Moving into the anomaly had been uneventful, unless one considered that such a journey should have been impossible in the first place, given how deadly the phenomenon was.
While the flood of Inth manifestations that had been pouring out of the aperture had stopped to allow both vessels to enter, the singularity itself was a Madhatter party of contradictions. It was both a sinkhole and a fountain, blasting out waves of gravimetric force at superlight speeds, while at the same time distorting space around it into a gravity well, complete with an event horizon and accretion disc. In this case the disc was comprised of the superheated remnants of the Kokala Nebula; a furious, electromagnetic whirlpool of high energy particles that could tear down the shields of even the most resilient starship. At the very least, gravity waves moving in opposing directions would normally collide, crushing the space-time continuum into pure chaos.
But they were doing no such thing. What was more, the USS
Sentry and the Dominion warship had sailed through it all without so much as a jolt or bump. They arrived to find that, like the eye of a hurricane, the interior of the anomaly was calm.
It was Inth magic, of course. These creatures seemed to cherry-pick the laws of physics they wanted to obey and those they wanted to ignore. In Hiroko’s experience, the beings from the Q Continuum were the only other aliens who could circumvent the laws of the universe with such impunity.
The difference was that the Q weren’t on the verge of annihilating all civilized life in the galaxy…
Engineering
“Static warp shell is stable, captain. Proceeding with dynamic inversion.”
Hiroko was seated at the master systems table, her attention roving over the warp field displays. She held in a lungful of air while watching a graphic of omni-directional pulses slowly rotate counterclockwise over an outline of the ship.
“Inversion complete.” Chief Jervun Res updated; his voice pinched with tension. The young olive-skinned Trill was an NCO who had been forced into the senior engineer role when the original command officers were killed prior to Hiroko’s appointment. Fortunately, of his three previous hosts, one had been an engineer, allowing him a skillset beyond his official service experience. “Sensors show the Jem’Hadar vessel has matched our adjustments.” He tapped a COMM interface on the adjacent console. “Dominion ship: please synchronize your subspace oscillation cycles with ours.”
“
Acknowledged, Federation vessel. Give us your modulation data now.”
Looking pained, Res glanced over his shoulder at Hiroko. After a reluctant pause, she nodded.
“Transmitting warp modulation date now.” He sighed fatalistically.
With the frequencies of both warp shells synchronized,
Sentry and the Dominion ship emitted negative energy streams from their main deflectors. The beams struck out of the anomaly, penetrating the outer boundaries of the distortion, and knifed away into deep space.
“Now it gets hard.” Hiroko muttered warily. She would have to once again open her mind and invite into it the most repugnant and ruthless species in the galaxy. Her aversion couldn’t have been greater were she about to pour a bucket of cockroaches down her tunic.
Happily, this third telepathic contact with the Inth turned out not to be the trauma of the first experience nor the potential danger of the second. Of course, it wasn’t exactly pleasant, either. She closed her eyes, seeking out the mental state required to connect with her bizarre co-conspirators.
Before long she heard raspy voices whispering in the dark to her, repeating strings of numbers…
“Chief, I’m imputing attunements to the warp shell. They’ll be a series of ten adjustments at five-minute intervals. Be sure the computer executes them exactly as the Inth have specified to me.”
Res indicated he understood, while watching the inputs dribble down his monitor. “Aye, captain. Attunements sent to the Dominion ship. They’ve indicated that data has been received and they are articulating their warp shell to match our changes.”
“Stay alert. I may get new corrections at any time.”
Gul Katorn materialized right where he had intended, just down the corridor from main engineering. Fortune was with him on this occasion, for he encountered only one crewmember who was obviously a maintenance person of some sort. The man was on all fours with most of his upper torso inserted into an open panel near the floor. The Cardassian lept across the corridor to land on the hapless crewman before he could extract himself from the compartment. He yanked his opponent out and slammed him to the deck. A single strike to the throat crushed his esophagus.
