Home But Not Whole

Posted on 06 Jul 2026 @ 7:18pm by Lieutenant Ryan Collingway & Commander Suzanna Batenburg & Lieutenant Commander Steven Remington
Edited on on 07 Jul 2026 @ 2:17pm

1,690 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Time After Time
Location: Fragment of Sherman Oak, CA

// 300 Block of Oak Street, Sherman Oaks CA //

Snip

Steve was aware of being conscious, aware of wondering what this was,
and aware that Clyde was still clutched in his hand. “Interesting,” he
thought before a flash blinded him, then ...

Silence. Merciful silence. Dusk. The sun hovered just above the horizon.
They had been deposited on the empty lawn of a white house with blue
trim. The street was empty. Still Sherman Oaks, but... different.

Ryan glanced at Steve, giving him an encouraging nod and handed him one
of the comm badges.

Steve’s hand was shaking as he took the device in his right hand and
tapped the surface with his left. He took a breath. “Commander
Batenburg. This is Steve Remington. Do you read me?”

End Snip

Suzanna glanced down at her tricorder. Another displacement wave was
moving slowly along the main road. Fortunately, she, Amberlyn, and
Flammia had remained on the quieter side street while attempting to
locate Remington and Collingway. Their tricorders had yielded little of
value.

After several minutes, Flammia had suggested allowing Ignis to follow
whatever he was sensing. Given that every indication pointed toward the
source appearing as a young boy, Suzanna had agreed. Two individuals were less
likely to alarm a child than an entire away team.

"Maintain comm silence unless necessary," she had instructed. "Avoid the
main road. The displacement wave appears to propagate along it at
irregular intervals." The boy remained their primary objective.

Suddenly, her comm badge chirped. "Remington to... Batenburg..."

Suzanna immediately recognized the voice. The manner of identification,
however, was not Starfleet protocol. Whether that was significant or
simply the result of whatever he had experienced remained to be determined.

She tapped her comm badge without hesitation. "Batenburg here. I read you,
Commander. Report your location."

“We are back in the 300 block of Oak Street, where we beamed down; where
we were absorbed by the temporal wave,” Steve replied.

A brief pause followed. "Is Lieutenant Collingway with you?”

"More or less," Ryan said.

“Yes, Commander. We both made it back.”

Relief briefly surfaced beneath her disciplined exterior. At least the
missing officers were alive. The questions, however, had only multiplied.

"Lieutenant Flammia and Ignis are attempting to locate the boy," Suzanna
said. "He appears able to sense him telepathically, and I have
authorized them to proceed." She glanced briefly at her tricorder before
continuing.

"Are you able to determine their location on your tricorder? I believe
making contact with the boy remains our best course of action. All
available evidence indicates he is directly connected to the phenomena
occurring around us." She paused for a fraction of a second. "Once you
locate them, attempt to establish a communications link with us, but do
so without alerting the boy. Until we understand precisely what we are
dealing with, I would prefer not to influence his actions unnecessarily."

Ryan looked at Steve and mouthed, 'What boy?'

Steve took another deep fortifying breath and let loose. “Ma’am, with
respect, our experience has interfered with our ability to follow those
orders effectively.” He looked at Ryan, eyes open wider in surprise at
the sound of what was coming out of his own mouth. He continued bravely.
“Requesting permission to join you for a more complete explanation. It
appears our memories are affected, and we need to do a little catching
up. The tricorder is capable of determining your coordinates, but if you
could give us a physical street address, it might be helpful … at this
point."

Steve made a face at the less official sounding second half of his
statement.

Batenburg’s expression did not change. “Are you injured?”

“If you happen to have some Tylenol, that would be helpful," Ryan added.
"Otherwise, I won't be able to search for anyone for very long.”

“Tylenol?” Amberlyn could be heard over the Commander’s com.

Steve hurried to reply. “The Lieutenant has suffered a possible broken
rib.” And been choked out, and kicked and beaten with the stick,
he added to himself.

"It's not that bad," Ryan said, stubborn as always.

“Contact Lieutenant Flammia and let him know you are safe, and then make
your way to our location. We will be on the move, so plot an intercept
course. Batenburg out.”

Steve immediately tapped the comm badge again, looking at Ryan the whole
time. “Commander Flammia, This is Remington. Do you read?” Quickly he explained that they were safe and would provide more details later.

"Acknowledged, Flammia out."

“Okay,” said Steve, somehow trusting that the comm line was broken now
and he could speak freely. “Let’s go find our Commanding Officer.”

They walked a few feet before Steve stopped. “Wait. You wanna rest under
this tree? I can find them and come back for you.”

