Slamming her fist against the wall, Nesta had reached peak frustration. She had spent the last hour in the kitchen examining the malfunctioning replicator and had not been able to figure anything out. From what she could tell, everything seemed to be functioning normally.

Of course…Nesta thought internally. She let out a long and frustrated sigh. This was just her kind of luck. She had been enjoying the party and had even made a new friend. Of course she had to leave the party and check on the replicator as soon as she was informed that it was malfunctioning. She needed to figure this out and do it quickly so that she could return to the party before it ended. She had helped organize the whole entire affair after all and she had spent a good portion of it fixing several different mishaps.

Nesta stood taller and let out a frustrated grunt. Okay, enough self-wallowing. Get it together and figure this thing out! she said to herself hoping it would provide some sort of motivation. She had just begun to examine the screen on the replicator for what felt like the hundredth time when she heard the door to the kitchen open. She turned her head and looked to see two crew members entering the room and walking towards her. She had never met them before but she recognized one of them as the Executive Officer. For the first time in an hour, she smiled. She finally had some help.

Sienna followed behind Locke, curious as to where they were going.  There was something up with part of the party food and drink.  At Flint’s suggestion and her own desire to sort things out, they had walked towards and then into the kitchen. Flint couldn’t help but notice how much of a mess the room was. Even after the party, he would have hoped to see something slightly cleaner than when he left, albeit in a daze with all the commotion that went on throughout the whole event.

He saw someone look up at him as he was trying to navigate the surrounding area of party food, paper streamers, and what he could only assume was someone’s boot hanging over the back of one of the chairs.

Nesta watched as the pair approached and she observed as the man approaching looked around the room at the mess that had been left. Of course, she had planned to have everything cleaned by now but this simple repair to the replicator had taken longer that she had anticipated and now she had touched any of the mess at all. She just prayed that it would not blow up in her face. She would just have to get everything clean and tidy as soon as the matter here was settled.

While Locke headed over to Nesta, Frisco pulled out her trusty tricorder and did a little walking and scanning, her natural curiosity wondering if it was just something odd or if it was something odd.

Walking over, he smiled, “Don’t get me wrong, but it looks like you’re maybe having fun trying to figure out what’s going on here?”

Nesta couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. “Fun is definitely not what is happening here. I’ve fixed this before and can’t seem to this time. There must be something that I am missing. By all means, please help yourself,” Nesta responded and then stepped away from the replicator and motioned to it with her hand.

Flint stepped in, hoping he could help; he was also overcome with a sense of Deja Vu, which he never gets; somehow he instinctively knew the problem.

It was just a command issue. He knew that one of the circuits needed to be bypassed to accept audible tones, as it wasn’t understanding them correctly.

He reached to bypass the systems, and suddenly, the display came up, the lights were so bright he ended up sharply looking away. What was worrying is that he felt this had been done before by himself.

Frisco returned to the two of them, glancing at the replicator, “Oh, that’s fun.”  She caught the glances from both of them, the annoyed one from Nesta and the amused one from Locke.  “I apparently missed a running joke.”  Moving on she asked Locke, “Any luck?”

“Command bypass” he said “But I think we all knew that, somehow…”

Hearing him say that seemed to spark Nesta’s own memory. “I think you’re right. Now that you mention it, I remember having found that before. What is happening?” Nesta spoke and could hear the pitch of her voice rising as she spoke. She’d have to remain calm but this whole situation was now starting to freak her out a bit.

Instinctively, she took a step toward the Ensign. “Please do not tell me that I have been working in circles this whole time without realizing it!” Nesta brought her hand to her forehead and starting rubbing her temple.

Locke felt exactly the same way. His memories were either of playing with him or he had one too many the night before.

“I’m not sure why, but I’ve done this before, we have had this conversation already, and we both came to the same conclusion…” he said with a puzzled look.

At that moment, Flint turned his head to accommodate a pan falling to the ground. There was a distinct noise, and sure enough, seconds later, *clang*, it fell to the ground.

Frisco held up her hands, “No, this is all very familiar.  Too familiar.” She slipped out her tricorder, checking the results, “Well, something’s up – the readings are just repeating – no changes, no normal deviations…almost like it’s pre-recorded.”  She walked to a counter and set the tricorder down, slipping out some tools from her pocket and going to work on opening the tricorder.  A second later her eyes went wide and she pulled out a folded up piece of paper, and handed it over to the other two, “One of us…or someone is trying to warn us about this thing.”

Nesta reached for the piece of paper to look at it herself. She recognized her own handwriting.  The piece of paper had Timeloop written across it. She could tell that she had most likely written it quickly and didn’t have much time to write anything else.

Nesta held the paper up and opened it to where Ensign Locke could see it as well. “Looks like we have some work to do.”