SPEAKER_02 0:25

Welcome to Stories with Dice. This is Star Trek Magellan, a Star Trek Adventures second edition actual play podcast. If you're enjoying our actual plays, please subscribe to Stories with Dice so you never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us. It really helps others to discover the podcast. Follow us on social media to stay updated. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode. It is the early 22nd century. Four years after the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Five years since the end of the Earth Romulan War. Starfleet has renewed their mission of peaceful exploration. But something has gone terribly wrong at Cradle Station, a research outpost on the edge of Federation Space. The crew is dead, its lead scientist missing. The USS Magellan's mission? Unravel the mystery of Cradle Station and boldly go where no one has gone before.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Hello, Ed. How's your leg doing? It's good, thank you very much. I uh think it's almost better. Almost. Are you still working from home this upcoming week? I am not. I am going back to work tomorrow morning. So it means I get to yeah, sorry, so you know, I'm afraid uh I'll have to actually do some work in the office instead of, you know, sitting at home. And my commute is like as long as it takes to open up the laptop instead of driving the hour into work. So but I'm looking particularly forward to this finale. So I'm super excited.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Tony! Hello, Tony. Shoving his face with popcorn and drinking booze again. He's ready for the ending. This is the only way. This is the only way. Douglas has got his animated face freaking me out, blinking at me while he's sitting in the rec room of the motion picture enterprise. Very nice. How you doing? You doing alright?

SPEAKER_03 2:49

You lost all your engineering crew, but you're doing okay? I'm unconscious, so I don't have a m I I will be waking up to find out everything that happened in the last five minutes. Well, that's true, that's true. I didn't even know the ship blew up until I wake up. That's right, that's right. Uh oh. That's why everything was okay. Everything was fine last time I was aware. Mr. Carmelo. Mr. Marco. Made it back on the train, I see.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Made it back in one piece. Exhausted as hell. That's alright, I can be I'm exhausted too, so we can be exhausted together. Okay. So uh we're gonna pick up mostly where we left off after I have a little bit of a prologue here to the opening of our finale. I think it's our finale. Let's see if we can land this bird, shall we? In some kind of coherent way. We open on Cradle Station, where it all began. But this is not the outpost the crew of our Magellan visited. It's older, long abandoned. Mots of dust drift through the still air like suspended memories. Bulkheads flake with rust. A disheveled, wild eyed doctor Michael Corby moves through the cobwebbed corridors. He retrieves the entanglement drive from his lab, activates his communicator, and speaks a terse command. A transporter chime sounds, and he vanishes in a shimmer of light. In main engineering, aboard the alternate Magellan, Corby installs the drive. Its core pulses with unstable energy. The air begins to ripple, then split. A jagged fissure tears open, a raw wound in reality. Around him flickering echoes of himself appear, spectral, fragmented, each from a different thread of possibility. He scans each reality, searching for something. A rapid montage follows, Corby after Corby, too many quantum altar egos to count, each shaped by diverging choices, some bold, some desperate, some damning. Thousands of lives lived in parallel, each slightly askew. The montage ends on a massive black cuboid in an underground chamber. Dr. Corby stumbles out and moves through a dark tunnel into the grey light of a windswept cave mouth. He settles in the shadows above the valley, hidden from the monks who dwell in the mountains. How long has he waited? Days? Weeks? Months? Time loses meaning when you fracture causality. He's watched countless possible outcomes unfold in the branching of universes, each nearly identical, diverging in ways both subtle and stark, but none of it matters. He remains hidden, watching, waiting. Until at last he sees it, the saucer section of the Magellan, blazing across the sky like a falling star, wreathed in fire, trailing a long ragged plume of smoke. Far above the surface of Borath, the shuttlepod El Cano bucks and shudders as it punches through the upper atmosphere. Through the viewport the senior staff of the Magellan watch in silence, as the saucer section of their starship streaks across the sky, burning, breaking apart, trailing fire. They'd done what they could. As the deck lurched beneath them, Edward Rhodes had turned to the captain and said, Save as many as you can. I'll buy you some time. Without waiting for a reply, he hauled open a scorched maintenance hatch and vanished into the smoke choked crawl space. One by one the escape pods launched. Most fell clear of the disintegrating ship. The alternate Magellan swept in, weaving through the wreckage, retrieving as many as it could before the saucer finally came apart. Not everyone made it. There just wasn't enough time. But whatever Rhodes did, it was enough to get half the crew to safety. Inside the El Cano, sensor readings spike. Lieutenant Commander Maris checks the console. The destruction of their Magellan has destabilized the link between realities. The alien vessel that destroyed the Magellan begins to flicker again, phasing in and out of existence. The fabric of space is unraveling. Boundaries between universes are overlapping, and the effect is spreading. The source of the instability appears to be somewhere on the planet below. If left unchecked, the entire star system and everything in it could be lost. Suddenly static bursts over the comms. Captain, Holtz here. We've detected a warp signature closing. We should have warp engines online within the next twenty minutes or so. In the meantime, I've moved us into low orbit. The quantum distortion field should mask our presence, but we're we're being slowly pulled into wherever that alien ship is going. Cadet Asha calls it interphase, some empty void between universes and then the transmission cuts off, swallowed by interference. Below, mountains loom as the El Cano descends toward the surface, buffeted by fierce winds that make the landing treacherous. Now I'm gonna need one of you people to land this shuttle pod. So that's me then, right? Who's the Who's the pilot? And someone that can also be the co-pilot or the assistant. I'll fly. I'll co-pilot them. Alright, so for the pilots, if you can give me a control and a con, your difficulty is two. Success. Douglas, do you want to roll for the shuttle? Sure, I can roll for the shuttle.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Can I use a focus or a talent?

SPEAKER_02 9:05

As a as a an as an assist, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Yeah, yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

For the Alcano, I'm assuming it's engineering engines and con? Yes. That didn't help. No successes from me. One success is all we get. What did I tell you? What did I tell you? Alright. We warned you, if we roll, the story's not going to work.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Alright. So, Tony, you locate a flat landing platform in the mountains near an ancient stone structure, but you're buffeted by the winds, you can't touch down safely, so you're forced to pull up sharply to avoid crashing into the into the rocks, and you can make another attempt to try to land, but now the complication range increases to two. I'll give you a threat. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

If I give you a threat, so I need to add uh one dyno. Yes. One success. Well, I got two successes.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Thank God. A four successes in total. Okay, so you guys now have two momentum. Captain, I've got you. Don't worry. Maris. Yes, sir. Since you guys have yet to scan this planet, would you like to scan this planet to make sure the atmosphere is breathable?

