Legends of the Phoenix
- Thread starter Hawku
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Yep! Using a drawing tablet and STO backgrounds.
Author's notes: This continues in 2393 and continues an Omni story arc from my old chatfic episodes (yet to be rewritten in my Double Phoenix thread) as well being introduced in this thread in "Celestial Dynamics, Parts II & III". This was written in November 2024.
Star Trek: Phoenix-X
"Triple Phoenix, Part I"
Out in the flashy, bright, Antares sector, two engineers on the Beta Antares Shipyards took in the starship-bay-entering, well-used Nebula-class U.S.S. Phoenix.
"The number of adventures and illegal border crossings this Phoenix has been on is quite impressive," Fenwick realized while prepping the next, ready-to-be-named Sutherland-class starship. "Now it's time to retire the old and launch a brand new letter-affixed Phoenix ship."
But the console beeped in error during their registration process, prompting Engineer Tegarian to stop. "Wait a minute. This says there already are other Phoenix-ships in current, simultaneous service?"
"What!? How dare they disregard the one-at-a-time naming conventions of Starfleet?? Who came up with that, a bunch starship writer's room scribes with an incomplete grasp of reality?" Then, realizing his short existence, digressed, "Well, we still need to birth a Phoenix ship, per Beta Antares' struggling quota, so just patch up the old Nebula-class and punt her back out again. The exit fob will still count it."
Nodding, the two engineers quickly band-aided any border-caused hull fractures and tractor-repel-kicked the Nebula-class U.S.S. Phoenix back out into cold space: its cloth-swiped shell, momentarily twinkling off in the distance.
---
Meanwhile, out in the far-off Celes sector, the Prometheus-class U.S.S. Phoenix-X was shoved into unsolicited patrol. There, Commander Seifer sat diligently upon the Bridge.
"Look at us. Existing, despite all odds that recommend we don't," the Trill puffed in self-appreciation. "Briggs, have all cease-and-desist letters jettisoned out the airlock."
Briggs sifted through a giant sack of folded paper. "These are all addressed to the Captain of the Phoenix-X? But you're just a Commander?"
"I'll field that mismatch," came the transmitted reply from Admiral Cloud who was already on the view screen. "You see, even though any ranked officer in command of a starship is referred to as Captain, I enacted a court martial penalty directive that ensured Seifer was referred to as Commander at all times." After a beat, he erupted, "It's not that he doesn't deserve it, it's just that I don't know how to finish that sentence."
Seifer shrugged. "To be more specific, my genetically modified symbiont committed heinous violations and, independent of my body, tried to take over the ship with the old crew on several occasions."
"But, joined, you've proven excellent command and professional success," BOB interjected. "Curing the Traveling Link, suppressing the Fabrini Oracle, out-swindling Ardra's crew and stopping the interdimensional Hiss whose motivations and origins remain unexplored to this day."
Veker added, "Don't forget, restoring Covalescence, dodging Cardassian hunter probes and scaring off the Children of Khan in the most aggressively progressive cadence possible."
"What the hell, Commander? You haven't been submitting your reports!" realized the medium-heavy weight human. "I'm trapped in another Jellico 'get it done' conference but, when I'm out, I want your self-assessment for rank-up right away— and don't be a Riker-rank-stiff copycat!"
After the screen clicked off, the Phoenix-X's long-range sensors alerted everyone to a distress signal. "It's from the planet Arloff IX. They're in a civil war and are asking for Federation assistance, but," Lieutenant Tong winced in mid-report, "I can sense their enemy?"
"Phew. The perfect distraction from my thing," Seifer relaxed. "FYI, I always turn down Betazoid transfer requests because I know you have us covered in the extrasensory department." Then, switching, he ordered, "Hachi, set a course. Transwarp!"
---
A few moments later, the Phoenix-X dropped back out into normal space and took orbit of Arloff IX. An away team beamed to a variably clouded surface, to an open field between two towns, with an Arloffian group on one side facing an Omni group on the other, and several men and women, from both, hand-to-hand power-fighting in the middle.
"Thank you for coming, Commander," the Arloffian leader, Remmel, greeted during the commotion, whilst wrapped in highly infused cybernetics. "Our world has been illegally joint-colonized by a group of Omni, claiming borders and sovereignties aren't relevant." He then scrambled, "They're totally relevant!"
Seifer did a double-take. "Wait— what? What the hell did you do to your bodies?"
"Upgrades in order to match the existential threat of an invasive supernatural jerk-people," said the Arloffian Defense Chief and lead fighter, Lesandra, bearing a mechanically coiled abdomen and arms as she used them to suddenly deflect and power-knock an enemy away. "Being chock full of strength is my weakness now."
Veker interjected, "Since I was a sheltered lower decks Ensign on one of those upper-lower-middle Parliament-class starships during the Omni rise, can someone please explain to me what the Omni are?"
"The Omni are random mortals, plucked throughout the Milky Way by former Q, who were momentarily given and taken away partial omnipotent power, and now grow it independently within themselves," Seifer explained. "Like they were impregnated in the most Trip Tucker way."
BOB nodded. "Like the previous scheme, it's their hope now to gain enough of their omni power to join their own non-corporeal Continuum."
An energized Omni named Muko was speed-knocked, from the distant battle, over to them before interjecting, "Exactly right! Some would equate us to a religion, except our beliefs are verifiable fact as you can see by the energy flowing from my fist." The enhanced human then clenched in demonstration before engaging said fist in hand-to-hand combat with Lesandra. "That, and our Talarian leader and Risen One, Rein, actively awaits us in our velvety-roped ethereal realm."
"So, you guys can actually control your powers?" Tong approached as Lesandra was knocked away into the distance. The Lieutenant then clenched his own fist and showed his own flow of strange energies. "I got mine years ago, differently, through illicitly forced means, and have been trying to understand it ever since."
Muko nodded as he accepted the fight invitation and engaged Tong in an exchange of punch after block after kick. "We work, every day, through meditation and combat practice to accomplish level-ups and various key achievement unlocks to our personal advancement. We're not there yet, but the Arloffians are correct in their assessment of our Omni border indifference as we don't see the Universe in pedestrian terms."
"I may not be the same type of powered-individual as you, but maybe your success means I could achieve the same control, albeit without the megalomaniacal disregard, through my own foundational training?" Tong realized as he was power-kicked back several meters. "Just no training ships like the Prodigy, Valiant or Enterprise-refit, please."
The Omni smiled before blasting a beam of energy at Tong. "We love training! But not with you." After Tong was flung even further back, Muko realized his own body began to involuntarily energize. Then every other Omni on the battleground did the same. "What the—? Clearly, the opposite of control happens when a powered-individual's specter is interfered with by foreign anomaly."
"I get it! There have to be caveats," Tong pleaded, scrambling off the ground as Muko was reflexively floated away. "Things get wild when one or more Worfs parallel in the same Type-6 shuttle!"
