Star Trek: Into the Void - Season One

[admiralelm11]

Star Trek: Into the Void

Episode Twenty - ‘Life is But a Dream

By Jack D. Elmlinger


Prologue

For Isabel Cardonez, Captain of the starship Testudo, it was though time had frozen. There were a dozen things that she knew she should be doing but she couldn’t bring herself to do a single one of them. She couldn’t bring herself to look away from the image on the viewscreen.

The image of a ghost.

The Constitution-class starship USS Ranger had vanished almost a century before with its fate unknown. Of course, the Board of Inquiry had to report something and so they had gone for the most logical explanation. That explanation had been that the Ranger had suffered from a catastrophic event in Sector 29004 as possibly the result of one of the severe ion storms that regularly buffeted the area. It was a tragedy to be certain but it was nothing too unfamiliar in the dangerous realm of deep space exploration.

And that was it.

The Board’s report was published, the families of the Ranger’s crew mourned, each of them in their own way and their own time. The name Ranger was reassigned to the bottom of the inactive list, ready to be used again for some future starship long after the hurt and loss had faded. Starfleet had officially closed the book.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. In fact, that was just the beginning of the rumors and theories that would center on Sector 29004 forever after. Some of them postulated that the Ranger had met with an advanced alien race from another Galaxy who had whisked them away for experimentation purposes. Some others felt that a space-born monster had torn the ship apart with its teeth and devoured it. Then there were those whose minds turned to even more sinister ideas. That the Ranger had been testing a new super-weapon and inadvertently destroyed itself. Or that the crew had gone mad and turned on each other in an orgy of rape and murder brought on by exposure to some alien pathogen or from just plain boredom.

During the Testudo’s first voyage under her command, while on course to Malthea Two, Cardonez had perused through some of the theories that abounded about both the Ranger and about Sector 29004. There were thousands of them. That was the trouble with a society without money. Anyone could publish anything that they liked, no matter how outrageous and ensure that it reached a huge audience.

Yet, despite the Board of Inquiry, despite the theories, some of them quite serious but most of them came from the realm of science fiction, despite search after search, no trace of the Ranger had ever been found.

Until now.

Because even now, over twenty-nine thousand lightyears and a century away from it’s last known position, Cardonez was looking at the USS Ranger.

Given its age, the ship looked like it was in good condition. Its refitted squared-off nacelles still throbbed with power and its whitened hull was, if not pristine, then it was pretty close to it.

Cardonez wasn’t alone in being entranced by the ship. Not a soul on the Bridge moved or spoke a word while they watched the three vessels that were just hanging there in space. A ghost sitting with two vultures.

As with so many occasions, it took Lieutenant Valian Kandro to break the silence with a thoughtful and well-assured statement. “Holy shit on a stick, would you look at that?”

And that did it. Suddenly, everyone on the Bridge started to chatter away.

“It’s been a few years since I’ve seen one so well-preserved,” said Lieutenant Commander Adam Huntington.

“I wonder if any of the crew survived,” said Lieutenant Louise Ramblin.

“We’ll be famous!,” said Pamela Tilmoore.

Kandro turned slightly in his seat. “I thought we already were?,” he asked with mock indignation.

“Quiet, everyone,” Cardonez said. The talking had broken her concentration on the ship and now she had lost her focus. “I need time to think.”

“Aye, sir,” Kandro said, swinging back to face his console and the main viewscreen.

“Commander, what’s their status?”

Huntington scanned his board. “They have their shields raised and their weapons powered up but they aren’t targeting us… yet.”

She nodded, sitting back down in her chair. “Mister Kandro, lifesigns?”

“Not many,” was the Betazoid’s reply. “I’m getting nothing from the ships on either side of her except for a small area that I can’t scan. That’s about standard for those ships.” He paused and added,” I have a similar spot on the Ranger but I’m also detecting six distinct lifeforms.”

“Can you identify them?”

“Just about,” replied Kandro. “Three of them are Humans. Two of them are Human-Chobraq hybrids and the last one,” he paused. “The last one is a Vulcan, sir.”

“Could it be an original member of the crew?,” Ramblin asked, sitting with her back to her Engineering console.

“It’s possible,” said Huntington. “Ranger did have two Vulcans assigned to it when she went missing.”

“How do you know that, sir?,” asked Tilmoore.

Huntington smiled a cockeyed smile. “You know me and tragedies,” he said. “I probably know more about that ship than I do about the Titanic.”

“The trouble is that the Titanic didn’t suddenly reappear in the South Atlantic, a hundred years later,” said Cardonez. “Hail them.”

“Hang on. I have another ship about to exit the rapid behind us.”

“They’re on a collision course!,” shouted Kandro. “Twenty seconds to impact.”

“Pam, thrusters to port!,” shouted Cardonez, clutching at her armrests. “Brace for impact!”

Tilmoore pressed her fingers down hard on the thruster controls as though every ounce of pressure that she exerted would somehow increase their speed. The young Ensign held her breath while she watched the representation of the Testudo on her console move agonizingly slowly to one side.

“Ten seconds,” said Kandro. “We’re not going to make it.”

“Blow the Shuttle Bays.”

“Five seconds,” said Kandro even while his fingers danced across his display.

Even with her thrusters pushing her to port, the Testudo was never going to avoid being hit. Luckily, blowing the Shuttle Bays gave her an extra nudge forward as the doors opened without the benefit of atmospheric integrity fields and the air within was hungrily jettisoned out into the vacuum of space.

“We made it,” Kandro said, his voice filled with surprise and relief.

“That was too close.”

Cardonez let out a sigh. “Just tell me that no one was in any of those Shuttle Bays when we did that?,” she asked, already steeling herself for the answer and already knowing that she had done the right thing. The lives of one hundred and eighty people against the lives of whoever had been in one of the bays when they had been depressurized. Still, she hoped that they had been empty.

“Just one,” said Huntington. “Crewman Lynch.”

“Damn,” she muttered, her eyes closing tight. She had lost enough people today.

“Luckily for him, he was inside one of the shuttles,” the Tactical Officer added. “The shuttle automatic systems detected the pressure drop and sealed the shuttle.”

Cardonez craned her head back to look at him. “You could have said that first,” she snapped but relief was evident on her face. “What came out after us?”

“Another one of those silver ships,” said Huntington.

Isabel turned forward once more. On the main viewscreen, a third small silver ship had joined the other two ships, taking up a position on the Ranger’s port side. “Well, it’s quite a party that we have going on here. Any sign of the Lusitania?”

“Negative,” reported Kandro. “I guess our rematch will have to wait for another day.”

“I guess so.”

“Captain,” said Huntington,” we’re being hailed by the Ranger.”

Cardonez steeled herself. “On screen.”

In an instant, the ships disappeared, only to be replaced by a familiar face.

“Blake,” she said, her lips tightening into a smile.

“Captain Cardonez,” the man on the viewscreen said, his face breaking into a smile. “What a wonderful surprise! If we had known that you were coming, we would have prepared a grander welcome.” Blake was a Human in his forties with dark brown skin and a neatly-trimmed beard. As with the last time that Cardonez had seen him, he wore a simple black jumpsuit with a single gold band looping around his right upper arm.

“What the hell are you doing on a Federation ship?,” she asked him.

He laughed. “Federation ship, Captain?,” he replied with a furrowed brow before spreading his arms out to indicate the Bridge around him. “Ranger is the flagship of the Chobraq Mutuality.”

Cardonez recognized the layout of the Bridge, much as it had been when the ship had gone missing. A couple of the consoles shone with non-Federation lights and displays. Plus the fact that Blake was alone on the Bridge, sitting in the command chair as though it was a throne, was unusual as well. As long as they had known, the enemy had access to some of the sophisticated artificial intelligences running its ships.

Now that enemy had a name.

“The Chobraq Mutuality,” she said, rolling the words off her tongue. “It almost sounds benevolent.”

“Oh, I assume you that we are, Captain,” replied Blake. “In this little corner of the Gamma Quadrant, we’re the good guys.”

“Good guys?,” Cardonez questioned him. “Your Mutuality has murdered countless Federation citizens and ensured that countless others were assimilated by the Borg. You tried to invade the homeworld of the Zelket and it’s obvious that you’re in league with Ramius Cutter, a man who is responsible for an unprovoked attack on my ship that killed three of my crew.” She stood up from her chair and half-walked the distance between the command area and the forward consoles. “I may have no jurisdiction over you but Cutter is a Federation officer. I want him handed over to me and I want a way back to the Alpha Quadrant.” Her voice was crisp and she was having trouble with keeping a tight rein on her emotions. She had to fight her anger because if she didn’t, it would boil over and endanger them all.

For a moment there, Blake looked genuinely hurt by her remarks. The moment passed by all too quickly and he laughed once more. “Captain Cardonez, I don’t think you understand the precarious nature of your position. You’re stuck thousands of lightyears away from any reinforcements. You’re outnumbered four-to-one and in a matter of minutes, another five Mutuality ships will be arriving. Added to all of this, our scans show that your ship, while operational, is still not fully repaired from your encounter with Captain Cutter.” He rubbed his hands together. “Captain, I appreciate your loss and your anger at the situation but there is no way that I can hand over a citizen of the Mutuality to you. Captain Cutter and his crew have been granted asylum here with us.” He licked his lips. “In a similar vein, I cannot direct you back to the Federation. We’re not yet ready for the Alpha Quadrant to know about our existence. I do assure you though that if you surrender, you and your crew will be treated fairly.” He smiled benignly. “Who knows? Like Ramius, you might even decide to join us.”

“Two words,” said Isabel,” and the second one is off.” She turned around and descended back towards her command chair, sitting down. “Commander, target the Ranger with phasers and quantum torpedoes.” She cast a glance down at her tactical display. It wasn’t good and she knew it. There was no way that Testudo could take on four ships in her present state. Though she would be damned if she would just meekly surrender.

“Weapons locked on target,” said Huntington. He knew that it was suicide but it wasn’t his place to counter her, not yet.

“Captain Cardonez, please,” Blake implored her. “Despite what you might think of me, I have no desire to kill you and your crew here today.”

“Why not?,” she asked him. “Are you worried about damaging my ship?”

For a split second, the mask slipped and she knew that she had hit on a home truth. Blake was a consummate actor. After all, he had fooled the inhabitants of Malthea II for several years into believing that he was just a humble administrator.

“Captain, I really would prefer to take you and your crew alive,” he said with all of the sincerity that he could muster.

Cardonez knew that he was lying. Everything that they had seen in the last year or so indicated that the enemy that they faced wanted to acquire some Federation ships for some reason. Well, they weren’t going to get the Testudo. She would scuttle her first.

“Screen off.”

As the view returned to the four ships, Huntington decided that it was the right moment. “Captain, we can’t win this fight.”

“I know,” she said, plotting evasive maneuver combinations on her display.

“Well, personally, I never wanted to end up as a POW during the war and my feelings haven’t changed much,” said Kandro. “It’s a shame that we’ll never catch up with Cutter.”

Ramblin stood and joined Huntington at the apex of the horseshoe-shaped Tactical console. “Captain,” she said,” I’ve transferred as much power as I can into the shields. It’s not much but we might be able to take a few more shots.”

“Thanks, Louise,” Cardonez said with a sad smile.

“It was a pleasure, sir,” Ramblin replied before adding a wan smile of her own. “All of it.”

“You know, they drum it into you at the Academy,” Tilmoore began, quietly,” that it’s a dangerous life in Starfleet. They give you all of the figures and statistics on death and injury rates, even before you start. They try everything to prepare. They even give you that damned Kobayashi Maru test.” She paused, looking ahead at the four ships that would shortly cause her death. “It doesn’t help though.”

That was when the Captain realized that she couldn’t go through with it. She couldn’t sentence her crew to death to satisfy her own rage.

“Captain, we’re being hailed again by the Ranger,” reported Huntington.

“This will be our last warning then,” said Kandro.

“Damn you, Sisko,” Isabel whispered under her breath. “You didn’t send us twenty-nine thousand lightyears to die. Help me out here.”

