Land before time

Posted on Fri Nov 21st, 2025 @ 9:39pm by Ilyas Horn & Lieutenant JG Abrasax

1,946 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 9: Across Time
Location: Not station
Timeline: twenty years ago (2381)

There wasn't even a flash of light when the boy was deposited in the darkened room. Just a frightened and anguished cry sounded when the boy's body landed in a heap. The boy had the sense to crawl to the side, out of any line of sight should someone walk in.

Ilyas breathed heavily as he pressed himself against the wall. "Dad?" He whispered into the darkness. "Mister Abrasax? Captain Hiro?" Why was the room dark? Where was everyone?

The boy winced as he moved, shifting along the wall in the dark room, until his small body encountered something solid. Without lights, he had no idea where exactly he was. "Computer, lights," he decided to try, against better judgement. There was no response however, the station's systems didn't acknowledge his request.

Ilyas bit his lower lip in thought, wondering why after so much trouble and hard work from the engineers to getting things to work, the computer didn't respond to him. Had he caused this? Had his touching that thing caused people to disappear?

On his rounds, 20 year old Gil Zeymar Trassid had finished the sections and entered the science lab. It wasn't currently in use, well according to the departmental rosters. Light poured in from the door into the darkened lab, Zeymar walked from the door to the right corner. "Computer lights," Zeymar instructed.

The lab's main light came on.

"Oh finally," Ilyas muttered. "Lieutenant Ab-" he faltered when he wasn't confronted with the alien science chief but with a Cardassian. "Who are you, how did you get on the station," he exclaimed as he started to back away, trying to remember if this room had another way out.

Zeymar froze as he was confronted by a child. A child with a human appearance, he wasn't sure there were any human prisoners aboard, but it was possible. He was sure there wasn't any human children on board. "A human child? Strange." Zeymar said with a raised eyebrow.

He took a step back so he blocked the entrance. He noticed the Starfleet combadge immediately, a moment later. They did give civilians those as well, he knew. "I am Gil Zeymar Trassid, station security. Explain yourself child?" He demanded calmly. Zeymar didn't go for his weapon as he didn't want a chaotic child to fight him, he had a feeling the child would be captured or killed if he were loose in the corridors.

"I'm not Human," Ilyas retorted bravely, "well, not wholly anyway. I'm Ilyas and I live here. And you're lying, Lieutenant Rohan Read is security chief, and my dad is the first officer and there's no Cardassians on the station." He crossed his arms over his chest, daring the man to contradict him. "So what are you doing here, are you sabotaging the station?"

Zeymar laughed, "you are brave, I'll give you that, Ilyas." He said, "alas you are wrong. Starfleet does not know about this station, Sompek Nor is a classified Union installation. The Hades cluster has kept it hidden for years."

He went silent as he considered how the child could have come aboard, no transports have arrived since last time and no transporter activity detected, or the alarm would have be sounded. That is any transporter signature that their computer recognized, that in of itself was concern. Did Starfleet alter their transporters?

He doubted the child knew that or anything useful about Starfleet so no to interrogation. What was going on? What should he do about this? Soon the lab would be scheduled for use and the child would be discovered.

"If you don't believe me, why is your Starfleet crew not here now, and I am?" Zeymar questioned with a smirk. "Your combadge won't work here either, since the station is under Union control."

That did give him a terrible thought, will Sompek Nor fall to Starfleet invasion? He cringed slightly, Starfleet would never be an invader unless provoked. One thing at a time Zeymar, he mused as he watched Ilyas.

"Or you have sabotaged the systems," Ilyas countered, more bravely than he felt. "I don't know why they aren't here, they were a few minutes ago and they were looking at some kind of orb. It was glowing beautifully, but when I accidentally touched it, everything was different. Everyone just went poof." He raised his hands as if to indicate a magic trick, but the worry was clearly visible in his eyes. "Look . I'll just go home and I'll not bother you. It is a big station and I'm sure my dad probably forgot to tell me there's still Cardassians on the station."

Before Zeymar could reply, the door opened again. He'd taken too long in his rounds, so someone must have been sent to look for him. His eyes widened and quickly spun on his heels to walk back to the door.

"There you are! The overseer is waiting for your daily report, Gil Trassid!" A voice from beyond the doorway called in.

"Sorry sir, I'll be out in a minute," Zeymar replied. "I think one of the security sensors isn't calibrated, I'll fix it and report back."

That seemed to satisfy the other. "You better hurry, the Gul has officials are arriving soon to evaluate the Union's presence here, not to mention the amount of trouble that we have to go to, preventing Starfleet from discovering this station."

It would appear that Central Command was losing patience with the survey efforts in Hades for any ancient artifacts. "Understood sir," Zeymar replied and hoped that this conversation convinced Ilyas that he was truly wrong. The door closed without another word, and Zeymar exhaled slowly as he calmed down before he made his way back to Ilyas.