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Yeah, I think it might be a good idea. Do it, it'll be fine. So that's going to be reason and science.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Reason and science, yep. Your difficulty is one. Douglas, can you roll for the shuttle? Okay. Sensors and science?

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Am I using a focus here? Yeah, I believe you have to do it. Sensor operations. Sensor operations, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Okay, so here we go. Two and a six. Maris, you've got three successes. The Elcano doesn't give you anything, but that's okay. So you've got two momentum from there. So now you guys have four momentum. Look at that. Going into the finale with four momentum. When has that happened to us this entire season? So, Mr. Maris, the planet registers as class M. You do detect a handful of life signs belonging to some unknown humanoid species, and they're confined to that large stone structure that's in the mountains. And there's also some quantum interference emanating from somewhere beneath the surface. Now, do you want to spend momentum to ask me a question related to your scans?

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Yeah, let's use one momentum. Let me see. Is it more important to have some information on who they who those people are or what's going on beneath the surface? Your scans aren't going to tell you anything much more about who those people are. Right, okay. Oh my gosh, what would be a pertinent question? Well, what's the level of technology?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

If we can check that?

SPEAKER_03 11:40

How many people there are? We can yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Level of technology are gonna go with. You're detecting subspace communication equipment, but there's no like, you know, shields or anything of that nature around the structure.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Am I can oh I'm gonna be I won't ask you another question because you think another momentum away. You can ask me another question. Okay. Well I was gonna say, is my sensory perception pricking at any point? You see that? Actually, it gives me threat.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yes. Now if you want to know about it, I'll give myself a point of threat. But if not, we can move on. Mr.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Finale, go for it. Go for it, alright.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

I mean what can all go do with Ted Threat?

SPEAKER_02 12:17

I mean it's like I mean the captain just ordered me to go for it, so go for it. Something tugs at you. Not reason, but a feeling, a sense that something is wrong, something is out of place. And then your eyes catch it. An anomalous reading buried in the haze of interference, a subtle resonance pattern linked to the source of the quantum interference. Strangely, it matches a specific human brainwave signature. Oh, okay. I'm gonna take a guess that's our wonderful uh doctor. Dr. Corby. Yeah. Well, you do have his neuroprofile in your systems. How about I check his neuroprofile to see if I can make a see a match? The readings match Dr. Corby's neuroprofile. Well we need to go. Okay, well we know where Yes, we know where we need to go for this.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Let's hope the people are friendly.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

But you know, Dr. Corby is in your shuttle pod. You brought him along, according to the to the captain. So this very well could be another Dr. Corby. Why doesn't that surprise me? Yeah, yeah. How many of you are there?

SPEAKER_03 13:27

What what do you what do you mean another Dr. Corby? says Dr. Corby. It's like it seems like yeah it seems like your little experiments, Dr. Corby, have been causing some mighty interesting ruptures in the quantum field. Other realities seem to be bleeding in and out of ours, including other versions of you.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

He gets up and leans over your shoulder to look at your console and he says, These these readings show two identical brainwave patterns existing in two locations simultaneously, but that's impossible. Obviously there's there's something wrong with your computer.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Machinery's in working order, and it's your experiment that's causing this. Am I still stunned at this point? No. So I'm am I back up again?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

You are you are awake, unstunned. I lean over to Rhodes. I'm afraid uh something happened to the ship.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

I assume something happened to the ship, which is why we're in a shell pod.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, we don't have it anymore. It's probably about 1,500 miles that way. I think it kind of collided with a couple of mountains. What what happened to it? It got ripped apart.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

I'm not really sure. I turn to everyone else and be like, what happened to the ship? Well, big alien ship from other universe. That's what happened. But there's another Magellan out there, the other Magellan. Hopefully they're looking for us. Oh yeah, it should have led with that. What happened to the crew and everyone else? Well, most got to the escape pods. Hopefully the other Magellan picked them up. We don't know right now. We're we were too busy trying not to crash this thing. I turned to Kobe and be like, this is all your fault. You hadn't been messy enough the systems, we would have had control of the ship and could have done something about it rather than being a sitting duck.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

If you had not interfered, this wouldn't have happened. I was trying to correct my mistake. You tackled me. I did.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

Yes. You interfered in the same way. And you said you said you had no choice. That's bullshit. A lot of people over the years have said they've had no choice in doing anything. And that is usually just cover for someone to be able to ease their mind on doing something bad or something unpleasant. It's always a choice. If you say you don't have a choice, you're just making easier on yourself. Are you done? Well, I'm far from done.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Well, in my universe, Federation is nearly gone. Because of me. Because of my mistake. And now, because of you, they're here. And your Federation is going to be nearly gone in a matter of months. I hope you can sleep well tonight. Here's a question. Do I believe him?

SPEAKER_03 16:06

I don't know. See. Do you believe him? I don't know. Kobe, across multiple universes, has proved himself to be very bad and made like multiple mistakes and also willing to overlook like very morally unpleasant things. As in, he sided with the administrator before we arrived, met with the enslaved people, and just did not bat an eyelid at that because his work was more important. I died in his universe trying to like save to resolve his fuck-ups. As the GM, that is all fair, that is all right. Also, everyone in Cradle Station died because of him, and he has and he never even bat an eyelid that everyone in Cradle Station was dead. Once again, that was our universe's Kobe. But then again, I think someone looked at the logs on this mirror Magellan, and it was a lot of very similar stuff, I think, was the general consensus. The the mirror mirror the not mirror alternative Kobe just knew more what was going on. It didn't really seem like he was any different.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Captain, what's our next plan?

SPEAKER_04 17:15

Well, we need to understand voice in this location. Is this in reality the Greater Loaf?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

I look over it. Lev Maris. Sir, what did your senses say again?

SPEAKER_03 17:27

There was there are inhabitants inside the structure, and there's the energy source is coming from underneath the planet somewhere. Not far from here.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah, somewhere nearby. There are there are lava caves throughout these mountains. So were you saying perhaps maybe there's a way in through the uh through the building?

SPEAKER_03 17:43

If we don't find a way into the the underground from the surface, I would suggest that the structure might be the only way in. But there are life forms inside, there's life forms inside. We need to be careful, we need to be armed. I'm sure whoever's there will be able to be helpful. Famous last words, you being all optimistic.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Okay, so you uh step out of the shuttle pod onto that circular stone landing platform. You know, this mist coils along the ridgelines below you. You're pretty high up. Your trichorders are flickering with interference. There's like a low frequency distortion that ripples through your devices. And then there's that covered bridge that spans a deep chasm leading to that larger stone structure. And you see three robed figures that are moving steadily across the bridge. And they're wearing hoods, so you can't you can't see their faces. And one of them raises a hand as he he stops about midway across that bridge. And he raises a hand and he speaks in a deep guttural voice, and your universal translator falters, distorting the harsh tones of his language into garbled gibberish. Helpful. We understand anything.

unknown 19:09

No.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Some of us have languages. It's coming out of it's just coming out as gibberish. Okay, I will say greetings, fellow inhabitants of this planet. We are part of the crew. USS Magellan, and we just cross-landed, and we need your help. Can you provide any help?

