ST: Intrepid / Preemptive Maneuvers
- Thread starter Galen4
- Start date
Man, this thing is just non-stop drama, action and now living and walking nightmares.
A lot of things are happening, all of them bad, all of them a whole lot of fun to read.
Let's get started with Gul Katorn. I think we all knew he had an ace up his sleeve, but I don't think anyone saw this coming, or his motives. That dude has some issues. Give him credit for understanding the alliance his people made with the Dominion for what it really is though. Otherwise, he is totally and utterly out of his mind.
I'm glad McDonnell didn't go out without a fight. I get bored with seeing security personnel constantly mowed down as if they are nothing more than cannon fodder. In the end though, even her skills were not enough to go up against the likes of a Super Cardassian.
And now it really truly has hit the fan. The Shantok-thing is on the loose and pretty much everything is totally FUBAR. Can't wait to see how Aubrey can salvage any of this.
A lot of things are happening, all of them bad, all of them a whole lot of fun to read.
Let's get started with Gul Katorn. I think we all knew he had an ace up his sleeve, but I don't think anyone saw this coming, or his motives. That dude has some issues. Give him credit for understanding the alliance his people made with the Dominion for what it really is though. Otherwise, he is totally and utterly out of his mind.
I'm glad McDonnell didn't go out without a fight. I get bored with seeing security personnel constantly mowed down as if they are nothing more than cannon fodder. In the end though, even her skills were not enough to go up against the likes of a Super Cardassian.
And now it really truly has hit the fan. The Shantok-thing is on the loose and pretty much everything is totally FUBAR. Can't wait to see how Aubrey can salvage any of this.
Chapter 11
USS Sentry
All eyes were on the Intrepid, as the bridge crew absorbed her fate with macabre fascination.
Blotchy green and gray bio-matter had now formed a sheath around the secondary hull and warp engines. The layered tissue was a clumpy, uneven coat comprised of membranes and writhing vines. It continued to spread like a conflagration through the vessel’s neck and then enveloped the saucer module. Tendrils sprung between the misshapen nacelles, creating a spider-like web.
Once the living shell was in place, it continued to move. It was a restless thing that shivered and rustled as though a colony of massive insects lived just beneath the service…
“Ittai zentai.” Hiroko murmured. “Analysis?” She had to repeat the order twice before her crew dragged their eyes away from the view screen.
“The material is organic, captain. It reads identical to what was in the Intrepid’s engine room. Bioelectric interference subsiding…scanning the interior of the ship…” She waited with mounting impatience as her inexperienced crewman at OPS put the pieces together. “Captain, I’m no longer reading Federation life-signs. All that registers are Inth.” His face drooped miserably. “Ma’am…I think everyone is dead over there.”
“Let’s keep the speculation to a minimum, ensign.” She scolded. “How many Inth are inside the ship?”
“Unable to get an accurate count. Their life signs seem to be in a state of flux---they keep shifting in and out of our space-time continuum.”
She looked back at the viewer. “But not the ship?”
“No ma’am. The ship and the bio-matter show molecular stability.”
“The transference beam is another matter, captain.” Manta added, her dark brow pinched in concentration as she consulted her terminal. “Energy curve is spiking chaotically. It appears to be destabilizing.”
Hiroko took a moment to consider how satisfied she was with Manta’s performance thus far. The young lieutenant was bearing the weight of acting XO, while also making up for the shortfall of experience among the junior officers.
“Let’s see it.”
The ribbon of colorful energy joining Archer IV to Intrepid, was no longer a linear beam of flowing light, but a jagged, whipping bolt---a bolt that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to the ones that Hiroko had seen crush starships out of existence.
“Hail them.”
There was no response, a state of affairs that hardly surprised her.
Manta looked across at her from the first officer’s chair. “Ma’am…do you know if this was part of the plan?”
She shook her head. “Something’s wrong.”
“Captain! Dominion fleet is on the move!” The tactical officer squeaked out fearfully.
Hiroko ordered the situation map put up on the main viewer.
Manta took a single look at the screen and immediately leapt to a standing position. “All hands reaffirm battle readiness and prepare for combat.” She ordered with a slap of her combadge.
Hiroko hadn’t moved a muscle. She was still engrossed by the viewer, her mind revving with concentration. “The whole fleet is massing on the Intrepid. But why attack now?” She pondered.
Manta and Hiroko stared at each other, lost in thought.
The answer came to Manta first. “Of course…they think the Inth are vulnerable.”
“Their sensors are telling them the same thing we’re seeing---an unstable matrix.” Hiroko agreed. She uncrossed her legs and leaned forward in alarm. “My God, they’re planning a preemptive attack, hoping to stop the threat now, while they have a chance of beating them.”
“They’re out of their minds. There is no chance.” Manta bemoaned.
Hiroko tapped her armrest to open a general broadcast. “Dominion forces, this is Captain Caroline Hiroko of the starship Sentry. I’m urging you to not attack. The Inth are not crippled! Founder, if you can still hear us do not engage. I say again do not engage! You’ll provoke a retaliation on all of us!”
____
The Jem’Hadar opened fire. It began with the fighters, as they launched over a dozen blades of energy at their target. Then, space lit up with blue luminance as every Dominion ship within firing range, including two of their battleships, joined the assault, unloading wave after wave of plasma torpedoes in an overwhelming display of force.
The organic shell began to glow as it absorbed the multiple fusillades. The Jem’Hadar continued to press what they believed was an advantage, piling on even more destructive power.
The lumpy profile of the ship burned with raw force, for a time becoming a light source of its own as it stubbornly soaked up every joule of energy that was being thrown at it. The only sign of distress was the transference beam, which had begun to lash even more furiously than before.
Parts of the organic shell finally began to shred, ejecting clouds of glowing filaments into space. Encouraged, the Dominion redoubled their efforts, pouring every weapon and available bit of ordnance towards the single goal of annihilating the thing that had once been the starship Intrepid.
The shredded fragments that had blown free were considered nothing more than scrap, so at first, their transformations went unnoticed. But within seconds of being separated from the ship, the debris started thickening and grew longer. The radiance within them faded as they turned black and began to wiggle and jerk. A bulb sprouted on one end of each strand, accented by three blue circles that suggested eyes.
Soon, the immediate area was swarming with the apparitions, which were now beginning to flick their way through space like enormous water snakes…
USS Sentry
“Great.” Manta said of the abominations. “Giant snakes. In space. Because, why not?”
Hiroko gave her a sideways look of discontent before sliding her eyes forward again. “CON, get us the hell out of here.”
“Yes ma’am.” The flight control officer’s hand hovered over his panel. “Ah…what heading?”
She walked over to him and pointed at the main screen. “Away from them.”
“Captain, I might suggest an exit that takes us by the detention facility.” Manta brokered. “The Dominion has their fleet committed to the Intrepid and the detention complex has limited shielding with no weapons to speak of. A volley of torpedoes should break open a window we can beam through. We might not be able to save them all, but some are better than none.”
Hiroko looked down at her, pleased by the suggestion but angry with herself for momentarily overlooking the Federation prisoners whom she had pledged to liberate. “Officer thinking. Set our heading accordingly and get every transporter on this ship ready for simultaneous transport. Slave in the shuttlecraft transporters as well. Once we punch through their shields, I want to grab as many prisoners as we can get on the first pass.”
Left unsaid was a small detail of the plan: how they would get out of Dominion space in one piece, now that they were on their own.
Her orders were confirmed and Sentry came about, hurtling away from the bizarre tableau at full impulse.
___
The Inth attacked.
The snake-like creatures darted after the Dominion ships, now completely unfazed by the continuous weapons barrage that was slamming into them.
The first serpent to find a Jem’Hadar fighter passed through its shields as though they weren’t there and immediately coiled around it, emulating the creature it resembled. Its body constricted, splicing the ship into flaming wedges before the exploding reactor consumed them.