As Muko next clutched his head in struggle, the aura of energy around all the Omni intensified enough to divert them all from their individual fistfights, allowing the cybernetically enhanced Arloffians and Starfleet away team a moment to observe the unwarranted extravaganza.
"This is why we're as border czar-zy as the Romulans who, for some reason, became as such after keeping to themselves for five decades," Remmel argued at the display before them. "This unforeseen, highly energized state of Omnis poses an intensified threat to anybody who's anybody."
BOB stepped up, intervening. "As a cybernetically-integrated individual myself, I can tell the power within your artificial enhancements has, by extended proximity, now amplified the Omni."
"It's throwing their balance off, as well as mine?" Tong observed as energy began to flow from his arms. "I'm like a Kelpien with no Ba'ul."
Remmel checked his data bangle. "I am not seeing any issues with the negative energy we use to power our cybernetic upgrades." He shook it and stopped. "Perhaps this is an inherent Omni defect many should be wary and xenophobic towards? Xenophobia for everyone!"
"The only wary people should be is to your enabled bigotry," Seifer countered. "Leave it in your quarters— if your housing is structured that way— There's no room for it on the Bridge— if you think of this wide-open field as a type of land bridge."
Veker walked over with his tricorder. "What the Commander is trying to say is, negative energy appears to be a clear catalyst for powered individuals. You're causing this whilst immersing into cultural hostility."
"We're the problem? The we who were just sitting here until illegal settlement became apparent?" Remmel criticized. "This is our world, so why can't we power our cybernetics the way we want while burying ourselves in nationalistic bias? If I start walking and swinging my arms like this, and you get hit, that's your own fault!"
Seifer rolled his eyes as everyone slowly side-stepped out of the Arloffian's way. "Being encroached does not give you a terrible person pass, nor the right to also set up negative energy amplifiers around the battlefield," he revealed.
"It's called eleventh-hour tactics! The elevated threat is the whole reason we called you guys— For backup as well as enabling our confirmation bias," Lesandra argued, returning, as several large, mechanized energy boosters raised from the ground, around the several kilometer-wide circumference of the conflict zone, threating the Omni. "We really got into the tech stuff, by the way. I do a regular podcast about pioneering innovation and Borg reactions if you’d be willing to subscribe.”
Commander Seifer did a double-take before waxing, "You know it was Nietzsche who said whoever fights monsters should see to it they do not become a monster??" Then, to her blank stare, he waved it off. "Could have sworn the Federation forwarded all of its philosopher material to every world."
He then went over to the cluster of suspended, hovering and glowing Omni.
"Hey, are you guys alright?" Seifer asked. "As far as invadees go, the Arloff people leave much to be desired. Can I get you trespasser-themed blankets or offender-type hot cocoa?"
"You do realize we're the intrusion, right? That victimhood belongs to the victims?" a hovering Muko inquired after snapping out of his powered-daze and menacingly descended himself to the ground. "Oh, right. Starfleet considers the enemy as moral grey areas to be Picardly understood and sympathized."
Tong then surprise-sped-forced over to deliver a return-punch unto a blocking Muko. Seifer answered, whilst observing their close-by strike-and-block exchange, "Yup! Also, our withdrawn Captain was once an Omni too. Now that we are Captainless, you can otherly-plain, remote-tap his command insight."
"Also, I will prove to you that I'm train-worthy," Tong inserted as Muko then powered up and launched jabbing fists at both Tong and Seifer; an energized left arm at Tong and a normalized right arm at Seifer. "I'm literally the perfect Nog and/or Naomi Wildman."
The Commander blocked and force-palmed Muko's right fists as much as a mere mortal could. "Not that we're here to make state issues personal ones. Oh, forget it. We totally are doing that."
Muko left-arm-blasted another energy beam at Tong who, this time, blocked with energized forearms. "Individual motivation informs group change. I get that," Muko observed. "But we Omni are aware of the territorial incursions we contract, bearing apathy for those territories' grouped mortal infestations as we look down upon populaces like bugs on hovercar windshields." Using an open right palm, Muko blocked a phaser beam from Seifer. "But as said incursions are temporary, and our several-decades-long ascent only sure, like us, you should seek the self in your rank-quest."
Tong then revved up as much Esper energy as he could, albeit fractional compared to the Omni.
"Ew! But not you. You're more like a cringe-induced Neelix to us," Muko recoiled a few seconds before the Arloffian negative energy boosters increased every Omni's power-up enough to glow-up the ground. Muko became re-entranced with the other tranced Omni to both Seifer and Tong's surprise.
An unexpected, kilometer-energized-circle of a complex alien symbol, next, began to reactively light below the battlefield and its hovering Omni, indicating an ancient structure of some kind beneath the dirt.
"This platform pre-dates the Arloffian inhabitants, Commander," came the sudden over-the-air hail from an unknown man as a cylindrical stone artifact ejected from the ground, near the team. "Sorry. I exposition when I'm mission-engaged. I am Captain Rujon Navarro of the U.S.S. Phoenix-H, and that artifact is to come with me."
Seifer did a triple-take as the highly inscribed stone cylinder energized, draining the Omni of their powers, before it and several Omni were beamed off the planet. "Hold on a second. Your ship is the— what??"
"Uh, they're warped away now. They can't temper your reaction anymore," came the second orbital hail, this time from Lieutenant Briggs upon the Bridge of the Phoenix-X. "Something about us being painfully out of the loop of ship naming conventions? Are they capitalizing on how many Enterprises there have been?"
The remaining Omni, now dimmed out of power, returned their feet to the ground, weaker than ever. "It would appear that mortals are indeed something in relation to infinity after all, despite what Philosopher Blaise Pascal said," Muko observed, looking at his drained hands near a Seifer shocked at said-Omni's philosophical output. Muko added, "We both need answers and our people back. We are now gods in need of a starship, Commander."
"Then, like the cyber-buffed Arloffians, improving the self for group change really is my rank quest," Seifer decided, slowly looking up from his misgivings with renewed drive while Tong stood nearby. "Call me Captain."
TO BE CONTINUED
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Thanks!
That explains why things have gotten so weird recently.... Thanks!! rbs
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Klingons are instigators.
Author's notes: Took me a bit, but finally finished this next part! Written in December 2024.
Star Trek: Phoenix-X
"Triple Phoenix, Part II"
The effervescent and prolonged Prometheus-class U.S.S. Phoenix-X sped through warp, through deep space, on a wish and a dream. Seifer collected several of his staff in his Ready Room.
"Sir, I think we're all in agreement here that you deserve Captaincy and you just taking it for yourself is, how they used to say, very ballsy," Briggs arbitrated. "Also, what does 'ballsy' mean?"
Seifer used carpenter's glue to attach a fourth pip to his uniform. "It's just a thing people like to focus on way more than they should. But you're right that I am taking a liberty here for several reasons; one of which is that you guys are owed a Captain."