Ben Sisko didn’t reply. She didn’t expect him to. That would have been far too easy. Instead, it was her Tactical Officer who spoke next. “They’re still hailing us.”

“Patch them through,” she said. She had made her choice. It was better to surrender and live to maybe fight another day.

When the viewscreen switched views again, it wasn’t what she was expecting. Blake was still sitting in his command chair but he wasn’t conscious. His body was slumped to one side and his head hung against his shoulder. He was no longer alone on his Bridge either. Another figure stood straight and proud next to where Blake was sitting.

He wore an ubiquitous dark jumpsuit with three red bands circled around his arm. When he spoke, his voice was deep and emotionless. Greetings, Captain Cardonez,” said the aged Vulcan. “I am Commander…” He paused for a split-second. “I am Ensign Stredu of the Federation starship Ranger.”

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Battle of Helm's Deep: The good guys are hopelessly outnumbered. Then at the last minute a small force shows up without evening the odds, but just a little spark of hope... Or, to quote Gimli, "Certainty of death. Small chance of success... What are we waiting for?"

Thanks!! rbs

 

[BrotherBenny]

We are Starfleet. Risk is our business. While we still have breath there is hope.

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter One

“Just a wild hunch,” said Cardones,” but I’m guessing that you’re on our side.”

“Indeed, I am,” said Stredu. She could only guess at his age. She surmised that he was certainly over a hundred and fifty years old. He looked frail and his hair was almost white, thin, and surprisingly slicked back from his forehead. “Now then, I assume that your weapons systems are active?”

“You assume correctly,” said Huntington.

Stredu nodded. “Good. We do not have a lot of time. Captain, I have managed to distract Ranger but it will not be long before it reasserts command. I have locked phasers on the two closest ships. I suggest that you target the ship that followed you out of the Cascade.”

“Distract Ranger? What do you mean?”

“There is no time for questions,” snapped Stredu who winced as though from a stab of pain. “That is for later. I will take the decision out of your hands in any case. In twelve-point-four seconds, I will open fire. If you do not target the fourth ship, it will, no doubt, target you. Stredu out.”

The screen switched back to the previous view of the three ships. Three ships and an ally, Cardonez reminded herself.

“Adam, target that fourth ship,” she ordered.

“He could be lying,” suggested Kandro.

“We’ll know,” said Huntington,” right about now.”

On the main viewscreen, they watched it happen. Bright flares of phaser fire lanced out from the underside of the Ranger’s saucer section to starboard and port. The ships on either side of her were caught totally off-guard. Their sensors were primed for aggressive moves by Testudo. They didn’t expect their own flagship to fire upon them.

As Ranger poured phaser fire against the two closest ships, the one that had followed Testudo through the rapid hesitated. For an instant, it had decided which target to attack. That was all that it took.

“Fire!,” shouted Cardonez.

Crimson beams lanced out from the Testudo’s saucer, creating a momentary connection with the silver vessel. Simultaneously, four torpedoes raced alongside the phaser beams, striking the silver ship and flaring its shields.

“Their shields are at fifty percent,” said Huntington.

“Ensign, come to one-one-four, mark zero. Commander, hit’ em again.”

Testudo’s impulse engines came alive and the ship maneuvered for a better shot. The silver ship fired but its amber-hued energy bolts glanced off of the frigate’s shields. A second volley of quantum torpedoes impacted on its shields, a moment later, and several phaser blasts flashed out like Morse code against its hull while its shields collapsed.

The silver ship died, exploding in a yellow flash that erupted as brightly as any star.

“Yeah!,” said Kandro. “Eat that!”

“Valian,” Cardonez cautioned him,” we did have the element of surprise. It’s hardly the most honorable kill.”

“Hey,” the Betazoid countered,” it doesn’t matter how you get the notch on the bedpost. It’s enough that it’s there.”

Tilmoore sneered at him and said,” I’m so glad that I have a fiance.”

“I wish I had one about a year ago,” said Ramblin.

“I’m just glad that my daughter never comes to visit,” added Huntington.

“People, let’s get focused,” Cardonez said. In truth, she wanted to steer the conversation away from Lieutenant Kandro’s love life. She had tried really hard to forget that she was probably his last such notch but it was hard. Even now, she could feel her face grow warmer when she blushed. Luckily, no one else was looking right at her. “What’s the status of those other two ships?”

“Ranger has destroyed both of them,” said Adam.

“Really?”

“It looks like the Ranger knew their shield frequencies and vaporized them with one or two shots.”

“I scanned Ranger’s weapons fire,” said Kandro. “They’re definitely not the guns that she left Spacedock with.”

“Ranger is hailing us again,” said Huntington.

“On screen.”

If anything, Cardonez thought that Stredu looked older. His face was somewhat reddened and she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was on the verge of collapse.

“Thanks for your help, Ensign,” she said. “Perhaps you could point us in the direction of a way home. I assume that there are rapids going in the other direction?”

He nodded. “We named it the Cascade,” he said,” but it isn’t possible for me to tell you where an entry point is located because I do not know, even after decades of searching. It is a tightly-guarded secret.”

“Well, we need to move somewhere,” reported Kandro. “Those other five ships are getting close.”

Stredu nodded again. “Captain, if you steer to a course of two-five-seven, mark two-four-nine, you will find a substantial asteroid field less than a quarter of a Qualbit… I mean, lightyear away. Your ship should be able to hide there, at least, for a while.”

“Okay,” said Cardonez, willing to trust this mysterious Vulcan for the moment. “We’ll take the Ranger with us too.”

Stredu shook his head. “Regrettably, this is not possible, Captain. The measures that I put in place to assume control of the ship will not last. We must leave Ranger behind. Now, please, you must hurry.” He seemed to sag over slightly. “However, first, please beam me directly to your Sickbay.”


****


Several minutes earlier and several decks lower while the Testudo sat opposite of the four other vessels, almost everyone else in Sickbay stared with rapt attention at the view on the monitor screens. They weren’t exactly silent but any conversation was muted and conducted in whispered tones.

Almost everyone was distracted by the appearance of the Ranger. There were two officers who weren’t.

One of them, Lieutenant Kehen, had no idea of the improbable event occurring, just a few thousand meters away. The other officer, Commander Yashiro Masafumi, knew all about the Ranger. He just didn’t care.

The Yulanian pilot lay on a biobed. Her breathing was soft and her eyes were closed. For all the world, she looked asleep but she wasn’t. Masafumi couldn’t take his eyes off of her perfect face and he couldn’t release the hand that he held in his own. The tears had stopped now but the pain in his chest won’t go away. Not until she woke up again and he knew that it was increasingly unlikely that she ever would.

They had discovered, by chance, that high warp travel could somehow dislocate the … spirit, for want of a better word, of a Yulani. The last time, they had managed to rescue Kehen when this happened with the use of a Cordrazine injection. The powerful stimulant shocked her back to reality. This time, it had failed and they knew that the longer her coma lasted, the more dissociated with her body, her mind could get. Eventually, she would end up like her mentor, Yannis Lekon before her, it would be late to return to her body.

After the collapse of his marriage, years before, Yashiro had thrown himself into his work and he hadn’t as much as a date before he transferred aboard the Testudo. Despite his new posting, he had no intention of fraternizing with any member of the crew. Of course, he hadn’t factored in meeting Zia. At first, he had been annoyed by her impish ways but slowly, over several months, he had come to relish seeing her smile, to enjoy debating the wonders of exploration with her, and to appreciate her wonderful, if eclectic, cooling. In short, he came to love her and, in what was still amazing to him, she actually felt the same way. Now he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. The Universe would be too dark of a place without her.

As the Testudo’s battle began, he barely noticed it. All that he cared about was the gentle rise and fall of her chest.


****


Despite the fact that time had lost all meaning in the void she inhabited, Kehen still knew on a subconscious level that it had been too long. She should have been home again by now.

Despite the fact that she had experienced this before, it was still an unnerving experience to exist as nothing but pure thought.

With no body.

No senses.

To feel so completely alone.

She remembered last time when the memories of others had threatened to overwhelm her before she had mentally screamed at them and frightened them away. In a twisted way, she almost wished for those memories now. It would be better than the crushing loneliness. She tried to focus on positive images, picturing her daughter Liella or imagining Yashiro’s smile, but for some reason, both of those images seemed to drift away, moments after her mind constructed them. She wondered absently if those memories would float around, wherever this void was, until they attacked themselves to someone else. The thought angeres her. Her love for the two most special people in her life was special and unique to her. The thought of other people listening in on them somehow diminished it.

I had to be all heroic and insist that they bring me along, didn’t I?, she thought to herself, not expecting an answer and not receiving one. She was damned if she was just going to float around, forever moping. She knew that there were other minds trapped here. Was that the right word?, she wondered. Perhaps lost would be better. Maybe she could reach out to them like she had before.

Hello, she thought out into infinity. Hello? Is anyone there?

For what seemed increasingly like days or possibly seconds, she kept sending out thoughts. She started with simple greetings but eventually she got more expressive.

I’m Lieutenant Zia Kehen of the Federation starship Testudo. I know that no one can hear me but I’m going to keep talking anyway. Maybe someone out there will find a way back and if you do, I want you to find a man named Yashiro Masafumi. Find him and tell him that I – “

No!... No!, came a sudden thought from elsewhere.

Hello?, Kehen thought. Can you… She would have shrugged if she still had shoulders. Can you hear me? Something about the ‘voice’ was familiar but she couldn’t place it.

No!, the thought repeated itself. You’re dead… They told me that you were dead. I’m supposed to be safe.

Despite the fact that she lacked a spine, nonetheless Kehen felt a shiver run down hers when she finally recognized the voice in her mind. Liz?, she asked incredulously. Liz?

The disembodied voice of Lieutenant Tennyson didn’t answer. There were other voices now thought and they were too familiar…

“They’ve taken Deck Ten,” said Huntington.

“They’re turned more than a third of the crew,” said Masafumi and despite the fearful tone in his voice, she felt her metaphorical heart leap. “We can’t stop them.”

Then she heard another voice. It was her Captain. “This is Captain Isabel Cardonez. Initiate self-destruct sequence, silent countdown with a ten-second delay. Authorization: Cardonez-Zulu-Seven.”

There were no more voices after that.

Kehen’s hands were now cold.

She jumped up involuntarily. “What the…,” she began to say. At first, she was concerned about how she had ended up crouching on all fours against freezing cold ice. It was only after a second or two that she realized she had a body again.

Her own body.

Her hands were freezing but they were the only part of her that was. This was surprising for many reasons. Firstly, because she was obviously standing on an ice floe or something, but mainly because she was dressed in a red one-piece swimming suit-slash-dress with fur-lined boots on her feet.

As she rubbed her hands, trying to get the circulation back, it dawned upon her where she was. She looked around, and yes, it did look familiar, but she hadn’t been here since her first warp flight.

“Ikkel Mar,” she whispered to herself.

Ikkel Mar was a polar holiday resort on Yulan. In the distance, she could see several tall buildings growing out of the ice. These were the hotels. The Rotunda, to give them their Yulani name. In every other direction was nothing but an endless sheet of pure white ice. She had no idea how she had gotten here or even where this was. She was smart enough to know that it was unlikely to be the real Ikkel Mar. One thing was for certain. The Rotunda was the only shelter nearby and she started walking towards it.

While the area had not changed, there were a lot of differences. For a start, these ice fields were usually packed with tourists laid back on benches and enjoying the warmth.

Ikkel Mar was a curious place. Hundreds of kilometers into what had once been wilderness, an especially clever entrepreneur had bought the land for next to nothing and proceeded to build a landing field and the Rotunda. Of course, no one had expected it to be a success, especially when various companies had already offered romantic cruises across the Northern Polar Deserts. What no one had known was that the entrepreneur had a plan. Several well-placed satellites in orbit directed the heat of Yulan’s sun onto a patch of land that was just a few square kilometers. The ice would have melted if a different entrepreneur hadn’t made use of recently invented force fields to create a heat-free buffer zone that extended just a few centimeters up from the ground. It was invisible, silent, and you only knew that it was there when you reached down to touch the ice, hence the fur-lined boots. Other than within those few centimeters, the temperature was as warm as even Yulan’s warmest equatorial regions.

