Saratoga NX-3842
Supreme Overlord of the Universe
Stardate 52003.2
You will disarm you all your weapons and escort us to Sector Zero Zero One. If you attempt to intervene, will we destroy you.
Benjamin Sisko’s eyes bolted open at the voice in his nightmares. The same nightmare he’d had every night for the past six years. The mutilated form of Jean-Luc Picard, assimilated and transformed into the Borg Speaker Locutus. Demanding the surrender of Starfleet as they massed at Wolf 359 to stop the advancing Borg cube from reaching Earth.
The cube that smashed its way through the meager taskforce and destroyed Sisko’s life. His son Jake and wife Jennifer, blown into space when a Borg torpedo struck their section of the Saratoga’s hull.
The fate of the galaxy had changed that day. After the Enterprise crew had destroyed the Borg ship, Starfleet Command had actually given Picard back his ship! Like nothing had happened. The man had been responsible for the deaths of nearly eleven thousand people and the loss of forty starships. And they put him back in charge of the flagship of the Federation!
Sisko still remembered the long trip back to the Terran system aboard the rescue vessel Olympia. He’d spoken with the ship’s counselor about the loss he’d suffered. The pathetic shrink thought he would learn to live with it and become stronger because of it. That part was true.
One week after the infamous “Battle of Wolf 359” Sisko had marched down the corridors of Headquarters and burst into the office of Admiral Owen Paris.
“You gave him back the Enterprise!” he shouted.
Paris remained cool and collected behind his desk. “I’m well aware of your loss, Commander and I have nothing but sympathy for what you’re going through, but you’re tone is approaching the line, Mister Sisko. It was the assessment by both Starfleet Medical and Doctor Crusher that Picard was fully capable of returning to duty and the influence of the Borg Collective has been expunged from him. And quite frankly, Commander, it really is none of your business.”
Sisko fumed and failed to keep his temper in check. “I’ll tell you this Admiral, as long as Picard retains command, I’ll fight it. I’ll fight it at every level. The man murdered thousands! He has to answer for that.”
Paris rose to his feet. “Commander SIsko, I’ll pass along your opinion to the Command Council. And since I know what you are going through right now, I’ll give you this one chance to leave this office and this matter will be closed and off the record. One more word and I’ll order a full investigation into your ability to command. Now.” He picked up a data padd from the desk. “You’re new orders. You’ve been given command of the Utopia Planita Shipyards. It will be your task to coordinate with Starfleet Tactical. They’ve been designing new ships and weapon systems capable of combating the Borg. I think this may be the best fit for you. Report to your new assignment in three days.” Before Sisko could utter another word Paris said, “You’re dismissed.”
Sisko had spent nearly a year at Utopia, advancing his plan. He built the Defiant, he designed the quantum torpedo, the ablative hull armor, and the phase-shifting cloaking device. Quietly he cultivated allies from across the Federation. Those who thought the Borg were the single greatest threat in history and Starfleet must be prepared. He spoke passionately in speeches across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for militarizing Federation space. New orbital weapon platforms had been designed, planetary shields were developed. He’d advanced Federation weaponry by two centuries in ten months.
But the Federation Council refused to listen. Speech after speech, Sisko declared that the Federation was on the edge of an abyss. That if they did not take a more militarized approach, the Borg would return and assimilate the quadrant.
“Starfleet is not a military organization,” Federation President Amitra had said. “And the Federation will not place itself on a war footing against a foe that resides in the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant. The Federation has heard your concerns, Commander… many times.”
Then, more than a year after Wolf 359, an incident took place in the Argolis Cluster that forced Sisko to act. The Enterprise had found the wreckage of a Borg scout ship. A single drone had survived. After intense study, Enterprise officers had found a way to infect the Collective and destroy it forever. Instead of acting, they nursed the Borg back to health, gave it a name and sent it back to its people.
Sisko had been in office when the report came in. He’d read it over and over again. Admiral Brooks, Picard’s immediate superior in the Argolis Sector had given the plan her blessing and commended him on his humanity.