"Being that I'm from the future, I don't actually remember you at that rank when I returned to the Phoenix-X from, what you have called, my 'frivolous galivanting'," BOB pondered. "Either the timeline is changed, or you get demoted again at some point. By the way, don't ask what happens to Kaelon II."
Tong stepped up. "Either way, we are grateful for the temporary up in status that puts us back a level above those Vancouver-class crews, let alone the questionable California-classes."
"Mr. Tong, your preoccupation with status is what is questionable at best, considering the actions you took upon Arloff IX in interfering with de-escalation efforts," Veker interjected.
The Esper-high human nodded. "I'll accept any disciplinary repercussions, as I was way out of line for reasons of excess personal ambiguity. But, if not, I hope my promise not to circumvent your command again, Captain, would suffice."
"I'll decide your temperament, Mister. But, in the meantime, I want to know what the hell is going on with that other ship? The Phoenix-H should not exist. It's us this far and no further!" Seifer looked around for a rifle for dramatic-throwing-intentions-into-little-ships but couldn't find any.
Veker handed him a PADD instead. "Technically, the Phoenix-X shouldn't exist either. We don't appear in most general database strings, unless directly queried, due to our special operational status as a transwarp development starship." He continued, "As we all know, every Phoenix-ship before us was wrecked in transwarp trials until us."
"Aw snap! This says the Phoenix-H was reconstructed after said-wreckings and relaunched as a Gagarin-class special operations starship, specializing in archaeology," Seifer read. "But, since we all operate within a thinly-veiled, one-level-down-Starfleet's-radar, they achieve the same autonomy that we do."
Gewdeque perked. "They're us, but for different reasons."
"I will not have this paralleling of starships," the new Captain continued. "You don't see multiple Enterprises or Voyagers floating about at the same time?"
Briggs shrugged. "You kind of do, if you count the Fleet Museum. The Saratoga has a whole compartment of stuffed self-variations in so much that they can't even close said-compartment's doors."
"Nacelles caught in other nacelles," Veker realized. "The point is, we're tracking the artifact-snatching Phoenix-H right now and should catch up with them soon. They have a lot of explaining to do, assuming they're as expositiony as we are."
Muko suddenly called over the comms. "Are you guys going to man your own Bridge at any point? Said-enemy vessel is coming into range and we Omni get antsy as randos in front of unlocked and restricted enemy ship controls."
---
As the senior staff evacuated for the Bridge, where several Omni were standing, Captain Night Seifer could feel his symbiont fluctuate momentarily within his abdomen. The Phoenix-X then dropped warp before the Ordek Nebula.
"Still no response to hails and they are approaching this random supernova remnant for some reason," Tong observed from sensor readings. "We could track them in it, but we'd have to stay close due to interference."
Muko observed nearby, "As I previously juxtaposed, you could be less cringeworthy had you any dominion over your abilities, including that to sense movements without the need for instruments."
"The proposal is this, Muko. We get your people back and you never return to Arloff IX, or any other inhabited planet without their consent again," Seifer negotiated. "The Cardassians did that on Bajor once and it was this whoooole thing."
Suddenly, they observed the Phoenix-H entering the Ordek Nebula, prompting the Phoenix-X to pursue course. "Aha! I see you're one of those persistent Commanders," came the onscreen hail from Captain Navarro, a Tiburonian male. "In that case, I must order you to desist and not interfere in our classified mission. Any further action will result in a defensive posturing from our vessel."
"It's Captain now, Navarro. So, I don't take orders from you, nor must I comply to an operation that conflicts with our efforts to secure the Arloffians," Seifer defied. "Also, Starfleet doesn't fire on Starfleet, so tell me again how kidnapping people is a mission objective?"
Navarro scoffed. "If you actually understood the concept of being a special operations vessel, you would know we execute our tasks in obfuscational silos, separate from relentless Starfleet virtuosity. Accountability is annoyingly constraining!"
"Except that's our whole thing? Not this multiple Phoenix-ships in service procession," Seifer struggled. "We seek out new life and boldly crash Enterprises for sequential letter progression."
The other Captain shook his head. "You don't even realize we're both part of the Phoenix Operations contingent, who don't wait for starship renewals and are here to facilitate Starfleet existence! Since we're achievable only through compartmentalization, if you interfere with one, we will get aggressive."
As the screen clicked off to the external view of the Gagarin-class Phoenix-H, the crew watched it fire a phaser at them and turn away, escaping deeper into the orange nebulous matter. "So, now we're universal-greeting-when-you-don't-like-someone-ing each other? Hachi, pursue course! Tong, hit them back."
"Recommend not getting destroyed like the Constellation, the Grissom, the Reliant, the Odyssey, or those Typhon Expanse Enterprise-D's," BOB insisted to Seifer and Tong as the Prometheus-class Phoenix-X became submerged in an orange and red wasteland of variable cloud clusters before said-Phoenix-X hit the other ship with a return phaser beam.
Both ships were suddenly engulfed in separate, fluctuating and stringy matter clusters as sensors became so blinded as to no longer detect either vessel. An intent suddenly reached out to anyone with extra-sensory perception, flinging Tong out of his tactical concentration. "Don't think we can promise that because this section of the nebula is basically some kind of sub-sentient, mindless entity."
"It's the Xeenar," Muko observed in awe. "The morphogenic matter organism that is basically half this nebula and feeds off stragglers. It evolved from the supernova material that expulsed this interstellar dust cloud. Your other Starfleet Captain must be on orders to siphon its multi-planar energy core."
The Phoenix-H shot itself out of its gas cluster and fired a scattered volley of photon torpedoes until one of them hit the hidden Phoenix-X. Seifer held on. "His abjection to our interference is about him feeding that artifact!"
"Then let's feed him projectiles," Tong suggested as the Phoenix-X also vapour-exited and traded photon torpedoes with the likewise-circling Phoenix-H before both ships hid themselves again in tendinous, gaseous matter. "Hope you guys liked my one-liner."
Briggs examined the ship's systems, as both vessels once again popped out and fired down shield ventral strengths until they hid again. "It was acceptable, but not as sustainable as this blind, no strategic whac-a-mole contest."
"We could increase our success rate in multi-vector mode," BOB suggested. "We'd be marginalized, but pliable, ungovernable targets with versatility."
Seifer arched a brow. "Mr. BOB, you're a clever Ferengi— in any time. Specifically, this time." Then he turned. "Tong, Briggs, initiate multi-vector mode! But not that wireless-controlled kind. What if there was a connection issue or signal-based interception?"
"Commencing common sense, sir!" the two men acquiesced in unison as they ran off the Bridge before the Phoenix-X shot out again, this time splitting into three separate modules: Seifer/Vector Alpha, Tong/Vector Beta and Briggs/Vector Gamma.