The novelty factor alone ensured that Ikkel Mar became the most popular attraction of the century. At least, until the Yulanians had access to Risa anyways. It was a holiday in the sun, surrounded by ice. That entrepreneur had made a fortune that he spent the next thirty years transforming into a dream of freeing Yulan and her people from the bonds of their own star system.

Now, as she closed in on the Rotunda, Kehen saw a single figure sitting in a chair, a parasol keeping the sun out of his eyes while he read a book and everything made sense.

“I should have guessed,” she said.

The figure put his book down on a small table by his side. He looked up at her with recognition lighting up his eyes. “Hello, Zia. I was wondering when you would find your way here,” said Yannis Lekon, creator of Ikkel Mar, father of Yulanian warp theory and a man whose body resided in a Yulani hospital, alive but trapped forever in a coma because his mind was somewhere else.

Here, she thought. Just like mine is.


****


Isabel Cardonez exited the turbolift and half-jogged towards Sickbay. They were on their way to the asteroid field that Stredu had directed them towards, despite the fact that scans proved inconclusive about whether anything was actually there. They had no choice. The five Mutuality ships were closing in on them and with the Testudo only capable of making a maximum speed of Warp Five, every second counted since there was no guarantee that the ship could make it to the asteroid field ahead of the enemy ships.

Part of her wanted to berate herself for leading her crew into such a hazardous situation but she knew that it was futile. Captains made decisions every day and they weren’t always the right ones. The best thing that she could do for her crew was look forward and endeavor to keep them safe. With that in mind, she hoped that the aged Vulcan would be able to help.

As she walked through the Sickbay doors, she was momentarily distracted by the heart-wrenching sight of Commander Masafumi slumped by Kehen’s bedside. She wanted to go to him and comfort her friend in his time of need. For the Captain, the needs of the crew came first and so she steered toward where Doctor Hollem was standing by another biobed.

Stredu laid upon it.

“Doctor,” she said with a nod.

“Captain, thanks for coming down so quickly,” said the tall Bajoran.

“Well, I wanted to meet our guests,” she said, smiling. “How is he?” In her heart, she already knew. Stredu’s eyes were closed and he was breathing but it was shallow and his skin looked a pale yellow.

“Not good,” said Hollem. “You said that he was standing up, moving around and talking just a short time ago?” There was a slight hint of confusion on his face.

Cardonez sidestepped the Doctor and placed a hand on the side of Stredu’s bed. She leaned in slightly before she craned her head back towards Hollem. “Yeah, he seemed first at first, but then he seemed to be in pain.”

Hollem nodded. “That would make sense. He’s in the severe final stages of Kron’s constrictive lymphoma. If he were Human, he wouldn’t have been able to stand at all, let alone speak. That he seemed to be normal,I think, is a testament to Vulcan fortitude.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a cancerous malignancy common to Vulcans of a certain age but it’s rare that it gets this far. It’s relatively easy to treat in the early stages with a combination of thelium shots and short-term exposure to berthold rays. Every doctor in the Federation should be able to spot it.”

Cardonez smiled. “I would wager that the trouble is this man hasn’t been near the Federation in a hundred years. What’s his prognosis?”

Hollem shrugged. “He’s living on borrowed time. To be honest, I’m amazed that he’s still alive. I don’t think he’ll ever regain consciousness again.”

Cardonez turned her face back towards Stredu, leaning in close. “Damn,” she whispered,” there was so much that you could have told – “

She didn’t get to complete her sentence. Stredu’s left arm shot up with lightning speed and clamped itself around her throat. “Gaghk!,” she gasped. “Doc… tor!”

Hollem moved fast, wrapping both hands around Stredu’s arm and trying to pry it away but to no avail. Cardonez had her own hands gripped onto the arm as well but even between them, there was no budging it.

“Nurse!,” shouted Hollem. “Nurse!”

Cardonez felt her vision fade while her lungs were being starved of oxygen. She looked down and the last thing that she saw was Stredu’s open eyes. As everything went dark, she heard him say something. “There’s time enough to show you everything.”

Hollem was still trying to loosen his grip when Maxine Herman, his Senior Nurse, joined the fray.

“Tranquilize him!,” shouted Commander Masafumi. Shaken momentarily out of his stupor, he also grappled with the ridiculously-strong Vulcan.

Nurse HErman released her grip and grabbed for a nearby hypospray. She injected Stredu, once, twice… three times. “It’s having no effect, Doctor.”

Masafumi tapped his combadge. “I need Security in Sickbay, now!,” he screamed.

Stredu didn’t appear to notice the uproar around him while he calmly lifted his right hand and placed it, palm first, onto Cardonez’s face. “My mind to your mind,” he said weakly. “My thoughts to your thoughts.”

“He’s trying to mind-meld with her!,” shouted Masafumi.

“She’s not breathing,” said Herman.

“Give her a shot of nev-rox,” said Hollem. “We have to keep her body functioning for as long as possible.”

The Sickbay doors opened and Crewman Dru’sk, the Testudo’s only Klingon crew member, ran in, just a few steps ahead of Ensign Doreen Layton, a young woman raised in the shadow of Olympus Mons on Mars.

“Commander, what’s going on?,” she asked. Both she and Dru’sk had their phasers drawn.

“He grabbed the Captain and he won’t let her go,” Masafumi said, between breaths while he continued to struggle.

“Allow me,” said Dru’sk, holstering his phaser. Everyone stepped aside and let him through.

“Our minds are merging,” said Stredu.

Dru’sk groped at Stredu’s left arm and pulled with all of his considerable might. A look of rage on his face gave way to disbelief when he realized that he couldn’t pry the arm away. “By Kahless’ ghost, this is impossible.”

Then, suddenly, Stredu eased his grip on Isabel’s throat, just enough to let her lungs fill with oxygen. Dru’sk tried again to get him to release her again but the result was the same.

“It is no good,” he said, releasing the arm and drawing his phaser. “We must shoot him.”

“No!,” shouted Hollem, interposing himself between the Klingon and the bed.

“Our minds are one,” muttered Stredu.

“Doctor, please let us do our job,” said Layton.

“You can’t shoot him,” the Bajoran said. “He’s melded with her. Anything that we do would have potentially fatal consequences for both of them.”

“We can’t simply leave her like this,” said Layton.

“We might have to,” said Masafumi. “At least for the moment. I’ve seen botched mind melds before, and anything that we do could leave the Captain in a vegetative state or worse. We need to wait.”

Hollem looked down. Stredu’s eyes were open and he was breathing but he was staring blankly off into space. Cardonez hovered over him, held aloft in his grasp while her eyes were also unseeing.

“Whatever he has to show her, it must be pretty important.”

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

So these guys like Federation ships because the computer systems are sophisticated enough for them to induce AI and somehow control it. And now we have two simultaneous mind-melds... Fascinating... Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Two

The Bridge crew looked familiar to her, even though Isabel Cardonez knew that she had never seen any of them before in her life. It was a familiar Bridge design, a Constitution-class design from a hundred years ago. Aside from herself, there were four other people on the Bridge. The Captain, an officer at Operations, an officer at the Helm, and another man over at the Engineering station. She was standing by a Science station.

It was an odd feeling to be looking out of someone else’s eyes. For a start, everything seemed to be at the wrong height because the Vulcan had obviously been a little bit shorter than her. On top of that, the colors looked subtly different. She had never considered before that peoples’ perception of color was so different. She saw red and assumed that everyone else saw exactly the same hue of red as her. It was disquieting to realize otherwise.

“Come on, Ensign. You’ve never laughed?!,” said a gruff voice from the Captain’s chair. He was a large, bulking man, thinning brown hair on his head and the heavily-lined face of a man who had spent most of his life in space.

“Laughter is illogical, Captain Rosekovich,” she heard herself say.

“Bullshit!,” said the woman sitting at the Helm console. She was in her thirties, with long tresses of red hair piled up upon her head and held in place by a bewildering array of bobby pins. “I’ve known lots of Vulcans and they all laughed, once or twice.”

Cardonez felt her eyebrow raise. “Lieutenant McBride,” Stredu said, seriously,” I feel that you are in error. Perhaps these individuals were merely Romulans masquerading as Vulcans?”

For a moment, McBride looked quizzically at him. “Captain, if I didn’t know better, I would say that our young science whiz kid just cracked a joke.”

“I think you might be right,” said Rosek, a huge grin cracking open his lined face like an earthquake splitting open over a parched desert floor.

“He’ll never admit it,” said the young man sitting at Operations.

“Of course, he won’t,” said the Engineering Officer, a wiry man in his forties with sparse blonde hair and eyes of such a bright shade of blue that Cardonez could see them clear across the Bridge. “He’s afraid that we’ll tell Commander Blake.” Laughter echoed around the Bridge after this statement.

Cardonez recognized the name and believed that it could be a coincidence.

“Lieutenant Commander Blake would not be concerned with whether I laugh or not,” said Stredu. “He would merely grade my performance as Bridge Science Officer.

The man with the steely blue eyes turned his gaze on his Captain. “He’s a bundle of laughs,” he said, gesturing towards Stredu. “And the worst part is that he’s more emotional than Blake.”

Cardonez felt that her lips were beginning to form words as Stredu was preparing to respond. However, he never got a chance to utter a single word. Without warning, she was flung to the floor when the Science station that Stredu was standing at exploded. As he tried to grip the deck, she felt the deckplates heave and creak, feeling the same sick feeling of speed that she had felt, less than an hour ago and a century in the future.

She heard explosions coming from across the Bridge. The lights dimmed to crimson when the Red Alert klaxon went off. It became almost unbearable. To be trapped inside of someone else’s body and unable to move as terror built up inside her, she couldn’t even turn her head to look at the viewscreen because Stredu kept his gaze pointed towards the deck below him.

“Ensign, get up!,” she heard the Captain shout at him.

This order seemed to rouse Stredu and he tried to get to his feet. It was difficult while the Bridge was being rocked from side to side like a fishing boat caught in the middle of a tsunami. Eventually though, after several seconds, he regained his footing and stood, holding fast to the burned-out console in front of him.

Only now did the Vulcan turn and look at the main viewscreen. Stars were streaking past the ship at a phenomenal rate.

“What… What is happening?,” asked Stredu.

Captain Rosekovitch held fast to the sides of his command chair while the ship rocked and heaved. “You tell me,” he snarled.

“My God!,” shouted McBridge while she clung onto her console. Cardonez saw that the seat next to her was now empty. Across the other side of the Bridge, she couldn’t see the blue-eyed man and the scent of dirty gray smoke hung in the air.

“What is it?!,” asked Rosekovitch.

McBride looked down at her readings again as though she was willing them to change. Several of her hairpins had come loose and strands of her red hair were now hanging limply across her face. “You’re not going to believe this but our speed is almost off of the scale! Warp Seventeen-point-six!”

“That is impossible,” said Stredu.

“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in forty years out here is that nothing is impossible,” said Rosekovitch. The Captain shifted in his seat. “Dooley, what’s our engine states?” When there was no reply, he looked over at the cloud of smoke obscuring the Engineering station. “Dooley?,” he asked again, only quieter this time. With a saddened expression on his face, he returned his gaze to Stredu. “Ensign, take over Ops. I need to know what state my ship is in.”

“Aye, sir,” Cardonez heard Stredu say.

With a giant effort of will, she felt her body moved while Stredu released his hold on the console, spun around uneasily on his heels and lurched a few feet towards one of the rails surrounding the center section of the Bridge. He gingerly made his way along the rail, one hand moved over the other. He reached one of the cutaways and almost ran down the two steps and across the room to the combined Helm and Ops station. He just managed to keep his footing until he had almost made it. Luckily, this meant that when he did stumble, he managed to grab onto the back of the helm console, inadvertently draping his arms over the controls and forcing Lieutenant McBride to jerk back in her seat.

“Stredu!,” she cried out.

“I apologize, Lieutenant,” he replied. Cardonez was glad to stop moving for a few seconds. It was like a roller coaster ride but without the element of fun.

