Nifty critter design on Norobi - whatever she is. Also an interesting personality for a POV. Nice little mystery. And the obligatory sandworm.... Thanks!! rbs
Chapter 8 USS Pytheas The Delta Quadrant Stardate 57425.9 (June 4, 2380) ‘This is Captain Cheer to all ships. We’re about to open a Voidspace rift to Cha’lav military headquarters. As soon as we emerge, the battle will commence. This is not a pep talk. We will be victorious or we will be dead. Do your best, pray to your deities, or do whatever you do to bring yourselves good luck. We’ll need it all. Cheer out.’ ‘All ships report ready to depart,’ Gonzales advised from tactical. Cheer looked around at the crew he’d commanded for the last two years, through numerous battles and diplomatic overtures with species no one else in the Federation had ever seen or heard of before, and he let himself smile for just a moment. ‘All hands, this is the captain. Red alert. All hands to battle stations. Raise shields, charge all weapons.’ ‘Lieutenant Weston, open the rift. Gonzales, send the Shadowstrike through first and we’ll follow. Xu Fu and the rebels will bring up the rear.’ ‘Aye, Captain,’ they replied in unison. ‘Rift opening,’ Weston said. ‘Ten meters and expanding, increasing power to the Voidspace generator…twenty meters…forty…seventy…100…140…160…190…’ ‘Shadowstrike is moving through,’ Gonzales added. ‘All ships in position and following.’ The restraints automatically snapped into place as the ships entered the swirling vortex of Voidspace, the only known way to travel between galaxies quickly. Starfleet had not found a way to replicate the technology, or even understand it, so all data collected helped. They had been given the schematics from the future to help in the fight and the Department of Temporal Investigations had remained silent on the subject for unknown reasons. Cheer watched impassively as the kaleidoscopic colors swirled around them, intent on his own thoughts. Section 31 had seemed to send the bulk of their agents into the Delta Quadrant to combat the unknown threats to the Federation and as a result their organization had been crippled when Commander Astar had been able turn one of their high-ranking agents and routed out the rest. He had no idea how many were left in Federation space, but he doubted they represented much of a threat now. Astar had fared better than he expected, being demoted to commander and forced to remain on board as executive officer, and he had put in his logs that she be given her fourth pip back when they returned home for services rendered. Should they return home, he amended privately in his own thoughts. He was sure this would be a one way ticket but he knew his crew needed hope. Tellarites as a rule were obstinate, stubborn, and aggressive, but he had mellowed after years serving with other species, and he hoped to serve longer, but knew it wasn’t likely. ‘Approaching emergence point,’ Weston called out and brought Cheer back to the present. ‘Weapons are hot,’ Gonzales added, her fingers ready to fly across her console. ‘Shadowstrike is through and launching fighters. Phasers and torpedoes on continuous fire to establish the kill zone ahead of us.’ Cheer snorted quietly. The Shadowstrike had been designed specifically for this mission. It was a mobile weapons platform with five hundred Hornet-class fighters. They were longer and narrower than the bulky Peregrine-class fighters, over-armed and over-engineered for their size, but they had no warp core. They were fast, maneuverable, heavily-armored and shielded. Controlled by the Shadowstrike’s advanced artificial intelligence, the Hornets would attack every enemy vessel until it was destroyed and if its weapons failed, it would self-destruct against the enemy hull. Cheer watched on his tactical plot as the other ships emerged from Voidspace and immediately began firing on the Cha’lav Hegemony ships. Black as night, the Shadowstrike was firing continuous volleys of quantum torpedoes from its twenty-thousand payload at the massive kilometers-long capital ships whose crews had suddenly realized they were under attack at home. Type X phasers powered by a triple warp core lanced out in all directions to keep the Cha’lav fighters at bay or to attack the enemy ships that wandered into the kill zone. ‘Kill zone established, Captain,’ Gonzales crowed. ‘We’re clear to travel.’ ‘Full impulse, let’s get this done,’ he replied. ‘What the hell is that?’ Weston asked. Gonzales looked up at a ship that dwarfed the Pytheas and to a lesser extent the rebel cruisers too. ‘That would be one of the last Obliterator-class planet destroyers. Five kilometers long and one kilometer wide. The rebel ships are moving into battle formation and taking on that ship.’ ‘Expanded view,’ Cheer ordered. ‘Fire on anything that moves.’ At least two dozen Obliterator-class dreadnoughts had taken up equidistant positions around a small sphere that Cheer recognized as Cha’lav Alpha. ‘How big is that thing?’ Weston asked, looking at the sphere. ‘Fifteen kilometers in diameter,’ Astar answered as one of the three-kilometer-long Hegemony cruisers wandered into the kill zone with a phalanx of fighters. A swarm of Hornets approached it and the Shadowstrike peppered it with torpedoes. It didn’t take long before its hull cracked like an egg and exploded. ‘Multiple rifts opening within the kill zone,’ Gonzales said. ‘They called in reinforcements.’ ‘Oh my…,’ Weston cut himself off as fighters emerged from the rifts. ‘There are thousands of them.’ Gonzales fired phasers from all banks as the fighters swarmed the ship. ‘Protect the Xu Fu at all costs,’ Cheer ordered. ‘They have to make it through.’ He watched as the ship was buffeted by multiple impacts from dozens of small fighters and inwardly cheered as Gonzales picked them off. The Shadowstrike had engaged its short-range phaser turrets and blanketed the area with phaser pulses, destroying fighters left and right. The Pytheas shuddered wildly and Cheer swallowed as a capital ship emerged from a rift almost on top of them. ‘Shields are down to seventy percent and falling. We need help here.’ The capital ship focused on them completely, slamming the Pytheas with powerful beam weapons. The restraints were barely holding them in place. ‘Shields at forty percent. We can’t take much more of this.’ There was a sudden lull as one of the rebel cruisers passed in front of them and took the brunt of the weapons fire. ‘Get us moving, now,’ Cheer said. ‘T’Shanir, I need some more power to the impulse engines.’ He heard overlapping shouts from engineering before T’Shanir replied. ‘Might I suggest a warp jump, Captain.’ ‘Wouldn’t recommend it,’ Weston said. ‘Not with this many ships around.’ ‘We’re being hailed by the Xu Fu.’ ‘Onscreen.’ ‘Captain Cheer, I need you to take my people on your ship. We increased power to the weapon but it’ll take everything we have and blow the ship to pieces.’ ‘We’ll need to lower the shields to bring them on board,’ Gonzales advised. Cheer didn’t hesitate. ‘All transporter rooms, prepare to evacuate the Xu Fu. All hands, prepare to repel boarders. They’ll take advantage of the situation. Shields down in three seconds. Continuous fire on weapons.’ ‘Thank you, Captain, Q’Rel out.’ ‘Shields are going down…mark,’ Gonzales said. ‘We have transporter beams on all decks.’ Astar smiled thinly. ‘Computer, initiate program Astar-Hegemony-Alpha, all decks.’ ‘Program initiated. Anti-personnel devices are active.’ ‘What did you do?’ Cheer asked. ‘I thought we might need something a little different.’ ‘You booby-trapped the ship?’ Gonzales asked with an incredulous grin. ‘Programmed to attack Cha’lav genetics only. There are internal phasers and incendiary devices on all decks.’ Cheer looked at the viewscreen as the Hegemony and rebel vessels collided, sending debris in their direction. The Pytheas shuddered and Gonzales gasped. ‘All hands, brace for impact!’
Quite the impressive war machine. And quite the impressive war - actually seems like some other comic book like series. Something like Rift War? I don't know - never been much of a comic book reader. But it has very much a comic book feel to it. Section 31 wiped out in the alpha quadrant? Scattered across the Delta quadrant fighting a desperate war in the future? Thanks!! rbs
Thanks. If you have read my Pytheas series you'll get a little more background to the Section 31 issues, but suffice to say what is left may not present much of a threat...maybe. The Pytheas battle is in 2380, but the Eclipse sections are set in 2387.
Chapter 9 USS Eclipse Mudon VIII Stardate 64861.4 (November 11, 2387) Doctor Indira Kaur had spent over a day healing those injured when the ship ejected the warp and then once the ship had landed, and now she had puzzles to deal with. Unbeknownst to her captain and probably everyone else on board, she had been on board the Akira-class USS Arkansas when it was sent into the Delta Quadrant on a top secret mission as part of Task Force Vanguard. She knew about the secret mission that Command had ordered the Pytheas, Xu Fu, and a third ship, to undertake in broad strokes. They had apparently been successful, but the crews of all three ships were listed as Missing in Action. That was one puzzle. The second was how the Pytheas managed to get here from wherever there was, and finally, how Commander Leza Astar was able to survive. Formerly the captain of said, demoted to Commander for a classified mission that obviously went wrong, and sent into the lion’s den a couple of years later. She had been in a stasis pod for seven years and now lay on a biobed in her sickbay, her life slowly ebbing away. On the next bed over, Ensign Anura Norabi lay, ordered to be checked out by Commander Ransom after her unusual away mission. The young woman, from an unknown insectoid species, was not exactly scared, more nervous about what might be found. Kaur shook her head to clear the proverbial cobwebs, shut down her console, and wandered over to her patient. ‘How do you feel, Anura?’ Kaur asked. ‘I feel fine, I think,’ Norabi answered. ‘Can you tell me what happened?’ Norabi retold the events of her unexpected flight, and Kaur waved the medical tricorder over her head and torso. She frowned, made some adjustments, and frowned again. ‘Everything OK, doctor?’ ‘There are some hormones in your system that weren’t there before,’ Kaur answered. ‘I’d like to take some blood samples to figure out what they are to try and ascertain what they might do. I can see where your wings are folded against your body, but the tricorder doesn’t register them as wings, and neither can it distinguish the density of your scales over vulnerable areas. Are you able to get your claws out?’ ‘I don’t know how. It’s a fear reflex at the moment,’ Norabi answered. ‘I’ve been trying.’ ‘We’ll figure it out. In the meantime, let me know if anything changes. I’ll get the blood samples and then you’re free to go. Once we’ve dealt with the current crisis, we’ll run as many tests as we need to so we can figure everything out.’ ‘I feel fine right now. I’m just adjusting to who I am now. I want to try and contact my mother to see if she has experienced anything like this.’ ‘Wouldn’t she have told you?’ Kaur asked as she retrieved a hypospray and empty vial. Norabi shrugged. ‘If it happened before we were found she wouldn’t have remembered. If it happened since, she might not have wanted to worry me.’ ‘What about other family members?’ ‘It’s just me and my mom. There were eighteen others on the ship, but I’m not sure if my mom talks to them much anymore, not since we settled on the colony.’ ‘Can I ask why not?’ ‘My mom was the oldest, according to the scans the Starfleet doctor took when we were found, so she spoke as the de facto leader of the group. The others were fairly evenly split between wanting to find out where we came from and just wanting to find somewhere and settle down. My mom basically had the deciding vote and we settled on a colony, after the Starfleet ship made a good faith effort to find out where we came from.’ ‘They never did?’ Norabi shook her head. ‘My mom told me the computer had been wiped and everyone had amnesia, and there were no habitable worlds for light years in any direction we could have come from.’ ‘Have you tried to look?’ ‘Several times, but still no luck. I’m hoping that someday I’ll be able to retrace the steps and find out what really happened. Kaur gave her a hug. ‘I’ll help you however I can.’ ‘Thanks, Doctor. I really appreciate that.’ Kaur was about to respond when the quiet tones on the Trill’s biobed began to warble louder and more erratically as the patient continued her inexorable slide into death’s embrace. Kaur ran over and noticed the two sets of life signs were moving further out of sync with each passing minute. Commander Leza Astar was all but dead, though the symbiont was still alive, for now at least. There was only one thing she could do at this point. ‘Sickbay to bridge. I need Commander Rae down here as soon as possible.’ ‘On my way, Doctor,’ Rae responded with a resigned sigh. When they had discussed it earlier, she had confided to the doctor that she had never wanted to be Joined, had never even applied to become an Initiant, and never regretted the decision. Unfortunately, there were no other Trill on board, and help would not reach them from Cygnus Station in time. Kaur essentially had to force the decision upon her or else let the symbiont die, and the Symbiosis Commission would never let her hear the end of it if she let that happen. The Commission mandated the survival of the symbiont at all costs. While she waited for the tactical officer, she tried once again to access the old Task Force Vanguard files but found herself blocked at every turn. Just as before, when they were chasing down rogue ships, runaway fleets, pirates, and trying to corral billions of people from dozens of species, Command still found a way to mess things up. She muttered a string of curses that would have made a Tellarite proud, and heard a gasp. ‘Everything OK, Doc?’ Rae asked with a bemused expression. ‘Not really, no,’ she answered as she shut down the console. ‘Every request on the Pytheas falls into a classified black hole, even though Starfleet declassified most of Vanguard years ago. Same for her crew and the mission they were sent on. I hope the captain is having better luck.’ Rae shook her head. ‘She was having the same issues. You called me down here just as she was threatening Admiral Benteen with a fight to the death.’ Kaur sighed. ‘That’s not going to do her career any good. Rae shrugged. ‘She doesn’t care about that, never has. You ready for this surgery?’ ‘No, but let’s get started,’ she said and tapped her combadge. ‘Sickbay to bridge.’ ‘Go ahead, Doctor,’ Ransom responded. ‘Commander Rae is temporarily relieved of duty pending surgery.’ ‘Understood, Ransom out.’ ‘Computer, activate LMH and surgery team, and a Trill symbiosis table in the surgical suite,’ Kaur said and four holograms appeared. ‘Good morning, Doctor Kaur, Commander Rae, how may we assist today?’ ‘We’re doing a Trill symbiont transplant,’ Kaur told them and turned to Rae. ‘The holo team will prep you for surgery. I need to brush up on my skills so I don't kill you.’ ‘Just do your best, Doc,’ Rae said before the holo team led her to the large area at the back of the small sickbay where the symbiosis table had materialized. An opaque forcefield materialized as Kaur and the LMH–which the crew had named Liam–activated a console to look up the relevant steps on the surgery. Less than fifteen minutes later, Kaur and Liam were preparing to extract the symbiont from Astar and implant it into Rae, who would be awake for the procedure so she would be able to commune with the symbiont immediately. Liam cut the tendril anchoring the Astar symbiont to Leza’s pouch and then passed it gently to Kaur. One of the holograms held open Rae’s pouch while Kaur slid the symbiont in. It was still very weak, but it knew what was happening, and Kaur could see the moment the symbiont made contact with Rae’s mind. Rae gasped and her eyes flashed purple for a moment before returning to normal. ‘Are you alright, Talna?’ Kaur asked. ‘Yes,’ Rae/Astar answered in a whisper. ‘I’ve never felt anything like this before.’ Her eyes suddenly rolled back in her head and she began convulsing. Kaur jumped into action. ‘Fifty CCs isoboramine, stat! Stay with me, Talna. The symbiont is weak and your body is rejecting it. This will help.’ The convulsion stopped and although their brainwaves weren’t quite in sync, they also weren’t drifting apart. Kaur waved a tricorder over her patient’s head and sighed. ‘Doctor?’ Liam asked. ‘She’s in a coma. The symbiont may have been too weak. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I need to go and inform the captain. Let me know the second anything changes.
