Found

Arado composed himself in the command chair, nervously adjusted his tunic and proceeded to activate the command sequence contained in his isolinear chip. A swirling vortex filled the view screen in front of him as new wormhole formed in front of the ship. "This is it," he thought to himself as he cleared his throat and ordered the Rorschach on a course into the wormhole.

Miki looked at him from across the ship’s small bridge, her expression full of scepticism, and muttered to no one in particular "I hope he can get it right this time."

"I... I think I have," Arado replied, his confidence momentarily slipping under the wild woman’s withering glare.

The ship turned towards the mouth of the wormhole and Miral took them in as smoothly as she could. She had learnt quickly after their first attempt at time travel, and this time the bumps and shakes as they immerged through the other side were not as bad.

Unbeknown to the crew on board the Rorschach they were not the only ones travelling through the worm hole. A cloaked Klingon vessel had been shadowing them closely, running silent and keeping within the sensor shadow, that blind spot just behind the ship where the warp trail will distort readings from a small object or a cloaked vessel making them impossible to detect. This Klingon vessel had been commandeered by a remarkable and secretive woman, someone with a mission to accomplish who would not be thwarted.

Their destination was a tiny planet, part of a system with binary suns, which made it difficult to maintain a stable orbit, but eventually Miral had the ship settled above the planet that was their target. The crew ran the usual scans and made preparations to beam down. Arado rose from the command chair, looked Miki straight in the eye and said "Right, let's go get your sister." Miki silently replied with a fixed stare and a nod.

It was a big group for a simple away mission, Arado, Miki, Dr Illyan, Tumim, and Mason. Miral stayed on the ship to monitor the unstable orbit, and Joe had his head deep in an engineering panel trying to figure out how to disable the fire suppression system so he could continue to smoke his cigars.

They materialized on top of the ancient ruins of a civilisation that had long been wiped from existence. Tumbled and broken beams and pillars and piles of rubble rose from the jungle of weeds and creepers that were gradually reclaiming the land back for the forest. Their scanners led them towards the forest and soon all sight of the ruins was hidden by the towering trees. Miki strode into the cool, dim shadows with a confidence of someone who carried a large sword and had no fears of what the dark closeness of the forest may hold. The others followed more cautiously, using their scanners and tricorders to monitor their surroundings. Mason just ploughed ahead, armour plating, shields and enhanced scanners gave him confidence in any terrain.

Miki was the first to find the clearing. She stepped from between the trees and out onto a low ridge. There was water on one side with a rocky out crop rising above, and the other side looked down into a small hollow. The rest of the away team soon joined her and there near the tree line, they could see a campfire and next to it, a rudimentary tent. Crouching beside the fire was a flame haired woman, her clothes were obviously worn but even from this distance they could recognise the flash of Starfleet red underneath the dirt and stains.

Miki set off running across the clearing, she let out an excited whoop and ran with her arms raised as she hurtled straight towards the other woman. The rest of the crew followed, and Arado was last, perhaps because after fifteen years, he wasn't too sure of what he would say to her.

The woman by the campfire stood, hesitated then barely had time to brace herself before she was nearly bowled over by the brown leather clad bundle that came bursting across the clearing and flung itself at her.

"Miki? Is that you? Am I glad to see you!" said Mimps as she staggered backwards from the impact and hugged her sister warmly.

"I came as soon as the dragons would let me," said Miki with a smile, letting her sister go and standing back to look at her. "And then that one had trouble with his sums," she said pointing at Arado.

Mimps turned to look at Arado. “Arado?” she said, confused as to why he looks so much older. Then she glared. "What took you so long? Nearly three months I've been waiting! What have you been doing, having a holiday?!"

Arado looked at her, then lowered his eyes and simply said "Well... it wasn't easy.... you may have been here three months, but I have been trying to get to you.... a lot longer".

"Yes, some longer than others," chuckled Mason as he walked up.

Mimps stopped glaring and grinned at him “Mason, you old tin can, I'm even glad to see you!" She contemplated hugging him but wasn’t sure how to get around all the weapon attachments, and she was fairly certain he couldn’t feel it anyway.