After he steadied himself, Stredu inched along the back on the consoles and slid into the spare seat. Cardonez saw that the man who had been at Ops was stretched out on the deck by the side of the console. He was lying still with a large piece of metal embedded in his back. The Vulcan didn’t swell on his dead comrade and he quickly turned his attention to the console before him. As he manipulated the controls, Isabel got only a quick idea of how bad the situation was. He read faster than she could and so she was glad when he encapsulated it all for his Commanding Officer.

“We appear to be caught in some kind of tachyon-based event that is propelling us at multiple warp speeds,” he reported. “The structural integrity is barely holding. We have small hull breaches on Decks Five, Seven, and Twelve. In addition, we have lost all life-support on Deck Eleven. There is also a plasma fire on Deck Four.”

“I think I’m going to be sick!,” McBride suddenly said.

“Hold on, Susan!,” said Captain Rosekovitch. “Ensign, any idea how long this is going to last?”

“Negative, Captain. Long-range sensors are not functional within this event.”

She heard a small whistle and without Stredu having to turn around, she knew that the Captain had gone shipwide over the intercom.

“This is the Captain speaking. We are being carried along by some kind of natural force. I recommend that all crew members who are capable make their way to the interior sections of the ship. We don’t know how long this is going to last but I do know that we’ll make it through in one piece. Rosekovitch out.” His voice had been commanding and so filled with certainty that even Cardonez felt herself calming down.

For what seemed to feel like an eternity, the ship bucked and swayed. Then, as suddenly as it had started, their ride through the rapids was over. The viewscreen now showed empty space and the stillness that now enshrouded the ship seemed to be almost unnatural after what they had just been through.

“It is over,” said Stredu.

McBride laughed. “Leave it to the Vulcan to state the obvious.”

Rosekovitch was silent and after a moment, Stredu craned his head to look back at him. The gray smoke had cleared just enough to make out the Captain who was out of his chair and crouched down by the body of the man with blue eyes. Or rather what was left of his body. The Engineering console had exploded in his face with much more force than Stredu’s console and it had sheared the top of his head clean off.

“Dooley,” whispered the Captain softly.

Then everything went dark.


****


“You’re telling me that you created all of this out of your own mind?,” Kehen asked, gesturing to the Ikkel Mar around them.

“Yes,” beamed the aged scientist, his teeth barely visible against the blue-green of his skin.

“Praktor,” she said, using his academic title,” you have to admit that it’s a little hard to believe.”

He shrugged. “No more than our minds becoming loose from our bodies and floating around in this void,” he replied, picking up a glass from the table by his side. It was filled with a pink liquid. “Are you sure that I can’t tempt you?”

“This isn’t the time for T’kera.” She did actually feel thirty.

He took a long drink. “It’s always time for T’kera,” she said. “Are you sure that you don’t want one?”

Kehen ignored the temptation. “Why Ikkel Mar?”

He shrugged again. “Why not? Once I realized that I could manipulate thought within this realm, I wanted someone to focus on. At first, I used the Thona Relath, but it was a little pokey.”

“That didn’t seem to bother you when you stole it and went gallivanting off across the cosmos.”

“I wasn’t gallivanting,” he firmly said, baning his glass down on the table to add emphasis. “I was researching.”

“Yeah, right.”

“What other reason would I have?”

Kehen smiled. “Well, to be honest, the most popular suggestion after you left was that you were trying to do a Cochrane.”

Lekon leaped out of his chair, looking quite sprightly for a man of his advanced years. Zia reminded herself that it was only a mental projection of his body. He strode up to her and stood toe-to-toe with her. “Cochrane vanished and went off to die,” he said. “I went into hiding to continue my work.”

Kehen looked from left to right. “Good job.”

Lekon smiled again with a relaxed manner. He sat back down again and took another drink. “Nobody’s perfect,” he said. “How was I supposed to know that high velocity would have this effect?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, walking around his seat. “Maybe by following the same procedures that you drilled into me as a student.” She stopped behind him and quoted, “‘Never test it on yourself until you’re a hundred and five percent sure that it’s safe.’”

“Well, as you get older, you seem to have less and less time to waste on testing.”

Kehen sighed. “Well, it’s a nice job that you did of creating this, and it sure does beat nothingness but I have to ask.” She walked around to the front of his seat again. “Is there a way out?”

He smiled secretively. “Perhaps,” he teased,” but I’m not ready to let you go yet. I haven’t had company for a while.”

Kehen put her hands on her hips and pouted, tapping her left foot while she did.

Lekon laughed. “I haven’t seen that face in a while,” he said. “Not since the day that I berated you for fraternizing with that Federation officer during the welcome ceremony after the Enterprise contacted us. What was his name…?”

“Riker,” she supplied, feeling herself blushing. “William Riker.”

Light flashed in his eyes. “Ah, yes, Captain Riker.”

“Commander,” she corrected him. “He’s only a commander.”

“Now perhaps, but give it a year or two.” His smile broadened.

“What do you mean?”

“Let me answer your question with one of my own. Before you found your way here, did you hear things? See anything?”

Kehen felt a shiver dance down her spine again. “Yes.”

“Familiar things?,” he asked her, leaning forward in his seat now.

“Familiar voices but not familiar words, if that makes sense.”

“Oh, it does, my pupil, it does,” he replied. “Wherever we are, we appear to exist out of sync with time as we understand it. As a result, it is possible for us to interact, in a vague way, with the reality that we left behind but at varying points in time.”

“You can see the future?”

“And the past and the present,” said Lekon. “Although, it is tricky. It takes a great deal of effort and time.” He laughed and added. “Not that time matters much here. Did you know that I saw my body in that hospital on Yulan? I can tell you that it was quite disconcerting.”

“Okay, but what about the voices that I heard? Was it the future?”

He shrugged again and Kehen decided to hit him, the next time that he did it. “Who can say? It might be, but then it might be the present. You haven’t had much practice in focusing your mind here so you must have attracted some random, yet familiar thoughts when you were searching.” He leaned back in his chair and picked up his glass, although he didn’t drink from it. “Now, talking about the future, I think that it’s time that you went to her.

Kehen was confused. “Her?”

He nodded. “Oh, yes, she got here a while before you did. Funny about that. She adapted to her new environment a lot quicker than you did.”

“Who did? Who are you talking about?”

“She’s in the top room of Rotunda Three,” he said. “Now, we’ll talk later. Right now, I want to get back to my book.” He took another sip of T’kera before replacing the glass and picking up his book. With his eyes downcast, the implication was clear. Their meeting was over.

Kehen walked past him and towards the set of spires that rose up from the ground. Each Rotunda was slightly different but all of them adhered to the same basic design. A twisting spire, constructed of mekken glass which was as hard as transparent aluminum. The glass changed its color randomly when light hit it and now, as she looked up at Rotunda Three, she felt another shiver. The tower was a dark brown that quickly changed to a blood red as she watched it. Although she knew that it wasn’t possible, the young Yulanian woman was sure that she could see someone looking down at her from the top of the spire. She was now scared half to death. She took a deep breath of imaginary air and ventured inside.


****


“There’s nothing that you can do?,” asked an exasperated Huntington.

Ensign T’Vell cocked an eyebrow and it was as near as any Vulcan could ever get to looking pissed off. “That is correct,” said the young woman.

“Any suggestions?,” asked Masafumi.

“None that you would like to hear, Commander.”

“What does that mean?,” asked Doctor Hollem.

“Very well,” she said. “My recommendation is to do nothing.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Masafumi.

“We can’t do nothing,” said Huntington. “This ship needs its Captain.”

“Look, Ensign, I’m well aware of the potential harm that could happen if the meld were broken unnaturally. The problem is that if Stredu isn’t going to last much longer and if he dies…” The doctor left the sentence hanging in the air.

“Believe me, Doctor, if I felt that I could break the meld, I would offer to do it,” said T’Vell. “I cannot. I am not sufficiently trained to even attempt it. It would be the equivalent of me trying to remove the Captain’s appendix with only a basic understanding of her anatomy. The chances of me successfully disrupting the meld would be.” She paused for a moment, calculating variables in her mind. “One thousand, six hundred and forty-two to one.”

Masafumi sighed. “Doctor, how much longer will Stredu remain living?”

“You can’t be considering…,” Adam began to say but the First Officer held up a hand and cut him off.

“How long, Doctor?,” he repeated.

Hollem shook his head. “Unknown,” he said. “By all rights, he should already be dead.”

“Very well,” Masafumi said,” but do you think there would be prior warning before the end comes?”

This time, Hollem nodded. “Almost certainly. I should be able to detect his pulmonary system entering final collapse, a minute or so, before his body shuts down.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” the Commander said, turning his head towards T’Vell. “Ensign, I want you to remain here for the foreseeable future. How long can you last without sleep?”

“At least, forty-three hours, sir,” she replied in her logical tone.

He nodded. “Excellent,” he said, looking at the group around him. “Since we cannot attempt to break the meld, I will follow the Ensign’s suggestion and do nothing. Hopefully, Stredu will end the meld himself.”

“And if he can’t?,” asked Commander Huntington.

Masafumi cocked his head to one side. “If it becomes apparent that Stredu is unlikely to break the meld or if his pulmonary system should begin to shut down, then Ensign T’Vell will attempt to break the meld. Odds of sixteen hundred to one would be our best bet at this time.”

For a moment, he was sure that Huntington was going to argue further but the Tactical Officer didn’t. Instead, he tersely said,” Very well, then,” before turning on his heels and walking away. “I’ll be on the Bridge.”

Masafumi followed him out into the corridor. “Commander.”

Huntington was striding away quickly but he stopped suddenly without turning around.

“Commander, please?,” Masafumi asked.

Adam slumped around his shoulders and turned around. “Okay, I’m sorry.”

Yashiro frowned. “It wasn’t my intention to follow you out into the corridor to get an apology, Commander. Besides, you have nothing to apologize for. You’re entitled to your view.”

“Then why did you follow me out into the corridor?”

Masafumi paused for a moment while several crew members walked past them. When they were out of earshot, he spoke,” Commander… Adam… I want you to take command of the Testudo.”

“Me?,” asked Huntington. “The Captain’s incapacitated and now you want to duck out too?” He knew as soon as he said it that he was being too harsh. The truth was that he was worried about Cardonez and everyone aboard.

“It’s not a question of ducking out,” Masafumi said, softly. “The truth is that I’m having a hard time of holding it all together at the moment.” You really have no idea how hard it was to turn my back on Zia and… and…” His voice started to crack and falter while he tried to fight back the tears.

“Actually, I do,” said the Englishman. “Just after Yuri was born, both he and Natalia were diagnosed with Rigelian flu. The doctors had to keep them in isolation. There was a good chance that neither of them would pull though.” He placed a hand gently on Masafumi’s shoulder. “I was so messed up that my mother had to take care of Elizabeth for me. So I have an idea about how hard this must be. However, this crew needs a Captain right now and you’re it, for better or worse.”

Masafumi smiled. “This crew needs an experienced and focused individual in command, right now. I might hesitate and that could cost us our lives. I can’t allow that. Besides, right now, the ship probably needs a tactical head in command. You know that I’m not exactly the greatest strategist in the Galaxy.”

Huntington sighed. “You know that if I’m in charge,” he said,” I could countermand your orders about the Captain?”

Masafumi wiped a single tear from his eye and his smile broadened. “But you won’t. Because you know, deep down, that I made the right call, but for now, everyone and I aboard need you to make the right calls.”

Huntington straightened up in his stance. His respect for Masafumi had strangely gone up and yet down a notch at the same time. “Aye, sir.” He smiled but he felt the smile fade away quickly. “For what it’s worth, I know that we’ll get her back,” he said before adding,” We’ll get them both back.”

He was gone, leaving a lonely and guilty Masafumi in his wake.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Interesting delve into mental space - always difficult scenes to pull off in print and far harder to screen. Well handled! Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Three

Even though it was another memory, Captain Cardonez felt terrified. She was blind, existing only in the darkness. It was only when she heard a door chime ring and Stredu opened his eyes that she understood. Looking around, she realized that he was crouching on the floor in what appeared to be his personal quarters. They were Spartan as she might have expected from a Vulcan.

