“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets the people to do the greatest things.” - Ronald Reagan
STAR TREK: Enterprise
“INTO DARKNESS”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
CHAPTER ONE: “Nibiru Mission”
Captain’s Star Log, April 22nd, 2161;
The Nibiru mission had started barely weeks after the end of the Romulan War, and with a new opportunity to examine a new alien race without interfering with them. The so-called Prime Directive is in effect as part of the new Coalition charter - one of the last before the official creation of the United Federation of Planets. Nibiru is a Class-M planet just out by the new Romulan Neutral Zone and largely ignored during the war. Our mission was to explore the species without interfering but we discovered a super-volcano that was about to blow. Commander T’Pol theorized that we could detonate a thermonuclear device inside the caldera and halt the eruption. So long as we’re not seen, we won’t break the Prime Directive.
Nothing can possibly go wrong.
Captain Jonathan Archer thundered through the tall growth without a pause, his legs pounding the vibrant fluorescent blue grass as if his life depended on it. Actually, it did depend on it.
“I told you this was a bad idea!”
“Shooting our ride back to the coast was a bad idea, Trip. This is a better idea!”
Behind Archer, Commander Charles ‘Trip’ Tucker III slipped on red fauna before recovering. “No, this was a bad idea! Stopping volcanoes! We should let nature do its thing!”
“Shut up!”
Archer ducked intuitively, just as well for two sharp spears thudded into the bracken around him. He looked back and saw the Nibiru chasing after them. Bright blue-colored humanoids with frilly whiskers attached to their faces and dark blue marks across their cheekbones. They wore Hawaiian-type skirts that initially made him grin but now they completed a terrifying ensemble. They just wouldn’t quit after the Humans. He began to unfurl a piece of parchment from under his arm, sweat trickling into his eyes.
“I’ll distract them!”
“It’s a bit late for that!,” Tripp yelled as he leaped over a fallen branch. “We’re too close to the sea!”
Archer could smell the saltwater in his nostril as he straightened the parchment. Strange alien characters on it appeared to dance across the sheet. He slapped it against a trunk as they passed seconds later. The pursuing aliens came to a stop, dropping to their knees before the parchment. Archer and Trip reached an abyss, a clifftop that plunged straight down for many meters. The Captain leaped first, followed by Trip, hitting the water like rockets plunging deep into the green sea, pushing out their arms and legs. He had to get near the engineer to help him along, knowing that his old friend was no great swimmer. Before long, a shape came into view over which they started to swim. Letters swam into view.
USS Enterprise
NCC–01
They were met at the airlock by Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Reed who waited for them to stagger out of the decompression chamber. Archer got to his feet, dripping water from his landing party skinsuit.
“Report.”
With a slight look of incredulity on his face, the Armory Officer spoke in clipped words, “Sir, we have a problem.”
“What?” Archer repressed the urge to groan.
“Commander T’Pol made her entry into the caldera but the shuttlepod was destroyed during a magma surge. She had already set the stabilizer to go over. She has ten minutes before it goes up.”
“And the eruption?,” asked Trip.
“Ten minutes.” Reed licked his lips. “I’m sorry.”
Archer started to walk, tugging at his swimsuit. “Come on. We need to go.”
By the time that he got to the Bridge, Archer had his suit rolled around his waist. The refitted Bridge was darkened. There never seemed to be much sense in keeping the light on full tilt and so with a couple on at a gentle dimness, it was easier to focus. The Captain stopped by his chair. On the main viewscreen, there was an image of the volcano with smoke pouring from its cracked dome. There had already been a minor eruption before they arrived, blowing the top off of the mountain but the main eruption was due to come. It would destroy all life and damage Enterprise. Of course, the hope had been to be off-planet by then, and the eruption quelled.
“We need to get her out of there,” Archer said after a moment.
“Transporter’s ineffective with all of that volcanic activity,” Trip said. He was looking at Archer with a certain acceptance. The knowledge that his Vulcan wife would die.
“Get her on the line, Hoshi,” Archer ordered, settling down into his chair.
“Aye, sir.”
The Bridge filled with static and then T’Pol’s matter-of-fact voice. “Captain, I trust that your side of the mission has gone well.”
“As well as it could. Any chance of you getting out of the caldera in time?”
“Negative,” she said, pausing with the sound of roaring intensifying. “The volcano is close to its major eruption. You must get the ship off-planet and in a manner that won’t let the natives see you.”
Archer caught Trip’s look and focused on the viewer. He looked at Reed who shook his head and murmured,” Five minutes.”