SPEAKER_00 19:27

What attribute and department would you need to be able to try and essentially understand or try and communicate? Or is it a focus talent kind of thing that allows you to do that?

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah, so your universal translator requires many samples of new languages to you know, so that it could improve its translation accuracy. You need like, you know, normally you would get like COM chatter, audio of some kind, that the device can collect and study, and you know, the more the better. And then more importantly, it needs time. Um so without any of these samples that the universal translator can analyze, it's not going to be able to translate the the the uh the language correctly. However, just looking in my technical manual.

SPEAKER_04 20:17

It's not a new thing that you spent money on recently. Newly released. Technically, manual.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

They've not given me anything, I'm just doing it, you know, because why not? But if you want to exactly if Modifius wants to give me something, like, you know, a yacht or you know that sounds good. A starship. So you can like assist in the analyzing of the of the language that the universal translator collects, and that would be like insight and science. Ooh, I can do that. And then if you want to get uh help, you know, if you want to create a translation matrix, program it essentially, that would that would also be that would be reason in science.

unknown 21:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

So that all hinges on you collecting language samples from sure from the alien.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

So I'll do that. So I won't really engage because I'll be kind of trying to concentrate to sort of get that working to link that with the universal translator.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Okay, and Captain Karth Azareth, so in response to your attempt at peaceful communication, the robed figures he starts speaking more like you can tell from his body language and perhaps the tone of his voice and how the level of his voice, the volume of his voice has now gotten higher. He seems angry. His arms are gasculating wildly, and you don't get the sense that you're being welcomed.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

I ignore and say, My name is Captain Kartasaret. I'm here with my Fellow crew members of USS Mageland, and we request assistance. As you can see, we are in distress, and we will be very grateful for any help you can provide. I try to kill like a very calm voice and try to temper the mood if possible. I understand why they might be angry because you know they probably saw the ships crashing around their planet and causing disturbance. But you know, you know, we're just in need of help. He starts shouting at you Doctor, keep it going.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Doctor, doctor, would you like to sure? And I'm gonna use something I I I haven't used at all at the entire season, which is untapped potential. And I picked insight as my excellent my attribute. So whenever you succeed at a task for which you bought one or more additional dice, I'm gonna use a point of momentum. Okay. You're gonna need two successes, that's your difficulty. Okay, that's fine. Essentially, I roll D20 after the roll. If the roll equals two or less than the chosen attribute, I gain a bonus momentum. If I roll higher, you gain a bonus threat. Cool, I like that. So we know which way this is gonna go. Right. So I'm gonna reign composed, so as long as you're happy with me using that focus. In site and science is what you're doing. In site and science, I am going to do that.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

By the way, Dr. Corby starts backing away to the shuttle.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Five successes.

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Five successes to roll for the shuttle as well?

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah, we can say that you tied in your because you guys are not in the shuttle, that you tied in your trichorder to the shuttle, and that's how you were that's how you were using it.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Yes. Alright. I don't know. Maybe we could just like get all the momentum that we haven't got throughout this entire campaign. Or not, or it can just fail.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Cool. And I get a bonus momentum because I rolled the D20 and I got under my inside. Is that three momentum? It's actually four. Four momentum. Four momentum. This is the first. You've maxed out on your momentum. I've I've I've it's just crazy. I saved it all up for the last episode.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

You did, you did. So you're you're analyzing, you're analyzing the patterns in the grammar, in the language, and you notice that it bears one or two similarities to languages within the Federation database. So you can go ahead and give me a reason in science task to get that translation matrix created. As you do that, as you do that, there's a fourth figure running down the covered bridge, and he's shouting. And he's not wearing a robe. I'll take another momentum while we're at it. He's wearing he's wearing armor. There we go.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

You booster luck edge. You thought everything was going to, everything had changed, but no, nothing ever changed.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Look at those fuckers. They said they're gonna steal our stuff. And as I say that, my English turns to whatever language it is.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

So the universal translator, so basically he got no successes and a complication. And so the complication is like a mistranslation, right? So the robed figure that Captain Karathazarat has been interacting with, it sounds like he's saying something about like grinding your bones into meal and and eating them. That's what you think he's saying. So you're starting to wonder if these guys are cannibals. And then that fourth, fourth figure who's running down the covered bridge, who's wearing armor, your universal translator translates him screaming outsiders, and he pulls out a disruptor.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Joy. It reminds me of Mars attacks. I think he's saying we come in peace. I don't know. Okay. It's gone a bit wrong, Captain.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

It has gone a bit wrong.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

That is the understatement of the season. I continue trying to calm the spirits down and have to be very positive and assertive. I I don't know what they need to roll to do that, but they're trying my best to try to make them stand down and take us as you know, just fellow travelers who need help.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Right. Well, yeah, I guess I'm still trying to translate. I look at I look at Lieutenant Commander Maris, I'm gonna go, I'm not doing this right.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Well, we got a mistranslation. Maybe we uh if he can't get that talk that guy down, somebody's gonna need to uh use their face pistol on stun. He's running. I don't know if we have time to try and do another pass through the triquarter, but maybe we could. Yeah, well, he actually he fired a shot off, so just give me one second. Was he sitting a stun or death?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Disruptors don't have stun sayings. This alien has long hair, a bony-ridged forehead, and wears armor. He fires his disruptor pistol, but misses. The energy beam strikes the stone at your feet, Captain, exploding it into a fist-sized crater. I pull out my my face, I put it to lethal, and I shoot back at him.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

Okay. We're doing that, okay? Doing lethal. Give me that role. No, no, no, lethal, sorry, non-lethal.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Non non-lethal. I thought you said I'm sorry. No, no, not lethal say lethal. Everybody was like, oh, becoming peace, shoot the kill, shoot the kill. Shoot the kill.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

So go ahead. That's okay. Go ahead and give me that control and security role, Tony.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

Line Sack says this is so annoying, seriously.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

You missed. Yep. So yeah, your your phaser blast hits the covered part of the bridge and it burns a hole through it.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

Well, this is the finale. I mean, it has to have you know, everything comes to an end in any case.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

But while that's going on, did we have time to do another pass to the uh tricorder, the universal translator?