On that day Sisko had acted. He’d called in the favors he’d accumulated over the past eighteen months. He ordered the fleet he’d constructed in secret to deploy. Dozens of Defiant-Class ships, lead by the prototype Defiant herself, serving as Sisko’s command ship, had launched an attack on the Terran system. Sisko’s troops had landed on Earth, facing little resistance. Starfleet had been fractured and confused. The possibility of a coup had never crossed their minds. Sisko and his new Elite Guard had stormed the grounds of Starfleet Headquarters. Those on the Command Council who refuse to recognize him as the new Federation leader were executed on the grounds kept by the legendary Boothby, who was also killed for his insolence to the new emperor.
Admirals such as Jellico and Leyton had joined him and installed themselves as military governors on Luna and Mars respectively. The Utopia docks were ordered at once to cede all scientific development and refocus their efforts building stronger and more advanced weapons.
It took two weeks for the subspace channels to be filled with the triumph of Emperor Sisko. Earth was under his grasp along with the entire system. Fortified against all attack, Sisko had ordered the entire fleet to serve him.
Nearly two-thirds of Starfleet had acquiesced. Sisko was holding the Federation hostage. With the deployment of the Defiant-Class fleets, he placed a vessel in orbit of every inhabited planet, cloaked and with enough firepower to reduce those worlds to smoking ash in moments.
Sisko had never wanted this. He did not want to be the oppressive ruler he’d been forced to become. He had not wanted to pass the knife along the necks of those who had refused to acknowledge his greatness and his need to protect the Federation.
As his first official act as Emperor he had ordered the arrest of Jean-Luc Picard and the capture of the Starship Enterprise. That had been near five years ago. Five years of agonizing rebellion by those zealots who had rejected him. Nearly a third of Starfleet, along with the Klingons and other worlds were leading a rebellion against him.
He’d vowed to crush them all, but so far they had eluded him, and were causing enough trouble within the Empire that he had been forced to relocate himself to a new post, one that would place him within striking distance of the rebels along the Cardassian frontier.
Together with the Cardassian Union, the Empire had put down the resistance on Bajor and as a reward Sisko had been given the orbiting space station in gratitude for his service. It was here now that he served the Empire. With his mighty fleet and his powerful starbase, Sisko looked down on the world of Bajor in pity. It had once been a beautiful world, but it had resisted his attempts to bring it into the Empire. He’d ravaged the surface, killing many as an example to the rest. Finally, after breaking the populations spirit, he now ruled Bajor as he did the rest of the Empire. With an iron hand. And with that world’s location near the rebels hiding place in the Badlands, he’d fortified the system with his fleets and in doing so protected another system from an invading fleet of Borg.
An invasion that had yet to come to pass.
But it would.
And Sisko would be proven right. He would be the savior of the galaxy.
He quickly dressed in imperial uniform, a black jumpsuit with grey shoulders, fully adorned with medals and proof of his greatness and made his way to his way up to his office within Ops. Waiting for him as the turbolift ascended through the deck was his trusted right hand, Commander Garak.
“Good morning, my lord,” he said with his usual false-sincerity.
“Garak,” he replied softly. Sisko never rose his voice unless it was absolutely necessary. It put both his allies and his adversaries at unease, hearing such a calm collected voice from the ruler of the entire quadrant. “I’m in no mood for games or bad news this morning. Tell me what you have.”
“Ah, well,” Garak began, “then I will be happy to accommodate you this fine day, sir. We have captured a rebel ship snooping around our Grid Nine Senor Array. AN old Excelsior-Class vessel if I’m not mistaken. Her crew put up a valiant struggle, but Captain Damar easily overcame them.”
“Yes, Mr. Damar is an eager young soldier. Always trying to please his emperor.”
“As are we all, sir. The vessel, I believe it was called the Hood, sadly did not survive, but what remains of her crew have been confined to Security undergoing the very best in Cardassian interrogation.”
“No doubt screaming for their mothers,” Sisko muttered. He eyed the commander and thought about the trouble he’d had in convincing Cardassia to join the empire. He’d faced assassination attempts from the Obisidian Order countless times. Finally, after abolishing the Cardassian military, he’d handpicked the men who would serve him. Garak, Damar, Dukat, Macet, they were all loyal to him now.
“Did their captain survive?”
“Yes, his name is DeSoto and the Chief Interrogator believes he knows the wherabouts of Picard.”
“Indeed?” asked Sisko.
“I believe they were friends. Picards executive officer served aboard the Hood before joining the Enterprise. I’m having Interrgoation pay particular attention to those details.”
“See to it personally, Commander,” Sisko said, “I don’t want Madred getting overzealous and losing another subject.”