But not the serpent, which proved to be just as impervious to the reactor blast as it had been to the phaser fire. It slithered away unscathed, this time hunting a Dominion capital ship.
The frenzied manifestations continued to come: bat-like creatures soon joined the serpents, swarming over the Dominion vessels and devouring them like schools of piranha fish. There were enormous multi-tentacled things that clutched at passing targets, incinerating anything they touched.
If one could peer into the nightmare of an angry schizophrenic, it would look like this.
By the time a retreat was ordered, it was far too late. The monstrosities could outpace any warp engine and they eagerly chased down anything that was attempting to flee.
With their future lost, the Inth were now driven by a single impulse:
Retribution.
I worry that the Dominion War quickly turns into the Inth War. I hope Aubrey has something up his sleeve to save the day.
Hot damn, that went bad quickly.
Not that I'm feeling sorry for the Dominion or anything, they dug their own grave here.
The question is, how and who can stop the Inth now?
Oh, and also, Manta is my new favorite secret hero of this story. I'm pulling for her and Sentry to somehow make it out of this in one piece.
Not that I'm feeling sorry for the Dominion or anything, they dug their own grave here.
The question is, how and who can stop the Inth now?
Oh, and also, Manta is my new favorite secret hero of this story. I'm pulling for her and Sentry to somehow make it out of this in one piece.
Chapter 12
As it turned out, the Dominion weren’t as indifferent about their detention facility as the crew had assumed. A group of fighters screamed after Sentry as soon as she moved away.
The resulting battle had been brief and intense with Sentry’s formidable weapons destroying three of the five Jem’Hadar ships by the time the fight had concluded.
Hiroko paid a price for that victory, however. The enemy had focused their relentless assault on Sentry’s engines, knowing that once she was hobbled, they could finish her off at their leisure.
When it was over, Sentry’s warp drive was left inoperable with the starboard nacelle having suffered critical damage. Their tactical goal achieved, the remaining fighters had sped away to join the battle against the Inth.
Hiroko had stubbornly pressed on. As Manta had predicted, a torpedo volley had created a gap in the prison’s shield grid and they managed to beam out a little more than seven hundred prisoners, which included two-dozen children.
It was a win that their enemies couldn’t tolerate.
The Jem’Hadar exploded the entire complex seconds after the rescue, killing all seven hundred and twenty remaining prisoners along with themselves.
With the ship crippled and now in the path of larger threat, there was little time for the beleaguered Starfleet crew to process that horror.
___
“Captain. The Dominion fleet. They’re gone. All of them.”
Hiroko had just ended her conversation with engineering, in which she had been prodding miracles out of the chief, insisting warp drive be restored immediately. She had come away with a tentative repair estimate of one hour, and was told that even then, anything beyond warp four would be optimistic, given that their starboard engine might not hold up to the subspace stress factors.
“What did you say?”
Manta was engrossed in her panel. “The Jem’Hadar ships. They’ve all been torn to pieces. Every single one of them.” She said dazedly. “And long range sensors show a swarm of those things now moving in our direction.”
“Visual.”
The main viewer resolved on a massive swarm of unusual life forms. Most of the creatures resembled gigantic snakes, slithering towards them across an invisible surface. Others were reminiscent of spiders and octopuses. There were smaller creatures as well, things that could have passed for dragonflies.
“Estimating contact with us in eighteen point two minutes, present speed.” Tactical officer Frandsen recited mechanically, trying to keep the dread out of his voice.
Hiroko sat stiffly in her seat, feeling waves of hope roll at her as the crew waited on her next orders.
Checkmate? Was she finally experiencing that “no win scenario” her Starfleet instructors warned might come some day? She thought of the eight hundred of her former crew who had died when the Legacy was blown out from under her. She was haunted by the death of her former XO who had sacrificed his life to save her from exploding debris.
And Sonya Kantrovitch, the woman she had loved, dying on a mission to destroy the Dominion shipyard at Kokala, which could have frustrated the attack on Betazed, had it been successful.
There were also the hundreds of civilians now in her care and the hundreds more she had been unable to save.
There has to be a reason for all of this. It can’t all have been for nothing, She thought bitterly. Please, don’t let this be for nothing. There has to be another way.
She wasn’t sure which deity she was making her case to, since her belief systems were of no particular allegiance.
Which made the response all the more startling.
Something slammed into her mind. It was a torrent of images, noise and emotions that reverberated within her---the deafening echo of past atrocities. She saw thousands of civilizations being devoured, heard the death screams of a trillion victims, saw streets become rivers of gushing blood…
And she was tuned into something else, something that was very much in the present: A gathering energy, an agonizing sense of anticipation. For an instant, she was a medieval peasant, feeling the ground shake under the hoof beats of an approaching army…
“Stop,” She gasped, pressing her hands against her temples. “Get out of my head.”
“Captain!” Manta moved forward as Hiroko fell out of her chair and onto her knees.
The connection snapped off. Once her surroundings came back, Hiroko found that her vision had grown dark because she was close to hyperventilating. It took a minute to get full control of her lungs again.
Her command instincts, however, had a life of their own. They quickly took over, allowing her to dole out nods of assurance to the crew, who had been gawking at her in trepidation.
She found Manta crouching at her side. “Ma’am, what happened? Are you okay?”
Hiroko made sure her reply was barely audible, so it wouldn’t carry. “They’re coming.”
Her XO looked up at the main viewer.
“Not just the ones out there.” The captain said, correcting Manta’s unspoken assumption. “All of them. Everywhere. They’re all coming.”
“Intercept in fourteen point seven minutes.” The breathless tactician said from behind them.
“Captain, recommend evasive. At least we have impulse. That might buy us some time.”
She frowned at Manta as she pulled herself back into the command chair. “You saw what happened to the Dominion who fled. We can’t outrun these things.” It also makes us look guilty. She wasn’t sure where that impression had come from, so she kept it to herself.
“But fighting is out of the question, too. Where does that leave us?”
Hiroko glanced away, only to see Sonya Kantrovitch sitting in the vacant chair to her right, looking as solid and alive as Lieutenant Manta. Like the real Sonya, this vision was quick to offer her unsolicited counsel:
So darling, vot are you going to do now? Put your head down on the table and cry?
“Captain?” Manta persisted, breaking the spell. “What are we going to do now?”
“Communicate!” Hiroko blatted in sudden inspiration. “They touched my mind a few minutes ago. It was invasive telepathy, but it might work both ways.”
“What would you say to them? Ask them for mercy?”
“No, no.” the captain said, rubbing her palms together. “They’re wounded and angry. So, the answer to our survival is for us to become useful to them again. I’m going to have to help them find another way to evolve.”
“Ma’am, is there another way?”
Hiroko closed her eyes. “That’s exactly what I’m going to find out.”
“And if there isn’t?”
“Then I’ll work with them to find another answer.” She leaned her head back against the seat and started trying to recreate the mindset she was in when the first contact had occurred.
Manta stood up and signaled the crew to remain quiet.
As precious minutes ticked on, Hiroko meditated quietly with her eyes closed. It was hard to tell if contact was being made, or if the effort was still in progress.
Five minutes later, the captain’s eyes began to flutter. She cried out sharply and then fell to the deck, her legs and arms convulsing wildly. Before Manta could reach her, she lapsed into unconsciousness and fell still.
“Medics to the bridge!” Manta called out. She had Frandsen unclip the medkit from beneath his tactical station and toss it to her.
Biting her lip worriedly, she ran the tricorder over the captain’s unmoving body, bracing herself for the worst. There was some relief when the scans revealed that she had passed out due to hyper stimulation of her synaptic pathways, yet her vitals were stable.