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah, once once your turn comes up, you'll be able to do that. Once we die. Once we die. Looks like we're gonna die. No, that's no successes for this gentleman here. I'm actually okay, so one of you guys can go next. Tony's gone, so. I will not be doing any more translating.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Do we have a good shot? Douglas Carmelo, who's the best shooting?

SPEAKER_03 28:06

I'm back in the shot line ever got out because I'm absolutely shattered. I'm taking a breather. What?

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Okay, Carmelo, go for it. Yeah, Douglas, Douglas, you noticed you noticed that Dr. Corby hightailed it to to the to that little tower off to the side of the complex, off to the side of the platform.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Oh, did he? Okay. But well done. Even though it's taking my breather, I will follow him. Okay, you follow him.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

You follow him inside, and uh there's a staircase that leads down the side of the mountain.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Is he like heading off down? He is, yes. I'll be I'll just pull up my face pistol and be like, hold it, Doctor, you're not going anywhere. He doesn't stop. And I Are you gonna shoot him? I'll give him a warning shot.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

Why not? Okay, you'll give him a warning shot, and then he freezes and he puts his hands up. We're facing this together, no running away. He starts making his way back up the stairs. Doctor Travis, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Uh well I've seen the other two duck into the tower, which seems like a really good idea. Because so I am going to shoot in their general direction. I am not worrying about the translator anymore. I think it's fairly it's fairly obvious what their intentions are. I'm gonna shoot and run. Um I might as well spend a point in momentum. I don't really have anything to kind of add to it, so just a good old-fashioned roll. So, uh that is complication but to success. Complication but two successes. Okay. I get rid of a complication.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

It's a threat, but just momentum. You can spend two momentum to create a trait that removes a complication.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

It's going to it is going to make a complication. Right. But there is, but Marco is right, you can create a trait to resolve another trait, technically, by spending. Yeah, so if he says you're you're the complication still has to happen for you to do something to resolve the complication, if that makes sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

I'm going to create a create the complication now, and I'm going to ask you to roll a d20.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Okay, let's roll the 20. Is that bad? Let's see. Face it blows up in your hand. It overheats.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

It's very bad. You successfully shoot one of these robed figures. So what is your damage of three? Damage of three. Okay. So yeah. Alright, so you stun this guy right here. He's he's stunned. And the and then something, the weapon sort of gets hot in your hand and it sparks and it explodes.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Can so can I can I spend the momentum to create the trait to get rid of thing?

SPEAKER_02 30:46

So you you basically you can either to avoid the injury, you can add three to your stress track. Cool. Since you had it on stun, if you had it on kill, you might have you might have died.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Your hand gets deleted.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

I throw the the the phaser as soon as it starts to spark. I guess it catches hold of my hand and my bin it. Those early 22nd century phase pistols, they're so finicky.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Temperamental. I've made my way to the uh the little uh little tower. So, Mr. Maris, you almost get shot by this energy weapon. It goes right over your shoulder, and the initiative goes back to you guys. I'm rolling just as bad as you guys are. We don't mind that.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Well, the captain ordered me to shoot, so I'd like to shoot back. There's gonna be control and security. Security. Exactly. Okay. And you am I using a focus here? Let me see.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

If you if you don't have like a hand phasers as a focus, then no. Nah no, I don't have them. Oh, okay. Complication range? Regular. Regular. Okay, here we go. Nope. Your phase of fire goes wide. And you start to see and hear other people shouting and running out of this building. Soon you're going to be overwhelmed. Captain, I say we need to make a run for it. Back to the shuttle. Captain, you have been shocked. Does it hurt? It does. If you want to if you want to avoid the injury, you have to add four to your stress track. Oh, for it.

SPEAKER_04 32:19

So I'm at seven? Asking everyone to move back, to pull back and kind of take cover under the shuttle pot.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Okay, so you guys are moving into the back of the shuttle pot over here.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

Yeah, yeah. And Gent has a cover.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Okay. Dr. Travis, when you when you get into the tower, you see Steven Rhodes holding Dr. Corby at gunpoint. Steve, what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 32:43

He tried to do a runner. Corby, do you know where you're going? Or are you just running away?

SPEAKER_03 32:47

I might know where I'm going.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Captain, there's way!

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Travis, don't trust him. He'd say anything. So, Captain, you hear your doctor shouting for you.

SPEAKER_04 32:57

Hey, go back to the building. We can probably defend better from the building.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

Everyone to retreat.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

It's a very strategic retreat. So Corby still has the two of you get into that tower with Dr. Travis and your engineer Rhodes, and you see Corby with his hand still up. Rhodes is holding his pistol at him, and they seem to be having a tense conversation. And Corby says to the doctor, if you continue to listen to your chief engineer, we're all dead. You have to trust me.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

This guy was quite happy to run out of us and leave us to our fate, and didn't care about anything else.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

I think he cares about whatever's going on down inside underwater.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

He cares about himself and what he has done, Ed.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Well, I think that we can get him to take us to the other Corby.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Your science officer detected a quantum distortion field underground, did he not? Did he also detect the brainwave patterns of well, ostensibly me? Which you said was impossible.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

I lied.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

You can't trust this man. Look, I think if we need to resolve this and resolve it quick, I'm quite happy to shut whatever that thing is off. And I mean, feel free. If we take if he takes it to wherever he needs to go, and he lies, shoot him in the face.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

He's got four phasers on him. Lieutenant Commander Maris, you had some education in quantum mechanics. I told you it was impossible, but it is impossible unless there are two versions of me coexisting in the same reality.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

That doesn't seem to be well, it's theoretically possible, but I don't think how it's practically possible. We've only ever seen one Magellan come through come through. We haven't seen multiples, and they all have slightly different signatures, quantum signatures.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

I think we need to run or fight. I think Well, the guys outside are not gonna let us debate this. I'm gonna take a chance.

SPEAKER_03 34:57

I mean, what's down what's down there we can deal with later. We need to get away from here. He's got four phase pistols on him. If he tries anything, I say we go down, find out whatever it is, it's probably something that can be shut off. I'm gonna turn to the captain and just look at him for decision. Let's go down and see what is out there. We're either dead in this universe or alive in another one.