Great ongoing critter/culture design with the amnesia insectoids and also with the trill symbiont emergency. Here's hoping we learn something from that symbiont...Very intriguing... Thanks!! rbs
Chapter 10 USS Pytheas Cha’lav Alpha Stardate 57422.4 (June 3, 2380) Lieutenant Commander T’Shanir held onto her console as the ship slewed to port with the impact of several large chunks of debris from the destroyed Cha’lav vessels. Gonzales must have raised the shields just in time, or else they would have been destroyed as well. She worked at bringing the automated repair systems back online, but the tertiary sub-processors had been damaged by the debris impact. She looked around and grabbed a Bolian engineer who had joined them just before this mission. ‘Ensign Xala, I need you to go to the main computer core to reinitialize the quaternary sub-processors. Now.’ ‘Aye, sir,’ she squeaked and hurried away. A transporter beam a few meters away snagged her attention and she launched herself at the materializing alien. The Cha’lav insectoid tried to fend her off with its multiple limbs but she continued to hammer her attack and protect her engineers. Other beams heralded the arrival of more intruders and she knew she had to think quickly. With a grunt, she pushed off from the alien and kicked it in the head at the same time, snapping its neck back. It dropped to the deck, dead. Her engineers were frantically trying to avoid the disruptor strikes from the Cha’lav intruders, and meanwhile there were no repairs being done. ‘All of you, listen. Get back to your stations. I will deal with the Cha’lav.’ She swept up the insectoid’s weapon and fired at one of the others, shattering its carapace. The remaining Cha’lav converged on her and she ducked and weaved, firing with every movement, conscious not to hit an engineer, the warp core, or any needed component. They were not taking the same care, firing blindly trying to hit anything and everything. The last three of them were practically on top of her and she swung the rifle like a club, hitting one into another, but the third headbutted her and she went sprawling. It raised its weapon and fired, but she rolled out of the way, bringing her rifle up and pressing the trigger, killing it. The other two approached and she fired again, but nothing happened. It was dead. She was able to avoid one beam, but the other vaporized her leg. She refused to scream and give the alien the satisfaction, so she chose the only option she had and crawled toward it, intent on grabbing its leg to pull it down. She wasn’t fast enough and it raised its weapon to fire again, a smirk on its face. She noticed several engineers bringing their weapons to bear but they weren’t quick enough. The Cha’lav fired at her and she felt nothing at all. * * * ‘That was too close,’ Gonzales said. ‘I got the shields up just in time.’ ‘The Xu Fu crew?’ Cheer asked. ‘We lost seventeen mid-transport,’ Astar said. ‘Better that than the whole ship.’ Cheer nodded soberly. ‘Drop the shields, and bring the rest aboard. Battle status?’ ‘Only one rebel cruiser is still intact, General Anghul’s ship,’ Gonzales answered. ‘Most of the Shadowstrike’s fighters have been destroyed but so have the Cha’lav fighters. There are three capital ships focusing their firepower on the Shadowstrike and it’s holding its own, all three are heavily damaged. The kill zone has collapsed and we’re running out of time.’ ‘Weston, set a course for Cha’lav Alpha and have the Xu Fu and General Anghul follow us.’ ‘Two more capital ships have broken formation and are approaching our position,’ Gonzales stated. ‘Captain, another rift opening,’ ch’Maras called out from the Operations console. ‘Two…no, three ships coming through.’ ‘Weapons ready,’ Gonzales said, her fingers hovering over the firing key. ‘Hold!’ Cheer replied. ‘They’re ours.’ All three vessels had the fanned phoenix logo of the rebellion and they flanked the Pytheas as they created their own kill zone. ‘Full impulse!’ Cheer ordered. ‘Xu Fu reports the weapon is at eighty percent power,’ Gonzales said. ‘Nine hundred thousand kilometers and closing,’ Weston added. ‘What’s the max distance for the weapon?’ Cheer asked. ‘It was about fifty thousand kilometers,’ Astar answered. ‘Not sure about now.’ ‘Captain, the sensors are limited with those massive ships and the damage we’ve suffered,’ ch’Maras advised. ‘Recommend we release the Recon Array probes.’ ‘Do it.’ A moment later, Gonzales could see everything clearly on her console and relayed the information to the viewscreen. ‘They’ve cleared a path for us, Captain.’ ‘Seven hundred fifty thousand kilometers.’ ‘Looks like the secret’s out,’ Gonzales muttered. ‘Weapon at ninety percent power. All remaining ships are converging on our position.’ Astar sighed. ‘ETA Lieutenant?’ ‘Four minutes until range.’ ‘Tell the rebel ships to peal off,’ Astar ordered. ‘Weston, prepare to execute program Astar-Hegemony-Beta. I prepared another couple of contingencies, Captain, if I may.’ ‘All yours, Commander.’ ‘This is Commander Astar to all hands. Prepare for coordinated warp jump,’ she said and looked at Weston. ‘Signal the Xu Fu to execute the program.’ ‘All decks ready. Xu Fu ready.’ ‘Helm, go!’ The Pytheas jumped to warp as one for just a fraction of a second, and the Pytheas performed a tight roll as it slowed to sublight. ‘Open the rift, now!’ Cheer ordered. ‘Before it’s too late.’ ‘Rift is opening,’ Weston said. ‘Oh, my…’ he added. They watched as a white beam lanced out from the Xu Fu and punched through Cha’lav Alpha’s shields as if they weren’t there. It penetrated the hull and blossomed into a subspace rift, vaporizing the Cha’lav headquarters before collapsing in on itself and leaving nothing behind. At the same moment, a blinding flash signaled the Xu Fu’s demise and Astar muttered a prayer for the lost. ‘The rift is open.’ ‘Go!’ ‘Something’s wrong,’ Weston said. ‘Voidspace is collapsing around us.’ As if to punctuate his statement, a console exploded at the rear of the bridge. ‘Shields are fluctuating,’ Gonzales added. ‘The exotic energies are wreaking havoc with our systems.’ The Pytheas shuddered violently. ‘We’re not going to make it at this rate,’ Astar muttered. ‘Lieutenant, find the nearest exit point,’ Cheer ordered. Before they could blink, tendrils of energy snapped out from the walls of the Voidspace rift, tore through the hull, and sent the ship into normal space within a solar system. Adrift and without power, the ship hurtled through space toward the nearest planet. On the bridge, Astar was the first one to regain consciousness and instantly regretted it. Her left arm was broken, maybe a leg, she could feel some ribs cracked, and her head hurt like hell. ‘Computer, activate EMH across the ship.’ No response. It was then that she realized the darkness was not due to blindness or injury, but the utter blackness of a dead ship.’ ‘Is anyone alive?’ a weak voice called out. ‘Talen, how badly are you hurt?’ Astar asked. ‘I think my back is broken, I can’t move,’ ch’Maras answered. ‘Great Trough, what in the Deity happened?’ Cheer asked and coughed. ‘We were hit by something. We’re dead in space and I would guess we have a lot of injuries. Talen may be crippled.’ ‘Lieutenant?’ ‘Yes, Captain?’ ‘We’ll get you out of this.’ ‘Yes sir,’ he replied with a lack of enthusiasm. ‘Anyone else awake,’ Cheer asked. There was a flicker overhead and some emergency lighting came on. ‘Someone’s alive in engineering,’ Astar said. Cheer pushed himself to his feet and looked around. All of the consoles were dark and the bridge crew lay unmoving on the deck. He could feel his broken ribs and his right arm hung limply at his side. ‘Commander, can you move?’ ‘No, sir. Broken leg at least. Symbiont is feeling out of sorts too. The exotic energies of Voidspace disorient it. The emergency lights dimmed and then brightened, and the consoles flickered to life, beginning startup routines. Cheer checked his console. ‘That’s a problem.’ ‘Sir?’ Astar asked. ‘Unless we can get the helm working, we’re about to slam into a planet.’ Astar looked at the helm and then at Lieutenant Weston lying on the deck. ‘We’re screwed.’ ‘Cheer chuckled. ‘Not yet, but I admire your enthusiasm.’ He was thrown to the deck as the ship hit the atmosphere bow first and Astar slid forward, bracing her broken leg against the helm console. ‘Computer, activate EMH.’ ‘What…what…is…nature…’ the EMH flickered in and out of existence before coalescing. ‘Oh dear.’ He knelt by Astar and tutted. ‘Not good. Is everybody else in as good a shape as you?’ ‘Probably worse, many dead,’ Astar said through gritted teeth. ‘Ship about to hit planet.’ ‘Ah,’ he said and vanished as everything went dark again. * * * ‘Aargh, my head,’ Astar said and reached up to grab it. ‘Easy there, Leza,’ Doctor Arlon Maxx said. She looked at him and saw his expression. ‘Is it bad?’ Maxx sighed. His blue skin was pale from exhaustion. ‘More than seventy percent of the crew, including those transferred from the Xu Fu, are dead. Some when we were thrown into normal space, and the rest when we crashed on the planet. Whoever was alive in engineering managed to level off our descent, but the lower decks have crumpled. The front of the ship was also badly damaged.’ ‘Is there any good news?’ ‘We don’t have a warp core breach.’ Astar sighed. ‘How did I get down here?’ ‘The captain. The three of us are the only senior officers left alive.’ ‘Ch’Maras?’ ‘I’m sorry, no. He died on impact’ ‘We’re not getting out of here, are we?’ ‘No, we’re not,’ Cheer answered, entering the room. ‘We’re on emergency battery power and that won’t last much longer, a few hours at most. Have you told her?’ ‘No, she just woke up.’ ‘Told me what?’ ‘You’re dying, Leza,’ Maxx said. ‘Your organs are starting to shut down and the symbiont is getting weaker too.’ ‘We’ve created a stasis chamber in the holodeck, since it has its own power source. It should keep you alive until someone finds the ship. The log buoy is in there too. I’ve downloaded all of our mission logs and wiped the main computer.’ ‘What about…?’ Maxx held up hyposprays. ‘If it comes to that, we’ll all go to sleep.’ She shook her head. ‘The shuttles?’ ‘Too badly damaged, and no power for parts. There’s no water nearby and this area is remote. We’d never make it to safer ground.’ ‘So this is it?’ ‘It’s been an honor, Commander. Please tell everyone back home what happened here,’ Cheer told her as Maxx injected her and she drifted off to sleep.