"Now Ilyas, you can take your chances out there, or we should get you somewhere less trafficked to sort this out later? I can guarantee you will be put into the brig. I don't think you want to find out, do you?" Zeymar explained the options as he currently saw them. He could trigger a site-to-site under the hack he made a while back, but it may have been discovered, but this was a unique situation. He didn't want to use it too frequently.

Ilyas bit his lower lip as he glanced around. The appearance of a second Cardassian was certainly suspect as was the mention of a Gul. As far as he knew those tended to be the ones in charge. But that wasn't possible because he knew Commander Yoshida was in charge.

The boy studied the young looking Cardassian in front of him. The man had shielded him, so the other wouldn't see him. Did that make him trustworthy? His senses were in overdrive, he wasn't sure he could. But he had to, didn't he? "I've been in the brig before," he finally said, sounding not so brave anymore. "It was very cold, and I felt sick. But I really should stay here, maybe my dad and Lieutenant Abrasax will come back. I'm sure they'll be looking for me... And my comm badge isn't working anymore, so what's going on?"

Zeymar began looking around the lab for anything that he could use. It was vital that he kept the child out of sight, but even with some disguise he was too young to go unnoticed. He pulled out a scanner. "I'm not quite willing to walk you around the station, as I'd get questioned. This is a classified installation, after all." He suddenly spotted a cloak, some of the high ranked officers sometimes wore cloaks when out of uniform.

Why it was there, Zeymar didn't want to speculate about and went to pick it up. He came back to Ilyas. "Wear this, unfortunately you will have to go through the ducts to reach the Workers Sector. I'm scheduled to patrol the workers sector in a few hours. There should be non-Cardassians there, none are Starfleet I can assure you, but they will help you. I will be along as soon as I report in. Ask around for Maron Ruka, she is Bajoran and," Zeymar blushed. "She and I are close friends, she can find me, and it isn't unusual for her to do so. A few others know of us." He explained and took a breath.

"Sadly, we are running out of time. I'll put the replicator here on history recycle mode for 2 minutes so you can stock up on food and water, I cannot fit in the ducts and if I go missing that might put you in danger." Zeymar added with an apologetic smile. "I know you can do this, take this as it will help you get past any security fields but only for seconds." He pulled out his scanner and programmed it for the duct pathways to the Workers Sector, along with its gate clearance for a quick maintenance cycle. He offered it to Ilyas.

As an added incentive, Zeymar frowned and said. "Computer, is there an Abrasax aboard Sompek Nor?"

In a basic male Cardassian voice came a reply. "Negative, there is no one by the name of Abrasax aboard this Nor." Hopefully, Operations wouldn't be alerted to the query, but there was always a possibility. Zeymar could explain that it could be a recent worker's or a mistaken spelt name.

"But that's impossible. Lieutenant Abrasax is the science chief." Confused, the boy shook his head, while pulling the cloak around himself. "If there's no Starfleet here...why are you helping me?" He studied the young man. "What year is it?"

Zeymar raised eyebrow. The only people who ask what year it is are people who have time travelled. "2381," he replied, and his expression softened. "You are a youth, I believe we shouldn't punish youths too quickly. No matter the species."

The boy's face drained of all colour when the answer was given and he looked as though he might faint any second. "What?" He managed to whisper, "I'm not even born yet in this time. What is going on here... how am I to get back?" Tears welled up in his eyes. "I want to go home."

"What did you do to get here?" Zeymar inquired.

"I touched something I shouldn't have," Ilyas sniffed, "all I wanted was to spend time with dad, but he never has time and now there's a baby coming soon and he'll have even less time for me. And my brother just keeps treating me as a little kid, while he goes out with his friends and I can't come. We're very different anyway. And I haven't seen my sister's in months either as they live on earth because they're going to the academy. And my oldest sister might even get married soon, so I'll see her even less." The waterfall of revelations showed the duress the child experienced. "I just want to go home, but how .. that sphere I touched, it's not here..."

He paused his sensitive hearing picking up something. "Someone's coming... you should go before I get you into trouble."

"Yes and you need to get crawling. Workers Sector, find Maron Ruka and tell her I sent you. Go." Zeymar smiled as he turned to head to the exit. A conversation occured and the door closed, no one entered the lab proper.

Not waiting for the Cardassian to leave, Ilyas crawled into the tube, struggling to keep the cloak around himself to obscure his vulcanoid features. What the didn't realise however, was that along the way, his communicator detached from his shirt and fell between the floor plating.


off

Gil Zeymar Trassid
Station Security
2381, Sempok Nor
Played by Abrasax

Ilyas Horn
Time displaced child
pnpc Peter

 

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