“Enter,” Stredu said and the doors slid open.

As the man stepped inside, Stredu looked away from the door and down at the deck, composing himself.

“You were meditating?,” came a voice that was strong, deep, and familiar.

Stredu nodded. “Yes, I was.”

“Then I apologize for disturbing you. I will come back later.”

Stredu looked up now, directly at his visitor. “There is no need, Commander,” he said and at that moment, Cardonez saw the man for the first time.

The family resemblance was uncanny. Blake’s ancestor had a darker shade of brown skin but his eyes were exactly the same size and shape. He also wore a tightly-clipped beard that was barely visible against his skin. His hair was longer, cut in a short afro and dark with streaks of white running through it. Cardonez estimated him to be in his early fifties.

“You’re still having trouble with meditating?”

Stredu nodded again and clambered to his feet. “Yes, it is perplexing.”

Blake pursed his lips. “If I didn’t know you any better, I would say that you were worried by our predicament.”

Cardonez felt her or his left eyebrow rise. “Worry is an emotion,” said Stredu.

Blake nodded with a small smile on his lips. “OF course,” he said. “May I sit down?” He gestured to one of the room’s only chairs, a simple metallic framed affair that sat on one side of a matching table. An identical chair was placed on the opposite side. A three-dimensional chess set, laid out in mid-game, sat on the table.

“Please.” Stredu nodded deferentially.

The man that she assumed was Commander Blake sat down. He examined the chess set intently. Stredu remained standing while he picked up a white chess piece from the top level and he placed it on the lowest level. “Bishop to Queen’s Level One,” he said, adding with a note of surprise. “Check.” He looked up at Stredu. “You’re really distracted, aren’t you?”

Stredu sat down. “I am,” he paused as though he was searching for the right word,” perplexed.”

“You seem to be perplexed a lot lately.”

“The Captain has not spoken to the crew in several days. That is also…” Stredu paused again and Cardonez saw Blake grin,” puzzling.”

“There is little for him to add. You heard that Crewman Schaeffer died of his injuries this morning.”

“Indeed, I did,” said Stredu. “That should bring the death toll up to eighty-four.”

“And still another ten in Sickbay.”

“I spoke with Doctor T’Min. She expects them all to make full recoveries.”

Blake gazed at the chest set. “I wonder if those eighty-four people are the lucky ones?”

“That is illogical. Clearly, we are the lucky ones.”

Blake laughed but it was a hollow sound. “Oh, yes, we are lucky,” he said. “We’re almost thirty thousand lightyears away from home without a way back.”

“It has only been three weeks,” said Stredu. “We might yet find a way back.”

Blake grunted.

“Commander, I find it curious. You were expressing concern over my state of mind, a short time ago, and yet, I sense that it is you who are more worried.”

“Maybe I’m just not repressing it,” suggested Blake.

If Stredu detected his sarcasm, he ignored it. “That would be a fair assessment.”

“I just wish there was something to look forward to.”

Cardonez felt an eyebrow twitch again. “Hasn’t Lieutenant Proctor repaired the warp drive and are we not on course to the nearest star system?,” he asked. “A star system that we believe to be inhabited?”

Blake laughed once more. If it was possible, there was even less humor in this laugh. “Ensign, that star system is over three lightyears away and Proctor’s wonderful repair job means that we can only manage Warp One-point-Four. It should take us just shy of three years to get there.”

“The Lieutenant has done the best job that he can. I would remind you that he was the Fourth-in-Command of Engineering. If Commander Dooley had not been killed when we can through the cascade, he would doubtlessly have done better. However it is illogical to berate Lieutenant Proctor for simply working to the best of his abilities.”

Blake nodded. “You’re correct, of course. We have sufficient food supplied to last the crew for five years. We’re alive and with all things considered, the ship is in good shape.” He stood up. “I trust that I can continue to rely on you to continue to show me the logic of the situation?”

Stredu nodded. “Of course.”

“Then I bid you goodnight,” he said with a bow and Cardonez’s vision went cloudy again.


****


Zia Kehen was scared.

Although the interior of the Rotunda was a familiar place, it was also very wrong. Whenever she had visited Ikkel Mar before, the hustle and bustle of people made it seem to be alive. Deserted, as it was now, it seemed to be like a necropolis, a place of the dead. She had taken the gravity lift to the top of the Rotunda and now she was close to the opening to the room where she had thought that she had seen someone. Her mouth was dry and she really wished that she had taken Lekon up on his offer of T’kera when he had offered it.

This is stupid, she reasoned while she waited outside the room. It can’t be anything dangerous. Yannis wouldn’t have let me come up here if it was.

Unless he’s gone mad, of course?, offered another voice in her head thoughtfully.

She knew that she had nowhere else to go. If she went back down to the ground, she would regret it. As a child, she delighted in entering places that were scary. It was as if daring the klaides to come and get her. Now she felt a lot less brave than she had been since the age of ten, but she steeled herself for the worst anyway. She walked forward, moving through the memetic plastic wall as though it wasn’t there. On the other side of the wall, the first thing that she saw was the light. While the tower had seemed foreboding from the outside, the light streaming in through the glass walls made this room seem bright.

A warm and happy place.

The carpet was made of Yekken hide, a Yulani animal, similar to Earth bison, that lived in the coldest regions and it was renowned for its glossy white coat. The room lacked any furniture but there were toys and games scattered everywhere. Many of them, she recognized from her own childhood, but some of them looked to be very Earth-like. Sitting cross-legged in the exact center of the room was a small figure with its back to Kehen.

It was a small child. At least, she hoped that it was and the child was slight enough to be a girl. She was obviously a Yulanian, judging by the skin color of her arms. She wore a red pinafore-style dress and her hair was white. Although it was a darker, murkier shade than Kehen had ever seen before.

“Hello?,” she asked, her voice croaky.

The child – Please let it be a child, thought Zia – had been busily playing with a Mete’k ball, a Yulanian child’s toy featuring a glass ball filled with different colored shapes that could be manipulated by a weak gravity field controlled by the child placing their hands on the surface. After she spoke, the child put the ball down.

“Hi,” came the reply. Kehen realized that it was a child and a little girl.

Kehen took a step forward, and then another. She stopped and swallowed hard as the mekken glass changed its shade from a bright yellow back to a blood red. As the sound of her footfalls paused, the child stood up, still with her back to her. Suddenly she began to turn.

She felt her heart beat faster while her pulse raced. Too many memories of Klaide stories that she had read as a child hurtled back to the forefront of her mind and she was terrified that when the child turned to face her, it wouldn’t have a recognizable face. Rather than a monstrous abyss or worse still, it could be nothing at all, just a smooth featureless visage.

The child was facing her now and there was nothing to fear.

Still, Kehen’s heart pumped faster. The girl was maybe ten years old. Her dirty white hair was tied back into a ponytail and tiny lumps that would evolve into the long appendages that all Yulanians had were just visibly above her hairline. She smiled and Kehen felt her heart shatter. She had the brightest grin that she had ever seen and her eyes, although unnaturally narrow for a Yulani, were dark rather than pale and they sparkled with life.

“Hello, Mother.”


****


“Damn it!,” Captain Rosekovitch shouted, banging his fist down hard onto the arm of his command chair.

It was a shocking start to yet another memory, although Stredu seemed to be the only person visible who wasn’t startled. Rosekovitch was sitting in his command chair and the Vulcan was sitting at the repaired Science station before he turned away to look at his Captain.

Cardonez had no idea how much time had passed but it had been obviously substantial. Rosekovitch looked older. His face was even more creased than before and his hair had thinned substantially since only mere wisps sat on top of his head. She recognized a few others like Lieutenant McBride who was sitting at the Helm, her red hair now cut into a flattering bob that curled under her chin. Blake sat at the Engineering station, and he had changed the least. His afro seemed to be a touch longer. There were three other officers on the Bridge. Two of them were Human but the third one was a Vulcan woman of quite a bit of advanced years. Her hair was gray and her face had more lines than her Captain’s.

On the viewscreen was the image of a planet that the Ranger was obviously in orbit of. It was a lush, green world with several large bodies of water and a multitude of cloud formations. It looked similar to Earth but with very unfamiliar continents.

“There is nothing that we can do, Captain Rosekovitch,” said the Vulcan woman standing by his side. “The Prime Directive precludes us from getting involved.”

He jerked his head sideways. “I’m well aware of the Prime Directive, Doctor,” he said,” but I’m sure that the people who wrote it never envisaged this kind of situation.”

The Vulcan Doctor, T’Min, bowed her head and took a step back.

“Captain, the Selvee have been very helpful to us, fixing the warp drive, and giving us navigational charts for the first hundred lightyears of our journey home,” Blake said. “Are you suggesting that we now repay them with hostility?”

Rosekovitch pointed at his de facto First Officer. “You went down there. You saw the conditions that the Chobraq are living in. They’re little more than slaves.”

“I know,” said Blake. “With the Selvee as slave masters but that is an internal matter. We have no right to intervene.”

“The Chobraq are almost Human,” said McBride. “I know that you’re almost Vulcan but even you can see that they are the dominant species.” Her face was flushed with anger now. “The Selvee are parasites, building on what the Chobraq have spent centuries on creating.”

“Good point, Susan.”

“Yes, it is,” said Blake,” but logic would indicate that if the Chobraq really are the superior of the two species, then they will eventually reclaim their position as rightful masters of their own destiny.” He looked over at Stredu. “Ensign, you have studied the situation down there. What is your analysis?”

Stredu cocked his head to one side, providing Captain Cardonez with a very skewed perspective of the Bridge. “It is almost four hundred years since the Selvee conquered the Chobraq. In that time, the Selvee have made few technological breakthroughs and they are content to merely enjoy the life that they have. The Selvee Empire is only a few dozen lightyears larger than the Chobraq Mutuality that existed before it. The Selvee seem to have no further territorial ambitions. All in all, it is logical to describe the Selvee culture as stagnant. On the other hand, the Chobraq that we encountered seemed to have continued to evolve and develop as a society. Albeit as a society of slaves.”

“Got to your conclusion, Ensign,” Rosekovitch said, tersely.

“Very well,” said Stredu. “I conclude that within the next seventy to one hundred and twenty years, there will be a Chobraq uprising. I calculate an eighty percent chance that it will be successful.”

“See?,” Blake said. “We don’t need to do anything. The Chobraq will save themselves.”

“Seventy to one hundred and twenty years,” Rosekovitch said, soberly while considering each year individually. “How many Chobraq will die, destitute and in chains during that time?”

“I would estimate ninety-five million, four hun –”

“Ensign!,” Blake barked, cutting him off.

Rosekovitch grunted. “I think he made my point.”

“Captain,” said Doctor T’Min,” may I respectfully suggest that with every moment that we delay our departure, the longer that our journey back to the Alpha Quadrant will be?”

“It’ll take us almost forty years. I hardly think that a few minutes matter.”

Blake sighed. “Captain, what exactly are you suggesting? That we help the Chobraq overthrow their oppressors? I hardly think that three hundred and twenty Federation officers and one Constitution-class starship will be able to topple an Empire that spans fifteen star systems.”

Rosekovitch smiled a secretive and cunning grin. “Not on our own. That’s for sure.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Blake.

“It means that while I was down on the surface, I was approached by an elderly Chobraq who referred to himself as the Domni,” said the Captain, explaining. “Some kind of leader. Anyway, the Domni gave me some very useful information.”

“Which was?,” asked T’Min.

At that moment, Rosekovitch rose from his command chair. “Commander Blake, Lieutenant McBride and Doctor T’Min, we will adjourn to the Briefing Room. Ensign Stredu, you have the Bridge.”

The senior officers trooped off of the Bridge and into the turbolift. Stredu swiftly moved across the Bridge to the Captain’s and one of the unfamiliar officers, an Asian, Cardonez saw, assumed a place at the Helm.

While Stredu steepled his hands and rested his chin there, gazing at the planet on the viewscreen, the only other occupant of the Bridge walked over and stood beside him. “What do you think is going to happen?,” she asked him.

Stredu looked at the originator of the question. She was a young blonde woman who was barely out of her teens. Her face was twisted with worry.

