(A distress signal from the future warns the crew of an impending disaster—one they may have already caused.)
Synopsis:
While charting a newly discovered pulsar system, the USS Horizon receives a Starfleet distress signal. But there’s a problem—it’s from their own ship… exactly 72 hours in the future. The transmission is garbled, but one phrase is chillingly clear:
“Do not approach the planet. If you do… we all die.”
Act 1: The Forbidden World
The distress signal originates from Nexus-4, a Class-M planet orbiting too close to a pulsar. Long-range scans show an advanced alien structure on the surface—an anomaly given there’s no record of past civilizations in the system.
Against the warning, Captain Soren Kane orders a cautious investigation. A shuttle is launched with Lieutenant T’Vara, Commander Drex, and Ensign Holt. As they descend, an unknown energy surge disables the shuttle, forcing a crash-landing.
Back on the Horizon, sensors detect a temporal disturbance forming around the planet. The moment the away team stepped onto the surface, time itself began to fracture.
Act 2: The Paradox Unfolds
On Nexus-4, the away team discovers a vast underground facility, seemingly abandoned. The walls are etched with Starfleet insignias, but aged as if centuries old. Then they find something impossible:
A holographic log of Captain Kane—worn, desperate, and warning them to leave before it’s too late.
Meanwhile, the Horizon picks up an identical version of itself, appearing in orbit. But the duplicate ship is badly damaged, venting plasma—and filled with corpses of their own crew. Before they can react, the damaged Horizon vanishes, as if erased from existence.
Act 3: The Truth Revealed
T’Vara deciphers the alien facility’s true function—it is not a ruin, but a machine designed to preserve a single moment in time, replaying it over and over to prevent a catastrophe. The distress call was a warning from a future that keeps resetting itself, trying to break free.
The away team realizes the horrifying truth:
They were never meant to land here. Their very presence disrupts the time loop, and unless they escape, they will be caught in it—dying over and over, their ship doomed to repeat the same fate.
Act 4: Breaking the Loop
As the temporal storm intensifies, the Horizon crew must find a way to pull the away team back before the loop collapses entirely. Using a modified warp field, they generate an inverse tachyon burst, forcing time back into sync for one brief moment.
With seconds to spare, the away team activates the alien device, resetting the timeline one last time—but this time, erasing all record of their presence.
Back on the Horizon, the crew suddenly finds themselves in orbit, before any of this happened—with no memory of their actions. The planet below is now lifeless, devoid of any trace of the anomaly.
But as they prepare to leave, an automated message plays over the comms.
It’s Kane’s own voice.
“Captain… do not approach the planet. If you do… we all die.”
A shiver runs through the bridge as the order is given:
“Set course for the next system. Engage.”