It had been her idea to land in the sea as it was. Using a thunderstorm to hide their approach, they landed so that T’Pol could use a shuttlepod quickly straight up into the storm and into the volcano while Archer and Trip went on land to spot the natives.
“T’Pol, we’re going to get you out of there.”
“Captain, you must not. The Prime Directive must be kept intact at all costs. If the Nibiru see the ship, there is no telling how much we will be altering their culture, their society… In short, sir, no.”
Archer gritted his teeth. “T’Pol!”
“Tell Commander Tucker… Tell Trip that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one… That I shall always be…”
The transmission dissolved in static. The deck shook as the earthquake began to shake them. Reed looked up from his display.
“Sir, the swarms are increasing!”
Archer shook his head. “Polarize the hull plating. Go to Red Alert.”
As the klaxons whistled their shrill sound, he beckoned Trip closer. “Get below and give me everything you’ve got!”
Trip nodded and hurried off the Bridge. Archer gripped his armrests. “Miss Taggert, full power ascent. Take us up.”
Seated at the helm, Ensign Jennifer Taggert pushed a lever up and then typed in commands. The deck of the Enterprise trembled once more but this time, it was with the power of the impulse engines. Around the ship, the water started to churn.
* * * *
The Nibiru who had been chasing Archer and Tucker had remained near the clifftop, worshiping the scroll that had been unfurled. Taken from one of their sacred temples, they prayed for help from on high that the beast in the mountain would be quelled. At first, they didn’t notice the ocean frothing and when they did, it was assumed that the beast was spreading its tentacles. A murmur became a cry as the Nibiru saw a shining silver-gray saucer rise from the water. Below the saucer was a short neck, a short cylindrical hull fronted by a golden dish, and beyond it all, two nacelles that tapered off. The alien beast lifted up over them and raced across the mountain, spraying water everywhere.
* * * *
T’Pol gripped a rock with one hand as she knelt on a larger boulder deep inside the heart of the caldera. Despite being Vulcan, the temperature in her suit was starting to become too much for her. Sweat poured down around her shapely ears and down her neck, soaking her skinsuit. Around her, magma leaped and crashed as the super volcano started its final countdown. Her eyes were closed as the nearby cold fusion device’s display showed the countdown passing a minute.
In her mind’s eye, she saw Tripp standing at the door of her cabin. She was cradling Elizabeth, the byproduct of a madman’s experiment to drive a wedge between aliens and Humans. She would die. T’Pol focused on the feeling of pride that she had felt, holding the baby that had hers and Trip’s DNA. The way that Elizabeth smiled up at her…
“... Commander!,” Reed called out as he and Captain Archer dashed to catch her. She toppled off of the transporter pad with steam rising from her. The Captain managed to get her helmet off, prompting her to gasp air into her lungs.
Archer dashed to the wall intercom, slapping the panel. “We’ve got her, Taggert. Get us the hell out of here!”
Below and behind them, as the Enterprise rocketed skywards, the volcano started to erupt, seconds before the cold fusion device went off. There was a searing white flash. When the moment faded, the magma and all of the caldera were frozen solid.
On the ship, T’Pol got to her feet. Her long brown hair was plastered across the nape of her neck. “You rescued me.”
“You can thank us later,” joked Archer. “We had to, T’Pol.”
“The Nibiru could have seen the ship.”
At this juncture, Trip ran into the transporter room and went to hug her. She stopped him dead in his tracks with a glare that swiveled back to the Captain. “You have broken the Prime Directive.”
“Come on, T’Pol. We saved your life. I did what I had to do.” He jerked a thumb at his chest. “I’m the Captain.
She only then noticed his topless condition, the skinsuit rolled to his waist. She arched both eyebrows and looked at the three men. “I will be in Sickbay. Good day.”
She walked past them and out of the room.
Archer sighed. “Once again, we’ve saved civilization as we know it.”
“And got no thanks for it,” Reed said, chuckling.
“Mister Reed, have a course set for Earth.”
“Aye, sir.”
* * * *
Back on Nibiru, the natives praised their savior, the gray beast from the depths. The one who had stopped the mountain from killing them all. In the future, the ocean would be revered as the Home of the Gods. The natives presently danced for joy around the drawing that one of them had made in the dirt. A single word ran across the top of the paper reading…
Enterprise.
CHAPTER TWO: “Whisper Who Dares”
London, Earth
April 24, 2161
The Underground was still one of the best ways to get around London, even in the late twenty-second century. Cleaner and sometimes faster, the Underground still sprawled beneath Greater London. It was from the station on Embankment that Commander Alexei Boltarev had departed en route to his current assignment. He had a tired look to his eyes which most at the Churchill Memorial Library on Northumberland Avenue would recognize. It had been the case for a few weeks since Boltarev’s nine-year-old daughter Katya had caught an unknown disease that was ravaging her internally. The doctors at the hospital based outside of London in Hertfordshire weren’t optimistic. Boltarev and his wife had given up hope.
