Chapter 61: A Moment In Time
December 2414
All was quiet aboard the Vauthilai. The battle of Doza was hours in the past, and several more would pass before the newly acquired components could be installed into the custom-built temporal drive. Kirina sat, still and silent, in the ship’s dimly-lit medical bay. A few meters away, a man in a ruined Starfleet Captain’s uniform laid unconscious and restrained on a biobed. For the first time in months she had something truly interesting to work on, but for some reason she couldn’t find the energy to get out of her chair.
The man on the table slowly began to stir.
The sedative can’t have worn off that quickly, Kirina thought, but she’d lost track of time. How long had she been sitting there? With the newfound urgency of the Captain’s slowly gaining consciousness, she hauled herself out of her chair and walked over to the biobed.
The man, who looked outwardly indistinguishable from a Human, had striking white hair, and looked to be in remarkably good health, considering he’d just survived the destruction of an entire planet. But that was just it: he wasn’t Human at all. In fact, he was nothing that Kirina had ever seen before. He was something new. Her initial scans revealed that he had an absolutely incredible capacity for self-healing. This could have been Kirina’s biggest scientific breakthrough since the control implants. If the abilities held by this man could be duplicated, it could improve billions of lives, all over the galaxy. It could revolutionize modern medicine.
But then, why was it so difficult to concentrate?
Kirina prepared another dose of sedative and lackadaisically put the man under again. I just need to sleep, she thought, as she returned to the nearby desk. Just for a little while. After all, they were on track to return to the past - to change history. There would be plenty of time for experimentation later. She raised the hypo to her own neck and injected the remaining sedative.
I’ll just close my eyes for a moment.