She hit her combadge impatiently. “Manta to sickbay. Where are those medics?”
“They’re on the way, lieutenant. My team is having to take a detour because of damage to the turbolifts.”
“Then cancel. I’ll have her beamed to sickbay. Manta out.”
“Swarm still approaching. Contact in five minutes, forty-seven seconds.” Frandsen notified her quietly.
Science Specialist First Class Davidson suddenly popped out of his chair like a jack in the box, his body trembling with fright. “LT! We need to abandon ship! It’s the only way! I bet they won’t bother attacking escape pods!” He looked about wildly, hoping to recruit others to his cause.
Manta stalked over to him. “Sit down, mister. And I mean now.” When he didn’t immediately comply, she pushed him back into his seat and drew her phaser. “What about the hundreds of civilians we have aboard now? You’re going to save your own ass and leave children to be slaughtered? Is THAT your heroic plan?”
He choked on his answer, making a pitiful clicking noise deep in his throat. His eyes fell to the deck as tears of shame rolled down his cheeks. Finally, words came out, hoarse and miserable. “I’m sorry. I’m scared. I’m just so scared…”
“So are we all.”
Although “scared” hardly did it justice. Her heart was racing like a stallion. As if the damned Inth didn’t have enough unnatural advantages going for them, their very proximity induced an instinctual, mind-numbing fight or flight response.
And fear was the greatest weapon of them all.
She let her phaser drift around the room as she spoke. “Listen to me: I’ll shoot anyone that tries to abandon their post. Am I clear?”
The crisp answers were all in the affirmative.
Yet, for Lieutenant Joanne Manta, the pleading looks of hope that came next were far worse than dealing with a panicked crewman.
For the first time, she truly understood the torture of being in command. The other crew was dead; her captain out of commission…hell, even the Dominion was gone. She stood alone, facing down an apocalyptic threat while a boatload of plebes clung to her for comfort and guidance.
That anguished period of reckoning stretched endlessly for her.
Until at last she was saved.
“And I thought I was a hard-assed bitch.”
Manta started, and then grinned in relief at the sight of Hiroko, who was leaning on a guardrail, pale and spent, like someone who was recovering from a serious illness. “Captain! Thank God.”
She eyed Manta’s weapon bemusedly. “If you could hold off on the summary execution of the crew, I need your help.”
The other woman holstered her phaser self-consciously and then took Hiroko by the arm, leading her back to the command chair.
“Did it work? Were you able to make contact?”
Before Hiroko could answer, Frandsen was interrupting excitedly. “Captain! Look! The Inth! They’re turning around! They’re turning around!”
The crew held their collective breath as they watched the main viewer, clearly thinking this miracle was too good to be true. When it became apparent that the school of creatures was indeed “swimming” in the opposite direction, the bridge erupted in cheers.
Hiroko and Manta exchanged smiles of guarded relief.
As the cheers wound down, information rolled in regarding new activity from the Intrepid.
“Transference beam is gone. Now the ship is emitting an energy beam of its own, originating from where the main deflector used to be.” OPS advised everyone. “Seems to be interacting with space just ahead of the bow.”
“Full magnification.” Hiroko ordered.
They saw space began to ripple around the beam’s impact site, as though the surface of a still pond was being disturbed. The rippling effect became a sudden and intense burst of light. When it faded, a swirling orange whirlpool appeared just ahead of the Intrepid.
“Energy beam has shut down. It looks like they’ve opened up some type of spatial rift.” Manta was intrigued. “OPS, can you confirm that?”
“Aye, ma’am. Sensors have classified it as a spatial aperture, similar to the Borg’s transwarp conduits.”
“I wonder where it leads?”
“I have a pretty good idea.” Hiroko answered distractedly.
“Captain, the Intrepid and the swarm are moving towards it.”
“Helm, set a pursuit course. We’re going to follow them in.”
Almost every crewmember on deck turned to stare at her in baffled silence.
The novice CON officer managed to find some mettle. He spun around to face her. “Captain? We’re going to follow the Inth?”
“You heard me correctly, ensign. Engage at one half impulse.”
Manta evaluated her apprehensively. “Ma’am?”
“We’re assuming the Intrepid’s mission.” Hiroko stated bluntly.
“You were able to convince them?” She whispered.
“I’ve been communicating with someone.” She whispered back. “We might have another option. But I won’t lie to you lieutenant, it’s a long shot.”
“”Someone’? Weren’t you talking to the aliens?”
“Not exactly.”
___
Sentry pulled near the swaddled Intrepid and the two vessels were once again flying side by side. The swarm of aliens joined them, surrounded them---an army of bizarre creatures that resembled giant bats, snakes and squid that dwarfed the tiny craft in their midst.
Together, the Starfleet ships glided into the conduit along with their peculiar entourage.
Moments later, the vortex collapsed behind them, committing both vessels to an uncertain future.
______
Kudos for keeping the narrative pedal all the way down to the metal in this story. This has been non-stop action and excitement with sky-high stakes which don't seem to abate at all.
I'm also enjoying the focus switch from Intrepid to Sentry and her mostly young and untested crew which is due to how compelling you've made the main two characters on that ship.
I can seriously not wait to find out what happens next.
I'm also enjoying the focus switch from Intrepid to Sentry and her mostly young and untested crew which is due to how compelling you've made the main two characters on that ship.
I can seriously not wait to find out what happens next.
Chapter 13
Starbase 323
Operations Level C
The evacuation of civilians and non-essentials was not proceeding in the orderly and efficient manner that Admiral Nechayev had envisioned, a situation that was making her generous with her displeasure. “Why the hell is the Hyderabad still in her berth? Captain Amorsatta was given departure orders for nineteen hundred hours.”
“Yes, admiral. They’re still bringing passengers aboard.” The yard command chief on the other end was amazingly calm, given that he was coordinating the EVAC of thousands of personnel across dozens of ships in just under two hours. Transporter rooms were in operation, but there was already a bottleneck at each platform. The demand was high, because the starbase’s heavy armor coupled with its external net of autonomous deflector beams made any form of site-to-site transport dangerous.
All of this meant that the traffic control division was now overwhelmed trying to rotate new arrivals through the massive docking complex, while launching sitting vessels out the door---a challenge compounded by stubborn, slow moving civilians who didn’t like being ordered about.
Boarding delays were inevitable in a situation like this, of course---a reality that some flag officers didn’t want to acknowledge.
“’Still bringing passengers aboard’? There’s no excuse for their incompetence. What is the goddamned problem over there?”
“Apparently, they’re having trouble accommodating everyone comfortably due to lack of guest quarters. The Hyderabad was in the middle of a life support overhaul, so some of her rooms aren’t fully---“
“’Comfortably?’” She squawked in disbelief.
“Well, the diplomat from Eminiar VII and his family are among the evacuees, and---“
“You can tell Captain Amorsatta that I expect his ship underway in ten minutes, even if the ambassador and his family have to sleep in a cargo bay. Is that clear?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Nechayev closed the channel and took a sanity break from her chores. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, trying to block out the commotion that was unfolding around her command kiosk. All three stories of the immense, silo-shaped operations hub were an illustration in chaos. Personnel had become overwhelmed over the last few hours as disaster reports and distress calls began flooding into the base from all over the Federation.
Gravimetric waves were now affecting large swaths of the Alpha Quadrant, causing mass destruction to colonies, installations and even some combat fleets. Even worse were the mysterious attacks by creatures that were described as existing in a “trans-dimensional” state. To date, everyone who reported such an attack was never heard from again.
Nearby, Admiral Quetzalxochit, the Starfleet commander, wasn’t faring much better herself, in terms of information overload. In fact, it was safe to say she had become a walking switchboard for bad news.