Today though, as he slipped inside the library’s main entrance, some of his colleagues saw that there was something different about him. The tired look had some kind of resolve there. No one that survived what happened would mention it to investigators. There was no point. It just didn’t seem to match what happened.
On the face of it, the library was a database and a book archive for public and private use. However, at the rear of the building, as well as below the three subterranean levels that ran parallel to the Bakerloo Line, was the Churchill Library’s main purpose. That purpose was that of a Starfleet top-secret research facility that was home to some of the most classified material that had been ever gathered. On the ground level next to a balcony that looked into the first sub-level was where Boltarev had his desk. Taking his jacket off, he brushed down his Starfleet uniform and started to type on his keyboard.
LEVEL-ONE ACCESS REQUIRED flashed across the monitor screen.
A red light shined on his left eye prompting a new message. ACCEPTED.
Boltarev had never seen the man before that had come to him at his home. Nor had he ever asked how this man found him at his home or why he had specifically sought him out. What the man had promised, Katya’s life saved, was overpowering and enriching. With few words, this man handed over a vial of blood that he had taken to the hospital and placed in Katya’s transfusion machine. Within seconds, the new blood began to work and Katya miraculously started to show signs of improvement.
On Boltarev’s screen, a page of information appeared which he began to send on via scrambled channels to this man at his hideout wherever that was. Boltarev was almost comatose as if he was in the middle of a dream.
YOU KNOW WHAT MUST BE DONE NOW.
This message came after the information was sent. Boltarev nodded, sure about what must be done now. He had betrayed Starfleet, his family, and everything that he held dear. Standing, he headed for the turbolift.
Ten minutes later, a violent explosion tore through the three sublevels racing upwards. It destroyed those levels as well as some of the actual library itself on the street level. The flames and smoke traveled high enough to be seen from the City, three miles east and further afield.
CHAPTER THREE: “The Game’s Afoot”
San Francisco
April 24th, 2161
Captain Jonathan Archer stepped away from the maglev train at the Presidio station, hurriedly walking down toward the campus grounds of Starfleet Headquarters. In the light rain, the nearby skyscrapers of the Financial District shone through the low clouds. He reached the main building of Headquarters where he was met by T’Pol. Her hair was across her shoulders and she wore her Starfleet uniform. After three years, he still wasn’t used to seeing her wearing Starfleet blue.
“Captain.”
They fell into step, heading for the turbolifts. “I got a Level-One alert. Am I the only Captain?”
“Captains Girard of the Yorktown and Hall of the Daedalus were also summoned. They are the most senior next to you.”
“I’m the only one who’s left from the old guard, you mean,” Archer muttered as they waited. Erika Hernandez had gone missing in the war. Craig Hammond had been killed at Berengaria VII in the opening stages and many others had been lost. Only Eric Girard and Sarah Hall were left, it seemed, of the pre-war generation.
A lift came to take them to the top floor where two security officers - one of them with a phase rifle - performed a search.
Archer held his arms up. “I might take this personally soon.”
“Just a precaution after what happened in London, sir,” said the security officer holding the phase rifle. “C-in-C’s orders.”
“London?”
“Yes, London,” said Admiral Samuel Gardner standing at the doorway across from the turbolifts. “Come on in, both of you.”
The white-haired, goatee-sporting Gardner had been Commander-in-Chief for a while now and even in that time, Archer still couldn’t respect him totally. It likely stemmed from the good friendship that he had with the previous C-in-C, Maxwell Forrest. Something that was quite lacking with Gardner. There were other people sitting around the table; Eric Girard of the Yorktown, Sarah Hall of the Daedalus but also Admiral Horatio Black, Chief of Starfleet Security as well as Starfleet Intelligence, and other relevant department heads. Archer felt a little out of place but then he had been in more important meetings before.
“As you all know, there was an explosion in London earlier today,” Gardner began. Archer glanced at T’Pol who remained impassive herself. He had been away from computers until his communicator had chirped urgently. “Fifty people died in the attack that destroyed the Churchill Memorial Library.”
A monitor rose between them all in the middle of the table. A two-way screen enabled both sides to see what was showing. The image was that of a shattered building front with debris everywhere. There were jagged bits of molten metal, dead bodies, and other detritus of a horrible incident.
“We believe this to be the work of a terrorist, though he had help.” An image appeared in a box next to the carnage of the library which showed a blond figure in Starfleet blue. “Alexei Boltarev, a high-level database attendant.”