"I'm fine," Ryan said, determined.

“If this is the 25th century, and as crazy as that sounds to part of me,
I think it is. I know it is, they have doctors. They aren’t that far. I
hate for you to be hurting with every step.”

Ryan released a small sigh. "Or another temporal wave could happen while
you're gone, and I'm suddenly back with 'Officer-blow-off-my-kneecaps,"
he pointed out. "I'm staying with you.”

Steve nodded and consulted Clyde for the current location of Commander
Batenburg and with detailed directions, they set out to intercept them at
Durango Road and Sycamore Street.

They walked in silence for a moment. "Hey, Steve, are we sure these
people are on the level?" he asked uneasily, looking at the quiet
streets. "We still don't know why we were here to begin with.

He tapped his pocket reassuringly, making sure he still had his phase
pistol. On paper, they were looking for friends. In reality, they had both
gone through a lot, more than most people would go through in a day, and
looked like hell as a result. It was difficult to know what to expect next.

“Good question,” replied Steve. “I don’t feel like I’m a bad-guy.” He
chuckled. “But what are our choices right now but to trust them. Clyde’s
been right about a lot of stuff, all the stuff actually and if his
description of this Starfleet is as accurate, the goals and purposes
sound solid and ethical. Curious to see what they say about us, being
hybrids of some kind. Wonder if we’ll ever get all our memories back or
if we are stuck here somewhere between 1984 and 2425."

That was also a good question. Ryan tried to dig through his scattered
memories for that answer. He had a hazy image of a woman, one which
seemed to have an impenetrable fortress of authority and little else. At
least to him. What would she say to all of this?

He shrugged. "Well, like you said, we can't exactly go back." There was a
pause. "I wouldn't want to go back anyway.”

“Ok.” Steve sighed. “We gotta have our story straight at least, so they
don’t doubt us. What do we tell them? That we think we’re from 1984, but
have memories of things we can’t explain? Or that we think we are from
2425 and been indoctrinated with memories of 1984, and we don’t know why?

"What feels more real?" Ryan questioned. "Am I a college student losing
my mind, or am I Acting Chief Engineer of the USS Arawyn, who also might
be losing my mind?" He shrugged. "Clyde showed us files saying we are
from 2425. I'm inclined to believe that more, based on everything we
have been through. I couldn't have repaired that tricorder otherwise."

"And what questions do we ask them? Do we come on direct and ask their
intentions toward 1984? Or what?”

"I think it's a valid question." Once again, he glanced at the empty
houses. "This town isn't normal. That's obvious. Why did we come here?
What did we hope to gain? Did we cause the town to disappear? Too many
questions. Hopefully, they provide some answers...before they drag us
back to the ship." He paused as he realized what he just said. "We might
see an actual spaceship," he added. "That by itself is crazy.”

“What do you think you look forward to the most in our very
uncertain future lives in 2524?” asked Steve.

Ryan paused for a moment. "Alura," he said. "At the hotel, I remembered
there's someone here I care about. I...want to know more about that. You?”

“Lucky you!” he said, snapping a cheeky grin at Ryan. “I don’t remember
anyone like that. I do wanna see a 25th century Science lab. Holographic
images maybe, more equipment like Clyde. And music. What’s on the Top
Ten in 2425? And space travel. How far can they go by now? Out of the
solar system? To the nearest possible M-class planet where life might
exist?” He stopped, looked down, but actually inward, searching his
mind, not the ground. “M-class.” He repeated. “Earth is an M-class
planet,” he said with confidence, and looked up at Ryan. “What if this….
where we are ... is actually what’s become of Earth?”

"Let's maybe not drive ourselves crazy with hypotheticals," Ryan
suggested as they neared the coordinates.

“I’m a scientist. Theoretical is okay. Hypothetical is risky. But this
machine has proven itself repeatedly. Clyde is this the actual Earth of
2425?”

“Negative. The planet Earth is in the Sol System. Do you require those
spacial coordinates?”

“Negative,” replied Steve with a smile. “How about the street address
and directions to where Commander Batenburg is now located.”

“Commander Batenburg is located 103 feet from the corner of Durango Road
and Sycamore Street. Proceed to Durango at the corner to your left, turn
to the left and walk two short blocks to Sycamore Street. The
Commander and Dr Amberlyn have come to a halt at that location.”

"We're definitely through the looking glass now...." Ryan said.

Commander Suzanna Batenburg
Executive Officer
USS Arawyn

Lieutenant Commander Steve Remington
Chief Science Officer
USS Arawyn

Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn

LtCmdr Riah Amberlyn, XMD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Arawyn (npc apb Kate)

 

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