As she moved down one of the aisles that cut through the cavernous control room, her head stuck in a PADD, a staff assistant---the third in eight minutes---jogged over to her with a PADD of his own. “Admiral, Gaven III took a direct hit by a gravimetric wave.” He paused to catch his breath. “Squadron Five was operating in that sector and they reported massive destruction. Continents in the southern and northern hemispheres have been completely separated. Casualty estimates are already in the millions.”
She closed her eyes. “Have Squadron Five begin immediate relief efforts.”
The assistant hesitated, and then dictated his addendum while looking at the floor. “Admiral, Squadron Five’s last report was that they had come under attack by aliens of an unknown nature. We haven’t been able to raise them since then.”
Her eyes opened, betraying the fairest glimmer of hope. “Subspace interference?”
“No ma’am. They’re just…not responding anymore.”
She couldn’t help remembering that fifteen starships had comprised that task force. She caught herself beginning to slouch and righted her posture at once. “See Admiral Ross about resource allocation for that area.”
The assistant had no sooner left her presence than her combadge came to life with the voice of Vice Admiral Jon Owens. “Owens to Quetzalxochit, urgent.”
She tapped her badge. “Proceed.”
“Admiral, our new projections show a probable gravity wave impact in this sector. It could arrive at any time.”
A defiant scowl broke over her features. “How can you be so sure? I thought the waves were too random to forecast, since they drop in and out of our universe.”
“Yes ma’am, that was the case before. But the Daystrom group is telling me that as the situation worsens, the projections are becoming more accurate. The waves are now lingering in our universe for up to three minutes before dissipating---and their arrivals are beginning to follow a pattern. We can now forecast in the eighty-percentile range.”
“Disseminate your forecast models to all Sector Command Divisions and keep them updated as your information gets more reliable.”
“Already done.”
“And Admiral Owens, can you be more specific about exactly when and where the next wave will strike in our sector?”
“I’m afraid not. We’ve narrowed its arrival down to within a five light year radius of our base. ‘When’, could be anytime in the next three hours.”
“Too damned close for comfort. Send out alerts to all vessels and work with the base commander on prepping for an impact.”
“I’ll see to it. Owens out.”
After a short walk, she took an open-air lift up to level B and located Admiral Paris, whom she found giving orders to four starbase commanders, who were peering down at him from overhead view screens. When he was done, she waived him over. She then brought him into a vacant guest office and sealed it off from all communications.
Paris looked about him in mild alarm. “Admiral?”
She exhaled a long, miserable sigh before speaking. “Admiral Paris. In six hours, if the situation hasn’t improved, I’m going to have you brief the president and the Federation Council directly.”
He clutched his uniform belt uneasily. “Me?”
She nodded in slow motion. “This crisis is growing faster than we originally estimated. That contingency plan you sent me, the one that caused so much division in our meeting…I’ve made some changes and suggestions and sent it back to you. Look it over and have it ready to go.”
His shoulders slumped at that. “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?”
She looked off at a corner of the room. “Evacuating Federation territory is unthinkable. Admiral Jellico was right. We’d lose everything. But we may be holding on to a burning house. Very soon now, we’ll have to decide between jumping out a window or going up in flames with our furniture.”
“Then let’s hope for a miracle to occur in the next six hours.”
“Yes. We could use one.”
He exited the office, leaving her alone with crushing disbelief at the idea that Federation citizens might soon become a race of nomads, forced to wander the galaxy for survival.
She imagined that this was how the El-Aurians had felt when the Borg destroyed their civilization. Or the Bajorians, displaced for a time by the Cardassians.
As she made her way back to the lift, an urgent call came in from Vice Admiral Jellico. Quetzalxochit found him on OPS level A, just above her. He accosted her the moment she exited the lift.
Jellico spoke quickly while pushing a PADD into her hand. “Admiral, our listening post in the Kalandra sector recorded some unusual activity from the anomaly.”
At first she didn’t look at the data she was holding. “Yes, Admiral Owens already informed me the gravimetric waves are starting to pattern.”
“This is something different.” He corrected. “Whisper Two took this visual image before we lost contact with the probe.”
She finally gave the PADD her full attention. It showed an inkblot that was splattered over a star field. “What am I looking at?”
“Magnify the image.”
She did so, and the inkblot became a tangle of threads. She zoomed in further and saw the threads were snake-like creatures clustered so densely they were blocking out the stars behind them. Here and there, she made out other forms that had tentacles or spindly legs. Quetzalxochit gazed up at him expectantly.
“They’re erupting from the anomaly. Billions of them, and the telemetry indicates their numbers are multiplying by the second.”
Her brain was threatening to go on strike at this point. It was trying hard to convince her that she was just having a bad dream because surely, the Federation’s luck couldn’t be this wretched. She cleared her throat. “Are these things the same trans-dimensional aliens that have been riding the gravity waves and attacking our people?”
“I don’t know. They might be members of the same species. But the big difference here is that these creatures are solid, not like those damn phantasms we’re currently dealing with. What’s more, they seem to be moving towards Betazed at the equivalent of full impulse speeds.”
“And the Dominion fleet at Betazed?”
“Our last clear scan shows they’re redeploying their forces---but not in a defensive pattern. My guess is that they’re preparing to leave the system at a moment’s notice.”
“An event we would have celebrated just a few days ago.”
Jellico grunted in the affirmative.
She looked down again at the swarm of creatures. All at once, something she read a long time ago came back to her. It was from one of Earth’s religious texts:
My name is Legion, for we are many.
Suppressing a shiver, Quetzalxochit handed Jellico’s PADD back. “I’ll be on C level. Blackwell has some promising information on how to counteract the subspace anomalies these waves are leaving behind.”
She walked away, her mind already racing ahead on four different fronts.
The gravity wave hit without warning.
Quetzalxochit heard what sounded like thunder just before the floor heaved her into the air. She landed hard on a row of interconnected consoles, cracking her head painfully in the process. Then the deck came up to meet her as she rolled across the floor, finally crashing into the far bulkhead.
Explosions rippled over all the workstations, setting people afire and flipping some of them over the upper railings and to their deaths. Broken pieces of ceiling and conduits fell like an avalanche, causing still more fatalities.
Jellico had been launched into the air but managed to land in a tuck-and-roll maneuver that spared him injury. He crawled towards Quetzalxochit even as the entire starbase roared and bucked like an old sailing vessel in a storm.
A sputtering, Johnny-come-lately alarm began blaring, followed up by overlapping voices crackling over the PA system, all of which were too garbled to understand.
He reached the unconscious Quetzalxochit and covered her with his body. Her right temple was bloody from the head injury. Feeling her neck, he found her alive and vowed to keep her that way.
The quaking stopped. Jellico hit his combadge and began demanding status reports from anyone who could answer.
The trouble was, no one did. He recognized the distinctive, warbling static of subspace interference---the same interference that had been appearing in the wake of the gravimetric waves.
He stood up and surveyed the flaming ruins of operations level A. Bodies were everywhere. He found a soot-covered officer standing at the other side of the room. Coughing badly, Jellico pointed at the access door behind him and yelled for him to start leading survivors to safety.
“Intruder alert! Intruder alert! We’ve been boarded. Levels one, seventeen, forty-two---“ The tinny warning from his combadge fizzled out and died.
Intruder alert on level one. His exact location.
Some part of Jellico knew what was going to happen next but was powerless to stop it. He saw the crewman across from him pull his phaser, saw his gaze dart about frantically before opening the door behind him---
Only to find that something had been waiting for him on the other side.
It loomed over the man by several meters. It was hard to make out, but Jellico was reminded of an out of focus picture, several out of focus pictures perhaps, all overlapping with one another. His mind first identified the creature as an enormous gorilla, yet the instant the thought registered, his brain corrected itself, telling him it was in fact, a giant tarantula.