Archer didn’t see why this mattered. The memorial library was important but surely it wasn’t important enough to get this meeting together.
“Admiral Black.”
Black sported a thick beard, adding to the receding hairline that was quite fiercely combined with shocking blue eyes and a pale-rosy red complexion as if he had been standing in the rain for too long. He clasped his hands together and leaned forward in his seat. “Boltarev was a proper Starfleet officer. There were no blotches on his record and no problems until now. His daughter was sick with a disease that there was no cure for. Then, suddenly, she’s better and Boltarev blows the library to kingdom come and back.”
Another image appeared floating to one side, showing a cloaked figure. Only the lower half of the face could be made out. Whoever they were, they had a sharply angular chin. Archer studied it and then Black.
“Sir, where do we come in?”
Black grinned. It only made him look more fearsome. “The library was a cover for a top-secret facility that dealt in intelligence matters. That’s all that I’m saying for now but needless to say that by blowing up this library, some highly delicate matters have been ripped apart. Some hang in the balance now: peace with the Klingons, certain technological advances, cures to diseases that we got during the Romulan War and so on.”
Archer glanced at T’Pol. Her complexion had darkened a little and green tinted her cheeks. It was sure that something had bothered her.
“This figure that you see here was seen at the hospital where Boltarev’s daughter was being treated. We think that he had something to do with the attack,” Black said. “It’s possible that this person met Boltarev outside of the hospital. Either way, this person is a suspect.”
“You sound like you know him.” Archer pointed at the carnage of the library front. “And he’s there too.”
In the image, the cloaked man was half-hidden behind an ambulance that had its doors open. Black stared at it for a moment before looking at the Enterprise captain. “Good eyes, Captain. Yes, we might know who it is.”
“Who?”
“I can’t tell you that but we believe that he poses a threat and might strike at any time.”
Archer clenched his fists under the table. This same obtuse behavior from Starfleet Command had sometimes hindered the war effort and it had annoyed him more than once. “Sir, we might…”
White light blazed into the conference room. It made everyone, including T’Pol, hold a hand over their eyes. Archer could make out a skimmer outside. It sent a shiver down his spine. He grabbed T’Pol and began to shove her to his left.
“GET DOWN!”
The windows of the conference room shattered as lasers battered them and drilled into the room, blowing apart the table and monitor. Archer hit the deck, covering T’Pol. Squirming, he looked away to his right and saw Sarah Hall go down, her eyes open but quite unseeing. Black joined him but he was alive, pulling his way across the floor. Arch stood, hunching his back as he reached for his phase pistol. His face was wet with the rain that swept into the room. The skimmer was raking the end of the conference room where the doors had been and Security had tried coming in.
Archer aimed at the skimmer and fired. His blasts bounced off the cockpit which had turned to one side as the skimmer shifted. He lowered his phase pistol and leaped across the table. Close to the edge, he saw the man inside the skimmer look at him.
The angular chin, dull hazel eyes, short white hair, and a seemingly oblivious look…
Archer raised his pistol and fired on full beam. The shot pierced the skimmer’s cockpit, hitting the console. As sparks flew from the phase energy blast, the skimmer began to wheel about. The man in the cockpit vanished in a whirling vortex of light. The pilotless skimmer dropped to the campus courtyard below, exploding in one quick flash.
Archer holstered his weapon before hurrying back to the table. T’Pol was with Admiral Gardner, holding him on her lap. Her right hand was splayed across his right cheek. “Our minds are one. Your pain is my pain. Fear nothing…”
Lashed by the wind and rain, Archer stood by as Admiral Gardner died in T’Pol’s arms. She gently lowered him to the floor, releasing her right hand. She stood; her hair now being whipped about by the wind.
“I eased his suffering. He would not have survived until help arrived.”
“You did what you had to do,” Archer said, looking at Security and Medical personnel hurried into the room flanked by Admiral Black. He must have dived out as I attacked the skimmer, he thought. “Sir, Admiral Gardner is dead.”
Black stood over Gardner’s body, nodding with either satisfaction or sadness. It was hard to tell with a man who had the nickname of ‘Mad’ Black as a starship captain. He glanced aside at Archer.
“As of now, I’m assuming temporary command of Starfleet. Captain Archer, you’re to return to Enterprise and prepare for departure. Standby for my orders.”
Archer nodded. “Sir.”
T’Pol stepped over to Archer’s side, reaching for her communicator. “Enterprise, two to beam up.”
As the transporter beam took them, Archer kept his eyes on Black. Something didn’t feel right and he was sure that it wouldn’t get better soon.