After taking his phaser, he shoved the dead body into the spacious EPS gangway the tech had been working on, dumped the tools in after him and sealed the hatch. He had been careful to make his attack bloodless, so as not to leave behind evidence that a passerby could see. And the blow to his enemy’s throat had prevented any shouts that could have drawn attention.
His genetically engineered body would temporarily hide him from sensors, but the shrouding effect---triggered by the transporter’s rematerialization sequence---wouldn’t last long.
He would have precious minutes, if not seconds, to destroy this ship’s warp core. Unlike the
Intrepid, this
Nebula-class starship was not a battered relic.
Sentry was a fortress with state-of-the-art security features, made even more efficient by a desperate and war-ravaged Starfleet. Once he was discovered, any number of defensive systems could immobilize him…
Engineering
For a time, Hiroko sat with her eyes closed in silent communion with the Inth. There had been no further direction from them about warp field adjustments, which was fine and well with her because it meant they were on the right track. It also meant that she could break her connection sooner, rather than later.
Or so she desperately hoped.
The captain didn’t want to be tethered to the creatures unnecessarily, because even when there was silence, there wasn’t
really silence. She could feel things that unnerved her…rage, a need for revenge and an overpowering lust to accomplish their goals.
Also, she was starting to see things---see things in her mind.
They were glimpses of mass destruction and genocide on a level that was nearly impossible to comprehend: rivers of blood gushing through city streets, billions of people screaming in terror as they were devoured alive by waves upon waves of black abomination descending from the sky.
The longer she was plugged in, the more often these stories began to play. It was now obvious how they had destroyed the minds of Aubrey’s crew. Their power was limitless and not particularly refined. One random impulse from them, one miscalculation, and she too would be lobotomized.
She opened her eyes for some relief---
Only to see Gul Katorn emerge from around the corner as he stalked into engineering, nimble as a jungle cat as he jerked a phaser from side to side.
Their eyes joined in surprise. To Hiroko, time seemed to freeze on that one hellish second.
She knew immediately what he intended to do.
And Katorn knew that she knew.
His phaser lifted upwards with the extended time-lapse of a nightmare; the kind where death creeps towards you in slow motion.
She was too far away to stop him. In an instant he would fire on the warp core and---
Chief Res was closer. Without a second’s hesitation, the youthful Trill jumped in front of Katorn just as he fired, catching the beam fully in the chest. The engineer instantly became a flaming jigsaw puzzle and vanished.
“Computer! Disable all phasers in engineering! Authorization Hiroko-Alpha-One-Five-Nine!”
The order came too late for crewman Howl, who had whirled around from his station on the second level to meet the threat. Katorn blasted the young African out of existence just as he was reaching for his weapon. His vaporization caused the terminal behind him to explode into a cloud of sparks.
“
Acknowledged. All phaser weapons in engineering have been disabled.”
Katorn jabbed the now useless phaser at the core, depressing the firing plate repeatedly, but it was clearly dead.
“Computer, erect a Level-Three containment field around the warp core.”
“
Acknowledged. Containment field in place.”
Hiroko emerged from the low bank of consoles she had been using for cover. She knew any fight with him would need to occur at a distance. If he got his hands on her, she would be dead before hitting the floor. “Computer, reactivate any phaser attached to a Federation life-form reading and keep the Cardassian’s phaser in off-mode status.”
The computer acknowledged the order just as a shrill Klaxon sounded, followed by Manta’s voice over the PA system. “
Intruder alert! I repeat, intruder alert! Captain, we’re reading a Cardassian in engineering!”
Hiroko smiled thinly. “Thanks for that timely update, lieutenant. We have Gul Katorn immobilized now. But the bastard killed Chief Res and crewman Howl before we got the situation under control.”
She heard a loud thump and realized Manta had just pounded the command chair with her fist. “
Goddammit…son of a bitch.” She breathed. “
Should we beam him into the brig?”