And still, that didn’t seem right either. The only thing that remained fixed on the alien visage was a trio of blue lights that might have been eyes.
It was unbelievably fast. A dark mandible snaked out, encircled the crewman and pulled him in so quickly; Jellico could barely register the movement. A curtain of black smoke closed between them before he could even think of drawing his weapon in the man’s defense.
With every lift and staircase now destroyed or blocked by debris, the thing was occupying the last possible exit. Jellico dragged Quetzalxochit into a side office. Just before he sealed the door, he heard the gut-wrenching screams from the hapless crewman as the creature began ripping him apart.
He sat there, cradling Quetzalxochit’s head on his lap, feeling her blood soak his pant legs as he trained his phaser on the closed door.
The dim emergency lights winked and then went out.
“What have you done?” He hissed into the darkness. “Damn you Aubrey, what have you done?”
This is apocalyptic, end times, kind of stuff, right here. I think if I were Jellico I'd be cursing Aubrey as well.
Things have gotten so close to the brink, I'm really not sure how they could possibly be pulled back at this stage. Keep going, buddy, curious minds need urgent answers.
Things have gotten so close to the brink, I'm really not sure how they could possibly be pulled back at this stage. Keep going, buddy, curious minds need urgent answers.
Holy crap! We're going to need a miracle here and quickly!
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to say thanks for reading and offering feedback.
They'll be a delay of a week or two before the next installment goes up.
The story will be concluding over the next two chapters, so just need some time map out some final plot details.
Thanks again!
I just wanted to say thanks for reading and offering feedback.
They'll be a delay of a week or two before the next installment goes up.
The story will be concluding over the next two chapters, so just need some time map out some final plot details.
Thanks again!
Chapter 14
USS Sentry
Transporter Room 2
“If you followed me down here to repeat your objections, then you’re wasting time that could be better spent on the bridge.” Hiroko noted dourly as she slipped the field backpack around her shoulders and secured the fastenings.
“No, I’m repeating my suggestion that you take an away team with you.” Manta handed the captain a phaser which Hiroko deftly snapped into her belt. “Specifically, a medic and security officer.”
“We’ve been through this. The swarm is creating subspace sinkholes all through this region. Transport is only safe for one and since Shantok reached out to me, I have to be the one to go.”
“Ma’am, we probably won’t be able to communicate with you, let along bring you back, considering how fast these things are merging. I know that adding people to the transport is risky, but I have volunteers ready to take that chance.”
“But I’m not willing to let them take that risk, lieutenant---so I’ll just have to make do on my own.” Hiroko threw back with mounting disapproval. “I’m ordering you to drop it. Now let’s get this over with before we lose our transport window.”
Manta shook her head in exasperation. “Yes captain. But respectfully, this is one crazy bastard of a plan.”
“On that we are in full agreement. I’ll stay in contact for as long as possible. Remember, keep pace with the swarm and put everyone you can on the warp drive. If our ‘bastard of a plan’ has any chance, then we have to get that core up and running ASAP.”
“All understood, ma’am.” Manta stepped in front of the transporter controls and conducted a final scan. “Reconfirming that all bio- matter and Inth life signs have definitely left the Intrepid. She’s still moving under inertia. Coordinates set for the bridge.”
“Energize.”
USS Intrepid
Hiroko materialized into an eerie tableau. The bridge around her was quiet as a tomb. Bodies were scattered around the room haphazardly, like refuse dumped from a chute; some slumped over consoles, but most lying on the floor. The air was humid and held the odor of decay as though a bowl of rotting vegetation was hidden nearby.
Mixed within the foul odor, she caught another distasteful scent: blood. Her nose dragged her eyes to the captain’s chair, which had large splatters covering most of the backrest. It was all too reminiscent of how she found Sentry’s command seat, her first day on the bridge. If she survived this crisis, and the war, she knew that for her, a blood-stained captain’s chair would come to symbolize this wretched part of Federation history.
“What in God’s name happened in here?” She whispered.
From her position on the upper command deck, she saw a Rigellian sprawled into a puddle of his own fluids. She unlimbered the medkit that was part of her pack and began triage duties. He was alive but had lost a great deal of blood. She sealed his wounds and used a hypo to stabilize his vitals, which were dangerously low. Hiroko then moved on to an Andorian who was in similar condition, but better off.
Standing up from her administrations, she looked about the room and found Aubrey laying behind the tactical podium. He had multiple lacerations throughout his torso, but no major organs or arteries had been perforated. Like his crew, he too was unresponsive.
After mending his injuries, she touched her combadge. “This is Captain Hiroko to any crewmember. Please respond.”
All that came back to her was silence.
“Computer, the entire crew appears to be unconscious. What is the reason?”
“There is a ninety-eight-point five percent probability that unconsciousness is the result of exposure to a powerful bio-electric field that recently permeated the ship.”
She hit her combadge again. “Hiroko to Sentry. I could use some medical advice.”
“Ship to ship communications are not possible at this time,” The computer updated. “Sensors indicate subspace anomalies have now merged into a broad band interference pattern.”
As Manta had predicted. “Computer, begin working on penetrating the interference and establish an open commlink to Sentry the moment a window appears.”
“Affirmative. Working…”
She finally saw the crewmember she was after. Commander Shantok was stretched out on her side, just in front of the starboard turbolift.
She knelt and turned her over. The medical tricorder showed her neural readings were too irregular to make sense of with Hiroko’s limited medical training. She was beginning to think that Manta had been right. Maybe she should have risked taking a doctor with her, after all. If she couldn’t revive Shantok or anyone else very soon, their plan would have no hope of succeeding. “Computer, access any medical data that can tell me how best to revive Commander Shantok.”
She was startled when a balding man suddenly blinked to life on the main viewer.
“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.”
She squinted at him suspiciously. “You’re a medic? I thought the entire crew was unconscious.”
The man looked at her in confusion. “I’m not a member of the crew. I’m the Emergency Medical Hologram, Mark I, Beta. And who are you?”
“Emergency Medical---? Of course.” She remembered this ship had been decommissioned for use as a test vehicle, before being pressed back into service for the war effort. This was obviously a trial program of some sort. “Can you do everything a real doctor can do?”
The hologram sighed and rolled its eyes. “I’m programed with the medical knowledge of three thousand cultures and over five million medical protocols. Not to mention the collective experience of forty-seven individual medical officers. Believe me, I can do far more than a ‘real doctor’. I only went offline because the bio-electric field overwhelmed the ship. You see, my holomatrix is only a prototype and---”
“Captain Hiroko, starship Sentry. There’s wounded here who need immediate care. I’ll beam them directly to sickbay. I can only give you two minutes to make sure they’re stable, then I need you to get up here. Your priority will to be reviving Commander Shantok and Captain Aubrey.”
“Weren’t you listening? I can’t ‘get’ anywhere. I’m an EMH, remember? That is, unless you’ve managed to install holo-emitters on the bridge.”
“Fine, you can talk me through it.” She snapped, irritated by the hologram’s caustic personality. “Stand by to receive two patients.”
“Just a minute. Don’t use the emergency presets. It’s standing room only down here. I’ll give you safe transport coordinates.”
Adol and Neqod were beamed to sickbay moments later. Hiroko was back at Shantok’s side with her medical tricorder humming the moment transport was confirmed. “Holographic doctor, I’ve linked my readings into sickbay. You should have Shantok and Aubrey’s bio scans by now. I need you to review as soon as possible.”
“I’ll be with you in a moment, captain.” He responded crisply. To Hiroko, it seemed an eternity, but finally the EMH was back on the main screen. “I’ve placed the officers you sent me in stasis until we can perform transfusions. I’m checking your scans now…”
What followed was an explanation that sounded like gibberish, so far as Hiroko was concerned. She interrupted his lecture before it could become a symposium of one. “Doctor just tell me how to revive her. Time is running out.”