SPEAKER_04 35:18

Exactly. We need to end this.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Gooby go and go, let's go. Okay, so you follow him down these stairs, and it takes you into the a cave. And he leads you through a labyrinth of winding tunnels. You can hear those aliens that the the l the guttural shouts of those aliens echoing through the passageways, so they're in pursuit of you.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

Can I use the face pistol to like cave in the entrance behind us when we go into the cave? Sure, you could do that. So they can't follow us directly.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Okay. Yeah, so you uh you've uh sealed yourselves in to this particular tunnel with your with your phase pistol. And as you move deeper underground, the tunnel abruptly widens into this yawning ravine. It's about twenty meters deep, ten meters across, you reckon. On the far side, the passage continues. So you can either scale down and back up the opposite cliff face or follow a narrow winding ledge that skirts the edge of the ravine. And Dr. Corby says, hmm, this wasn't here last time. Maybe you were in the wrong universe last time.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

Okay, I'm getting a bit sick of this. That's quite possible. We can hear the guys who are not following us directly anymore, right? Right, because you've you've caved in the tunnel. Right. Corby, we're gonna sit down for a few minutes and you're going to explain everything, or I'm gonna push you into this hole. Not what is relevant or obfuscation, everything. He will turn to the captain and be like, with your permission.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

Captain, are you are you are you gonna let him thread me like that? I don't know, I don't know. Tell us why are we following you? Why are we going? Convince me that this is the right thing to do the right thing this time.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Convince us to do your plan, not just take it out of our hands because it's the only way. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

I I will try to explain this in a way that your limited intellect can comprehend. Use crayons. Your vessel was quantum entangled with another Magellan. When your ship was destroyed, the link between the two universes destabilized, beginning to unravel the boundary between them. Now the two realities are merging.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Sounds bad.

SPEAKER_04 37:45

That can't be good. And what's your recipe to heal this? How do you want to solve the situation?

SPEAKER_02 37:54

There is a device on the other side of that chasm. If you allow me to reach it, I may be able to stabilize our two realities.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

Is there kind of feel that there is something else there? Why is this your fault? You've said that multiple times. You were making up for a mistake that you made. What did you do?

SPEAKER_02 38:19

I created the quantum fissure. I believed I was reaching out to a benign cosmic intelligence, the source of all sentient life. But I was wrong. They were simply the first biological species to achieve sentience in our galaxy. The Sarians call them the ancient ones. The monks on this world, known as Klingons, call them the Herc, a word that means outsider in their language. The here. Why is this special about this place? The device is an anchor. Built by whom? That is a question I do not have the answer to.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

How do you know that this is the way to go?

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Me, it seems like I was last here yesterday. But in reality, months perhaps. Why didn't you resolve this problem then?

SPEAKER_03 39:13

Because I hadn't discovered the solution yet. The solution is to turn do something with the machine that was here last time you were here?

SPEAKER_02 39:22

You start to hear the weapons fire, so it sounds like they're trying to like blast their way through that caven.

SPEAKER_04 39:28

We are losing time here. But I propose that you, Douglas, you Lieutenant Rhodes and you, Lieutenant Maris, have a look at this machine and give me your diagnosis about what Dr. Corp is saying. If if your analysis tell us that this machine can help us, then so be it.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

You've seen this machine before, Kobe, right? Last time you were here. Yes. And you know how it works. I know that it works. Could you give us a rough idea of what to do just in case something happens to you? Just so you know, if you happen to like fall into this chasm when we're crossing it, we're not all dooming both realities because you kept it a secret? That I cannot say. I think he needs to take us to the machine first, and we can question him on the way.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

I think we need to leave. Yeah, yeah. And pretty fast. Which way? Which way?

SPEAKER_02 40:24

So do you want to go around or do you want to scale the ravine and climb up the other side?

SPEAKER_03 40:28

So where exactly is this thing? Where where was this thing last time? It was up there, over there.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

So you're the tunnel is cut off by a chasm. On the other side is there is the other side of the tunnel, so you just have to cross that chasm. So you can either climb down and then back up the other side. That's a fitness and security task. Difficulty is two. Or you can go around all the way around, and you can sp and you'll have to spend two momentum or give me two threat per character. Or you can make a difficulty zero fitness and security task to create momentum, which can then be spent on moving through that rough terrain. The most diet one. Scaling the ravine.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Yeah, but I was thinking we have very physical people with us. Say do we have time? Which is more time consuming.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Probably going around is more time consuming, yeah. Okay. So scaling the ravine, those tasks will succeed at cost, so no one will fall to their death, but you will have you know, maybe a broken bone, or you lose maybe you drop a phaser or you twist an ankle or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

But if the doctor falls to his death, we we're all doomed because he's the only one who knows anything. So in this sort of situation, I'd maybe recommend the safest rather than quickest.

SPEAKER_04 41:42

I go recommend that because I don't think we have any physical people with us. We don't have any tools to help us with a climb.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Marco, I look around. Can I create a trait? That trait being some climbing equipment that happens to be left around from last time, or that one of the other aliens have left?

SPEAKER_02 42:01

I will say yes, and I will take two momentum from your pool for that.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

That seems like a plan?

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Yeah. Okay. So while they're having all that conversation, you go ahead, you're kicking around looking for stuff. Give me the narration, Ed.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Uh yeah, so I'll I'll be kind of looking at sort of like the edge, and while they were kind of having this conversation, I kind of look over and see there's like some pitons and a bunch of climbing equipment that's sort of like hanging just on the edge. So you wouldn't have seen it as you kind of ran out onto it. And it's only because I'm like letting them do their their chat that I kind of look down and see it and point down, just say, we could always use this stuff, and I kind of pull up like a bunch of the the pitons and the cramp on and all the other kind of climbing equipment and go, we could use these. It's Federation gear, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Which case which is really bizarre because no federation vessel has been out this far.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Yeah, but he was here recently. But then again, the hole wasn't here last time. Right, and he goes, those are not mine. Are we even in ours are we even in our original universe now? Look at Red Steve. You remember your survival training from uh Stoff the Academy? Oh, it's been a while. But we used to use these sort of equipment on the old mining colonies.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

So scaling their none at all. With the equipment, the difficulty from two goes down to one.

unknown 43:19

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

So everyone start making your fitness and security roles for me, please. And uh survival works for you as a focus. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

Has it awareness for me? Sure, I'll let you use that. And what was the complication range again? Two? No, the complication range is one. Marco, question. Yes. I was hanging back and not doing anything whatever on the shellpad. And I counted that as taking a couple of minutes or either. Yes. I'm no longer fatigued. Okay. Would mining operations make sense for this, Marco? I'll say yes. One success.

SPEAKER_02 43:55

One success is all you needed. Alright. So you guys have scale. Down one side, back up the other. Yeah, in that ravine, the tunnel narrows, it twists sharply, and then it opens into a vast circular chamber hewn from the rock. The air shifts as you across the threshold, it's cooler, it carries the scent of like burnt oils, light is filtering down through some shafts above you. At the center stands a massive black cuboid carved from a dark dense stone. Its surface is traced with lines that appear illuminated. The floor around it is ringed with grooves that are worn deep by centuries of footsteps, tracing a meditative path, perhaps. That sounds familiar. The stone beneath your feet is polished, not by tools, but by generations of boots and bare feet. There are sharp angular inscriptions on the walls leading up toward the cathedral-like ceilings of this enormous chamber. You see reliefs depicting warriors, just like those aliens that you saw outside with the ridges on their foreheads.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Does this large thing look like the thing that was under cradle station?