“You are
not to transport him under any circumstances. Is that clear?”
“
Yes ma’am.”
“Be sure those instructions are reiterated to the crew. I’ll get back to you. Hiroko out.”
She walked slowly into Katorn’s line of sight. The engineering staff fanned out behind her. They made up half a wheel with the Cardassian at its center. All told, there were eight guns trained on him. Katorn was still holding his own inert phaser while advertising an expression of amusement, despite his apparent checkmate.
“You just murdered two of my people.” Hiroko snarled.
“Three.” Katorn corrected. “There was also that pathetic soul out in the corridor.”
She gritted her teeth. “And all for nothing. Or did you really think this would work?”
Katorn casually tossed his phaser away, where it clattered across the deck. “I have to admit, the odds were stacked against success. Even for me.” He cocked his head to one side and took a moment to fully appraise her. Then he narrowed his eyes coyly. “You’re not going to lock me up, are you?”
She thumbed her weapon up to maximum power. A look of sorrow moved across her face like a wintery shadow. “No,” she answered quietly. “I’m aware of the mayhem you caused on the
Intrepid. It’s obvious that no security measures will contain you. And I know you have a maniacal, single-minded drive to destroy my ship and unleash the Inth on the rest of the galaxy. So, I’m left with the one option that I hate---an awful, ugly choice. And I despise you for putting me in this position.”
Katorn’s smile was big and cheerful as he looked expectantly at the ceiling. “Well then, darling…it’s a good thing that I have friends in high places, isn’t it?”
Bridge
Lt. Manta had been hovering over the OPS panel to oversee the negative energy beam that was emitting from the main deflector. The inexperienced crewman seemed to have a good handle on regulating the flow, but the stakes were too high to risk an error. If the beams from both ships weren’t calibrated precisely with one another, the Prime Inth would not be able to use them as a conductive filament to capture their intangible counterparts.
Ensign Tillis was acutely aware of his limitations and appreciated her oversight, rather than resent it. The way he saw it, the survival of the galaxy came first. He could placate his ego later.
Her concentration had been interrupted with news of a Cardassian life sign that suddenly appeared in engineering. Her heart had just about lept out of her throat, given what Katorn was capable of and the obvious reason for his presence. However, extreme anxiety had given way to guarded relief once Manta spoke to the captain. At least he was contained, and they could keep an eye on him until he was moved to the brig. Although after finding out about her murdered comrades, she briefly fantasized about killing the SOB right on the spot.
Alas, it wasn’t her call. And she doubted Hiroko would dispatch a man in cold blood.
While waiting to hear back from the captain, she sent three security details to take up staggered positions outside of the main entrance to engineering. They would act as a multi-tiered firewall should Katorn manage to escape into the corridor. She also evacuated and sealed off all access points to that deck. Her man topside was waiting to employ security fields and other, more aggressive protocols should the situation warrant it.
After some internal debate, she decided to place a transporter lock on him as a last resort, fully aware that Hiroko wouldn’t have approved. She understood why. Something about the Cardassian’s physiology allowed him to weaponize the transporter process. Even trying to permanently disassociate him could backfire…
Manta finally settled into the command chair, deciding to give the captain another minute before checking back in. Between communing with the Inth and dealing with a “super Cardassian”, she knew that Hiroko had a lot on her plate at the moment.
“I can’t tell if this plan is working.” Ensign Frandsen complained from Tactical.
“I know,” Manta agreed, adding her own misery to his company. “While we’re in here, we’re cut off from the rest of the universe. There’s no way to tell what’s going on outside. I wish we had some sign that this was having an effect.”
In an abrupt change of mind, she reached for her combadge to contact Hiroko, deciding her nerves could no longer go the distance.
“LT! I have a bogey closing on our position.”
Now what? She groaned inwardly. “I need a little more information, OPS.”