“Very well,” The EMH huffed indignantly. “You’ll need to inject the commander with five cc’s of metatrophalene, followed by one cc of lexorin, one minute later. But I must emphasize that this will only make her conscious, not repair any damage. Shantok’s physiology is unique, so the captain and the rest of the crew will require a different dosage.”
“Understood. All right, hold on.” After fiddling with her medkit, she grunted in frustration. “Doctor, the kit’s replicator can’t produce metatrophalene.”
“Typical Starfleet thinking,” The hologram noted with contrition. “’Sure, let’s only prepare for the ailments we’re most likely to encounter. Never mind the unexpected.’” He did another eye roll. “Just a moment. I’ll ready hypos for both the commander and the captain. You can pick them up with the transporter. It will take a few minutes.”
“Fine. Please hurry.”
“While I’m doing this, do you mind if I ask for an update on what’s happened since I went offline?”
She nodded distractedly. “Once our ships passed through that spatial rift, the Inth completely left the Intrepid. The bio-matter, the matrix, it’s all gone.”
“’Spatial rift’?”
“We’re now in the Kalandra sector surrounded by a swarm of Inth manifestations. We’re traveling with them as they join up with a larger swarm where the Kokala Nebula used to be. Apparently, the nebula’s collapsed into a massive singularity that’s sending out gravimetric pulses---so powerful that all the planets in the Kalandra system were destroyed. And from what we can tell through sporadic COMM chatter, those same waves are wreaking havoc on the rest of the Federation as well.”
“Incredible,” the EMH exclaimed. “I presume the only reason the waves haven’t destroyed us, is because we’re traveling with the swarm?”
“Correct.” She confirmed impatiently.
“But…why are we heading into the singularity? Shouldn’t we be trying to move away from it?”
“I don’t have time to get into that. How are those hypos coming?”
“They’re ready now.” He held them up for inspection. “I’ve labeled them to avoid confusion. You wouldn’t want to give Shantok’s dosage to Aubrey. It would kill him.”
Hiroko was already at the tactical board, working the transporter controls again. She had the hypos an instant later and quickly administered them.
It was Shantok who woke first. Hiroko helped her sit up against a bulkhead. Her hair hung like a frizzled black curtain over her face. She parted it with a trembling hand and settled her unfocused vision on Hiroko. “Captain Hiroko?” She rasped.
“In the battered flesh.” She glanced at her tricorder, making sure it was still monitoring Shantok’s vitals and sending the data to sickbay. “I’m just glad to speak to you in person. Do you remember making mental contact with me?”
“Indeed.”
Hiroko felt a gush of relief, having crossed that first hurdle. She had feared that her communion with Shantok would turn out to be a hallucination. The details of their “conversation” were the next concern. Miscommunications were common enough through the spoken word, never mind telepathy.
She gave a brief summary of the ship’s status and current events as she knew them. For her part, Shantok explained---in halting breaths---recent happenings on the Intrepid. Before they could fully compare notes, their conversation was preempted by the EMH, who broke in from the main viewer.
“Commander, your neuropeptide levels are dangerously low. You’ve also sustained damage to your spinal cord, probably when your body was forced into a trans-dimensional state. You need immediate care.”
“You are correct, doctor. But for the moment, I’m controlling the pain, so it won’t prove a distraction. I’ll tend to my injuries when time and circumstances permit.”
“Let’s hope that will be soon. In the meantime, be sure that you don’t ---"
“Holographic doctor.” Hiroko interjected. “I need you to start reviving the medical staff in sickbay and then work with them to get the rest of the crew back on their feet.”
“Well, yes. Of course, captain.” The hologram acknowledged indignantly. “I’ll keep you advised. EMH out.”
Shaking her head in annoyance, she turned her attention back to Intrepid’s XO. “I’m surprised you weren’t killed when the Inth took possession of your body again.”
“They would have. But the captain persuaded them to communicate with me. I had some difficulty convincing them at first, until you reached out. Your willingness to assist them, added to my own, was enough to tip the scales. However, as you heard, my ordeal wasn’t without damage.” She fell back against the bulkhead, ending her statement with a ragged exhale.
“I want to be sure I didn’t misunderstand you. The process has been disrupted, so not all of the Inth can evolve. But some of them still can?”
Shantok nodded weakly.
“But to do that, they’ll have to cut themselves off from the other species of Inth that are in a trans-dimensional state---the ones that have been appearing like wraiths around the Alpha Quadrant. Once that happens, the rest of the Inth can ascend?”
“Yes…and the ‘wraiths’ as you call them will be trapped forever in an inaccessible domain of subspace. Thus, with one part of their species separated from our reality and the rest transitioning to a higher evolutionary plane, the Inth threat will be removed in its entirety.”
Just like that. A simple, tidy solution.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Bada-bing, bada-boom, someone hand me a broom.
After all that Shantok and her crew had endured, and all that was at stake, how could she deconstruct this crisis with such clinical equanimity? Was it still nothing more to her than a series of logic problems that could be vanquished with proper solutions?
Hiroko fell back on her haunches and studied the Vulcan’s face, searching for any hint that Shantok truly appreciated the enormity of her own words.
“Commander,” she managed finally. “You do understand that we’re talking about facilitating a civil war among the Inth, don’t you?”
“An apt description, captain. However unpalatable that may be to us.” She paused to catch her breath. “You might be interested to learn that, to the Prime Community, the Wraiths are a lower form of Inth life, a dispensable sub-species.”
Racism, the universal constant. Hiroko thought bitterly. And no, she didn’t find it “interesting”, she found it disgusting. “But still,” She persisted. “the Inth are fiercely xenophobic and loyal to their own kind. I picked up that much through their brief connection to me. It’s hard to believe that they would have agreed to this…”
“A valid observation.” Shantok’s eyelids fluttered as she tapped into her dwindling energy reserves. “However, their desperation to leave our universe has now overridden all other considerations. It’s important to note that they aren’t merely exiting our reality, they will be evolving into a new energy-based form of life in the process, free of all limitations---a change so liberating, they will stop at nothing to achieve it. But if they don’t initiate that process soon, it may take hundreds of thousands of years before their biology will allow a second attempt.”
Hiroko sighed defiantly. “Even if we put aside the moral implications of this, there’s the danger. These creatures are deadly enough right now, working as a united front. Your plan to turn them against one another could make them even more of a threat. As bad as things are now, the collateral damage that might occur from an internal conflict is likely beyond our ability to imagine.”
One of Shantok’s eyebrows flicked upward, a sign of her waning patience. “In fact, it was the captain’s plan. He anticipated that we would need an alternative route in the event we fell short of our timetable. I merely presented the idea to the Inth. In any event, there is no other viable option.”
So…Aubrey suggested a civil war. Why am I not surprised? Hiroko mused cynically.
As if bidden by her thoughts, she heard him groan behind her. She turned to see him struggling to stand up, hanging on to the tactical station like it was a ladder.
“Aubrey! Just a moment, let me help you.”
She put her arm around his chest and eased him over to the nearby chair on the upper level.
“Head feels ready to explode,” He muttered.
“Take it easy, I just sealed your puncture wounds.”
Once he was seated, he pulled up his tunic and gingerly touched his chest and stomach, noting the lacerations were indeed gone. But the area was sensitive, which meant his body still had to finish the job started by the dermal regenerator. “Thank you.”
“Regarding your ship---”
“I’m up to speed. I overheard your conversation with Shantok. I just couldn’t get off the deck until now.” He put both hands to his temple. “You wouldn’t have something for the pain, would you?”
“Just a moment. I have some hydrocortilene in here that should do the trick.” She pulled a hypo from her medkit and injected him. A minute later his eyes sharpened, and it was obvious his brain was idling with activity once again.