In response, the Phoenix-H flung out of clustered nebulae, spreading photons, but was quickly flanked by maneuvering Prometheus-class Vectors' Gamma and Alpha, whom tractor beam-held said Gagarin-class to a single trajectory. "Reporting a veritable 'gotcha' of bad guys," Briggs called. "Wait. Does that mean their Captain is the bad version of a badmiral? A badptian?"
"Whatever he is, he intends harm upon Ordek entities here-in," Tong cut, with intensifying mental distraction, as his Vector Beta swooped over and phasered through Gagarin-class shields until damaging its hull and primary systems. "And so did we! But against him, just to clarify."
Suddenly, spiraling clusters of controlled vapour moved themselves to cover both propelled-ships. Gewdeque called over open comms from Vector Gamma, "Reporting additional harm. The EPS conduits are draining while in these dust composites??"
---
Captain Rujon Navarro sat upon the Bridge of the damaged Gagarin-class Phoenix-H, looking around at their predicament.
"Our Kahn-style surprise fight is being preempted with seizures and who-knows how many taglines from that other crew," he realized. "Don't tell me the Xeenar is feeding off us like we're Wogneer creatures?"
Selene Atlas turned from her Science console. "You can't make us not-report things, Captain. Also, it's that. It's very much that." She gestured. "Maybe if we weren't firing on our own people, we could work together?"
"That is a terrible suggestion! Autonomy is the pinnacle of narrow scoped achievement," Navarro countered. "Except when it comes to the Omni. Once those in our possession plus the Xeenar charge the ancient artifact, we will return to Starbase 103. Kenshin, abandon this fight and take us to the singularity. Post-haste!"
The Phoenix-H burned off the tractor, exited its unsolicited cover and darted off into the distance. Every clutch of the self-governing Xeenar matter, momentarily slowed its progression and maneuverability. Kenshin observed, "Apparently haste is not on the menu, Captain."
---
Meanwhile, the Phoenix-X recombined all its vectors and continued, fast, dodging strand after strand of nebulous matter in chase.
"Records show that medium-sized starships replicate the appearance of the Wogneer creatures, that of which are typically food for the Xeenar," Veker explained, holding a PADD.
Seifer nodded. "By the way, didn't Picard risk his life to protect the Wogneer creatures once? How did he handle it? Seems awfully vague and random, no?"
Veker looked more into the PADD before learning, "Wait a minute. Picard just bored the nebula with a long speech?" The crew turned to Captain Seifer at that.
"Of course. Brilliant! A main skillset of any Starfleet Captain is to tedium an enemy into submission," Sefier gritted as he stood from his chair and Tong took his station. "Tong, open a channel. To the Xeenar: This is Captain Seifer of the Phoenix-X. Long ago, the great whales of Earth would mouth-gape various water-bound Pinocchio's who, themselves, were a preemptive Data's with no strings—"
But, he suddenly felt the crunch of his reactive symbiont, struggling with Captaincy within his abdomen before it sent him to his chair.
"Ugh!"
Tong took command as Doctor Xyrenia was called to the Bridge. "The Seifer symbiont is trying to no-string itself from its host body," Xyrenia reported. "Becoming Captain must be ego-driving it to madness."
"Damn. And it seems we have our own disquietness to contend with," Tong turned as they followed the Phoenix-H into a sudden open area where they found a condensed, white singularity presiding: The core of the Xeenar.
Briggs entered the Bridge as Tong looked on in awe with the consciousness of the nebula entity became more and more clear to him. The U.S.S. Phoenix-H swooped around and began siphoning power from its nucleus into its deflector, then into the artifact.
"This area is like a blind spot to this divine, god-like thing, and it has no idea what's happening to it," Tong realized. "It's as victimized as I was when I was lured and pushed into the Galactic Barrier that created my own powers."
Briggs replied, "Hey man, what they did to you was not cool."
"At the very least, I can now sense the nebula entity better here and all I had to do was persevere in myself to achieve personal potential." Tong shut his eyes into mental connection. "The Xeenar never wanted to harm the Wogneer creatures nor us, but any trajectories to its core are clear enough. It's just trying to protect itself and the Ordek Nebula. The food thing was secondary."
A controlled current of earned Esper energy suddenly began to flow along Tong's arms while the screen showed them swooping to a flanking position above the Phoenix-H, targeting its dorsal hull. "Then our motivation in stopping Captain Navarro expands to saving the Xeenar as well," Briggs reveled as they began phaser hitting the Phoenix-H's EPS layout.
"Exactly! And, to aid in that, I can influence the entity to help disrupt the artifact storage," Tong added, opening his palm straight. He then stopped the ship to call upon several nebulous matter streams to converge upon the Phoenix-H. Suddenly, Muko stepped up.
The Omni looked upon the situation and Tong's Esper advancements. "We were wrong about you, Tong. Your abilities do have relevance." He then launched a tendril of his own siphoning energy at the Lieutenant Commander. "You see, the Tkon site on Arloff IX was the perfect growth soil for us, after having struggled as a group for so long. But your Starfleet high-roading is more revelatory to me than you intended, as I now see other maturation options."
"Uggh! What!?" Tong fell to his knees, clutching his head at this disruption. Muko completed his absorption and then ran off the Bridge with the other Omni, confused. Tong gritted, "Of course. The artifact is Tkon in origin."
The Phoenix-H dropped its beam in disablement as the Phoenix-X ceased its attacks and the matter streams dissipated. Muko leapt right into cold space, toward the Xeenar singularity core. There, he restarted the siphoning but, instead, all of it into himself.
"Getting some strange readings! The nebula is decreasing in density! Like a failing of its existence," Veker reported from science. "Its negative mass is now self-moving passed the damaged shields of the Phoenix-H, and into the ship??"
Seifer groggily awoke and struggled to pinch off the extra glued pip before finally throwing it across the Bridge. Xyrenia helped him to his feet. "That's a hell of a lot of events at once," Seifer observed. "Guess I'm back to Commander too."
"Phoenix-X, this is the now more self aware Xeenar," came the sudden hail of the body-possessed Captain Navarro as a secondary screen showed the now-powered-up Muko sending himself into an escape warp. "I have taken control of this Phoenix-H crew and must pursue the nefarious being that has stolen my surplus power. Do not interfere. Do not pass GO. Do not attempt to Picard me to sleep with one of those unending speeches."
The screen clicked off to a view of the now half-dense Ordek Nebula. The Phoenix-H turned and jumped to warp moments before another starship approached: A Federation Discovery-class vessel.
"This is Captain Daphne Armstrong of the U.S.S. Phoenix-J," came a new hail. "We were so lost in the nebulous mist and now, suddenly, we can see where we're going. And, as part of that sight, can see you copying our ship name??"
Seifer gawked in awe of what he was looking at, before recalling and realizing, "Bloody hell. Phoenix Operations is a real thing."
TO BE CONCLUDED
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Thanks for the read!