SPEAKER_02 45:18

It looks similar to it. And scattered around it are like weathered tokens, pendants, and cords and ceremonial daggers. And though the chamber stands empty, the silence here feels preserved rather than abandoned. And as soon as you walk in with Corby, those lines that are illuminated start to get brighter.

SPEAKER_03 45:41

You you alright, Maris? I'm just checking, because last time he went near one of these things, he got a bit funny.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

Yeah, he's feeling fine.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Yeah, and it seems like we're in almost like we're invading a sacred space. Wonder if this one's talking like the last one. And I'll take out my actually, you know what I'll do? I'll pass over my face pistol to Scott and just be like, hold that for me. Signs. And I'll start fiddling with my tricorder because I managed to figure out how my broken tricorder or the broken communication picked up a signal last time. Way, way back. So I'm gonna try and see if it there is that signal as well happening here.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

Call back to episode one. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

Don't waste my time when I took apart that thing.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

So give me a s a reason in science task. Your difficulty is gonna be zero. So you can either just you can either just take the success or you can generate some momentum. It's 11.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

I'm going to just take the success. Our luck has been. Now you are you taking scans as well, or are you just generating those frequencies? I'm trying to see if I can find those frequencies again. I'm not scanning the thing yet. What were what was it talking about last time?

SPEAKER_02 46:49

It was uh it was a it was a message or something. It was a message, yeah, yeah. It was a message about about uh an alien race that had broadcast a like welcome message to the stars looking to see if there was any other intelligent life out there, and then what answered back was like you know, uh dangerous, right? Yeah, it was like a a sort of story almost, like a myth or something. Yeah, like a like a warning. So so yeah, you find those frequencies again, and the cube starts to shift and a door slides open.

SPEAKER_03 47:21

Glance over to Kahouber Beak and just give them a sort of like you think you're the only one who knows how any of this works.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

Mr. Maris, are you what are you doing? What is everyone else doing? What would Spock do in a situation like this? I'll try to use fascinating. Yes, fascinating. Fascinating. Who would I be able to try and communicate with it on a psychic level? Yeah, I'm gonna give you this one for free. Your ESP is not detecting or feeling any intelligent present. Just a device.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

I don't suppose there's any point in me. I mean, if uh if tr if Rhodes already scanned it with his tricorder.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

He didn't scan it. He just he just emitted a bunch of frequencies that opened the door. Right, okay. I think it's time to scan with a tricorder to see what actually has been revealed to us. Okay, so give me a reason in science. Your difficulty is one. Science. Gotcha. Okay. And roll. Three successes. All right, so you have two momentum. So your tricorder readings suggest that the quantum fissure is anchored to the cuboid, which is exactly what Dr. Corby had told you. But the entangled particles are influencing one another across your scan field, clouding the analysis. The structure itself remains impenetrable to your tricorder. Carbon dating yields no measurable age, and quantum dating returns only paradoxes. Do you want to use any of that momentum to ask a question?

SPEAKER_03 48:54

Yes. I'll use one, why not? I'd like to know that if it's opening is it opening doors to other realities now, and would we be able to step through them to get out of this situation? Yes. Okay, Captain, we could do that, or we destroy the thing. What's um roots up to during while all this is going on? Sorry, not Rhodes, Corby.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Corby is just sort of standing there watching you guys, and as Maris asks the captain for advice on what to do, you hear some movement in another passageway into this chamber. And you see another Dr. Corby stepping out of the shadows, and he says, it's it's as if the cuboid predates creation itself, Lieutenant Commander Maris, waiting in the dark before even the stars were born. How's that possible, Doctor? I don't know. I don't know how it works, only that it does. It has no mechanism that I have found, no circuitry. But with it, one can move through quantum realities. Every branch, every thread, every possible choice made. I'm not the only one who found it. I've crossed paths with other versions of myself in every conceivable reality, and he points at the other Dr. Corby. Each born of infinite choices and outcomes, and in every single one, the constant remains. The Federation does not survive the Herc. Is this your purpose for trying to use his device to save the Federation? Yes. Is our Federation in danger? If they are here, then yes. I have tried everything to undo my mistake, as my counterparts.

SPEAKER_05 50:38

There's the real reason.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

As my counterpart over there, I'm sure, has told you. In your initial mistake was waking them up, assuming that they were something that they were not. How long have you been here?

SPEAKER_03 50:51

I can't remember. I've lost track of time. Why didn't you resolve the situation just now? You knew it was happening. Why wait for this moment?

SPEAKER_02 51:00

Because only one option remains. I needed the instability between your universe and the universe of the other Magellan. To do correct my mistake, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

How is that gonna correct your mistake? You caused quantum entanglement all to resolve your original mistake. That is correct. Sounds like you created an even bigger one. It's nothing about the Federation, it's resolving his mistakes. What you've done, Doctor, is create an even bigger one. We've got universes bleeding into universes, others trying to cancel each other out.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

We may have one only option, but to destroy it, you cannot destroy this. The process has already begun. There's nothing you can do to stop it.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

How do you reverse it? You can't. How do you put them to sleep? If you woke them up, how do you turn it off? I am overriding your universe with mine.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yep, this is this Kobe right here. As I said, the process has already begun. You may have noticed your crew missing. New crew appearing in their place.

SPEAKER_03 52:06

I am resurrecting what was lost in my universe. Your universe, the Federation's already gone, so how are you saving the Federation?

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Ooh, did you just lie to us again? He's like, oops. I look at our Dr. Corby, well, our other Dr. Corby, and and I'm kind of like standing next to him, and I s I I I kind of within sort of like whisper range, I I whisper to him, Can you fix this?

SPEAKER_02 52:34

And he moves in close to your ear and he says, That's what I've been trying to tell you.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

I'm gonna shoot the other Dr. Corby.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Okay, and but just before you shoot him, to answer to answer Stephen Rhodes' question. Because in your universe, the Federation still exists.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

This guy, it's bullshit on every in every universe. Even the one where he was fused with the blimped machine, he was bullshit. No matter what universe you go to, bullshit smells like bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

So uh go ahead and give me that role, Dr. Travis. It's gonna be control and security. You've got two momentum if you want to buy some dice. I'll buy an extra dice, why not? You need two successes.

SPEAKER_04 53:18

Are you shooting Lethe or non-lethen?

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Douglas, what what was the what was the phaser on?

