The Pinicon Belt

"I am ready commander to share what findings you deem necessary with the other team."

Drake stares at his hand, wiggling his fingers as if to reassure himself that his hand is intact and working as it should.

The young ensign broke the connection as ordered, withdrawing his hand and clearly a bit disoriented though in a strong display of professionalism shook off the barely noticeable effects. With a slight dip of his head in respect, Cole indicated his satisfaction at Drake's willingness to be descreet.

"I see no need - at least at this juncture - to hold anything back. Go ahead and share what you found," he stated with a sweep of his hand, waving Drake and the Doc on towards the rest of the team's retreating forms.

Drake joins the others and to the best of his abilities attempts to share the pertinent information he has gleaned. As to the scope of what he saw, he'd never be able to do it justice.

"The figure of a man, or an approximation of one, stood in the center of a mass of swirling galaxies each with its own quantum universe. It guided me and told me that it is very important to maintain focus or I could drift away and get lost. It mentioned that it has unlimited uses as long as power to it is maintained. To make a long story short, it can take us home by opening a fissure to our quantum reality. Someone puts on the helmet in the Sculptor chamber and focuses their thoughts on the correct quantum reality. It should be intuitive, and you simply use your will."

Stops in the doorway as she was on her way to follow the others. I'm notna violent person, is there a way to stop the device from shaping and just let it transport?

Aurin shrugged helplessly. "Give me a few weeks, a team, a laboratory, and maybe there would be more to tell." He turned towards the hologram that appeared. Aurin lifted a hand to rub his brow in thought, cheeks pursing as it bounced off of his helmet.

"Can we instruct you to limit the scope of your operation...?"

Cole's eyes narrowed as the computer interface hologram reappeared and confirmed what he had already expected, again leaving him with the dilemma about to ensure he and his team - and those of their counterparts - returned to their proper realities while simultaneously ensuring the other team did not weaponize the apparatus. As Aurin queried the interface, he turned to the apparition, brow rising curiously, hopeful in a positive response while harboring doubts.

"Or is it possible that we send them back to their own quantum reality first? Or do they need to interface with the apparatus to make it work?"

This is probably the least dangerous solution, but if this device exists there as well....i worry what they would do. Does the device exist across worlds?

Cole nodded in understanding at the holograms confirmation, brow arching at the Doctor's as he followed the logic, "Or rather could we expect the apparatus and surrounding station to be in a similar if not worse condition than we found this one?

"Or if we repair one, do all, across all realities become so?"

Aurin made a valiant effort to pinch his forehead, his fingers thunking up against the environmentally sealed transparent aluminum faceplate. "Prefacing this with the caveat that multiverse theory is not my primary field of study..."

His eyes closed and he took a deep breath. "If I understand the theory correctly, a universe cannot unilaterally collapse the multiverse because if it could, it would have done so, through the principles of infinite probability and spontaneous generation. Because if a multiverse-collapsing bomb could exist and then detonate, it would exist and have detonated in some universe."

"It is theoretically possible to destroy or collapse a universe, but because we have not been collapsed, some mechanism must exist that limits the propagation of multiverse-spanning phenomena, including a device like this station. It's not just likely, but guaranteed, that in some other universal fork that we already fixed the station, or the station would have survived undamaged, and yet..." he motioned around him to the floating debris from the malfunctioning artificial gravity, and the general airlessness of the room.

He paused for a moment to let them digest that rather dense explanation. "This station existing as a bridged singularity had occurred to me, but with all this engineering I haven't had time to sample and scan local quantum signatures. We have operational priorities, of course." He scratched the side of his helmet. "But the fact that we have only encountered three instances of ourselves - two others, and us, of course - suggests and arguably confirms that the device's scope across quantum realities is limited."

"In short... it does not exist everywhere, so it cannot be a multiversal singularity. That means it may not exist in some universes, but it does in others. Where it is native to is a salient question - if it exists in their universe, I'm not sure the Prime Directive would permit us to stop them from using it. But if it is from another quantum universe - our own, or another universe altogether, then it behooves us to contain it and, if it's not... 'ours,' to use the term very loosely, then it may be best to send it home."

Cole's brow furrowed as he considered his science officer's words, the creases deepening at their strange AI host's words, as he thought on his next orders. "It sounds to me like our host here is insinuating that this is the original device - perhaps the only device," Cole stated, a considering glint to his commanding eyes, "I'm wondering if we just send our counterparts home and hope this is the only device in existence or if not that theirs is in such a state as to be hard to repair.

"That's the first challenge, the second being how to stop the station from being active and drawing things from other realities into its own AND protecting it from further damage."

Inside the Sculptor room the other Cole commands the other Doctor M'Ress to attempt to interface with the Sculptor Apparatus and find away to alter their universe to destroy the Borg. The Doctor has objections, but keeps them to herself, she knows that as distasteful as that is to her healer's instincts and training, everything they know depends on this one chance.

In the apparatus chamber:

"Doctor," instinctually and sharply interrupts Jayce without thinking, "No one should hastily jump into the headset, without a detailed analysis of the databank."

Realizing that his reaction could be construed as overstepping his bounds to the doppelganger Walker who is the commanding officer in the room, Jayce turns to the the captain, "What have you found in your analysis Captain? I know I am not the counselor of your crew, but I strongly advise not to send your doctor hastily into the complexity of the Sculptor's neural network. I can tell you that there is no certainly that her mind will be able to safely navigate its intricacies. Failure could send her into a coma or take her life, further it could put a cog in the apparatus and render it useless." Jayce was mostly bluffing, but he hoped to buy time for Aurin and his crew to join the doppelganger crew in this chamber.

"Again, I feel we should consult with my crew's science officer to see what analysis he has made and combine his conclusions with your crew's"

What is taking them so long? Luna ponders. She hadbeen ready to engange the doppelganger crew when the suggestion of a meeting was made but since then there had only been silence.
"Excellent idea, Lt. Devar" Luna agrees

Drake leaves the archives to join the others in the Sculptor room. He has a feeling that things might get a little hot and wanted to be ready to intervene if needed. Power like that did things to people. He arrived just when Jace was advising about the doppelgänger doctor entering the neural network. He didn't offer any opinions of his own but chose to keep reading the room, looking for danger and watching his crew's back.

Then Doppelganger captain holds a hand up as Jayce speaks. He's about to voice his override but ..


@Seck care to make a roll to convince him? Two successes he'll pause long enough to talk it through. Four he'll actually follow your suggestion.

Momentum: 6
Threat: 4

Cole watched the retreating form of his eager Ensign Zarah, who upon concluding his - brash and maybe ill-advised - interface with the station's computer, was off to resume his duties keeping a diligent and security minded eye on the other Away Team. Cole's brow furrowed, resisting the urge to reach up at an attempt to scratch at his day-old growth - currently made impossible by his environmental suit helmet - as he diverted his attention to the space beyond the gaping hole in the station's exterior, deep in thought.

"Aurin," he stated, gazed still affixed upon the impressive spacescape, "Let's regroup with the others. I'm sure your expertise will be needed.

"Doc. I want you here close to the shuttle in case we need an emergency transport or evacuation.

"Continue to interact with the AI ... see what else you can discover."

Turning from the both beautiful, yet violent display of the asteroid field he met his two officer's eyes, offering a nod of assurance to the Doctor and tilt of his head towards the rooms exit to Lieutenant Ah. Motioning the avianoid towards the rest of the crew with a sweep of his hand.