I like the way this jumps back and forth in time. The idea that the future is the past makes the time-travel story more paradoxical. Thanks!! rbs
It's the narration that's jumping back and forth. The A story is in 2387 while the B story is in 2380. (Not sure which you classify as A and B, but that's how the narrative structure appears to me.) Thanks!! rbs
Right, but that's not time travel in the way I think. In your last comment it made it seem like you thought I was writing about creating a paradox through characters traveling in time, but maybe I misunderstood what you meant.
I had gotten mixed up with the dates and thought the battle was taking place in the future with the grounded, defeated ship found in the past.
Chapter 11 USS Eclipse Mudon VIII Orbit Stardate 64862.5 (November 12, 2387) ‘Welcome back, Commander. How do you feel?’ Dr. Kaur asked. ‘Like someone hit me with a nacelle,’ Rae/Astar answered. ‘How long was I out for?’ ‘Twenty-two hours. Can you tell me what happened?’ ‘The Astar symbiont was sharing some memories,’ she said without going into more details. ‘I feel a little light headed.’ ‘It will pass, but I want to keep you here for another day or so, just to make sure there are no lasting effects.’ ‘There won’t be, Doctor.’ ‘Are you a doctor? Have you been one?’ ‘Rae/Astar blinked. ‘I don’t know.’ ‘That’s part of why you’re staying. You should be able to access all of the symbiont’s memories and know about all of your previous hosts by now. Until you do, you’ll be staying in sickbay. Understood?’ ‘The captain needs me.’ ‘The situation is well in hand, Commander, and there are no immediate threats,’ Captain sh’Zaranith stated as she entered sickbay. ‘When can I get her back, Doctor?’ ‘Tomorrow, Captain. We were just discussing that.’ ‘Tomorrow it is. Apparently our discovery of the Pytheas ruffled some feathers back home. A starship has been dispatched to “clean up”, according to Admiral Benteen, It will be here tomorrow.’ ‘How is that possible?’ Kaur asked. ‘Not even Cygnus Station is a day’s travel from here.’ ‘They won’t be coming from Cygnus, or Earth. Doctor, you know where they will likely be coming from. The same place the Arkansas was tasked prior to its mission,’ Rae/Astar said. ‘And they obviously won’t be using warp drive.’ ‘Quantum slipstream?’ sh’Zaranith asked. ‘Doctor, have you been holding out on me?’ Kaur stared at the Trill. ‘You remember me?’ ‘I remember some things, but not everything. The slipstream is the test bed on the Vesta-class. I think I know who is coming, but not how.’ ‘Care to clue us in?’ ‘I can’t. It’s classified.’ ‘Vanguard isn’t classified anymore. FNS saw to that.’ Rae/Astar shook her head. ‘There’s more at play than just Vanguard, or there was. The person coming is the only one I can speak to, and the only one who can access the log buoy besides me, if I even can any more.’ ‘You mean Leza Astar?’ Kaur asked. ‘Yes, Doctor. We are one and the same now. Without the usual training it will take some time to fully integrate the memories of my previous hosts. How many that is, I’m not sure, but I think I can sense at least six, perhaps seven.’ ‘Including Leza?’ ‘Yes, including Leza,’ Rae/Astar answered. ‘I’ll let you rest, Commander,’ sh’Zaranith said, but as soon as that ship arrives, I want you on the bridge.’ ‘Aye, Captain.’ Sh’Zaranith guided Kaur away to speak to her privately, and Rae/Astar lay back on the biobed. She felt like a different person, or people, and wondered how the others would treat her. She knew she’d have to undergo a zhian’tara sooner rather than later, especially because she had not been an initiant or had any of the training, but also because she needed to know who she was now, and what memories were hers or theirs. She sensed the Astar symbiont trying to soothe and reassure her, and she smiled. The breadth of knowledge a Joined Trill could bring to any given situation was extensive. As she lay there, her mind calm, she felt her previous hosts make themselves known, and she found she had acquired some interesting talents. She lay her head down and slept peacefully for perhaps the first time ever. * * * ‘Lieutenant Commander Talna astar reporting for duty,’ Astar said, braced at attention in front of the captain’s desk in her quarters, the closest thing there was to a ready room on the small ship. ‘That’s going to take some getting used to, Commander,’ sh’Zaranith responded with a small smile. ‘I have Doctor Kaur’s report giving you a clean bill of health and confirming you are fit for duty.’ ‘Yes sir. I know who all my previous hosts are and what they did. It’s an interesting mix of talents.’ ‘Good, let’s go to the bridge and await our mystery ship.’ Moments later, Astar took her position at the rear of the bridge at the tactical console, and sh’Zaranith sat in the command chair. She turned to face Ransom to ask a question when there was a warbling from both the science and tactical stations. ‘Report?’ ‘Captain, I'm reading some kind of energy displacement, fifty kilometers to port.’ ‘On screen.’ Where there had been empty space was now a Sovereign-class starship with a dark gray hull. ‘That’s my ship!’ Astar called out. ‘Commander?’ Ransom asked as she and the captain turned to look at her. ‘Sorry, sirs. My previous host was the XO on the Monarch and brought it back home heavily damaged. The engineers said she would have to be scrapped. It was one of the reasons she was given the Pytheas. They're hailing us.’ ‘On screen.’ ‘Captain sh’Zaranith, I am Admiral Sitak. We have the matter in hand. You may return to Cygnus Station.’ ‘Not so fast, Admiral,’ sh’Zaranith replied. ‘There are a few things we need to discuss. How you got here so fast, why I was stonewalled, and how a scrapped ship managed to get completely repaired without anyone knowing, plus what will happen to the Pytheas.’ Sitak raised an eyebrow. ‘Very well, I will beam aboard. Sitak out.’ ‘That went well,’ Ransom muttered. ‘Dana, you have the bridge. Talna and I will deal with the admiral.’ ‘Aye, Captain.’ ‘With me, Commander,’ sh’Zaranith strode from the bridge with the Trill hot on her heels. They reached the transporter just as the Vulcan began to coalesce on the pad. ‘Permission to come aboard?’ ‘Granted. This way please, Admiral.’ Astar stepped up to him before he could take a step. ‘What did you do to my ship?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Your ship? Commander…’ ‘Talna Astar,’ she stated clearly. ‘I was told she was too badly damaged to be repaired.’ ‘Astar?’ Sitak stated. ‘Captain, the situation has changed. I believe we should speak privately.’ Astar smirked. ‘I have a higher security clearance, Admiral. Especially when it comes to blue metals.’ ‘Indeed. Captain, we should adjourn to a conference room. You will need to be read in.’ Sh’Zaranith smiled thinly. ‘This way, Admiral.’ Once seated in the sealed conference room, Sitak began. ‘The earliest I am aware of is shortly after the founding of the Federation, a Bolian admiral from the thirtieth century arrived and spoke of an enemy than spanned galaxies and overwhelmed ours. In a final attempt to salvage a win, several people were sent back in time to give us a fighting chance. At his behest and that of Admiral Archer, Project Cobalt was instituted at that time and kept on a need to know basis. Future technologies were built into new vessels should they be needed.’ ‘I was able to read some when we encountered the Aurora Stellaris and what was behind it,’ sh’Zaranith told him. ‘A Voidspace rift belonging to the Darkness and the Cha’lav?’ Sitak nodded. ‘The Cha’lav were the ones manipulating the aliens behind the temporal cold war and once it failed in the Delphic Expanse in the twenty-second century, they tried again with the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. Their war with the Borg displaced trillions of people, which led to Task Force Vanguard when we first detected the refugees. Voyager would have encountered them had they not used the transwarp conduit, but we now know why the Borg entered fluidic space. They needed advanced technology to fight to Cha’lav, a war they were losing. ‘The intercept fleets were able to determine the status of the Cha’lav’s reach in our galaxy and were able to permanently end the threat shortly before the Pytheas and Xu Fu disappeared.’ ‘The Admiral neglected to add some important details,’ Astar chimed in. ‘in the two hundred years since Admiral Dexx arrived, we learned that the Cha’lav were basically being mind-controlled by the Darkness, a race of subspace aliens, and the only way to stop them was to destroy the Cha’lav’s central complex in their home galaxy, over twenty billion light years away. The Darkness created the Voidspace to travel between galaxies as easily as we use the Bajoran wormhole. It’s almost like space-folding technology but more like a wormhole, and don’t think I didn’t catch that microexpression, Admiral.’ ‘Commander…’ sh’Zaranith warned. ‘I guess one of the technologies you acquired from a Delta Quadrant species was a space-folding drive?’ Astar asked. ‘Bottom line, we stopped the Cha’lav and the Andorian traitor from the future that was helping them. You’re welcome by the way. Species 8472 from fluidic space almost wiped out the Borg with help from the Cha’lav after Voyager passed through that territory, except for a few isolated pockets and Unimatrix Zero One. The Xu Fu was destroyed along with the Shadowstrike, and we made it back here but because the Voidspace network collapsed when the Darkness was stopped, we were thrown back into normal space.’ ‘Your emergence point created the Aurora?’ sh’Zaranith asked. ‘Yes, Captain. I spoke with Commander Leuk-Om and she stated that it had shrunk to approximately one fifth its original size. It likely won’t disappear altogether but it no longer poses a navigational hazard. It’s just pretty to look at now that the subspace rift was closed.’ ‘Who knows the truth, Admiral?’ sh’Zaranith asked. ‘Not many, now,’ Sitak answered. ‘And Commander, we wanted the Monarch officially scrapped so no one could use it in the future, and we could utilize it in case your mission failed and we needed to get there ourselves. Since you left on your mission we have discovered how the Voidspace functioned but have been unable to replicate it. The Monarch’s space-folding drive is a derivative technology, and not an acquisition.’ ‘What’s going to happen to the Pytheas?’ Astar asked. Sitak was pensive for a moment. ‘Commander, did Captain Cheer fulfill his duty?’ ‘Yes, Admiral. Everything was uploaded to a secured, encrypted, and classified log buoy and the main computer was irrevocably wiped. My previous host was placed in stasis at that time, but I know that the bodies were vaporized to prevent contamination to any life form that might have been on this world.’ ‘Everyone has been reassigned from Starbase Bastion and another group has taken possession of it. My special projects team will disassemble the ship, salvage what they can and recycle the rest,’ Sitak stated. ‘Based on what you have said and if nothing in the log buoy changes anything, Project Cobalt is hereby concluded and your Cobalt-level security clearance is revoked. Once I have read through the contents, the buoy will be secured at Memory Alpha and Starfleet Command will decide when to declassify it. If there is nothing else, you are dismissed. I will return to my ship and you will return to Cygnus Station.’ ‘The shuttles are ready to tow us there,’ sh’Zaranith told him, ‘since we do not have a warp core.’
Epilogue Observation Deck Cygnus Station Stardate 64881.1 (November 18, 2387) Captain sh’Zaranith watched as two workbees installed a new warp core in the Eclipse while spacesuited figures made repairs to the outer hull. She knew that dozens of station engineers were crawling inside the ships making additional repairs, but still she wore a scowl on her face. ‘How can I help you, Admiral?’ sh’Zaranith asked, sensing the identity of the new arrival without turning her head. ‘You had quite the adventure,’ Admiral Erika Benteen said by way of reply. ‘Ingenious, using the shuttles to tow you back here.’ ‘Thanks.’ ‘You found out what happened to three Federation starships, confirmed that a classified project was concluded, and saved a Trill symbiont, not to mention sealing the last Voidspace rift in our galaxy. Not bad work.’ ‘Do we know how it was still open and if it led anywhere?’ Benteen shook her head. ‘No, and we probably won’t ever know. You should know that Command agreed to the commendations for your entire crew.’ ‘Good. We probably would have ended up like the Pytheas if it wasn’t for their dedication and hard work. What about the promotions?’ ‘Not yet. Not enough time in grade, even with the skills shown, though they were very interested in your doctor’s report on Ensign Norabi’s biology. Apparently they are sending an anthropologist to the colony to see if any of the others know anything about it, but I don’t hold out much hope. From what I read in the file on their rescue, no one knows much of anything.’ Sh’Zaranith finally turned to look at her. ‘You know as well as I do that the file was incomplete, or doctored. Convenient that the computer was wiped and all of the adults had amnesia, don’t you think?’ Benteen sighed. ‘What I think is that they were running from something and made sure that no one could send them back. It’s immaterial now anyway, unless the anthropologist turns up something.’ ‘With all due respect, Admiral, you have a lot on your plate with those ships out there to come and have a little chat with me. Did you need something?’ Benteen smiled. ‘The Hefni fleet is rotating through the station for shore leave and much-needed repairs, and Lieutenant Commander Hajar is working with one of the Honored Elders to confirm that the world we selected for them is suitable for their needs. They’ll be leaving in a couple of weeks probably, maybe a little longer. I came down here because I need your help. We’ve lost contact with the Upland. They were supposed to be checking out the Isidore system for habitable planets but they missed their last two check-ins. Long range scanners aren’t picking them up.’ ‘Eclipse to sh’Zaranith.’ ‘Go ahead, Commander.’ ‘Commander Ghi’Rok says the warp core will be calibrated within the hour. The new supplies will be onboard and secured by the end of the day.’ ‘Good. Inform the crew that liberty expires at 1600 hours and we’ll be getting underway by 1700. We have to go find a missing starship.’ ‘Aye, Captain, so ordered. Ransom out.’ ‘Thank you, Captain, I appreciate your assistance,’ Benteen said as the space doors opened and a ship came through. ‘I need to go.’ ‘Yeah,’ sh’Zaranith muttered. The Constellation-class USS Pixis was missing a nacelle and had hull breaches on every deck. It looked like it lost a fight, but knowing Captain Malloy, the other ship was worse off. Luckily for him, the Pixis was supposed to be decommissioned anyway. A skeleton crew had delivered the Cheyenne-class USS Rainier to Cygnus Station just a day earlier, and were supposed to be taking the Pixis back to the new Titan shipyards with them. She turned away from the window and headed back to the ship, wondering if she could get Malloy to tell her what happened. She had a feeling it would be an interesting story. END