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Oh, it was on stun. Uh was I gonna kill Corby? No, no. I was I was I was I was being good. Yeah, so it's on it's on stun.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

I thought about Letha for a second, but then I realized that's one B. Okay. So the the Dr. Corby that okay, you rolled. Alright, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 53:39

No, he didn't roll Marco. We that doesn't count. That was a one success if anyone's listening.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

So Yes, one success. Can I add a success with more? What are you trying to do? I just want to hit him. So can I add a looking for like a talent to see if you're gonna re-roll something? Yeah, or can I just add a point of momentum to give myself another success? Does that work? You can't do it after the fact. After the fact you have to have done it before you rolled. Can I re-roll? Is there anything I've got for a re-roll? I don't think I do have anything that's a re-roll, unfortunately. So yeah, yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

All right, so you miss and he ducks out of the way and and he's like, I I am unarmed. You have an out, and he points to the door that opened up in the cube. Not my universe. Corby, do you know where that leads exactly? It leads to every possible conceivable choice you have ever made and ever will make in your life.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Let me know. Let me know when I can see him again.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Now? What are the rest of you guys doing? So, Captain, your doctor just shot and missed at the other Dr. Corby. Douglas, you don't have a weapon because you gave it to Dr. Travis.

SPEAKER_03 54:53

I've got my tricore though that can do remote commands, apparently. That's true. And the door to the cube is open.

SPEAKER_04 55:00

I tell it, stand down. What are you doing, Lieutenant Travis? Let Dr. Corby get things fixed.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

Guy over there literally said he's going to genocide an entire universe. The doctor's not standing for it, damn it. Damn it. Like standing murder on like universal scale.

SPEAKER_04 55:19

It's not gonna do anything with us here.

SPEAKER_03 55:23

Corby. Corby. They both say yes.

unknown 55:28

You.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

The crazier one than the one we have. Is it possible to step through that thing and to maybe sidestep ourselves into our own universe, put it in another location? Like either somewhere else on this planet or maybe on the other Magellan right now. This is an access point to quantum realities.

SPEAKER_02 55:48

Can we control what reality we go to? Not in my experience. Now, Mr. Maris, you know that the cube responds to Corby, because it brightened when he entered, and you know that there are two Corbys. And you do have some knowledge of quantum mechanics. Give me a reasoned science task. And you can use your quantum mechanics focus.

SPEAKER_03 56:11

That's just a normal focus there on there.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

Complication range one? Yep. You want to buy a die? Yeah. I'll go to the room. I hope this is what I think it is.

SPEAKER_02 56:21

Okay. Here goes nothing. My goodness. Oh wait, that's I'm not reading that right. There we are. One success. Okay. No complications. That's good. In the back of your mind, as all of this is going on, you're sort of like running the numbers. You know, you're like calculating or putting everything in place that you know so far, and you theorize that the Fisher is not actually anchored to the cube. It's anchored to Dr. Corby, to both of them. And that would explain the signature that matches. Right. That they are actually entangled observers, a quantum paradox, two identical consciousnesses existing in the same universe. And the universe doesn't like paradoxes. Right. So every action they take widens the fissure, making it more unstable as it moves with them. That's your theory. And so two versions, as you just said, the universe doesn't like paradoxes. Two versions can't coexist in one reality. So the only way to seal it is to resolve the paradox.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

This is just like the two Magellan's issue, but with two people. What was the original solution to resolve the Magellan issue? Something synchronizing something, was it?

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Right. Right. Well now you actually think that that might have been incorrect because you didn't have all of the pieces. Guess the question now is so the instability of the the instability that the Dr. Corby that was with you on the shuttle pod, the instability between the two universes, he told you it was caused when one of when your Magellan was destroyed, you no longer believe that. You Yeah, the what's because Corby is lying to every single every Right. He is an unreliable narrator, right? The instability is being caused by them.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

But Maris's original solution for the Magellan didn't come from any Corby stuff. That was something he came up himself.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

Right, but he didn't have all of the pieces to the to the puzzle, so he came up with an incomplete conclusion.

SPEAKER_03 58:22

So maybe actually terminating the other Corby's life might be the answer. At the same time. At the same time. Very interesting. I know Starfleet's not about killing people, but I think in this instance, to save our universe, we may have to take them both out. Hang on. So the issue is that both Corby's exist in this universe at the same time, right? Yes. But if they both go through that door, they'll go to somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

We're not putting them through the door.

SPEAKER_03 58:51

But maybe they might have more technology to be and bet more time to figure this out. We've got very little time to figure this out.

SPEAKER_00 59:00

Close the fissure. We have to murder two people to save everyone else.

SPEAKER_02 59:06

Yeah, and I'm shocked that Scott Travis doesn't have a do-no-harm value.

SPEAKER_03 59:11

Because he's a debtor. Or we can have faith in ourselves from another universe, might be able to figure this out. Or someone else.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

I think the needs of the many out in the way the needs of the few.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

Or the one. Maris, what are you doing once you've made so once you've made this, you've come to this conclusion in your mind, what do you what do you what do you do with that information?

SPEAKER_03 59:33

Well I re I don't think I have time to relay it to the captain. I may have to just act on it. So it well, is Scott Travis going to try and fire first? Because I think I'm going to take out Dr. Crazy. I will let you both fire simultaneously. Cool. Bless your heart. Okay, so what Travis, you want to go first? Or same time, ready? Sure. Go. You go.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

Nope. Don't success me. Oh very nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

So Lev Maris for the win, he's got two successes. Dr. Travis had one. Just as he's about to bolt around the backside of that cube, Maris pulls out his phaser and just shoots him. And now, Maris, what did you set your phaser on? Kill. Yeah. So you he pulls out his phaser and shoots the man in the back as he was about to run. Which which Corby? That sounds horrible.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

We'll call him the crazier. So who was Ed shooting? The one that was right next to the city. No, the same one. No, the same guy. You both were shooting the same guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:39

You vaporize him, he disintegrates. It was an answer, it was an answer to this problem, I hope. I guess I turn to the Corby and say, what is it you need to do? We can't have two Corbys in the same universe at the same time. That's the paradox. Get rid of the Corbys. Seal the rift. Save the universe. Two lives for the billions and billions and billions in this universe. I say it's it's worth it. There has to be another way. Sometimes there is no other way. I don't like to kill. Do you think I like to kill? There is no one sometimes. Are you saying there's no other option? I don't believe that there is in the limited time I have to analyze the situation. I was wrong the first time about how to close the fissure. This has to be the reason, the way to do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:24

How do we know that there are no other Corbys? I don't know. I think this you'll rush it. We have to see Corbys at some point. The third Corby's dead, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