“I’ll pass that along, my lord,” Garak said.
“Anything else?”
“No, sir, all is well at the moment. Our forces stand ready. Once we get the information from DeSoto, we’ll launch a raid.”
Sisko sat behind his black polished desk and laced his fingers together. Peering out the portal, watching his mighty fleet move about, he smiled. He could see the end of the rebellion. Soon they would all be gone and Sisko could return to his original plan.
Saving the galaxy from destruction.
Chapter I:
Will Riker threw the data padd onto the desk and rubbed his tired eyes. “We secured the supplies from the Ferengi ship. We’ve got enough converters to get the replicators back online on Terigof.”
“Casulties?”
“We lost four and the entire Ferengi crew is dead. They were trying to call for help.”
From behind his desk, Jean-Luc Picard sighed a silent prayer for the dead. “Very well. Send Mr. Data and Commander La Forge to Terigof and get the replicator grid restored. We have thirty thousand refugees down there.”
“They’ve taken the Sine, and should be there in about six hours.”
“Good.” He rose from his desk and pulled at the fraying strands along the bottom of his red tunic. “What word from the Hood?” he asked.
“Captain DeSoto’s last message put them near the edge of the Bajoran sector. Their cloak was working fine and they were going to report back once they’d test the tachyon grid along the border. They’re due to check in any time now.”
Picard turned and stared out the rectangular viewport behind his desk. The glowing orange plasma fields of the Badlands erupted in arrays around the ship. The Enterprise, a battered hulk of her former self hung in a orbital pocket above a Class-M world, protecting a group of refugees fleeing the Empire. So it had been for the past six years since the Sisko Coup as it had been coined.
“Will, is this my fault?”
“Captain?”
Will Riker had served as first officer of the Enterprise since she had been commissioned twelve years ago. He’d never heard this tone in Picard’s voice.
“Six years ago, Sisko demanded my arrest. If I had surrendered then, would we have been saved this conflict?”
“Sir, the coup happened because of the Borg. Sisko knows that. You’re only a figure head. And now, as leader of the Alliance, you’re more sought after than ever. But your death or capture would not have ended the rise of an empire. That was the result of a power-hungry dictator who betrayed us all.”
You will disarm you all your weapons and escort us to Sector Zero Zero One. If you attempt to intervene, will we destroy you.
Benjamin Sisko’s eyes bolted open at the voice in his nightmares. The same nightmare he’d had every night for the past six years. The mutilated form of Jean-Luc Picard, assimilated and transformed into the Borg Speaker Locutus. Demanding the surrender of Starfleet as they massed at Wolf 359 to stop the advancing Borg cube from reaching Earth.
The cube that smashed its way through the meager taskforce and destroyed Sisko’s life. His son Jake and wife Jennifer, blown into space when a Borg torpedo struck their section of the Saratoga’s hull.
The fate of the galaxy had changed that day. After the Enterprise crew had destroyed the Borg ship, Starfleet Command had actually given Picard back his ship! Like nothing had happened. The man had been responsible for the deaths of nearly eleven thousand people and the loss of forty starships. And they put him back in charge of the flagship of the Federation!
Sisko still remembered the long trip back to the Terran system aboard the rescue vessel Olympia. He’d spoken with the ship’s counselor about the loss he’d suffered. The pathetic shrink thought he would learn to live with it and become stronger because of it. That part was true.
One week after the infamous “Battle of Wolf 359” Sisko had marched down the corridors of Headquarters and burst into the office of Admiral Owen Paris.
“You gave him back the Enterprise!” he shouted.
Paris remained cool and collected behind his desk. “I’m well aware of your loss, Commander and I have nothing but sympathy for what you’re going through, but you’re tone is approaching the line, Mister Sisko. It was the assessment by both Starfleet Medical and Doctor Crusher that Picard was fully capable of returning to duty and the influence of the Borg Collective has been expunged from him. And quite frankly, Commander, it really is none of your business.”
Sisko fumed and failed to keep his temper in check. “I’ll tell you this Admiral, as long as Picard retains command, I’ll fight it. I’ll fight it at every level. The man murdered thousands! He has to answer for that.”
