Kansas is Only a Time Hop Away
Posted on Fri Jan 27th, 2023 @ 7:54pm by Lieutenant Commander Asahi Kita
Mission:
Between Realities
Location: Certainly not on the Vesta
Timeline: 31rst Century
1253 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure
Echo nearly bounced down the halls in her bubbly manner, chirruping to Asahi about what the lunch of the day was and how they were going to have to re-acclimate him to the technology, as it had been five years since he had seen it last in their time. Advancements had been made. And upon observations, he silently marked that that was an accurate assumption to make.
There were not nearly as many holograms the last time he was in this century. Everywhere, holographic consoles whizzed by until they found whatever member of the Bureau they were after, beeping an alert and causing the member to stop in their tracks and read what was on the hovering screen. To his eye, they were blank console screens hovering in place, but he could see crewmen reading whatever was upon them, tapping at them until they zoomed away, back to wherever they came from.
"When did the Bureau get inefficiently efficient?" he asked absently, dodging a holographic screen that threatened to zoom into him. "Wouldn't you just wanna wait to sit at your desk?"
"Oh, this is an experimental timeship that requires a little more on-call work," Echo explained cheerily. "Crewmembers do the bulk of their work in stations when they need their specialized equipment, but for memos and paperwork that requires none of that? That can be done wherever a crewmember feels most comfortable, or enroute to wherever they intend to be."
Asahi gave Echo a skeptical frown, "That just sounds like no one's been able to de-attach from work to me."
Echo gave a shrug, smiling at her walking companion, "I'm sure if you told the Admiral in charge of this ship's commission, he'd take it into consideration." She stopped in front of a non-descript door, slightly bigger than the others they had passed by on the way to their destination. "Here his office is. But, you should probably just wait because-"
The door swished open before Echo could finish her thought, and Asahi was greeted with a spotted, black and white canine face before he was tackled to the ground by the giant, floppy-eared dog. Echo took a small leap back, eyes wide in horror as the great dane proceeded to greet Asahi with a series of slobbery nose boops and licks to the human's face.
"Shibui, off!"
The dog stood alert at the command, head whirling behind her deeper into the room. At another order, she pulled back, retreating into the depths, barking excitedly the whole time. Left behind was the mess left on Asahi's person; his hair strewn in a mess, face wet with dog slobber. He was left with surprise on his face, staring up at the faded chrome ceiling, blinking until he felt safe enough to face reality. He sat upright, smoothing his hair out with a hand and wiping the slobber away with the other. "... Why me..."
Kneeling down to help Asahi up, Echo offered an apologetic smile, "I thought I was going to be able to warn you, I apologize Lieutenant."
"It's. Fine. It's fine." Now standing, Asahi straightened out his uniform jacket, wiping the remainder of the slobber on the back of a sleeve. "I'm supposed to be trained for situations like that, right?" Echo opened her mouth, but Asahi gave her a wink. "I'm joking."
"Is that who I think that is out there?" came a voice from the office. Asahi peered in, and, as expected, the uniformed man seated at the Captain's chair had the same black hair and brown eyed man he expected to see.
"Ta~de~shi~" he spoke in a sing-song voice, quick to enter the office and seat himself across from the man. "Should have known it was gonna be you. Five years, huh? That how long it takes for you to get your Captain's chair?"
"Three years, actually.” The man was dressed in the sleek, 31rst century look Asahi had come to detest, and still looked younger than him by a few years. But that steely gaze that Asahi had yet to master, one that was near-identical to that of his father and grandfather, had passed down the Kita line and well into Asahi's descendants. "We've been making strides to the technological advancement toward preservation of the timelines."
Asahi's brow waggled, and he gave a big sniff. "So you got to Admiral real damn quick then, huh?"
"Rear-" Tadeshi corrected, eyes on Echo as she fended herself off from the threat of dog slobber. "But I'm sure you've been told otherwise."
"I haven't been told much about that," waving a hand, Asahi continued, "Just about how many different varieties of food are available in the mess."
Tadeshi let out a sigh. "All the same, it is good to have you back, even if only briefly. We… overshot last time, where you were supposed to be."
"Yeah. If you ask Echo, it's been a few eh, centuries or so, but you only overshot by two years."
There was a silence that washed over the pair, as Tadeshi's gaze wandered downward to the uniform Asahi had on. Then his gaze snapped back up to meet Asahi's, and the dusty-haired man could make out a momentary flash of guilt on Tadeshi's features. "You… aren't our Asahi."
"Seems like not." Asahi shrugged. "Don't worry about wiping memories or anything like that though, I've been here, seen that. I just… would really like to get back to what I've been doing. At home. New home, but home."
Slowly, Tadeshi looked over at the odd holographic display that Asahi could only vaguely see hovering nearby, “On… the Viking?”
This spawned a laugh out of Asahi. “Oh I wish. No, when I was sent back the Viking was decommissioned and I ended up somewhere else. It’s the Vesta now.”
“The… Vesta...” Trailing off, Tadeshi shot a look toward Echo, who was busy fielding the lovable great dane nearby, “I don’t… remember that in any of your potential outcomes, not when we were looking for your original universe.”
“Yeah, well, the Tadeshi of my universe was the one in charge of all that and he seemed pretty damn certain he was sending me to the right place,” Asahi pointed out, “And then I was two years later than I was supposed to be.”
“So… not the Cretaceous…” replied the young Admiral behind his desk. Asahi’s snort had him rolling his eyes. “You know, I could pull rank here-”
“On your great-great-great-great-times whatever grandfather? You absolute heartless asshole.” Asahi mirrored Tadeshi’s eye roll, “Don’t worry, I’m sure this was just some flub that could get itself fixed, right?” Then came the silence, and the exchange of glances between Tadeshi and what Asahi assumed was Echo. “... Right?”
Tadeshi’s expression said it all. It was not going to be that simple. “Well, see, the new President of the-”
Asahi waved his arms in annoyance, stamping his feet, and letting out a noise similar to that of a dying elephant. “Are you about to tell me-sit here and honest to whatever the hell God tell me - that I won’t just be able to go back to where I belong because of some goddamn political drama!?” The hint of silence he received from the man behind the chair had Asahi make a face.
"You're about to tell me there's another option and I'm gonna like that less, huh?"