STAR TREK: Enterprise
“INTO DARKNESS”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
CHAPTER ONE: “Nibiru Mission”
Captain’s Star Log, April 22nd, 2161;
The Nibiru mission had started barely weeks after the end of the Romulan War, and with a new opportunity to examine a new alien race without interfering with them. The so-called Prime Directive is in effect as part of the new Coalition charter - one of the last before the official creation of the United Federation of Planets. Nibiru is a Class-M planet just out by the new Romulan Neutral Zone and largely ignored during the war. Our mission was to explore the species without interfering but we discovered a super-volcano that was about to blow. Commander T’Pol theorized that we could detonate a thermonuclear device inside the caldera and halt the eruption. So long as we’re not seen, we won’t break the Prime Directive.
Nothing can possibly go wrong.
Captain Jonathan Archer thundered through the tall growth without a pause, his legs pounding the vibrant fluorescent blue grass as if his life depended on it. Actually, it did depend on it.
“I told you this was a bad idea!”
“Shooting our ride back to the coast was a bad idea, Trip. This is a better idea!”
Behind Archer, Commander Charles ‘Trip’ Tucker III slipped on red fauna before recovering. “No, this was a bad idea! Stopping volcanoes! We should let nature do its thing!”
“Shut up!”
Archer ducked intuitively, just as well for two sharp spears thudded into the bracken around him. He looked back and saw the Nibiru chasing after them. Bright blue-colored humanoids with frilly whiskers attached to their faces and dark blue marks across their cheekbones. They wore Hawaiian-type skirts that initially made him grin but now they completed a terrifying ensemble. They just wouldn’t quit after the Humans. He began to unfurl a piece of parchment from under his arm, sweat trickling into his eyes.
“I’ll distract them!”
“It’s a bit late for that!,” Tripp yelled as he leaped over a fallen branch. “We’re too close to the sea!”
Archer could smell the saltwater in his nostril as he straightened the parchment. Strange alien characters on it appeared to dance across the sheet. He slapped it against a trunk as they passed seconds later. The pursuing aliens came to a stop, dropping to their knees before the parchment. Archer and Trip reached an abyss, a clifftop that plunged straight down for many meters. The Captain leaped first, followed by Trip, hitting the water like rockets plunging deep into the green sea, pushing out their arms and legs. He had to get near the engineer to help him along, knowing that his old friend was no great swimmer. Before long, a shape came into view over which they started to swim. Letters swam into view.
USS Enterprise
NCC–01
They were met at the airlock by Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Reed who waited for them to stagger out of the decompression chamber. Archer got to his feet, dripping water from his landing party skinsuit.
“Report.”
With a slight look of incredulity on his face, the Armory Officer spoke in clipped words, “Sir, we have a problem.”
“What?” Archer repressed the urge to groan.
“Commander T’Pol made her entry into the caldera but the shuttlepod was destroyed during a magma surge. She had already set the stabilizer to go over. She has ten minutes before it goes up.”
“And the eruption?,” asked Trip.
“Ten minutes.” Reed licked his lips. “I’m sorry.”
Archer started to walk, tugging at his swimsuit. “Come on. We need to go.”
By the time that he got to the Bridge, Archer had his suit rolled around his waist. The refitted Bridge was darkened. There never seemed to be much sense in keeping the light on full tilt and so with a couple on at a gentle dimness, it was easier to focus. The Captain stopped by his chair. On the main viewscreen, there was an image of the volcano with smoke pouring from its cracked dome. There had already been a minor eruption before they arrived, blowing the top off of the mountain but the main eruption was due to come. It would destroy all life and damage Enterprise. Of course, the hope had been to be off-planet by then, and the eruption quelled.
“We need to get her out of there,” Archer said after a moment.
“Transporter’s ineffective with all of that volcanic activity,” Trip said. He was looking at Archer with a certain acceptance. The knowledge that his Vulcan wife would die.
“Get her on the line, Hoshi,” Archer ordered, settling down into his chair.
“Aye, sir.”
The Bridge filled with static and then T’Pol’s matter-of-fact voice. “Captain, I trust that your side of the mission has gone well.”
“As well as it could. Any chance of you getting out of the caldera in time?”
“Negative,” she said, pausing with the sound of roaring intensifying. “The volcano is close to its major eruption. You must get the ship off-planet and in a manner that won’t let the natives see you.”
Archer caught Trip’s look and focused on the viewer. He looked at Reed who shook his head and murmured,” Five minutes.”
It had been her idea to land in the sea as it was. Using a thunderstorm to hide their approach, they landed so that T’Pol could use a shuttlepod quickly straight up into the storm and into the volcano while Archer and Trip went on land to spot the natives.