“Beautiful relief,” Aubrey murmured. “I take back all those nasty things I said behind your back.”
She tossed her medkit onto a vacant chair. “Don’t be hasty. The day is still young.”
His attention quickly fell to Shantok. But his first officer wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Captain, I regret---”
“No,” He put in firmly. “You don’t have to say it, commander. We both know it wasn’t you.”
With that, Aubrey forced himself up and began an arduous journey around the bridge, limping over to each crewmember and checking their pulse. He lingered over Cal Benjamin, who was slumped across the engineering station. Looking remorseful, he gently patted the young man’s shoulder.
“They should make a full recovery once they’re revived.” Hiroko said, noting his concern. “That computerized doctor of yours is bringing the medical staff around now. I’m sure your people will take good care of them.”
He tossed her a small look of gratitude but continued his rounds.
“I’d suggest staying off that leg. You got banged up pretty well from what looks like a fall.”
He didn’t answer. Once he finished his welfare check, she saw him make his way back to the tactical station. Aubrey immediately went to work, tapping out a sequence on the board.
“What are you doing?”
“Sealing the security office and flooding it with anesthizine gas. You probably heard about our Cardassian saboteur. Since he’s an augment, he could recover on his own very soon. I don’t want him getting into mischief again.”
Hiroko observed him with moderate displeasure. “I have enough medical training to know that gassing someone who’s already unconscious under these conditions could prove fatal.”
He flashed a dangerous grin. “I’m willing to chance it.”
“Fortunately, the virus has decompiled, and ship systems are no longer obstructed.” Shantok said, efficiently diverting the topic.
“Yes,” Aubrey agreed. “Once it destroyed our core, it had no further reason to exist. And I’m sure its creators didn’t expect a ship to survive after the fact, so there was no reason to plan for that contingency.”
Hiroko slipped off her field pack and dropped it at her feet as she addressed Shantok. “That brings up a major problem. In order to help the prime Inth evolve, we need two starships to enter the singularity and create some type of warp effect simultaneously. Is that right?”
“Correct,” Shantok validated. “A multi-tiered harmonic interaction between two inverted static warp shells, that will share the same subspace oscillation cycles. Each vessel must also project a negative energy stream through their main deflectors and into the central axis of the singularity. This will act as a ‘lightning rod’ so to speak, allowing the Inth to locate and seize control of the Wraiths.”
Hiroko shook her head as if to clear the jargon out of her ears. “Hard to believe that with all that these beings can do, they still need our help.”
“I know what you mean. It does seem counter intuitive.” Aubrey replied. “But they’re not at full strength yet. Even if they were, their power isn’t particularly useful for delicate operations like this. They’re more of a supernova. And in this case, what’s needed is a laser.”
“Hmm. Well, our core was damaged, but my crew will have it online by the time we arrive at the anomaly. That’s about three and half hours from now.” Hiroko said. “But your core was destroyed. I’m not sure where that leaves us.”
Aubrey moved closer to Shantok, holding onto the guard rail for support. “What about that, commander? Is there any chance we can do this with one ship?”
For the first time, Hiroko saw the unflappable Vulcan hesitate. “Possibly…but a single warp shell would require power of such magnitude it would cause a containment breach near the end of the operation. And constant adjustments to the warp field will be required right up until the very end.”
“The ship’s artificial intelligence can handle that.” Hiroko contributed, her hopes beginning to rise.
“The necessary attunements will be communicated by the Inth themselves, via mental contact. Regrettably, that precludes a computer as the recipient.” Anticipating the next question, Shantok finished her grim oration: “And the operation can’t be performed remotely. Once a vessel enters the anomaly, distortion effects will render communication impossible. The ship will effectively be cut off from the outside universe.”
Hiroko seemed to deflate as she leaned against a console and rubbed her eyes. “Me and some of my crew will have to remain on the ship, then. Well, I always knew it could come to this.” She looked at both of them resignedly. “I’ll ask for the minimum number of volunteers necessary and then evacuate everyone else to the Intrepid.”
“The hell you are!” Aubrey objected with a gust of sudden anger. “No more. No more unnecessary sacrifices, no more pointless deaths. I will not allow you or any member of your crew to die, do you understand?”
She raised her eyebrows at the outburst. “If either of you are offering to take my place, or the place of one of my crewmembers, you can forget it. Neither of you are in condition and you know it.”
“We’re completing this mission and none of us are going to die in the process.” Aubrey insisted.
She stared at him, her mood balanced somewhere between exasperation and perplexity. “There’s nothing to debate, here. It’s simple arithmetic. We need two warp cores; we only have one. There aren’t any alternatives.”
“There’s always alternatives. People that say otherwise suffer from a bloody lack of imagination, that’s all.”
She mumbled something profane in Japanese. “What then, Aubrey? Another wild scheme? Because I’ll tell you, the last one didn’t work out so well.”
“Not wild at all. As you said, it’s arithmetic. We’ll simply get another starship with a functioning warp core.”
She nodded sarcastically. “Oh, I see. I feel so stupid for not thinking of that. Come on, we’re wasting time. There’s no way another Starfleet ship could make it here before…” Her words trailed away as understanding hit home. “Oh no…you’re out of your god damned mind, you know that?”
“Am I?”
“I don’t even know where to begin,” she sputtered. “You want to commandeer a Jem’Hadar or Cardassian vessel? How and the hell would we do that?”
Aubrey seemed genuinely confused. “Who said anything about commandeering? The Dominion are going to help us. What’s more, they’re going to help us willingly.”
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When Aubrey has a plan, all you can do is pray that it comes together well.
I had been thinking about this story recently. As in "where the hell is the next part, already?" Very glad you picked up on my subtle telepathic prompts.
Firstly, I'm really excited that Hiroko and Aubrey are finally joining forces. It's about time. Intrepid and her crew has been through the wringer here, and I wasn't quite sure if everybody would make it. Actually still not sure, but at least, as things stand presently, everybody seems to be accounted for.
Obviously things could change in a heartbeat, now that Aubrey wants to pull out yet another miracle out of his hat. Really curious to see what he's up to next and how exactly he plans to pull it off. The Dominion, as we have seen, is not exactly his biggest fan.
Firstly, I'm really excited that Hiroko and Aubrey are finally joining forces. It's about time. Intrepid and her crew has been through the wringer here, and I wasn't quite sure if everybody would make it. Actually still not sure, but at least, as things stand presently, everybody seems to be accounted for.
Obviously things could change in a heartbeat, now that Aubrey wants to pull out yet another miracle out of his hat. Really curious to see what he's up to next and how exactly he plans to pull it off. The Dominion, as we have seen, is not exactly his biggest fan.
Chapter 15
“No, Aubrey. It’s enough. No more pie-in-the -sky schemes. I’m returning to my ship as soon as we can punch through the local interference and we’ll proceed with our original plan. I’m not crazy about it, but it’s all we have.”
“The odds of success are less than sixty percent.” Shantok highlighted weakly.
“It’s better than no odds, which is how I see this new idea.”
Aubrey grunted scornfully. “Can’t say I’m surprised. This is how Starfleet trains its officers: to give up.”
Hiroko was momentarily struck dumb. She scrambled before finding her voice again. “What did you say?”
“The ‘No Win Scenario’. Kobayashi Maru. Accepting Pyrrhic victories. Isn’t that what we’re taught? It’s no wonder we have command officers out there who are so bloody eager to slap the self-destruct button the moment they get backed into a corner---because those doctrines have been drummed into us from our first day at the academy. We’re trained to think of our ourselves and our crews as expendable components. Starfleet wants quitters and martyrs, not warriors.” He snorted in disgust. “And we wonder why we’re losing this war.”