“I do not know, Yeoman Donnelly,” he said. “However, I would hypothesize that our journey home will be postponed, at least, for the time being.” He returned his gaze to the planet below.


****


“Okay,” Louise Ramblin said, jogging down the ramp to the lower area of the Bridge,” Pam, you should be able to take her up to Warp Seven-point-Two now.”

The Testudo shook slightly when Tilmoore manipulated the controls. “Warp Seven-point-Two,” she said.

“Good work, Lieutenant,” Adam Huntington said from his seat in the Captain’s chair.

Ramblin smiled upon hearing his praise but her pleasure was short-lived.

“Yeah, it’s about time that you started earning your paycheck,” said Valian Kandro from the Ops position.

She was about to throw an insult back at him when Huntington did it for her. “Just be grateful that we don’t get paid on our performance, Mister Kandro. Otherwise, you would starve.”

“Aye, sir,” said the Betazoid.

“Time to the asteroid field?”

“Twelve minutes.”

Huntington’s eyes narrowed. “And those five Mutuality ships?”

Kandro checked his board. “With our increased speed, we should make it ahead of them by fifteen minutes.”

“Cutting it fine,” said Huntington. “Cutting it fine.”


****


Yashiro Masafumi stood by the biobeds on where Captain Cardonez and Stredu laid. There had been little change in either of them for hours.

“What is his status?,” asked Testudo’s First Officer.

Hollem Azahn walked over with a PADD in his hand. Stopping by the Commander’s side, he looked down. “Well, he’s still alive.”

“Sarcasm, Doctor? How unlike you.”

“I’m sorry,” said Hollem with a smile. “I’m just tired.”

“You should rest,” Masafumi suggested. “Doctor Marcinowski could monitor the situation for a few hours.”

“I know but I don’t think I could sleep right now anyways.”

“In that case, can I ask you another question?”

“There’s no change in Lieutenant Kehen’s status either,” Hollem replied.

“Ah,” Masafumi said. “Actually, I wasn’t enquiring about Zia’s current condition. Although, I was going to ask something about her.”

Hollem’s forehead creased up when he frowned, which curiously matched his nose ridges. “Go ahead.”

Yashiro kept his voice calm. “Exactly when were you going to inform me that Lieutenant Kehen was pregnant?”

Azahn sighed, casting a quick look around Sickbay before he nervously motioned towards his office. “Maybe we should talk in private?,” he suggested.

Masafumi nodded and started walking towards the Doctor’s office. Once they were inside, they sat down in chairs facing each other.

Hollem took a deep breath and started by saying,” Okay, then.”

“Yes, Doctor?”

Hollem nodded. “You realize that I’m breaking doctor-patient confidentiality by saying anything to you?”

“I do, Doctor. However, as the nearest thing to a next of kin for twenty-nine thousand lightyears, I would hope that you would acknowledge my need to know. Especially since the child is mine.”

The Bajoran smiled at that.

“What is it, Doctor?”

“It’s not you,” said Hollem. “It’s just unusual. I’ve told any number of men over the years that they’re going to be fathers and I guarantee you that ninety percent of them always ask the ‘Is it mine?’ question.”

Masafumi smiled now. “Would you believe that when we were told that Marie was pregnant with William, I actually did ask that question.” He chuckled. “It was several days before she started speaking to me again.”

There was silence for a few seconds before Hollem spoke. “I just think it’s sweet. That’s all. Anyway, I don’t see too much harm in telling you a little more about the situation. After all, I had no choice but to tell you that she was pregnant. The least that I can do is try and explain why you haven’t been told yet.” He paused for a moment. “She came to see me about a month ago. Remember that night when we all got very drunk in the Backyard?”

“The day before the Captain got her job back?,” offered Masafumi.

“That’s the one. Anyways, that’s when she first approached me. She had been feeling a little off color and it reminded her of how she felt when she was pregnant with Liella. Anyway, she asked me to do some tests and they confirmed it. She was pregnant.

“She was a little concerned. Obviously, I gave both of you a clean bill of health, months ago. There are no inherent interspecies problems that I was aware of but Lieutenant Kehen was still bothered. There have been no half-breed Yulanian children ever born. She wanted me to conduct every test that was possible before we told you. She wanted to make sure that the baby would be healthy.”

“And?”

“And I gave her and the baby a clean bill of health a week ago,” said Hollem, smiling. “Your baby will be just fine.”

Masafumi didn’t smile. “Thank you, Doctor, but that still leaves one question.”

“Which is?”

“Why she still hasn’t told me if she knew, a week ago, that there were no health complications.”

Hollem sat back in his seat. He had no answer for Masafumi.

 

[Gibraltar]

Part 1, Chapter 5 Review – That was one hell of a battle, and until the reveal of the hiding runabout, I’d nearly thought Testudo was done for. Fortunately for all involved, Captain Cardonez is a wily customer, and had an ace up her sleeve.

This begs the question, of course, how the Pakleds of all species got their hands on Borg weaponry? Did they stumble upon a derelict cube someplace? And even if they did, how would these interstellar goofs figure out how to incorporate Borg weaponry into their power systems?

Lots of mysteries here!

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Four

“Who are you?,” Kehen asked, her voice croaky.

“I’m Kally Masafumi,” the little girl said with all of the grownup formality that a child could muster.

She raised a hand to her mouth. “Kally is my mother’s name,” she said.

Kally nodded. “Yes, it is.”

Zia looked at Kally before looking down and placing a hand to her own belly. She looked up again. “You can’t be!”

“I am,” said Kally.

“How?”

“Well, when a mommy and daddy love each other very much…,” she began to say before she collapsed into a fit of giggles.

Kehen couldn’t help it. She giggled too because Kally’s laughter was contagious. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Sorry, Mom.” While it was an odd thing to hear, it didn’t feel wrong. “I think that you and Dad are right. I do spend too much time with Uncle Valian.”

Kehen’s eyebrows raised. “Uncle Valian?,” she asked. “Kally, how can you know Valian? Come to think of it, how can you even be here?”

Kally frowned. “Didn’t Uncle Yannis explain it to you? Time has no meaning here. I don’t really understand what he means but I know that it lets me be myself here. I like it here. Lots of toys and Uncle Yannis had looked after me very well. I think I’m happy to stay here.”

“Stay here?,” asked Zia. “Kally, I’m going to get back to Testudo and no offense but that means that you’re coming too,” she added, gesturing to her stomach.

The child shook her head. “No,” she said with an air of finality,” you might go back but what would be the point of me coming with you?”

“Kally, you have to.”

“No,” Kally said again. “Here, I get to live. Sort of. You don’t want me. You’ve already decided that. You were planning to go see Doctor Hollem and schedule an abortion after all.” There was no anger in the child’s voice, just a sad certainty. She sat back down again, picking up the Mete’k ball to begin playing with it again.

Kehen slumped to the floor. She was shaking now.


****


The ground next to Isabel exploded when a bolt of energy shattered the hard concrete surface. She had been getting used to being a passenger but when Stredu dived to his left side and behind a stack of crates, she felt more disorientated since this crazy ride had begun. As he crouched behind the boxes, she managed to survey her surroundings. They were on the surface of a planet. It was certain that it wasn’t one that the Ranger had been in orbit of. The sky was a vivid green and it was dominated by a large planet that this world was obviously orbiting. The parent planet was a gas giant with its surface streaked with different colored bands of gasses.

The air on this moon was thin and she tasted a bitter tinge to the air, every time that Stredu breathed in. “Ensign, they’ve got an acoustic cannon set up on top of the depot,” said a voice from his side. As he turned his head, Cardonez saw that it was Captain Rosekovitch. He was also sheltering behind the pile of crates with an old-style phaser pistol gripped in his hand.

Another explosion nearby rained particles of concrete on them. “I had noticed,” said the Vulcan officer.

Rosekovitch flipped his communicator open after retrieving it from his belt. “Rosekovitch to Ranger. Lieutenant McBride, I need you to target the ship’s phasers on the coordinates that we’re about to transmit,” he said. “Twenty percent.”

“Understood,” came the reply.

Rosekovitch looked over at Stredu. “Ensign, get me a bearing on that cannon.”

Stredu nodded, placing his phaser on the ground before grabbing his tricorder from where it hung by his side. Further off, another explosion struck when he peered over the cover. It took to Cardonez like an airfield of some kind. They were midway along a runway of sorts. Around them, she saw, at least, two dozen more figures in Starfleet uniforms. Most of them were cowering behind crates or overturned vehicles of some kind. A few of them were lying, silent and still on the ground.

Several large warehouse-shaped structures sat in the distance. Sitting on top of the nearest building was a squat spider-like object with a long spout pointing their way. Stredu swept his eyes from the object and to his tricorder readings before looking up again. It was at that same time that the spider released a bolt of green energy that passed swiftly overhead, causing the young Vulcan to wince in pain when a high-pitched whine accompanied it. A sudden explosion behind them was accompanied by several cries of pain.

“Damn it, Stredu!,” shouted Rosekovitch. “Get a move on!”

Stredu shook his head to try and clear the ringing from his ears. It didn’t work but he returned to his tricorder readings as soon as he ducked back behind the box. Cardonez was amazed that he could concentrate with all of the pain that he was in but he did. Flipping open his own communicator, he relayed coordinates to the Ranger which was high in orbit.

“Fire,” commander Rosekovitch.

Stredu looked back up above the crates and Cardonez watched in awe while a large beam of bright crimson energy descended from the heavens, vaporizing the acoustic cannon and half of the building into the bargain.

“Good shooting,” Rosekovitch said to his communicator. “We’ll let you know when we’ve breached the depot. Rosekovitch out.” He flipped the communicator closed and slipped it back onto his belt. Hefting his phaser, he smiled at Stredu. “Come on, people! Let’s move!” He started running towards the buildings. The Vulcan picked up his own weapon and followed suit, mingling with the rest of the Starfleet assault force.

Occasional beams of light flashed back from beside the buildings but they were scattered and inaccurate. With the loss of their major weapon, Cardonez saw small figures scurrying back from the buildings and disappearing into the petrified jungle behind them.


****


“We’re approaching the asteroid field,” Pamela Tilmoore sang out from the helm.

“Slow to impulse power,” Huntington said from the command chair. “Put it on screen.”

The viewscreen shifted to show darkness ahead of them and it was littered with small dots of rock. The first trip that Huntington had ever taken away from his home on the Moon was to the asteroid belt. He had been an eight-year old young boy and he had been truly terrified while his father flew the shuttle through the Belt. It felt like they were flying through an avalanche.

A little of the trepidation that he had felt as a boy came flooding back to him now. “My God, it’s immense,” he said. “Lieutenant Kandro, what do the scans say?”

“Well, Stredu was right,” he reported. “We should be able to hide here for a while. It’s big. Almost an AU wide.”

“What else can you tell me about it?”

“Not a lot, presently. The sheer size of the field means that it would take us several days to get a reasonable picture of it.”

Huntington licked his lips. “Where are our pursuers?,” he asked.

“Close,” replied Lieutenant Paul Carson, standing at the horseshoe-shaped Tactical console. “Their ETA is six minutes.”

“Lieutenant Ramblin, will our shields hold once we move inside the field?”

Ramblin checked her display screen. “They should, if we don’t get too many bumps.”

“Understood. Okay, Ensign, take us in… slowly.” He added that last bit as an afterthought.

“I wasn’t going to do it any other way,” said Tilmoore.

The Testudo moved slowly and deliberately into the asteroid field. Tilmoore kept her attention firmly fixed on her console, trusting her instruments more than her eyes, disconcerting though that might be for the rest of the Bridge crew.

Kandro’s eyes widened when a large mass of rock moved slowly into view. “Left a bit!,” he muttered.

Tilmoore kept her gaze downwards. “I see it,” she said calmly and hit the thruster controls. Despite her bulk, the Testudo moved with the grace of a swan while she swung effortlessly around the giant rock that was almost four times her size.

Kandro let out a sigh of relief but Huntington merely smiled. He remembered the young girl who was resigned to a mundane shuttle run before fate, and a wholly disagreeable Vulcan named Doctor Shatterhand, intervened and alerted him to her potential.