The one that was fused to the you incinerated him too.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

But but there the Corby just doesn't have to be in this universe, right? Resolve the paradox. So if our Dr. Corby goes through that gateway, he won't be here anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

But then he'll create more Dr. Corbys.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:46

No, yeah. Like there may be, he may end up in a universe where there is no Dr. Corby. I'm sure there's many universes where Dr. Corby didn't exist or died earlier. Our Dr. Corby, I think, is died. I set my phaser to kill. There's plenty of options. You're the same logic as hit Dr. Corby. No other way. So it gives you what are you doing with your phaser set to kill?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

I just step it to kill. I'm gonna wait to see what anybody else wants to do, but that's my next thing. Okay. Dr.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

Corby probably has a say in this matter.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

We're just like, should we kill you or not? Gentlemen, I I suggest someone scan for the anomaly, says Dr. Corby. He puts his hands up because he feels like he's next.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:28

I guess I stand, so I will just bleep bleep bleep. Dave? Okay, yep. So you are no longer registering that quantum distortion that was emanating from this location.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

Yeah, not picking up any quantum angleman thing anymore. Uh I show the thing to Maris. That means the fissure is fixed? I will walk over to Dr. Corby and show him the readings as well, carefully. Have the doors closed.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

The doors have not at the cube has not closed, but yes, Dr. Corby confirms that the quantum fissure has been closed. I could just press a couple of buttons and close that. I opened it with this thing. Shouts echo from the tunnel behind you. The Klingons have broken through, the cave in roads triggered. Dr. Corby points at the passage where his counterpart appeared.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

That also leads to the surface, he says.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:21

We need to close this. We kind of live with this open. Yeah. We can produce this thing. Let's close it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

Send something through to through the thing? Does if if something explodes as you send something through, will that destroy the gate?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:40

Dr. Corby says, as far as he knows, that this device is indestructible.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:45

It's it's a gateway to some to everywhere, right? Every quantum reality. That's what he said. This is a bit outside my wheelhouse, but can we change the entrance to the same location as the exit, therefore negating itself? How would you propose doing that? I don't know if it's if it's just like a transporter or something, you just change the the other end of the gate where the where you're going to come out. Steve, that sounds like something you could probably do. But I don't know. This is all hypothetical, way out of my thing, but if if it works anything like our technology, yeah, you pick an exit.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

But it has no circuitry, how this is Dr. Corby speaking. It has no mechanism, no circuitry.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:23

How would you do this? Well, it appears to work on some sort of like frequency-based commands. I suppose if we had maybe if we found the right resonant frequency or something. Maris, didn't wasn't there some sort of frequency we we had for like our universe or whatever? Yes, we had a quantum signature, yes. Maybe if we like used that frequency, if I transmitted that frequency, that would be like that's not a that's not a crazy idea, it could work. Yeah, but do remember what that frequency was, Maris.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

If I remember the entire place. That yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:59

I quickly programmed the uh frequency into your tricorder.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:03

I can provide cover if you, Corby, and the rest can close this down. As you're having that discussion, Dr. Corby runs into the door. Shoot him. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:12

I will give you that chance. In fact, I have in fact, how would you like some threat? I have no hesitation. At the start of the round of the action. Oh my gosh, you're a totally killer. You may add one threat to take the first turn, regardless of who otherwise have acted first. You are a one hell of a doctor.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:29

Your your middle name is Young Wick, man. It's got Young Wick Travis.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:33

I'm I'm I'm just thinking about the most number of people I can save, right? Yeah, his I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:40

His oath is do no harm unless you fuck with me. He learned doctors from outer space. I hit him, but with a complication. Okay. Wow, what's this complication gonna be? Damn you with your complications. Alright. Oh, let's keep you on your toes, Marco. So you hit him, you c you hit him just As he steps through the threshold of the cube, the door does not close behind him. The phaser blast seems to have done something to your all of your electronic equipment. Except for your so your tricorders, your phasers have all shorted out. Once your beam crossed that threshold, is when all of your trichorders and your phasers shorted out.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:23

Is this before Maris could do what he needed to do? What was Maris gonna do? Well, I put the frequency into his tricorder, but he didn't get a chance to use it yet, or else he'd have a real not fun time in that doorway if it's stuck in a paradox going round and round. Give a roll, and if you succeed, we'll say that it happened just before that beam crossed the threshold. Because I argue daring as it's just a split second sort of thing. Yes. Okay. Engineering would it be to use this device? Because Mars just programmed the thing. I don't have to think, I just have to do what I did before. Right. Okay, what's the difficulty? One. And do I have any relevant I don't think I have any relevant focuses for this? The jury ranking probably does not count in this circumstance. Okay. So tell us what you've done. We basically changed the exit of the portal to the entrance, so it's stuck in a loop. Whoever's just gone in there is now stuck in that tunnel forever.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:23

The door closes after you transmit the frequency, and just before it does, the lines that were illuminated, they brighten a little bit. And you catch a glimpse of what's beyond the door, and it looks like this infinitely long corridor with doors on either side. And Corby turns around wide-eyed. What have you done? And the door closes. And you know, if this were a TV show, we would cut to him inside, pounding on the other side of that door. No and the corridor that he's in now no longer has any doors in it. I feel that's very fitting for the end of Dr. Corby. So your communicators are the only devices that didn't short out, and the captain's starts beeping. When you answer it, Kaval's voice crackles through. Captain, the alien vessel we tracked as inbound has just arrived. They've entered the system with shields raised and weapons hot, and they're transmitting a message. Yamamoto is working on the translation, but it'll take time to decipher their language. We're also picking up additional warp signatures heading our way. I recommend you return to the surface immediately so we can beam you aboard and evacuate the system. Yes, sir. Okay, so the Klingons storm into the chamber just as you slip into the other tunnel. They open fire, chasing you through the twisting passage. When you reach the surface, the transporter locks on, and moments later, you're in the Magellan's transporter room. Just as the starship warps out of the Borath system. So the scene shifts to the bridge. You're all at your stations. Hours have passed since you left the Borath system. You're 100 light years from the edge of Federation space. Five long years at best, aboard a starship that was never meant to travel so far for so long. To survive, you'll have to push the Magellan beyond its limits. The silence stretches, heavy with the weight of what lies ahead, until Ensign Yamamoto breaks it from the calm station. Captain, I have a full translation of the message. Playing it now. A harsh voice crackles through the speakers, seething with fury. You invade our space. Bring the plague of the Herc to Boreth, our sacred monastery. For these offenses we will hunt your kind to the last world. We will root out your homes, your colonies, your every refuge. We will burn your names from the memory of the stars. Tell your children, and their children after them. We are coming. We are cling on the