Tillis was looking suspiciously like a cadet who had just been presented with a surprise test he wasn’t ready for. “I uh…it reads as a subspace anomaly but it’s in motion. Reverse-Trajectory Plotting shows it came from outside the event horizon.”
Manta screwed up her face in confusion. “Wait a minute. We’re inside an anomaly already. And you’re telling me there’s
another anomaly inside this one that entered from the outside?
And it’s moving?”
“Yes ma’am. And moving fast. Now at full sublight speed.”
“Let’s see it.”
As soon as the thing appeared on the main viewer, everyone in the room recoiled and either turned away or covered their eyes.
“Turn it off. Turn if off!”
“Oh my God, what
was that?” Tillis moaned, once the offending image was gone. “Monsters. Monsters in my head! If I had to keep looking at that thing, I’d kill myself.” He rubbed his eyes as if cleansing them of the abomination.
“Pull yourself together, ensign. How long before it makes contact with us?”
“In thirty-seven seconds, it will hit our ventral shields.”
“It’s one of the Inth wraiths. Dammit! And we can’t even run without disrupting the balance between both our ships. Tactical, rotate shield modulation. Mr. Tillis, sound collision alert, all decks! Manta to captain!”
“
Captain here. This isn’t a good time, Lieutenant.”
“Ma’am, we have a Wraith closing on our position. Fifteen seconds to collision. Projected impact is secondary hull, ventral. Do you know how we can stop it?”
She heard Hiroko expunge a variety of Japanese curses.
“Captain? Are you---?"
“
What have you done, Katorn?”
“Captain, we need---"
The ship felt like it was hit by an asteroid. Everyone was thrown from their chairs before the restraining fields had time activate.
Manta was flipped out of the command chair while being pummeled with debris from an erupting station. Somewhere amid the din of crashing metal, breaking glass and alarms, she heard the computer speaking like the disembodied voice from a dream.
“
Warning. Explosive decompression has occurred on decks 30 through 26. Unable to seal hull breaches due to loss of emergency containment fields.”
She pulled herself up, clinging to the command chair’s armrest for support. Around her she saw the dim outline of crewmembers struggling back to their posts again. “Damage report?” She croaked out.
The face of Ensign Tillis, stricken with shock, floated into view through the haze of smoke and emergency lights. “We’ve lost main power. The deflector beam is offline, and the static warp shell has collapsed. We’re venting atmosphere on five decks.” He coughed raggedly into the crook of his elbow.
Manta winced at her suddenly painful lower back. The discomfort was marginal for now but hinted at bigger trouble to come. She managed to escort Tillis back to the OPS chair and then used it as a crutch while squinting through the foggy atmosphere at his board. “See if you can reroute power from the core and into the primary deflector couplings through tertiary grids seven and eight. We need to charge the dish so we can reestablish the beam.”
He raised his smudged face imploringly. “Ma’am, you don’t understand. There
is no deflector anymore. The particle sink and entire emitter assembly has been gutted. It’s torn to pieces. That---that thing ripped right through our belly. Warp core is offline, too. Even if we had the deflector, there’s nowhere to get the power from.”
“Broadcast coming in from the Dominion ship.” It was a crewmember Manta’s stunned brain couldn’t immediately place. Whoever it was, he put the message through the bridge speakers without approval.
“
Federation ship. Why have you shut down power? You are jeopardizing this mission.”
“We’re under attack.” Manta replied robotically. “Stand by.” She gave the “kill” sign to close the channel.
Wrestling with hopelessness, she tried several times to reach engineering but ended up talking to static. It only took one glance at a nearby terminal to find out why. “COMMs are down. That thing’s giving off massive amounts of subspace interference.”
Sentry was trembling under her feet; an indication that somewhere far beneath her, the Wraith was tearing through the innards of the ship.
The thing below horrified her, but that wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part was that this was a horror that the rest of the galaxy would soon share.