After pausing to digest his tirade, Hiroko’s features drew into a menacing scowl. “You condescending son of a bitch.” She began, her wrath unspooling incrementally as she spoke. “You can sit there and smugly cast judgement on your fellow officers? Sonya Kantrovitch was one of those ‘quitters’ you just mentioned by the way. Recognize her name? She wasn’t shot down trying to destroy the Kokala Nebula. She sacrificed herself to keep Genesis tech out of Dominion hands. Put another way, she gave her life for the Federation while trying to implement your plan.”
Aubrey didn’t need to see Shantok’s look of disapproval to know it was there. Maybe it was the heavy pain medication, but it was obvious his self-control was slipping. He had unintentionally just slapped a grieving person across the face, possibly alienating a desperately needed ally in the process.
Good show, old man.
Noticing that he was squirming inwardly, Hiroko added: “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not blaming you. She knew the risks. We all wanted to stop the invasion of Betazed. Most of us who wear this uniform know that every time we slip it on could be the last. But this job isn’t just about risk, it’s sometimes about sacrifice. The scary thing is, after all your years of service, I think you still refuse to accept that.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you’d been with me on the Guadalajara.” He muttered under his breath. It turned out to be another unguarded remark he immediately wanted to withdraw.
“It’s funny that you mention your last command. I read your jacket. It was that final mission on the Guadalajara that earned you your captaincy, wasn’t it?”
“We’re getting a bit off topic.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, because this is all connected. Most of that last mission was classified but I gleaned enough. For example, there was mention made of a ‘profound sacrifice demanded by circumstance’.” She bobbed her chin at him. “I’m betting that fourth pip on your collar came at a terrible price, didn’t it?”
This time he said nothing.
“Whatever that sacrifice was, Starfleet supported the decision. But not you. You’ve never been able to forgive yourself. In fact, from what I read you almost resigned over it.”
His face became a taught mask. “I made the wrong call back then. And that’s all I’m prepared to say on the subject.”
“Or so you tell yourself. You know, I think your career since then has been one long act of defiance. You careen brazenly into danger to prove the law of averages don’t apply to you. You’d rather believe you screwed up back then, instead of accepting that the greater good sometimes requires the ultimate sacrifice.”
“Captain, perhaps we should consider our immediate concerns.” Shantok offered, in a vain attempt at running interference.
Hiroko turned, as if noticing Intrepid’s enigmatic XO for the first time. “And you were with him on the Guadalajara. I’d bet anything that it wasn’t a therapist, or the pep talk from a kind-hearted admiral that made him stay in the service, it was probably you---the steady Vulcan with her soothing logic and unwavering support. What a comfort you must have been to that green CO facing the consequences of his first gut-wrenching command decision.”
Shantok elevated an eyebrow as if to say she could neither confirm nor deny the analysis.
Her voice lowered with empathy. “And you’re still at his side to this day. You know, it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re the only friend he has in the universe. I think I’m beginning to see why you’re so loyal to him.”
Aubrey gently broke into her musings. “Captain Hiroko…I owe you an apology. I spoke without thinking. I didn’t mean to dishonor the sacrifices of your people or any other members of Starfleet. I only meant that sometimes our colleagues are…well, how shall I put it? A little too quick to say ‘die’.”
She could see there was an “and” coming, so she gave him a moment.
His normally energetic gaze dimmed. “And…I feel responsible for this crisis, regardless of whether anyone blames me for it or not. I don’t want more blood on my hands.”
“But you know that I don’t blame you. I hope I made that clear.”
“Don’t you? You accused me of craving battle and seeking the thrill of danger. About that, you were wrong.” His tone became philosophical while his eyes briefly roamed the bridge. “You know, Intrepid was put back into service as a battleship and sadly, that’s the only way I’ve known her. I’d give my left arm to command her on missions of peace instead. So, let me assure you…when it comes time to beat our swords back into ploughshares, I’ll be first in line.”
Neither of them added the grim qualifier; that Aubrey’s career would end with this mission. He would never get the opportunity for another command, peaceful or otherwise.
She pursed her lips into a wary ghost-of-a-smile. “Maybe I owe you an apology as well. This wasn’t the best time for my kneejerk psychoanalysis.” She turned to his first officer. “Now, like the commander said, let’s get back to the matter at hand.”
“You’re really going to do this, aren’t you?”
“I can’t see another way.”
“There is a logical alternative.” Shantok stated firmly.
Aubrey and Hiroko looked at each other before casting hopeful eyes to the scientist.
“It will take three hours to reach the anomaly. That time can be spent putting the captain’s plan into motion. If it fails, we’ll have no choice but make the attempt with Sentry. In the interim, we’ll lose nothing by trying.”
Hiroko folded her arms with weary resolution. “That’s all very logical, commander. Except you’re forgetting the space around us is full of subspace anomalies. There’s so much interference I can’t even contact my ship, never mind the Dominion. Furthermore, who’s to say they wouldn’t attack us when they show up, ending any chance of resolving this?”
“I doubt they’d try, given they’d be surrounded by Inth.” Aubrey countered. “Besides, I’d wager that the Dominion’s need for self-preservation will trump any bloodlust they have for us. You heard how rattled the Founder was. They want this threat ended as much as we do, whether or not they admit it.”
“A valid conclusion.” Shantok agreed.
Hiroko nearly rolled her eyes. It was like debating an old married couple who had been joined at the hip so long, they spoke as a single voice. “I’m assuming, commander, that you’ve already done the math and concluded that a Dominion ship can reach us in time, so I won’t even ask.”
Shantok lowered her head carefully, affirming the assumption.
“But how do we get a message out?”
Elfin eyebrows came together, as she struggled for a solution. “Perhaps…a string of probes coupled with micro-fusion generators which could act as relays to amplify our broadcast. If our two ships were to then combine our collective transmission power---"
“We don’t have time for all of that.” Hiroko interrupted dismissively. “There’s also the problem of trying to convince whomever it is we reach. We’re the enemy, so trust is an issue.”
“You have something else in mind?”
“I do, Aubrey. I say we have the Inth do the work for us. They can make contact telepathically. They’re going to be a lot more convincing than we are and subspace interference isn’t an issue for them. Besides, if they’re so desperate to evolve, then maybe it’s time they got off their asses and started helping.”
“The Inth aren’t known for their diplomatic proficiency.” Shantok observed dryly.
“No, but they’re damned good at making threats and unleashing wanton destruction. They would just demand the Dominion comply by sending a ship. Fear will do the rest.”
Her audience went quiet with acceptance.
“Now, all three of us have had direct communion with the Inth, so I say we speak to them together.”
Shantok seemed to be studying her left boot. “To have the best chance of success, we should speak through a single conduit. I have just enough remaining strength to initiate a three-way mind meld.”
Closing her eyes, Hiroko pinched the bridge of her nose with thumb and forefinger. “God, I was afraid you were going to say that.”
Holy-moly! There's a lot going on here. Keep it up, I like it!
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Well, this is a real treat.
I love how Aubrey and Hiro take the time here to take off the gloves and go a few rounds of verbal battering. There's no time for any of this, but you can sense the frustrations finally bubbling over.
Hard not to fault Aubrey here, who need to learn to keep a cooler head. Insulting all the Starfleet commanders who have sacrificed their lives previously is probably not the way to make friends in the fleet.
And now we're going to try one of those hinky Vulcan mind-melds? Sure, nothing will go wrong with that plan.
I love how Aubrey and Hiro take the time here to take off the gloves and go a few rounds of verbal battering. There's no time for any of this, but you can sense the frustrations finally bubbling over.
Hard not to fault Aubrey here, who need to learn to keep a cooler head. Insulting all the Starfleet commanders who have sacrificed their lives previously is probably not the way to make friends in the fleet.
And now we're going to try one of those hinky Vulcan mind-melds? Sure, nothing will go wrong with that plan.
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