Paris rose to his feet. “Commander SIsko, I’ll pass along your opinion to the Command Council. And since I know what you are going through right now, I’ll give you this one chance to leave this office and this matter will be closed and off the record. One more word and I’ll order a full investigation into your ability to command. Now.” He picked up a data padd from the desk. “You’re new orders. You’ve been given command of the Utopia Planita Shipyards. It will be your task to coordinate with Starfleet Tactical. They’ve been designing new ships and weapon systems capable of combating the Borg. I think this may be the best fit for you. Report to your new assignment in three days.” Before Sisko could utter another word Paris said, “You’re dismissed.”
Sisko had spent nearly a year at Utopia, advancing his plan. He built the Defiant, he designed the quantum torpedo, the ablative hull armor, and the phase-shifting cloaking device. Quietly he cultivated allies from across the Federation. Those who thought the Borg were the single greatest threat in history and Starfleet must be prepared. He spoke passionately in speeches across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for militarizing Federation space. New orbital weapon platforms had been designed, planetary shields were developed. He’d advanced Federation weaponry by two centuries in ten months.
But the Federation Council refused to listen. Speech after speech, Sisko declared that the Federation was on the edge of an abyss. That if they did not take a more militarized approach, the Borg would return and assimilate the quadrant.
“Starfleet is not a military organization,” Federation President Amitra had said. “And the Federation will not place itself on a war footing against a foe that resides in the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant. The Federation has heard your concerns, Commander… many times.”
Then, more than a year after Wolf 359, an incident took place in the Argolis Cluster that forced Sisko to act. The Enterprise had found the wreckage of a Borg scout ship. A single drone had survived. After intense study, Enterprise officers had found a way to infect the Collective and destroy it forever. Instead of acting, they nursed the Borg back to health, gave it a name and sent it back to its people.
Sisko had been in office when the report came in. He’d read it over and over again. Admiral Brooks, Picard’s immediate superior in the Argolis Sector had given the plan her blessing and commended him on his humanity.
On that day Sisko had acted. He’d called in the favors he’d accumulated over the past eighteen months. He ordered the fleet he’d constructed in secret to deploy. Dozens of Defiant-Class ships, lead by the prototype Defiant herself, serving as Sisko’s command ship, had launched an attack on the Terran system. Sisko’s troops had landed on Earth, facing little resistance. Starfleet had been fractured and confused. The possibility of a coup had never crossed their minds. Sisko and his new Elite Guard had stormed the grounds of Starfleet Headquarters. Those on the Command Council who refuse to recognize him as the new Federation leader were executed on the grounds kept by the legendary Boothby, who was also killed for his insolence to the new emperor.
Admirals such as Jellico and Leyton had joined him and installed themselves as military governors on Luna and Mars respectively. The Utopia docks were ordered at once to cede all scientific development and refocus their efforts building stronger and more advanced weapons.
It took two weeks for the subspace channels to be filled with the triumph of Emperor Sisko. Earth was under his grasp along with the entire system. Fortified against all attack, Sisko had ordered the entire fleet to serve him.
Nearly two-thirds of Starfleet had acquiesced. Sisko was holding the Federation hostage. With the deployment of the Defiant-Class fleets, he placed a vessel in orbit of every inhabited planet, cloaked and with enough firepower to reduce those worlds to smoking ash in moments.
Sisko had never wanted this. He did not want to be the oppressive ruler he’d been forced to become. He had not wanted to pass the knife along the necks of those who had refused to acknowledge his greatness and his need to protect the Federation.
As his first official act as Emperor he had ordered the arrest of Jean-Luc Picard and the capture of the Starship Enterprise. That had been near five years ago. Five years of agonizing rebellion by those zealots who had rejected him. Nearly a third of Starfleet, along with the Klingons and other worlds were leading a rebellion against him.
He’d vowed to crush them all, but so far they had eluded him, and were causing enough trouble within the Empire that he had been forced to relocate himself to a new post, one that would place him within striking distance of the rebels along the Cardassian frontier.
Together with the Cardassian Union, the Empire had put down the resistance on Bajor and as a reward Sisko had been given the orbiting space station in gratitude for his service. It was here now that he served the Empire. With his mighty fleet and his powerful starbase, Sisko looked down on the world of Bajor in pity. It had once been a beautiful world, but it had resisted his attempts to bring it into the Empire. He’d ravaged the surface, killing many as an example to the rest. Finally, after breaking the populations spirit, he now ruled Bajor as he did the rest of the Empire. With an iron hand. And with that world’s location near the rebels hiding place in the Badlands, he’d fortified the system with his fleets and in doing so protected another system from an invading fleet of Borg.