“We’re taking minor hits,” said Ramblin. “It’s nothing that the shields can’t handle.”

“Screw the shields,” said Kandro. “What about my nerves?!” Two smaller bodies collided on the viewscreen, sending smaller shards of rock hundreds of meters long tumbling towards the Testudo. Tilmoore never even blinked. Her deft finger work swept the ship first to one way and then to another, avoiding the larger arrows of rock. Despite her piloting skill, Testudo still shook when smaller shards impacted on the shields.

“Sorry,” she said without raising her head.

“Shields are holding at ninety percent,” said Carson.

“Don’t worry, Pamela,” said Huntington. “You’re doing fine.”

“I know,” she said without a hint of egotism.

Testudo suddenly swung hard to port to miss a shower of smaller asteroids, causing everyone to have to lean back into their seats. “Okay,” said Kandro,” take this as the comment of a man scared witless by all of the flying mountains out there but I really think that we should stop before those Mutuality ships arrive.”

“Surely we’re better off getting as deep into the asteroids as we can?,” asked Ramblin.

“True,” the Betazoid agreed. “However, if we have the engines running, we’ll be a lot easier to spot us than if we’re running cold.”

“How deep are we inside?,” asked Huntington.

“Sixty thousand kilometers,” Kandro responded, almost immediately.

Huntington winced. He knew that Kandro was right but he still wanted to get further inside the field. “Estimated Time of Arrival on those ships?,” he asked.

“Two and a half minutes,” said Carson.

“Okay, Pamela, you’ve got two minutes of flight time. Get us in as far as you can and then look for a large and stable asteroid to anchor us to.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Then what?,” asked Ramblin.

“Then we wait and hope that they don’t venture in, looking for us.”

“And if they do?”

“Have you ever fought a combat simulation inside of an asteroid field?,” Huntington replied.

“Actually, no,” said Ramblin.

“It’s never pretty but, at least, it might even up the odds a little.”

“I flew a simulation once,” said Kandro. “It’s never pretty so it doesn’t do it any justice. Trying to play squash inside of a giant pinball machine is a better and more accurate description.”


****


Kally was engrossed once more in her toys, sitting, playing and leaving her mother to sit in shocked silence on the floor. After what seemed to be like hours, Kehen drew herself up and crawled across the floor towards her daughter. She had her back to her but as the Starfleet officer drew level with her, the child sighed, put down her toy and turned around to face her.

Zia saw how deep Kally’s brown eyes were, being this close up. They were filled with intelligence but also with a great sadness. “Hey,” the older Yulanian said, easing herself into a semi-comfortable position where she laid on her side and propped her head up onto one elbow.

“Hey,” Kally replied, cautiously.

Kehen smiled. It was hard but she wanted to gain this small girl’s trust and put her at ease. It was hard to smile and what she had to say was harder still. “You know if you knew I was contemplating a…” She paused. “You know.”

“I know,” replied the girl in parrot fashion.

Zia averted her gaze for a moment. Blinking tears away, she looked up again. “If you know that I was contemplating an abortion,” she began again, her heart shattering into a thousand pieces when she said that dreaded word. “Then you also know that it wasn’t a course that I was completely set on. After all, you’re here, aren’t you?” She tried smiling again.”

Kally pouted. “Uncle Yannis says that I’m just a maybe. A might be.”

“Did he?”

Kally nodded. “Yeah. he said that I was a Klaide from the future.” She frowned. “I asked him if that meant I was the Ghost of Christmas Future but he didn’t understand.”

“Actually, I don’t either.”

“Dad would know what I was talking about. I remember him reading A Christmas Carol to me when I was little.”

“Christmas is a Human holiday,” said Kehen.

Kally opened her eyes as wide as she could. “Well, duh, I’m half-Human.” She giggled. “Or, at least, I might be.”

“Don’t say that,” Zia snapped. For a second, she thought that the child was going to cry. “I’m sorry. This is just weird for me.”

“I know. I think what he was trying to say is that here, I have a chance to grow up, which I might not have back in the real world.”

An uncomfortable silence permeated the air. Neither mother, nor daughter knew quite what to say next. Eventually the spell was broken by Kally. “So why didn’t you want me?,” she asked with the directiveness that only a child could get away with.

Kehen sighed. Lying back, she flattened herself on the floor and gazed up at the subdued lighting that came down from above. She wondered why Yannis changed it? Yulani lighting was almost alway a floor up. After a few seconds, she realized that she was procrastinating and sighed again. When the words came to her, not looking at Kally made them come easier.

“Well, I guess, for several reasons. For a start, your father and I haven’t been together for that long. I still don’t know if this is a long-term relationship. Having a child seems to be rushing things.”

“Dad loves you to death,” Kally said,” and you love him too. You both tell me that often enough.”

Kehen craned her head sideways to look at her. “You do realize that talking about future events in the past tense really weirds me out, right?”

She nodded, a large grin on her face.

Kehen resumed her examination of the ceiling. “Okay, so maybe I do love him and maybe he does love me. But there’s other factors. For a start, there’s never been a Yulani-Human hybrid before. Hell, there’s never been a Yulani-anything hybrid before. I know that the Humans like to say that the twenty-fourth century is an enlightened place but it isn’t always. I suppose I didn’t want you to end up being victimized for your heritage.”

“When I was growing up, some of my best friends were hybrids,” said Kally,” including Aunt Isabel. You’ll have to do better than that.”

Kehen continued to look upward. “You’re going to make me say it eventually so I might as well get it off of my chest now.” Kally was silent so she continued. “I don’t know if I want to have another child. Especially one that will end up altering the way that I live. I like my life. I like my freedoms, my job, and I suppose I think that you would spoil that.”

Kehen shut up and waited, expecting this admission to make the child either upset or angry. Certainly admitting it to herself made her feel both.

Kally merely said, very quietly. “I see. Actually, I don’t. Not really.”

“Well, first off, I’m a Starfleet officer. Having a child would interrupt that. Secondly, if I were to have a child… were to have you, I know that Yashiro would most likely want to marry me. I also know that he wouldn’t want to follow Yulanian tradition when it came to your upbringing. When I had Liella, I was never concerned about the future because I knew that my parents would take care of her.” Kehen perched back up again and looked at Kally. “I grew up with very traditional Yulanian beliefs. Grandparents have the experience to raise a child, not parents. Of course, then we had to go and make contact with the rest of the Galaxy and discover their backward way of doing things. No, I know Yashiro. He would want us to raise you ourselves.”

“Would that be so bad?”

“Are you kidding?,” asked Zia. “My mother made sure that I knew all about how hard it was to raise Liella. How she and my father’s social life ground to a halt. Like I said, I like my life the way that it is.”

“And I’m sure that Grandma never mentioned all of the nice things about seeing my sister group up?”

“Of course, she did, and I’m more than prepared to make the sacrifice myself one day. But in the distant future when I raise Liella’s children, not now.”

Kally considered this for a moment. “I’m sorry but being a burden,” she said and Kehen felt her heart crack again,” but I’m glad that I got to know why. I think it’s time for you to go now. Don’t you, Uncle Yannis?”

Kehen almost got tangled up in her own arms and legs when she turned around to see Yannis standing off by the doorway, a drink in his hand. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Yannis shrugged. “It’s not like it’s real life,” he said. “Now then, if you two have finished, it’s time for you to return to reality. Of course, Kally will stay here with me.”


****


Isabel Cardonez had no recollection of the battle ending but it had obviously been a successful assault because Stredu was now standing inside of a huge warehouse filled with small silver spaceships that were lined up in rows that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

The ships were familiar but only in the way that a layman would recognize that a Constitution-class looked like a Galaxy-class. In other words, the design heritage was obvious. These ships were precursors to the silver ships that the Mutuality used today. They looked old with the silver finish tarnished on those ships closest to her. Cardonez couldn’t begin to count how many ships that there were. Fortunately, Stredu had done it for her.

“There are one thousand and thirty-seven ships in this depot,” he said. His voice was low but it still echoed through the cavernous building.

Captain Rosekovitch stood, a few meters away, his hand brushing against the hull of one of the ships. “And the other depots?,” he queried, his voice louder and the echo more reverberant.

“Approximately the same number in each of the other depots. Although it would appear that these depots originally housed many more of them. The Selvee have taken ships from here as their own vessels wear out.”

“Hot damn,” said Rosekovitch, patting the side of the ship with a wide grin on his face. “Hey, Duncan!”

Cardonez felt her own gaze drift upward as well and half-leaning there out of a portal in the upper hull was the ship was Commander Blake. “Hold on. I’ll come down,” he said and disappeared inside. Moments later, the portal closed upm leaving no indication that it had been there. Thirty seconds later and a similar portal silently opened up on the underside of the ship. Soon, a small cradle descended to the ground and Blake was standing in it.

“Well?,” Rosekovitch queried when Blake exited the cradle.

“Well, I’ve checked fifteen craft so far and they’re all in similar condition. Their reactors are cold but start them up with engines, life-support and weapons. All of them function within the expected parameters. I’ll give the Chobraq this. They built their ships too last. You wouldn’t know that they were almost half a millennia old.”

“Excellent. And the computer interfaces?”

Blake looked up at the ship. “Well, it will take some time to create a medium for running our computers through the ships but I can do it?”

“And you’re confident that it’ll work?,” probed Rosekovitch.

Blake sighed. “As I did explain, Captain, I was part of the team that worked on the M-5, ten years ago. The data had been sitting in mothballs since Doctor Daystorm had been committed to a Federation psychiatric hospital but we found out that multitronics was still visible. The M-6 wouldn’t work but the M-7 that we designed would have functioned to Starfleet’s requested specifications if Admiral Kirk hadn’t canned the program.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Commander.”

Blake nodded. “I’m sorry. I have the specifications for the M-7 and I believe that we can convert the computer cords of these ships into a functioning facsimile. I believe that we already have volunteers assembled to have their memory engrams copied and used in the M-7s.”

“Yes,” Rosekovitch said,” starting with me.”

“I still fail to see how even several thousand ships can topple an Empire,” said Stredu. “At some point, a ground assault will become necessary and we do not have the forces.”

“You forget,” said Rosekovitch,” about the millions of Chobraq on every world who are just waiting for the chance to rise up.”

It suddenly started to slot into place for Cardonez. The Mutuality and their advanced AI. There was nothing advanced or alien about it. It was Federation technology from the century before. She still had so many unanswered questions though and while Stredu’s memories were clearing up a lot, they were also prompting new mysteries. Even she could feel now that this memory was starting to fade. She wondered how much longer Stredu could keep this up.

 

[admiralelm11]

I do what I can to keep everyone entertained.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Well this has strayed into very interesting territory... An unborn child regretting its chance for life might be taken. And a whale of a backstory via mind-meld. Well done! Thanks!! rbs

 

[Galen4]

There's a lot here to catch up on. But I just finished your first entry, "Haunted". Great intro to the ship and crew with lots of layered backstory behind the characters. Love the Bermuda Triangle approach at the beginning. Oh, and extra creepy points awarded for the broken assimilation part. Damn, talk about the stuff of nightmares.

I'll be moving on to the next episodes soon but there's a lot of material to cover!
Great stuff all around!

 

[admiralelm11]

@Galen4, I can post the link to the website while I post this series if that would make it easier for you.

 

[admiralelm11]

Epilogue

“There’s no change,” said Doctor Hollem when Commander Masafumi had left Kehen’s bedside for the first time in almost an hour. “He could literally go at any minute or he could hang on for another hour.”

Testudo’s First Officer looked down at his Captain and the mysterious Vulcan. “Any longer?”

Hollem shook his head. “No. One hour, tops. After that…”

“I understand, Doctor,” Masafum said, turning towards where T’Vell was standing. “Ensign, I think that it’s time.”

T’Vell nodded slightly. “As you wish, Commander,” she said before she began to walk over to Stredu and the Captain. She got three steps closer before the ship shook so violently that she was thrown to the ground. The lights dimmed while the bulbs burst in their sockets. Across the room, a medical scanner attached to the wall exploded in a shower of sparks.