“T’Pol, we’re going to get you out of there.”
“Captain, you must not. The Prime Directive must be kept intact at all costs. If the Nibiru see the ship, there is no telling how much we will be altering their culture, their society… In short, sir, no.”
Archer gritted his teeth. “T’Pol!”
“Tell Commander Tucker… Tell Trip that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one… That I shall always be…”
The transmission dissolved in static. The deck shook as the earthquake began to shake them. Reed looked up from his display.
“Sir, the swarms are increasing!”
Archer shook his head. “Polarize the hull plating. Go to Red Alert.”
As the klaxons whistled their shrill sound, he beckoned Trip closer. “Get below and give me everything you’ve got!”
Trip nodded and hurried off the Bridge. Archer gripped his armrests. “Miss Taggert, full power ascent. Take us up.”
Seated at the helm, Ensign Jennifer Taggert pushed a lever up and then typed in commands. The deck of the Enterprise trembled once more but this time, it was with the power of the impulse engines. Around the ship, the water started to churn.
* * * *
The Nibiru who had been chasing Archer and Tucker had remained near the clifftop, worshiping the scroll that had been unfurled. Taken from one of their sacred temples, they prayed for help from on high that the beast in the mountain would be quelled. At first, they didn’t notice the ocean frothing and when they did, it was assumed that the beast was spreading its tentacles. A murmur became a cry as the Nibiru saw a shining silver-gray saucer rise from the water. Below the saucer was a short neck, a short cylindrical hull fronted by a golden dish, and beyond it all, two nacelles that tapered off. The alien beast lifted up over them and raced across the mountain, spraying water everywhere.
* * * *
T’Pol gripped a rock with one hand as she knelt on a larger boulder deep inside the heart of the caldera. Despite being Vulcan, the temperature in her suit was starting to become too much for her. Sweat poured down around her shapely ears and down her neck, soaking her skinsuit. Around her, magma leaped and crashed as the super volcano started its final countdown. Her eyes were closed as the nearby cold fusion device’s display showed the countdown passing a minute.
In her mind’s eye, she saw Tripp standing at the door of her cabin. She was cradling Elizabeth, the byproduct of a madman’s experiment to drive a wedge between aliens and Humans. She would die. T’Pol focused on the feeling of pride that she had felt, holding the baby that had hers and Trip’s DNA. The way that Elizabeth smiled up at her…
“... Commander!,” Reed called out as he and Captain Archer dashed to catch her. She toppled off of the transporter pad with steam rising from her. The Captain managed to get her helmet off, prompting her to gasp air into her lungs.
Archer dashed to the wall intercom, slapping the panel. “We’ve got her, Taggert. Get us the hell out of here!”
Below and behind them, as the Enterprise rocketed skywards, the volcano started to erupt, seconds before the cold fusion device went off. There was a searing white flash. When the moment faded, the magma and all of the caldera were frozen solid.
On the ship, T’Pol got to her feet. Her long brown hair was plastered across the nape of her neck. “You rescued me.”
“You can thank us later,” joked Archer. “We had to, T’Pol.”
“The Nibiru could have seen the ship.”
At this juncture, Trip ran into the transporter room and went to hug her. She stopped him dead in his tracks with a glare that swiveled back to the Captain. “You have broken the Prime Directive.”
“Come on, T’Pol. We saved your life. I did what I had to do.” He jerked a thumb at his chest. “I’m the Captain.
She only then noticed his topless condition, the skinsuit rolled to his waist. She arched both eyebrows and looked at the three men. “I will be in Sickbay. Good day.”
She walked past them and out of the room.
Archer sighed. “Once again, we’ve saved civilization as we know it.”
“And got no thanks for it,” Reed said, chuckling.
“Mister Reed, have a course set for Earth.”
“Aye, sir.”
* * * *
Back on Nibiru, the natives praised their savior, the gray beast from the depths. The one who had stopped the mountain from killing them all. In the future, the ocean would be revered as the Home of the Gods. The natives presently danced for joy around the drawing that one of them had made in the dirt. A single word ran across the top of the paper reading…
Enterprise.
CHAPTER TWO: “Whisper Who Dares”
London, Earth
April 24, 2161
The Underground was still one of the best ways to get around London, even in the late twenty-second century. Cleaner and sometimes faster, the Underground still sprawled beneath Greater London. It was from the station on Embankment that Commander Alexei Boltarev had departed en route to his current assignment. He had a tired look to his eyes which most at the Churchill Memorial Library on Northumberland Avenue would recognize. It had been the case for a few weeks since Boltarev’s nine-year-old daughter Katya had caught an unknown disease that was ravaging her internally. The doctors at the hospital based outside of London in Hertfordshire weren’t optimistic. Boltarev and his wife had given up hope.