Author's notes: This took me way longer, but glad I was able to finally complete this. Written in March 2025.
Star Trek: Phoenix-X
"Triple Phoenix, Part III"
The senescent and long-in-the-tooth Prometheus-class U.S.S. Phoenix-X sat in the nearly dissipated Ordek Nebula as its Discovery-class counterpart, the U.S.S. Phoenix-J, had approached. Seifer and Tong met its commanding officer in her Ready Room.
"This can't be real. Two Phoenix-ships at the same time? I'm seeing double!" reacted an eye-testing Captain Daphne Armstrong as she looked out at the other vessel from her window.
Seifer deadpanned her. "It's only in name and we're completely different classes. Never mind. The concept of simultaneously named ships is as new and repulsive to me as it is to you. For, you see, apparently there are others like us all functioning in operational silos."
"Starfleet isn't even cognizant of this, are they?" the Tyrakhean Captain realized before shaking her head out of it. "It's our cliché, special operations status. It's been so done to death, they wouldn't even want to know. Which explains why our mission details to recall a Federation starship, here, were mired in redacted black marker."
Tong glanced through her episode PADD. "It's weird how they can't just delete typed text? Anyway, it's more obvious you were after the Phoenix-H, who was on their own mission to acquire a Tkon energy-siphoning battery, to drain the Xeenar's power core."
"It's admirals working against admirals," came the sudden revelation from Fleet Admiral Rebola stepping out of a shadowy corner. "Being promoted to our level is an automatic conflicting of higher-ups."
Armstrong jumped in pure shock. "Ahh! Admiral Rebola? You were on my ship the whole time??"
"I've been over-the-top side-questing with your lower deckers all day," Rebola admitted. "Also, it was I who previously coordinated and reassigned all launched Phoenix-ships to every corner of Starfleet on orders to engage in non-exploratory, Federation-protecting missions. But, the years since the attack on Mars, when Starfleet pulled its virtuous ambitions, Phoenix-ships have become redundant in a way the admirals in charge have been upping their malfeasance just to make them make sense."
Seifer double-taked. "So, we're all just in a constant state of justification??"
"For the admiral overseeing the Phoenix-H, yes, as his intent was for Captain Navarro to rip open the galactic barrier and force all of us to explore the extragalactic void," she added. "And, as I said, exploration is no longer a Federation mission. Don't you dare seek out new life and new civilizations. I'm warning you!"
Armstrong nodded. "According to Seifer, that other Captain's crew has become possessed by the Xeenar, so machinations of galactic destruction should be as null as desired."
"Then, I've got bad news for you guys," Tong sighed. "As I was once endowed heightened Esper power from said-galactic barrier, Muko now desires the same type for himself. Long-range sensors indicate he's headed in the direction of said-barrier."
"Technically, since the barrier surrounds the galaxy, all ships head in the direction of the barrier," Seifer calculated. "Also, that barrier makes no sense. I thought we were ignoring it?"
Rebola snapped. "Shut up!" Then, calming, "We need to catch up with that Omni. Does the Phoenix-X still have those extra transwarp coils from that one time you supported the Unreliable?"
"They're in a half-torn cardboard box in the corridor behind my Bridge," Seifer recalled. "We'll send one over to the Phoenix-J so you guys can follow us into a conduit. But, be forewarned, we left them near a radiator, so they may be hot."
---
Later, with both the Phoenix-X and Phoenix-J speeding through a transwarp conduit, Seifer found Tong fitting himself into an EV suit in the Armory.
"Oh, no you don't," the Commander denounced. "You think you're going out into cold space to stop that obsessed Muko, hand-to-hand, don't you?"
Tong put his gloves on, more certain than ever. "Hell yes, Commander. That specific Omni represents everything I hate about over-powered people: The superior, opportunistic power-mongering grin-fest that comes with a side of smirk. My own pure, revenge-based ambition will re-up the power I've lost enough to defeat him."
"Re-upping is great," Seifer momentarily conceded. "But you're attempting to accelerate through years of growth as much as Muko is, just to stop him? It was Lao Tzu who said that nature does not hurry."
The human clenched his fist. "Sir, you tried ascending to Captaincy with every best natural intention and virtue possible, only to be maligned by your own Seifer symbiont. If that has taught me anything, it's that we need to fortify our strength from within to fight from without."
"I may be crippled by rank-based self-corruption, but we can't let those things define our intentions," Seifer countered. "Within is the right approach, but I won't join hubris just to defeat it. You're deep-ending pretension without temperament. As your commanding officer, I order you to stand down so we may proceed with a crew approach."
Tong thought for a moment. "You know I'll have your back, sir. But I have to do this."
But, before Seifer could respond, the Phoenix-X suddenly shook from phaser fire after it and the Phoenix-J dropped transwarp to normal space.
---
There, the two vessels were confronted with the Phoenix-H, whom was in view of several broken planetary chunks, cracked and half-clustered into the highly, negatively energized galactic barrier. Seifer entered the Bridge of the Phoenix-X.
"It appears a rogue planet has collided and become stuck at the edges of the energy field," Veker reported in awe from Science. "Detecting traces of charged iron and silicon materials. Surface-level, its mineral composition matches that of the Ordek Nebula?"
Suddenly, a hail broke through from the Phoenix-H, showing the Xeenar-possessed Captain Navarro. "What the hell? Did you not listen to my orders to not-interfere? Unless you are a Wogneer creature, I do not want to see you." He licked his lips. "Oh, those guys are tasty, no matter what Picard said that one time."
"Ew. Also, you do know we have an order-based architecture, but within our own ranks only, right?" Seifer levelled. "As part of that, I've ordered my crew to collectively feel terrible about what Starfleet and the Omni did through robbing you of your energy core."
Navarro-Xeenar replied, "After possessing this crew, I've come to know all about your Phoenix Operations and its intermittent contradictions within your Starfleet. It's this whole redundant thing! Like, how many covert espionage groups do you need? And don't get me started on your Section 31."
"Yeah, we're in our clandestine-obsessed era with dark lighting for emphasis," the Commander shrugged. "It's dark for darks sakes, but that doesn't mean we can't back-track to our ethical, moral-based roots. What I'm saying is, if you unpossess the Phoenix-H, we can work together to stop Muko."
The possessed Tiburonian scoffed. "Unfortunately, unpossessing without a sufficient power source would dissipate my consciousness entirely. I must transform that Omni or, even better, generate a new source from the convergence. Your people will be fine. Well, Pike-in-a-wheelchair-fine." He then looked away. "It's poetic we're here, actually, as this world used to orbit the Ordek system before the supernova. We were a good people before the Tkon."
"Wait. What!?"
Navarro-Xeenar snapped out his reverie. "Well, that's enough of your traditional expositioning. Xeenar out!"