There was an unexpected rumble of thunder and it began to rain. Big fat drops plopping out of the sky and dripping off the trees making the fire start to hiss and smoke. She looked around at her camp, her home for the last 76 days. It was not much, but it had been a home of sorts. There was a standard issue survival tent stretched over a wooden frame, a small wooden stool, a bench, a table under construction and lying on its side near the fire, a half a rabbit skewered on a stick and warming over the coals, some skins pegged out for drying, and a patch of cleared land where she was contemplating building a hut, an unnecessary project now that she was being rescued.

“Well I'm glad I can finally get off this rock.” She kicked the now smouldering fire until it went out. “It wont take me long to pack and we can get back to the Carolina.”

The thunder rolled again, slightly closer this time.

“I have distressing news for you”, Arado hesitated before continuing, “The Carolina sent us all in different directions and to different points in time. She has been on the run for two years and Starfleet have issued orders to capture or destroy her."

Mimps stopped gathering her meagre belongings and looked at him. "Two years? But I was on board only three months ago. What is going on?"

"Like I said... we all went in different directions and to different times... your three months have been for me...over fifteen years," replied Arado and then he paused to allow the news to fully sink in.

“Fifteen….” she looked at him more closely, “Oh,” she said quietly, “I see.” She held his gaze for a few moments then broke away and stuffed the last of her things in a sack.

"We should probably return to the ship,” she said briskly, “...oh...what ship do you have if you don’t have the Carolina?"

"A Defiant class vessel that 29th century Seelowe stole," replied Mason. "The Rorschach."

Mimps nodded, "I have a lot to catch up on. It seems a lot can happen in three months."

Joe had greeted them with an enthusiastic “Mimps, how have you been!” when they returned back on board.

“Stuck on a rock for the last three months eating rabbits and pond weed,” Mimps replied.

Joe shrugged in his usual fashion, “I would have liked that better than being dropped off in the 1930’s.” He then unwrapped a cigar and stuck it in his mouth.

“Seems I will have to have a few stern words for Carolina when we find her.” She slipped easily back into her commanders role as if she had never been gone. “Just give me all the reports you have so I can catch up on what she has been up to.”

Miki stepped up beside her sister and slipped an arm through hers. "Sister, leave this stuff for now,” she said drawing her away towards the door to the crew quarters. "Come, let us be together and talk for a while. The dragons had a message for you."

Mimps looked at her sister then around the bridge, "I guess you are right sis, this can wait.” She allowed Miki to lead her off the bridge. “Una, send all the Carolina reports to my cabin," she said as they disappeared through the sliding doors.

Joe patted down his pockets looking for his lighter as he watched them depart, “Well this family reunion is touching and all, even bought a tear to my eye, but can we go find the Carolina now? I got a few words for Seelowe." He found the lighter and flicked it on. "A few words and my foot up his ass."

“Now that is an adventure to look forward to,” grinned Illyan.

Joe applied the light to the end of his cigar, took a few long draws to make sure the end was glowing red, blew out a cloud of smoke, then swore, as once again the fire suppression system kicked in.

*********************************************************

Later that night Tumim stopped Arado in the corridor on his way back to his cabin. "Una, now that we have Mimps back,” he said quietly, “I have a message for you from Colonel Auer. He told me not to give this to you until now." He handed Arado a data chip. "This contains the time space coordinates where we will find Hladson."

“Do you know where he is?” asked Arado looking at the chip in his hand.

Tumim frowned. “It’s not just where he is, but if we what him alive it’s also when,” he said cryptically.

Arado waited.

“That,” Tumim nodded to the chip, “will take you to a maximum security prison at the height of Romulan power.”

“Wonderful time to visit,” said Arado. “On Romulus?” he queried.

“No, luckily it is a system just beyond the neutral zone, but it will be heavily guarded,” replied Tumim."The good news, if there is any, is that Hladson is in the past so the security proceedures and codes are all information I have been able to secure."

Arado sighed, “We are going to need a plan.”