Espinoza takes the sample container and says, "Aye sir! By the end of shift, sir!" and leaves the Ready Room.

Dworkin doffs his hat and takes off his Inverness coat and double-breasted suit jacket, revealing a snow-white shirt and black waistcoat with a satin back panel, a blood-red necktie in a Windsor knot and red velvet sleeve garters. He sits back on the sofa and spreads his arms across the back. "I'll have a double Bushmills in an Old-fashioned glass, 20 degrees Celsius with a single ice cube." Before Brad can protest that he doesn't keep alcohol in his Ready Room, the replicator hums and materialises a cut crystal glass with a measure of amber liquid and a single ice cube. To McCurrvey's knowledge, the replicator is not programmed to dispense liquor.

The dimunitive gentleman sips his drink and sighs in pleasure. "Just Dworkin, no mister. Dworkin the Black in full. I know the card left out the "the", but what're you going to do?" he asks rhetorically. "And as for what you can do for me, it's quite the opposite. The real question is 'What can I do for you?' And the answer is - I can absolve you from the charges of murder most foul in the death of the Ilithid vizier at le Chateau d'Amber and find the true culprit, one Calista the Damned, thus bringing the felon to justice. She did so, of course, at the behest of the dæmon Verlegg, manipulating circumstances. Your interesting companion Mr. Spaxter, bears no guilt—he was merely acting in your defense. The Ilithids may not make such a distinction, and Lord Dhark may well use that to his own benefit."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:28, Mon 19 Apr 2021.

Brad's desk communicator beeps. Espinoza has sent a preliminary report on the card. "The card is just that- primitive hand-laid paper cardstock. The raised printing is merely an oil-based ink, pretty much chemically inert. The hand-written script, however, is something else completely. It's a standard writing ink but it's been laced with nanobots. These are relatively simple for all the complex technology which went into constructing them. There's a DNA receptor, likely a personal recognition measure and what appears to be the remnants of a one-use recorder and subspace transmitter. We're continuing to break it down, but that's the basics. Essentially, it's a one-use communicator, genetically encrypted for your use only. The nanobots are almost completely dead and will be gone in about an hour."

This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Mon 29 Mar 2021.

Espinoza walks into Main Engineering, where Khendron is watching Smith install the new Oscillation Overthruster and marvelling at how many advances there have been in the past few years. The Overthruster is one of the most important. Previous versions of the Silver Ball had relied on a spitballed device called the Delatron. Where the Delatron was the size of a small desk and composed a few dozen kilometres of patch cords and several large circuit boards all breadboarded together, the Overthruster in the size of a doubled fist. It is the brainchild of a researcher at Daystrom Labs' Banzai Institute in Okinawa Prefecture named Okun Soong. Soong is currently assigned as Smith's counterpart on the Excalibur.

Espinoza approaches Khendron with a PADD and asks, "Capt Mercer sir, can I borrow your expertise in communications and computers? The Commodore asked me to analyse this card and it's well, really weird. I've never seen anything like it. I've sent a preliminary report to him, but I'm not certain I can take it any farther, and he wants it by the end of the shift. I think it has something to do with his visitor."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Tue 30 Mar 2021.

In reply to Dr. John Smith (msg # 11):

"If it is in the spares now, we should use the one from Excalibur make a spare.  It has obviously deemed a weak point." Thelev replies.

"Dr. Smith if you haven't already, if you haven't already you should also find out what other items are now considered spares, and you should get all information that they will release to you which should be everything on all of Excalibur's jumps and then send me a copy of what I am clearer to look at.  Their can't be much when it comes to these drives which you can't at least look at, and very little I can't look at. " he adds.

"Well, it'll be in spares as soon as we get resupplied. The one Excalibur sent over was their spare. The supply  courier will be here in about 48 hour to bring both ships their new spare overthrusters," remarks Smith.

"On another matter," Smith continues, "Centurion Tevan has finished interviewing young Bellandra and confirms that she was largely an innocent victim in all this. She refers to the fact that Calista was keeping her for some special purpose. Putting all the pieces together, it would appear that Calista may have been planning to use the girl as a sort of sacrifice to this Verlegg. If I'm not mistaken, since Calista took care to protect her from the crew's predations, it may well have been a..." his voice falls to a whisper, "...virgin sacrifice. I "lived" through the so-called Satanic Panic hysteria during the 1970's and '80's. Much of it concerned the largely imaginary groups of devil worshippers who killed children, teenagers and young women as sacrifices to Satan, Beelzebub and other demonic entities. It was all rampant paranoia driven by right wing religious fundamentalists, culminating with the Q conspiracy of the twenty-teens. However, with the power of this Verlegg and Calista's fascination with Earth occultism, it looks like we may have a true-to-life case.

"Feeling that the girl may benefit from some real family life, the security chief and the doctor have taken the opportunity of introducing her to someone her own age, so Collette DesMarais has allowed her to visit with Miss Kyra."

"Oh boy, Brad's going to flip over this!" goes through Thelev's mind at this.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:46, Tue 06 Apr 2021.