Today though, as he slipped inside the library’s main entrance, some of his colleagues saw that there was something different about him. The tired look had some kind of resolve there. No one that survived what happened would mention it to investigators. There was no point. It just didn’t seem to match what happened.
On the face of it, the library was a database and a book archive for public and private use. However, at the rear of the building, as well as below the three subterranean levels that ran parallel to the Bakerloo Line, was the Churchill Library’s main purpose. That purpose was that of a Starfleet top-secret research facility that was home to some of the most classified material that had been ever gathered. On the ground level next to a balcony that looked into the first sub-level was where Boltarev had his desk. Taking his jacket off, he brushed down his Starfleet uniform and started to type on his keyboard.
LEVEL-ONE ACCESS REQUIRED flashed across the monitor screen.
A red light shined on his left eye prompting a new message. ACCEPTED.
Boltarev had never seen the man before that had come to him at his home. Nor had he ever asked how this man found him at his home or why he had specifically sought him out. What the man had promised, Katya’s life saved, was overpowering and enriching. With few words, this man handed over a vial of blood that he had taken to the hospital and placed in Katya’s transfusion machine. Within seconds, the new blood began to work and Katya miraculously started to show signs of improvement.
On Boltarev’s screen, a page of information appeared which he began to send on via scrambled channels to this man at his hideout wherever that was. Boltarev was almost comatose as if he was in the middle of a dream.
YOU KNOW WHAT MUST BE DONE NOW.
This message came after the information was sent. Boltarev nodded, sure about what must be done now. He had betrayed Starfleet, his family, and everything that he held dear. Standing, he headed for the turbolift.
Ten minutes later, a violent explosion tore through the three sublevels racing upwards. It destroyed those levels as well as some of the actual library itself on the street level. The flames and smoke traveled high enough to be seen from the City, three miles east and further afield.
CHAPTER THREE: “The Game’s Afoot”
San Francisco
April 24th, 2161
Captain Jonathan Archer stepped away from the maglev train at the Presidio station, hurriedly walking down toward the campus grounds of Starfleet Headquarters. In the light rain, the nearby skyscrapers of the Financial District shone through the low clouds. He reached the main building of Headquarters where he was met by T’Pol. Her hair was across her shoulders and she wore her Starfleet uniform. After three years, he still wasn’t used to seeing her wearing Starfleet blue.
“Captain.”
They fell into step, heading for the turbolifts. “I got a Level-One alert. Am I the only Captain?”
“Captains Girard of the Yorktown and Hall of the Daedalus were also summoned. They are the most senior next to you.”
“I’m the only one who’s left from the old guard, you mean,” Archer muttered as they waited. Erika Hernandez had gone missing in the war. Craig Hammond had been killed at Berengaria VII in the opening stages and many others had been lost. Only Eric Girard and Sarah Hall were left, it seemed, of the pre-war generation.
A lift came to take them to the top floor where two security officers - one of them with a phase rifle - performed a search.
Archer held his arms up. “I might take this personally soon.”
“Just a precaution after what happened in London, sir,” said the security officer holding the phase rifle. “C-in-C’s orders.”
“London?”
“Yes, London,” said Admiral Samuel Gardner standing at the doorway across from the turbolifts. “Come on in, both of you.”
The white-haired, goatee-sporting Gardner had been Commander-in-Chief for a while now and even in that time, Archer still couldn’t respect him totally. It likely stemmed from the good friendship that he had with the previous C-in-C, Maxwell Forrest. Something that was quite lacking with Gardner. There were other people sitting around the table; Eric Girard of the Yorktown, Sarah Hall of the Daedalus but also Admiral Horatio Black, Chief of Starfleet Security as well as Starfleet Intelligence, and other relevant department heads. Archer felt a little out of place but then he had been in more important meetings before.
“As you all know, there was an explosion in London earlier today,” Gardner began. Archer glanced at T’Pol who remained impassive herself. He had been away from computers until his communicator had chirped urgently. “Fifty people died in the attack that destroyed the Churchill Memorial Library.”
A monitor rose between them all in the middle of the table. A two-way screen enabled both sides to see what was showing. The image was that of a shattered building front with debris everywhere. There were jagged bits of molten metal, dead bodies, and other detritus of a horrible incident.
“We believe this to be the work of a terrorist, though he had help.” An image appeared in a box next to the carnage of the library which showed a blond figure in Starfleet blue. “Alexei Boltarev, a high-level database attendant.”
