Tactical Analysis (post)

Shuzo was meditating in hir quarters, a ritual that s/he learned from a Vulcan compatriot over a century ago. Hir trance was interrupted by a chime from the intercom.

"Nakencha here," Shuzo responded.

"Sir, we have arrived at the rendezvous. The ship that has greeted us is the Enterprise."

"What is Commodore Data doing out here? I thought the Enterprise was on assignment elsewhere. Has their mission changed?"

"No sir, the Enterprise-F is still on their previous assignment. The ship in front of us is the original Enterprise, Constitution class."

Shuzo was not going to correct Patton in his statement that the Constitution-class Enterprise was the original as there were many Enterprises that came before it. "That's not possible," responded Shuzo.

"The ship registry is confirmed, sir. A diplomatic team has already beamed to the Arcadia. What are your recommendations?"

"First they will most likely not fire on us while they have a diplomatic team aboard. However, follow protocol unless the captain orders otherwise. I will report to the Strategic Operations and Tactical Command."

"Aye sir," Patton finished as he closed the channel.

Shuzo rose from hir sitting position on the floor. It continued to baffle hir why s/he was assigned as a tactical specialist when over ninety percent of the tactical officers conferred with hir on everything from the mundane to the complex. Even the security officers were becoming notorious for consulting hir. Shuzo knew this had to irk Lieutenant Oberon to no end. Even after the lieutenant banned hir from instructing security drills and having his chiefs recheck the armory inventory that Shuzo hirself had confirmed, Oberon's staff secretly asked Shuzo for hir advice. Shuzo would expect to hear from the chief tactical officer and possibly Oberon as well in regards to Patton's call for advice. That would be a matter to focus on later. Right now the important thing was to figure out where this past Enterprise came from.

The Enterprise could not logically be present here, Shuzo thought. Accessing the tactical network on hir personal workstation, Shuzo began reviewing the tactical readings from the past few hours, beginning with the moment the Enterprise appeared on the Arcadia's long range sensors. Using hir personal bypass code and security access, Shuzo was able to access the data:

Shuzo recalled the first time s/he had seen this very same tactical readout. It was in 210 when Admiral James Tiberius Kirk had reassigned hir to the Enterprise to assist with its refit. There was no one alive who knew that ship as well as Shuzo. Well save one Scottish engineer who was still working with the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. After the V'ger incident, Shuzo served in the tactical department aboard the Enterprise throughout its second five-year mission under Kirk. Shuzo practically wrote the tactical program aboard the ship. The Enterprise posed no threat to the Arcadia. However, Shuzo did know that this Enterprise should not exist. It was destroyed above the highly classified Genesis planet.

Shuzo's Axanar mind struggled to find a pattern to explain it. Mimetic lifeforms from a Y-class planet most likely. The USS Voyager encountered such lifeforms around stardate 51890. Yet such lifeforms would have to have come in contact with the Enterprise and crew in order to mimic it. Shuzo could not recall that ever happening while s/he was on board.

The most logical explanation would be temporal travel or dimensional incursion. In both cases there would most probably be a duplicate of hirself on board. Any encounter with one's duplicate would be awkward if not universe-altering based upon what paradox theory dominated the situation. Not to mention Shuzo just finished a lengthy report to the Federation Department of Temporal Investigation and was not looking to file another one for at least another century.

Shuzo needed more data and SOT-COM was the place to get it. Opening hir wardrobe, Shuzo pulled out hir duty uniform. The new uniforms were a drastic alteration from those used in the past two-hundred years. The combadge was different; the rank pips had changed as well, as did their placement. The uniforms had variations based upon department and function. The department colors remained the same and were present on the shoulder portions of the uniform. As a member of the tactical department, Shuzo's uniform should have had red shoulders; however as an active marine, Shuzo was granted permission to wear marine green instead. From reviewing the crew manifest Shuzo knew that s/he was the only person on board sporting such color. Tactical and security officers' uniforms varied from other department uniforms in that they possessed equipment integrations that helped the officers perform their duties better.