First Officer's Log: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

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A strange red glow. It caught La’an’s eye as she walked through the corridors. It wasn’t as if she had any reason to hurry past, but it also wasn’t as if a red glow caught her eye every time she walked along the corridor. She had gotten to know the Enterprise’s customary noises and lights. This wasn’t one of them.

As she stepped closer, she noticed the man curled up on the floor. Her footsteps hurried and she leaned down to attend to him. “Are you alright?” Her voice was steady, but her eyes were already busy checking him over for wounds. She zeroed in on the blood trickling down his skin. She easily diagnosed it. The wound wasn’t cautorised and there was a bullet sized hole ripped into his flesh. “That's a bullet wound, not a phaser.” She mumbled to herself, knowing that only meant one thing. He wasn’t from the ship. He wasn’t even from this time. “Who are you?”
The man turned to her. He was sweating, his breathing ragged. His chest heaved against the heavy grey suit that he was wearing. “There’s been an attack… In the past… You have… You have to stop it… Only you…”
La’an opened her mouth to reply, not sure whether she should get the captain or the doctor, or hear him out. Before she could say any of that, the man reached out, grabbing her hand. She flinched at the cold touch, only realising a second later that there was something he was pressing into her hand. She knew she should be more concerned as the security officer, but she was much more concerned for his safety and what he was rambling about. “What is…?”
The man shook his head, a dying light in his eye. “Just… get to the… bridge…” Came the whisper of his last breath, a sweet death rattle of salvation for the past.

Then, nothing. La’an could hardly believe her eyes when the man just disappeared before her. The body just popped out of existence as if he’d never been there. As if she’d imagined him. Part of La’an thought maybe she had. The only thing convincing her that it had to be real was the device that was pressing into her hand. She was gripping the proof so tightly, her mind busy doing mental gymnastics to figure out what it meant and what had just happened. But this was far from the strangest thing she’d encountered.

Sirens interrupted her thoughts. ‘Red Alert! Red Alert!’ The alarms blared, catching La’an’s attention completely. Her head snapped round to catch the flashing red lights. Her thoughts were running laps around the corridors before her body even moved to stand up. As soon as she did stand up, she rushed to the turbolift, still reeling from the mysterious visit from the man in the grey suit. Her mind was still there, crouching with him as he lay dying. She felt a bubble of guilt at just letting him die like that. She should have helped, should have commed sickbay. A medical emergency or something. But there was no time to think about that now. If he’d been right, then there was something she had to deal with. And there was only one way to find out if he was right. “Bridge.” Maybe things would get clearer when she got there. He had said that's what she should do.

La’an was still thinking through this when she stepped out onto the bridge. She opened her mouth to ask Pike if there was anything odd going on, but when she saw an unfamiliar face turn toward her, she froze in place. He was sitting in Pike’s chair, but looked nothing like him. His face shape looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. And she was certain she’d never met him before. Which begged the question, why was he in the captain’s chair?

The man gave her a quizzical look, one that bore right into her soul. “Ma'am, not to be impolite, but who are you, and what the hell are you doing on my ship?”
She didn’t know how to reply to that. His ship? What did he mean and where was Pike? None of this made sense and her mind was busy trying to jump through the hoops and do the calculations about what all of that meant, it couldn’t catch up to the question. Mercifully, Uhura saved her by interrupting.
“We’re being hailed by a nearby Vulcan ship, captain.” Uhura stated from her station.
“Looks like you’re saved by the bell.” The mysterious captain said, nodding to one of the officers before putting the call on screen. She guessed that the officer he’d nodded at was a security officer based on the harsh glare he gave her. Part of her thought about running, or trying to find Pike. But she didn’t. Whoever this man was, he was a captain and she should respect his orders, even if they were implied.