An invasion that had yet to come to pass.
But it would.
And Sisko would be proven right. He would be the savior of the galaxy.
He quickly dressed in imperial uniform, a black jumpsuit with grey shoulders, fully adorned with medals and proof of his greatness and made his way to his way up to his office within Ops. Waiting for him as the turbolift ascended through the deck was his trusted right hand, Commander Garak.
“Good morning, my lord,” he said with his usual false-sincerity.
“Garak,” he replied softly. Sisko never rose his voice unless it was absolutely necessary. It put both his allies and his adversaries at unease, hearing such a calm collected voice from the ruler of the entire quadrant. “I’m in no mood for games or bad news this morning. Tell me what you have.”
“Ah, well,” Garak began, “then I will be happy to accommodate you this fine day, sir. We have captured a rebel ship snooping around our Grid Nine Senor Array. AN old Excelsior-Class vessel if I’m not mistaken. Her crew put up a valiant struggle, but Captain Damar easily overcame them.”
“Yes, Mr. Damar is an eager young soldier. Always trying to please his emperor.”
“As are we all, sir. The vessel, I believe it was called the Hood, sadly did not survive, but what remains of her crew have been confined to Security undergoing the very best in Cardassian interrogation.”
“No doubt screaming for their mothers,” Sisko muttered. He eyed the commander and thought about the trouble he’d had in convincing Cardassia to join the empire. He’d faced assassination attempts from the Obisidian Order countless times. Finally, after abolishing the Cardassian military, he’d handpicked the men who would serve him. Garak, Damar, Dukat, Macet, they were all loyal to him now.
“Did their captain survive?”
“Yes, his name is DeSoto and the Chief Interrogator believes he knows the wherabouts of Picard.”
“Indeed?” asked Sisko.
“I believe they were friends. Picards executive officer served aboard the Hood before joining the Enterprise. I’m having Interrgoation pay particular attention to those details.”
“See to it personally, Commander,” Sisko said, “I don’t want Madred getting overzealous and losing another subject.”
“I’ll pass that along, my lord,” Garak said.
“Anything else?”
“No, sir, all is well at the moment. Our forces stand ready. Once we get the information from DeSoto, we’ll launch a raid.”
Sisko sat behind his black polished desk and laced his fingers together. Peering out the portal, watching his mighty fleet move about, he smiled. He could see the end of the rebellion. Soon they would all be gone and Sisko could return to his original plan.
Saving the galaxy from destruction.
Chapter I:
Will Riker threw the data padd onto the desk and rubbed his tired eyes. “We secured the supplies from the Ferengi ship. We’ve got enough converters to get the replicators back online on Terigof.”
“Casulties?”
“We lost four and the entire Ferengi crew is dead. They were trying to call for help.”
From behind his desk, Jean-Luc Picard sighed a silent prayer for the dead. “Very well. Send Mr. Data and Commander La Forge to Terigof and get the replicator grid restored. We have thirty thousand refugees down there.”
“They’ve taken the Sine, and should be there in about six hours.”
“Good.” He rose from his desk and pulled at the fraying strands along the bottom of his red tunic. “What word from the Hood?” he asked.
“Captain DeSoto’s last message put them near the edge of the Bajoran sector. Their cloak was working fine and they were going to report back once they’d test the tachyon grid along the border. They’re due to check in any time now.”
Picard turned and stared out the rectangular viewport behind his desk. The glowing orange plasma fields of the Badlands erupted in arrays around the ship. The Enterprise, a battered hulk of her former self hung in a orbital pocket above a Class-M world, protecting a group of refugees fleeing the Empire. So it had been for the past six years since the Sisko Coup as it had been coined.
“Will, is this my fault?”
“Captain?”
Will Riker had served as first officer of the Enterprise since she had been commissioned twelve years ago. He’d never heard this tone in Picard’s voice.
“Six years ago, Sisko demanded my arrest. If I had surrendered then, would we have been saved this conflict?”
“Sir, the coup happened because of the Borg. Sisko knows that. You’re only a figure head. And now, as leader of the Alliance, you’re more sought after than ever. But your death or capture would not have ended the rise of an empire. That was the result of a power-hungry dictator who betrayed us all.”