The screen clicked off to an external view of everything and they watched the Phoenix-H impulse into the chaos of intersecting planetary debris. "Okay, I have soooo many questions," Seifer blinked. "Not the least of which is that apparently this intersection is a more tantalizing source of omnipotent power?"
"That's the gist of it, Commander," Briggs approached with a PADD. "In fact, my hippie-teens-in-a-van-style sleuthing has produced evidence Tong was brought here, before, under something classified called Project Esper. They threw their subjects into the barrier's modified energy field."
Seifer gritted his teeth. "Damn. He never wanted to talk about how he got those powers, and now we learn it's because Starfleet did this to him all along."
"Not just any Starfleet," Briggs added as he motioned to the Phoenix-J suddenly impulsing itself toward the chaos as well; its deflector powering up for a particle expulsion. "The project was under Admiral Rebola. She's hard-forcing all kinds of dangerous exploration."
BOB approached in shared realization. "Rebola trickled down her orders to the Phoenix-H to have the Omni/Xeenar-powered Tkon artifact tear open the barrier. Being the barrier expert, she must've been stowing on the Phoenix-J in case someone like us interfered."
"It would appear we are a wrench in some kind of evil cog," Veker added. "To that end, I believe if we begin a flood of the converging parts of the Ordek planet with positive energy, based on inversing Arloff generator calculations, and from highly charged phasers, we will enact a chain reaction of cauterizing the ethereal tear."
Seifer nodded in understanding. "Thereby ending its power availability to Muko and Xeenar and its simultaneous tear-open-potential to Rebola."
"The first two I get but, in the Admiral's case, don't we want to be explorers?" Hachi turned, confused.
The Commander calmed. "Ships have gotten through the barrier before, including us, but hers and Phoenix Operations have proven reckless thus far with the Omni and Xeenar, and this is no different. We should be informed by science, not selfishness. That being said, we have to split vectors to slow both Phoenix-ships' approach while mending said convergence."
"What about that Omni guy?" Briggs remembered.
Seifer this time motioned to the screen showing a man in an environmental suit power-leaping through space and pushing off Ordek planetary rock after rock. "Tong is on it."
---
With the Phoenix-X splitting into three vectors, Tong continued on in chase of Muko, both revving up their powers the closer they got to the energized rocks.
"I'm impressed, Starfleet, that you've made this unsuspecting Esper power so tantalizing," Muko touted in cold space on a frequency picked up by Tong's comms. "As Omni powers are Q-based, we have little appreciation for foreign types. They basically tell us to abhor the Travelers."
The enemy picked up a chunk of rock and threw it behind him at Tong, prompting Tong to dodge in mid-jump and throw one back. "Your attempts at ascension are despicable, Muko. How does insincerity even open the doors to divination? Isn't god-hood merit-based?"
"Ha! The natural universe does not respond to good or evil as you mortals see it," Muko gawked as they both landed on a large planetary rock, with its midsection lit up by its convergence with the edge of the barrier energies. "Those concepts are mortal constructs in that anyone with enough neural apotheosis can achieve a transcendent state. Just look at that Will Decker guy! Ugh."
Tong energized himself and sped toward Muko, close range, prompting them to exchange block after kick after deflection after punch. "No! I refuse to believe even my own power-transgression would qualify as prosperity."
"Every achiever knows it doesn't matter how you succeed, as long as you Khan your way into your shall haves," Muko gritted as his forearm crossed Tong's and Muko power-blasted the contact. "So, join me in our Continuum, Mr. Tong. You would be more welcome than a Kes hopped up on Badgeys!"
---
Nearby, Phoenix-X Vector Beta was chasing and phasering the Gagarin-class Phoenix-H as they both passed several large rock structures. Briggs stood at Battle Bridge Beta during all the chaos.
"Dear possessive Xeenar entity, you must release your hostages and cease this attempt at siphoning the barrier convergence," the Silver Blood pleaded. "Trust me, bro. I get it. You think this unlimited power excrement will make up for lost endeavours."
The Phoenix-H returned aft phasers as they sped along a line of one of many intersections of giant planetary rocks, half-stuck out of the barrier energy. "You assume too much, creature! But, yeah, spot on, and just exactly the right amount. Indeed, we were a civilization to be held and after we were enveloped by that supernova, its strange energies caused everyone's consciousnesses to become me."
"So, now you think having a more powerful core will compensate said loss," Briggs finished. "The Arloffians over-cybernetified themselves in the face of the Omni only to nearly become unrecognizable. Also, I over-played my hand in No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker once."
With the Gagarin-class ship moving along, it dodged a torpedo and then snapped a transfer beam from its deflector into the barrier energy, beginning its acquisition of ethereal energy. "Those are all excellent examples, but I had this vessel's Starfleet engineers confirm a new, more powerful core would re-individualize the Ordek civilization back again! I'll just need more people to overwrite. You in? You... you want in on this?"
---
At the same time, the Discovery-class Phoenix-J was parallel-speeding with Phoenix-X Vector Alpha; the two, trading phaser fire, front, back and centre.
"This is madness, Admiral," Seifer declared upon his Bridge. "You don't honestly think it's safe to tear open the galactic barrier for exploration of the extragalactic void? It's full of nothing??"
The Phoenix-J dodged fire and sliced its own charged deflector beam into the crevices of the energized rocks. The tears in the barrier began to open wider. "I didn't jump-start Phoenix Operations just to redundant itself into boring defensive patrols. Our continuing mission is to seek out new special reconnaissances and new foreign counterterrorisms. To boldly insurgence where no warfare has infiltrated before!"
"By the twang of McCoy's southern accent, you're forcing inter-galactic conflict over this spatial event so Starfleet has more special operations," Seifer realized. "Like, some kind of Georgiou/Reed fanatic, nose-deep in Luther Sloan."
As Phoenix-X Vector Alpha hit a photon onto the side of the Phoenix-J, the jerking forced Admiral Rebola to brace her seat. "This isn't just about justifying our existence, Commander. This is who we are. We're an exploratory, military hybrid with a side of subterfuge!"
---
Nearby, Phoenix-X Vector Gamma swooped in from afar where it had been mending the energy convergences with its positively charged phaser beams and taking readings. Lieutenant Commander Veker took command on Battle Bridge Gamma.
"Calling all extraneous Phoenix-X vectors. The configurations are confirmed to be reversing the barrier damage," the Kelpien reported as waves of god energy erupted from the beams and dissipated into nothingness. "Science! Also, just don't get any of that Gary Mitchell in your eyes."
One of the dissipating waves hit the Phoenix-H as it and a chasing Phoenix-X Vector Beta passed, angling the Phoenix-H's aft port quarter thrusters to be phasered out, sending it suddenly spinning into a large chunk of rock. "My eyes see nothing but arrogance against the Ordek existence! You're getting a terrible one-star review from me, Starfleet," cursed the Navarro-Xeenar hybrid over comms. "And no tip!"
