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arrival . ota
Hugh Cambridge is partway through an analysis of an artifact - an old one, part of an extended paper that he'd never finished - when the transition comes.
At first, he assumes the ship's entered some sort of anomaly, and he turns away from the viewport (the stars have shifted, how odd), his hand moving to his combadge. A quick touch, and he starts, "Cambridge to -"
This isn't Voyager. In fact, this is the Ten-Forward of a Galaxy Class starship, unless he misses his mark. Populated with a few handfuls of people, some out of uniform, some in uniform, but those in are wearing the style that was in use twenty years earlier. Cambridge's uniform has shoulders of a grey-purple, and the turtleneck inside is medical/science blue. His combadge is thinner and sleeker.
"- Oh, bugger," finishes Cambridge. It's an illusion or it's time travel - neither of those bodes well.
At first, he assumes the ship's entered some sort of anomaly, and he turns away from the viewport (the stars have shifted, how odd), his hand moving to his combadge. A quick touch, and he starts, "Cambridge to -"
This isn't Voyager. In fact, this is the Ten-Forward of a Galaxy Class starship, unless he misses his mark. Populated with a few handfuls of people, some out of uniform, some in uniform, but those in are wearing the style that was in use twenty years earlier. Cambridge's uniform has shoulders of a grey-purple, and the turtleneck inside is medical/science blue. His combadge is thinner and sleeker.
"- Oh, bugger," finishes Cambridge. It's an illusion or it's time travel - neither of those bodes well.
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A half-shrug. "Practically anything," he admits. "The overall balance of lives, political stability, quality of life, advancement of science and exploration..."
He reaches out and picks up a PADD, at random, perhaps one of the ones he already saw Orlin studying.
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"And what about the risk? The potential that changing one thing for the better could alter something for the worse? Or thousands of things for the worse?"
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"Is this an attempt to upgrade or to interface?" Cambridge hasn't the foggiest idea how to tell the difference.
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Orlin smiles slightly as the equations are recognised.
"It's an experiment. Purely hypothetical."
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He drops the PADD back onto the table.
"Often, one wouldn't know," he says. "Other times, it would be patently obvious. And other times still, the judgment would be based on intake and processing of data below the conscious level. With the number of variables, how would you know becomes a pointless and farcical question, impossible to answer in the abstract."
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The light-speed breakaway factor, used by the USS Enterprise and the HMS Bounty are the top articles, there.
"If we're taking into account the lack of simple time travel methods, then why go through the effort, again? If it's hard to achieve, and there's a question that what you change may, in fact, turn out to harm your original intent more than progress it... What would be the point?"
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He's just here.
And while he's going to be exquisitely careful about the timeline, that doesn't necessarily mean he won't do something about what he knows is coming.
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"No. Neither did I. I simply have the fortune of being in a different universe."
Cambridge is going to be an interesting one. Perhaps life on-board this vessel was starting to perk up?
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"You showed interest in my research. Is that something you're interested in?"
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"The variety of accessible species in this universe, so far, is much more than my own, though, so I conceed the first point, also."