Archer didn’t see why this mattered. The memorial library was important but surely it wasn’t important enough to get this meeting together.
“Admiral Black.”
Black sported a thick beard, adding to the receding hairline that was quite fiercely combined with shocking blue eyes and a pale-rosy red complexion as if he had been standing in the rain for too long. He clasped his hands together and leaned forward in his seat. “Boltarev was a proper Starfleet officer. There were no blotches on his record and no problems until now. His daughter was sick with a disease that there was no cure for. Then, suddenly, she’s better and Boltarev blows the library to kingdom come and back.”
Another image appeared floating to one side, showing a cloaked figure. Only the lower half of the face could be made out. Whoever they were, they had a sharply angular chin. Archer studied it and then Black.
“Sir, where do we come in?”
Black grinned. It only made him look more fearsome. “The library was a cover for a top-secret facility that dealt in intelligence matters. That’s all that I’m saying for now but needless to say that by blowing up this library, some highly delicate matters have been ripped apart. Some hang in the balance now: peace with the Klingons, certain technological advances, cures to diseases that we got during the Romulan War and so on.”
Archer glanced at T’Pol. Her complexion had darkened a little and green tinted her cheeks. It was sure that something had bothered her.
“This figure that you see here was seen at the hospital where Boltarev’s daughter was being treated. We think that he had something to do with the attack,” Black said. “It’s possible that this person met Boltarev outside of the hospital. Either way, this person is a suspect.”
“You sound like you know him.” Archer pointed at the carnage of the library front. “And he’s there too.”
In the image, the cloaked man was half-hidden behind an ambulance that had its doors open. Black stared at it for a moment before looking at the Enterprise captain. “Good eyes, Captain. Yes, we might know who it is.”
“Who?”
“I can’t tell you that but we believe that he poses a threat and might strike at any time.”
Archer clenched his fists under the table. This same obtuse behavior from Starfleet Command had sometimes hindered the war effort and it had annoyed him more than once. “Sir, we might…”
White light blazed into the conference room. It made everyone, including T’Pol, hold a hand over their eyes. Archer could make out a skimmer outside. It sent a shiver down his spine. He grabbed T’Pol and began to shove her to his left.
“GET DOWN!”
The windows of the conference room shattered as lasers battered them and drilled into the room, blowing apart the table and monitor. Archer hit the deck, covering T’Pol. Squirming, he looked away to his right and saw Sarah Hall go down, her eyes open but quite unseeing. Black joined him but he was alive, pulling his way across the floor. Arch stood, hunching his back as he reached for his phase pistol. His face was wet with the rain that swept into the room. The skimmer was raking the end of the conference room where the doors had been and Security had tried coming in.
Archer aimed at the skimmer and fired. His blasts bounced off the cockpit which had turned to one side as the skimmer shifted. He lowered his phase pistol and leaped across the table. Close to the edge, he saw the man inside the skimmer look at him.
The angular chin, dull hazel eyes, short white hair, and a seemingly oblivious look…
Archer raised his pistol and fired on full beam. The shot pierced the skimmer’s cockpit, hitting the console. As sparks flew from the phase energy blast, the skimmer began to wheel about. The man in the cockpit vanished in a whirling vortex of light. The pilotless skimmer dropped to the campus courtyard below, exploding in one quick flash.
Archer holstered his weapon before hurrying back to the table. T’Pol was with Admiral Gardner, holding him on her lap. Her right hand was splayed across his right cheek. “Our minds are one. Your pain is my pain. Fear nothing…”
Lashed by the wind and rain, Archer stood by as Admiral Gardner died in T’Pol’s arms. She gently lowered him to the floor, releasing her right hand. She stood; her hair now being whipped about by the wind.
“I eased his suffering. He would not have survived until help arrived.”
“You did what you had to do,” Archer said, looking at Security and Medical personnel hurried into the room flanked by Admiral Black. He must have dived out as I attacked the skimmer, he thought. “Sir, Admiral Gardner is dead.”
Black stood over Gardner’s body, nodding with either satisfaction or sadness. It was hard to tell with a man who had the nickname of ‘Mad’ Black as a starship captain. He glanced aside at Archer.
“As of now, I’m assuming temporary command of Starfleet. Captain Archer, you’re to return to Enterprise and prepare for departure. Standby for my orders.”
Archer nodded. “Sir.”
T’Pol stepped over to Archer’s side, reaching for her communicator. “Enterprise, two to beam up.”
As the transporter beam took them, Archer kept his eyes on Black. Something didn’t feel right and he was sure that it wouldn’t get better soon.