"If you're talking hubris, we Omni are owed as such, for ascension is a dish best served nonsensically," a tired Muko cried as several of his lasting punch redirects were circumvented by a force-palming Tong until Muko was sent ricocheting off the hull of said-stopped-Phoenix-H and into the hull of the passing Phoenix-X Vector Alpha.
The impact of the energized Muko unto the dorsal saucer of the Prometheus-class top-third caused its phasers to surge, mid-fire, upon the Phoenix-J, effectively disabling both vessels to Admiral Rebola's surprise. "Such predomination was deemed for Starfleet to lead the galaxy as a whole," she ranted. "We were to be exploratory gods! In theme!"
---
"Report!" Seifer called as lights flickered to dim and sparks flew in chaos over the Bridge of Phoenix-X Vector Alpha. "And would everyone please cease their maddening climbs of immediate supremacy??"
Elly grasped the edges of a hybrid console. "Shields, weapons and main power are down. Backup systems in effect." She looked up. "On the plus, Mr. Veker says he's mended the last of the barrier tears, effectively rendering future supremacies inert."
"Don't you dare pacify me, Lieutenant," Seifer warned. "Ensign Dan bajoran trove'd my symbiont once and it was this whole badly paced thing."
Suddenly, unable to self-control the revved Esper power within him, a glowy-eyed Tong leapt off his asteroid and propelled himself toward the slowly waking, hull-embedded Muko. BLAM!! The force of the impact punctured Phoenix-X Vector Alpha and the roof of the Bridge until both men landed to the floor, before Commander Seifer's boots.
"What in the name of Janeway turns??" the Trill double-taked as emergency forcefields quickly band-aided the ceiling from the vacuum of space. "Talk about badly paced things. The climax was over, Mr. Tong! You are ordered to stand down from this culminative action rehash."
Instead, a nearly-unawares, energy-flowing Lieutenant Commander Tong gritted his teeth over Muko and began chain punching faster than Muko could redirect. Tong spoke in a haunting chorus, "The Q and their Omni mules are nothing compared to Espers!!"
"Bad, tactical officer. Bad!" Seifer scolded while intercepting his-self to forearm-block between Tong and Muko causing him to suddenly absorb several tendrils of bridged omnipotent energy from the two demigods. Seifer, acting as a ground, then broke the energy bridge and unintentionally regurgitated a gravitic shockwave against them.
Tong and Muko were knocked back from a collapsing Seifer as their heightened energy flows then died down. "If it were me, I would have started with a phaser," Elly deadpanned as she ran over and checked on Tong. "Or a Klingon painstick? We still have a lot of those."
"Speaking of pain, the Commander is stable," Xyrenia observed after entering the Bridge, scanning and administering a hypo to Seifer. "But his Trill symbiont isn't giving off any significant readings."
After regaining self-awareness, Tong sat up and rubbed his head. "Oh, crap. I fell into a state of reckless omnipotent megalomania but, somehow, discovered it can reach levels higher than the Q? Dare I live out the American Dream?"
"You know very well that concept was deemed a hoax in the mid-2020s," Seifer scolded as he struggled to his feet and several security officers apprehended a weakened Muko. "They also proved inflated patriotism was the result of widespread tapeworms."
The screen then clicked on to a forced-hail from the Phoenix-H and its roughed up Xeenar-Navarro commanding officer. "Soooo, this is awkward. I'd like to go back to my original plan of restoring my Muko-stolen life core, please. I kind of got caught up in the whole accelerated ambition thing."
"Briggs reported you were going to permanently overwrite millions of people! Never mind. All Tongs considered, we get misguided initiatives." Seifer nodded to the security officers to send Muko over. "But, later, you're taking the longest Picard speech on body control ever. It has soooo many Troi possession references."
After delivery, the Phoenix-H worked to reboot itself. Next, the viewer blinked to a split-screen of Admiral Vincent Cloud's long-range Starbase 55 hail on the left and the disheveled Admiral Rebola's near-disabled Phoenix-J hail on the right.
"Where the hell are you?? I had to string this call through the MIDAS array, off thirteen pulsars and into a bunch of Hirogen rifles Jury-rigged into a single relay," Cloud complained. "I'm calling to tell you the Arloffians are inviting cohabitation with the Omni, as penance for their aggressiveness, if we agree to deliver their stolen Tkon artifact to the Arloff Museum."
Rebola perked. "So they can venerate the ancient civilization responsible for the Ordek Nebula, the Xeenar and this planet? Well, I guess so."
"Admiral Rebola? You weren't utilizing Phoenix Operations to rip open the galactic barrier, were you?" Cloud realized. "You know there are evil entities trying to get in!"
The woman just waved him off. "Oh, like the Milky Way doesn't have enough of its own god-people who could handle them; my own projects notwithstanding. Get yourself an imagination, Vincent." Then, turning to Seifer, she said, "Pleasure doing business with you again. We'll keep in touch." Rebola then clicked off and the Phoenix-J regained its power before jumping to warp.
"I'll be ignoring her calls. Also, you knew about her illicit endeavours of other Phoenix-ships in simultaneous, blasphemous service and didn't tell me, didn't you?" Seifer deadpanned to Admiral Cloud. "Not that it matters now since my symbiont demoted me from those clearance levels."
Xyrenia approached. "Actually, my readings suggest the Seifer symbiont is now locked in a frozen state since you intercepted that Esper/Q energy convergence. It should revert on its own but, in a week, in several years; it's impossible to know."
"That explains why I can't remember any of my past host's fraud and anti-Union labour transgressions," the Trill realized. "It's like I'm one of those one-lifers the Dax symbiont used to go on about."
Cloud sat up. "Wait a minute. If it was your symbiont preventing your rank-up, this frozen situation could allow you to retain said Captain status. With it out of commission, it can't stop you— That is, until such time the Seifer symbiont unfreezes."
"Fascinating work around," Seifer pondered along. "Maybe the time I spend as Captain, even temporarily, could curtail any future repellant."
Suddenly, an unkempt Klingon exchange officer, Lieutenant Kortos, beamed onto the Bridge and aimed a KDF disruptor right at Seifer's neck. Unprovoked, he aggressively fired a rank pip into the Trill's collar, sending Seifer to the floor. "Congratulations, Captain," Kortos said before slinging his rifle against his shoulder and strolling off to the turbolift.
"I set that up with him," Cloud admitted. "He was adamant the pip came from a previous casualty. Anyway, if you ever see any other Phoenix-letter'd ships out there, you are to purge all scans and medically erase its knowledge from all your minds. Phoenix ships are to remain in mysterious compartmentalized silos!"
---
Later, as a reassembled Phoenix-X and a coiled Phoenix-H were at transwarp, Captain Seifer was alone, staring out a darkened Conference room window until Lieutenant Commander Tong entered.
"Sir, I'm turning myself in for disobeying direct orders and engaging in enviable powered-person combat," Tong started. "Also, that whole thing I did to your symbiont. Are you sure you don't want me to try to reverse it?"
The temporary Captain held up a halting palm. "Doctor Xyrenia says any ethereal tampering could inverse me into a giant slug with the host on the inside. Besides, your accelerated leap into Zeus-dom actually helped me, despite looking aggrandizingly ostentatious."
"I knew defeating Muko and becoming better would be at a cost but hadn't anticipated my ambitions as a threat to others," Tong appended. "Sometimes, our sacrifices are more reckless than we realize."
Seifer looked stern. "Admiral Rebola wouldn't let you achieve it any other way. Seeing yourself through that was the real power. Also, on behalf of the crew, we're glad to have you back." Then he took a breath. "So, what say you we put a nebula entity back into its Ordek home?"
"I can wave my hands and fan him out like this," Tong demonstrated to an agreeing Captain. "We just have to be careful not to inhale him."
Seifer snapped his fingers. "Nose plugs!" Nodding, the two left for the Bridge as both the Phoenix-X and Phoenix-H dropped back out into normal space and approached the Ordek Nebula.
THE END
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Thanks!
That's a Shakespearian technique: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red"
Say it in Latin, then again in plain English... Thanks!! rbs
Ha!
Fun!
I have a friend online who asked if there was a word for an old friend that you've never met before. I replied, 'neosenipal'.
It's literally Greek for new old friend.
But, here's an example of an old new friend; a 'senineopal'.
-Will
Fun!
Hilarious concept, that. Maybe you should do it. A new, old member of the crew. No other ship in star fleet will have a host on the inside of the symbiotic.
I have a friend online who asked if there was a word for an old friend that you've never met before. I replied, 'neosenipal'.
It's literally Greek for new old friend.
But, here's an example of an old new friend; a 'senineopal'.
-Will
Oh, that's awesome. Never realized I was being Shakespearian. I guess I get him now. lol
Thank you for the read! Hahah, I really should. Even though I wrote the concept, I still have no idea how it would work. Does the buried host breathe out of a straw?Ha! Fun!
Love that!
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Author's notes: This was written as part of the Trek BBS March/April 2025 Challenge and takes place in 2393.
Trek BBS: March/April 2025 Challenge
"Time Travel: Chrono Triggered"
The Prometheus-class U.S.S. Phoenix-X backed off from the Ordek Nebula as its Xeenar entity was returning to refill its volume back to what it was before. A small, energized orb of energy was ejected slowly out and toward the ship.
"Dear Phoenix-X crew," the Xeenar's voice echoed. "Whenever my kind re-enters non-corporeal existence, we shed an excess of temporal material, like a terribly constructed Guardian of Forever, with pieces falling all over the place."
Captain Seifer blinked from his chair upon the Bridge. "Ew. Also, are there people out there building those? Imagine the paradoxical toolboxes?"
"You get it. You know about being a handyman, but in a time travel sense," the entity unified. "The point being, our kind usually just shoots these into unsuspecting populated planets but, since I know you Starfleet types absolutely love time travel stuff, I am gifting you mine, as thanks for returning me to an existence of Wogneer creature hunting. Ohhh, I could go for one of those, especially knowing that your Picard remains retired."
As the communication disconnected, the exterior view of the nebula switched to a close-up shot of the moving white temporal orb. "A free time travel pass?" Briggs queried from operations. "Can we go to the future and see if any of us ranked up?"
"Whoa, whoa. We have to use it for good and stop Romulus from being destroyed," Hachi turned from helm. "Or, at least Mars from being on fire."
Tong perked from tactical. "Good is subjective. We should use it strike known targets in the Dominion War. Surely the Seventh Fleet could use some advance non-explodey help."
"I'd suggest fixing continuity errors on some past vessels like the Discovery or the NX-01. Prime Georgiou did not need to be killed. Also, did Pike's Enterprise have gaps in its pylons or not?" Veker criticized from science.
Seifer rolled his eyes. "The timeline is already messed up. Were the Gorn lumbering strong men or vicious egg-burying raptors?" he added in seemingly support. "What I mean is, if we use this, the Temporal Integrity Commission will be on us like a dentist to a grishnar cat."
"The Captain is right," Gewdeque defended, entering the Bridge from Engineering. "The last thing we need is to cause an alternate reality of non-stop fast-paced action, lens flares and blindingly white Bridges. Time travel has been an endless easy-out."
Xyrenia crossed her arms, interrupting her medical attention to an unconscious officer. "Can we please stop bringing up that life-reversing, nonsensical timeline? Ethical protocol should be more than enough to stop us from Na'khul-ing ourselves into Nazi America."
"You both are drawing the same conclusion," Seifer finalized. "Time is an easy twist until it’s a chaotic Loom-hungry Protostar chase. Let's send this McGuffin-fueled racquetball back to the nearest probability-infused planet."
Everyone nodded in agreement but, before the Phoenix-X could do anything, the slow approach of the temporal energy neared so close, its bright flash filled the screen. "Captain, we took too long talking and skipped right to the point in time where it's too late to do anything!" Hachi pointed as the ball hit the Prometheus-class ship and engulfed it in a temporal transfer.
"Wait. Is doing nothing a form of time travel??" Seifer blurted as the Phoenix-X suddenly flashed to another time. "Or, is time travel a form of time travel? Report!"
Tong checked the starcharts. "According to this, we're ten minutes into the future. The Phoenix-H, finally exiting the nebula, left a warning beacon and an annoyed message that they could not find us anywhere for wrap-up scenes."
"Oh. Well, that was a waste," Seifer drooped. "I kind of would have been okay with a First Contact Borg thing, a trial of tribblations or something hilarious in Roswell, New Mexico."
Veker tapped a nearby screen which was blinking 12:00. "You may get something after all, sir. It looks like all our onboard clocks were reset to factory defaults. They're all stopped and flashing twelve?"
"What? You mean we can't see what time it is? We have to fix this," the Captain added in sudden panic as he tried to adjust his own chair arm screen. "You guys have to hold the clock button and then keep tapping the minute button!"
Briggs scrambled at his console. "We're trying, sir. It's impossible to maintain simultaneous taps with multiple fingers, causing us to have to start all over again? And that blinking 12:00 is so distracting! Why are we still on digital in this century??"
"No, no, no," Seifer shook, unable to get a control of his time interface either. "Admiral Nechayev was going to call me at a certain time today and I wanted to make sure I sent it to voicemai—"
But it was too late and the screen clicked on to an older woman, looking down upon the Phoenix-X like they were a complete nothing. "You! Explain your pointless vessel! And what the hell is with all your illegal space-time violations??"
"Uggh," Seifer slumped, giving up and in trouble. Then, to himself, said, "Damn it, I hate time travel."
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Nice JJ ref...
Actually, I read this about 30 minutes from now, but I got caught up in a lot of other stuff, so I popped back here to leave a comment.
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