Masafumi tumbled backwards, his head striking the corner of a biobed while he fell, robbing him of consciousness.

Hollem managed to grab fast onto the biobed that Stredu and Cardonez lay upon. He clung on for dear life while the ship shuddered, bulkheads creaking around them. Then, in the space of a moment, it was over.

“Is everyone okay?”

Around him, several nurses were busy with picking themselves up off the deck. There was a collective murmur of ‘yes’ from all of them. “I am unharmed,” added T’Vell. “Although I do believe that Commander Masafumi is injured.”

“Damn it,” Hollem said, dropping to Masafumi’s side.

He was about to open his tricorder when the Commander’s eyelids fluttered open. “I really must stop banging my head,” said Masafumi with a groan.

“Tell me about it.” The Bajoran doctor stood up, grabbing Yashiro’s hands and picking him up in the process. “What hit us?”


****


That was a question being asked, several decks above by Commander Huntington. He was sitting in the command chair and all around him, the Bridge was in chaos. Smoke hung in the air which was eerily lit by the Red Alert lights.

Kandro wafted smoke away from in front of his eyes. “A seismic charge detonated three hundred meters off of our port bow.”

“They know that we’re here?,” asked Tilmoore.

The ship shuddered again. Huntington grabbed his armrests but there was no need. This was much milder than the previous space quake, barely shaking the ship at all. “I don’t think they do,” he said in answer to Tilmoore’s question. “If they did, that charge would have been right on top of us.”

“It looks like you’re right,” said Kandro. “That one was ten thousand kilometers away and it looks like another one just detonated fifty thousand kilometers away.”

“Depth charges.”

“Huh?,” asked the Betazoid.

“Typical,” said Ramblin. “No sense of history.”

“Let me guess. Earth history? What a shame. I grew up learning Betazoid history.”

Huntington shook his head, despairing at these two. Somehow, Captain Cardonez and Commander Masafumi always managed to keep them in check. Always having the perfect put-down to shut them both up, right now, he couldn’t be bothered to think up any witty retorts.

“Will you two just get a room already?,” Tilmoore said.

Adam smiled. Seizing his chance, he changed the subject. “Depth charges were explosives that were dropped from old Earth seagoing vessels, designed to flush out or destroy submarines.

“I see,” said Kandro.

“Well, they may be firing blind but it’s working,” said Ramblin. “That charge knocked out our shields and blew out several ODN conduits too.”

“We have stress in the hull as well,” Kandro said, turning around in his seat. “Sir, we couldn’t take another hit like that.”

Huntington sat back in his chair. “This is why I never wanted to be a Captain.”


****


“So, there’s a way out?,” asked Zia Kehen.

“Oh, yes,” Yannis replied, nodding. “It’s actually quite simple but I thought that you two should talk first.”

Kehen stood up. “So, how?,” she asked.

“Just click your heels three times and say ‘There’s no place like home’,” Kally said with a giggle.

“Huh?”

“Don’t mind her. She does that all the time. I think it’s her father’s influence. In fact, all that you have to do is step through that doorway.” Yannis said, motioning back towards the entrance way to the room that Kehen had come through… How long ago?

“That’s it?,” Zia asked incredulously.

Yannis nodded.

She started towards the exit but stopped after a few steps. She turned back and looked at Kally. The child already had her head down and she was playing as though she didn’t have a care in the world. Kehen knew it was an act though. Every so often, she cast quick and furtive glances in her direction.

Kehen looked at her. She was so beautiful and so intelligent. Brains from her father and looks from her mother. She could almost hear ‘Uncle’ Valian saying it but it seemed to be an accurate description at the moment.

“Zia,” Yannis said,” I know that I said time has little meaning here but it does in the real world. You have to go now. If not, you’ll be trapped here. Like me.”

“I know,” Kehen said, fighting back her tears. “Take care of her, will you?” She turned towards the exit, reaching forward to move her hand through the wall. Then she stopped. With utter certainty, she turned back and walked over to where her daughter sat. “Kally?”

Kally looked up. “What?”

Kehen reached out an open hand towards her. “Come with me.”

Kally shook her head. “You said that you didn’t want me.”

“I know, but I was wrong. I got close to the doorway and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave you here.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re feeling guilty. If you had never come here, never met me, then you would have gone through with it. I would have never existed.”

Kehen recognized a stubborn streak in the girl. She gets that from me.

“Maybe and maybe not. All that I know is that this isn’t the right place for you. Your place is with me.” She paused and added,” and your father.”

Kally looked up. Then she looked past her mother at Yannis.

“Don’t look at me, young lady,” said the elderly scientist. “It’s always been your choice. All that I will say is that it’s probably safer here.”

“Look, Kally,” said Kehen,” if I had an abortion, it’s stupid to say that you would have never existed because you would have.” She tapped her chest. “In here, and I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life. Yannis is right though. I am willing to let you stay…” She winced when tears formed in her eyes. “Let you stay here but I’d still feel guilty for letting you.”

“What if Dad doesn’t want me?”

“Are you kidding?,” laughed Kehen. “He’ll probably adore you more than I will… do!”

“That’s true,” said Kally.

“Ladies, please! Do young people have no sense of timing nowadays?”

“Oh, shut up!,” said Kehen and she was pleased to see Kally smiling. “Last chance?”

“Okay, but on one condition.”

“Name it.”

“When I’m seven, I’ll use the replicator to build a snowman in our quarters. Please don’t be mad.”

Zia was weeping and laughing simultaneously now when she swept the young girl up into her arms. “I promise,” she said as she hugged her tight. “Now, let’s go home.”

As they passed by Yannis, Kehen paused and asked,” There’s really no way to get you back?”

“I’ll keep working on it,” said her former mentor. “Now go!”

Kehen smiled and without another look back, she darted through the doorway.

Alone now, Yannis Lekon smiled wanly. “Ah, well, back to crushing loneliness.”

A second later, the room morphed around him. The toys disappeared to be replaced by two lithe young Yulani women in golden bikinis. He now sported a drink in his right hand. “It is a hard life,” he said before taking a sip and heading for the center of the room.


****


Sickbay was back in one piece and T’Vell was now standing by the side of Stredu and Cardonez. Placing a hand on each person’s head, she began to chant in Vulcan.

“Let’s hope that this works,” said Masafumi who was standing beside Hollem.

“Let’s hope that what works?,” Zia Kehen asked when she peeked through the gap between both men.

An observer would have been hard-pressed to tell which of the two men jumped higher in surprise. However, she had no doubt that it was Yashiro.


****


“Sir, I’ve plotted their firing pattern,” Kandro said while the Testudo shook mildly again. “I estimate that they’ll fire, at least, one charge in our direction again within two minutes.”

“Then we’ll crack like thin ice,” said Ramblin.

“Not if they think that we’re dead,” said Huntington. “Lieutenant Ramblin, I want as many items into the Shuttle Bays as possible, heck, even shuttlepods. I’ll need as much duranium as possible.”

“Commander, I’m getting a strange sense of deja vu,” said Kandro. “Didn’t you once tell the Captain that nobody ever fell for that old trick anymore?”

“Indeed, I did. However, people will believe any lie if you make it convincing enough.” He took a deep breath. “What I’m about to order will seem reckless, maybe foolish and downright immoral to a certain degree. I want you to know that I accept full responsibility for what we’re about to do.”

“What are we about to do?,” asked the Operations Officer.

“Valian,” Huntington said. If he was surprised by the use of his first name, he didn’t show it. “There are three bodies currently in the ship’s morgue. Lock onto them with a site-to-site transporter and place them in the Main Shuttle Bay.”

“Excuse me?”

Huntington looked deflated as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “You heard what I said,” he said softly. “They’re gone and we’re still alive. It’s my job to keep us that way.”

Kandro stared into his eyes. Weighing the consequences of disobeying the order, he knew in his heart that it would be a futile gesture. The Bridge was silent. Each member of the Bridge crew aghast at Huntington’s suggestion.

There was a bitter taste in Kandro’s mouth but he didn’t let it stop him. “Aye, sir,” he said and swung back towards his console. While his fingers carried out the order, he silently prayed that he was doing the right thing.

If the crew had been aghast at that order, Huntington’s next order took the biscuit. “Louise, prepare to jettison the warp core and rig it to detonate remotely on my mark.”


****


Isabel Cardonez stood in a large, ornate room. It was empty except for a single chair. No, it was more like a throne, sitting at the end of a sumptuous purple carpet. Stredu was walking towards the throne and the occupant who was sitting in it.

“Stredu, is that you?,” asked Captain Rosekovitch who looked decades older now. His hair was completely gone and his eyes were narrowed to thin slits.

“Indeed, it is.”

Rosekovitch nodded, licking his chapped lips while he did. “Good, good,” he said, standing shakily and walked over to the Vulcan, placing a hand on his shoulder to steady himself. When he spoke again, Cardonez smelled a bitter aroma on his breath. “Ah, Stredu, my second greatest scientist.”

“That is correct. Commander Blake is superior to me in most matters.”

Rosekovitch laughed. It was the wheezing sound of a man whose lungs were on the verge of collapse. “The doctors say that I have only a few weeks left. As death approaches, I have no fear except for what will happen to the Mutuality after I’m gone.”

Stredu raised an eyebrow. “Surely the Domni will rule in your stead.”

“Yes, the Domni,” said Rosekovitch with a faraway look in his eye. “He is a noble fellow, but he isn’t strong enough to hold together what we built.”

“If I might speak freely?”

“Always,” said Rosekovitch.

“Logic would dictate that only you are strong enough to hold the Mutuality together.”

“Exactly!,” said Rosekovitch, seizing on the Vulcan’s words. “The Mark-10. It’s ready?”

“It is.”

“Good, good. Full memory retention and personality algorithms?”

“Indeed. It is more than just engrams. The entire personality is copied and simulated by the computer. All that we require is a volunteer.”

“You have one,” Rosekovitch said, smiling as he tapped a finger against his skull. “You have one… Place me in…”

Suddenly, it was dark as the memory faded. Cardonez had the sudden feeling that she was falling through oblivion. Terror seized her while she tumbled, seemingly to the depths of Hell itself. As she fell, she heard Stredu’s voice.

“No more time.”

She opened her eyes and saw that she was in Sickbay. Doctor Hollem, Commander Masafumi, and Lieutenant Kehen were all looking down on her, concern mixed with relief in her eyes. She turned her head. Stredu laid on another biobed beside hers. His eyes were closed and his face unnaturally pale while the warmth ebbed out of his body. Ensign T’Vell stood by his side with her eyes closed and her head bowed.


****


Testudo shuddered hard. “That’s in,” said Kandro. “The next one will be close. The one after that one will probably be fatal.”

Huntington gripped his armrests. “Lieutenant Ramblin, eject the core.”

Ramblin left her chair and walked over to the horseshoe-shaped railing, placing her hands on it when she looked at him. “Commander, if we lose this, we lose warp drive, probably permanently. We don’t have a spare core.”

“I’m well aware of that. Now eject the core.”

She frowned, but she returned to her station and input the order. A small section of the hull on the Testudo’s underbelly slipped apart and gracefully, the bright blue warp core, throbbing with power, slipped out and away from the ship.

“Core away,” said Ramblin.

Huntington nodded. “Ensign, maneuvering thrusters only. Get us behind this asteroid,” he said, pointing towards a large rock that was dead ahead.

“Aye, sir,” said Tilmoore.

Slowly but surely, the Testudo and her main form of propulsion drifted apart. The ship had slipped into cover behind the asteroid and they kept going, putting as much distance as possible between it and what was to follow. The warp core continued onwards, following its preordained path. It quickly caught up with a cloud of debris that had been jettisoned a moment earlier. Within the debris floated the bodies of three members of Testudo’s crew.

“Ready to detonate on my mark,” said Huntington.

“Aye, sir,” said Ramblin.

Testudo shuddered, only harder this time.

“That’s it,” said Kandro. “Two thousand kilometers away.”

Huntington tapped his combadge and said over the ship’s intercom system,” This is Commander Huntington. Everybody hold on tight!,” he shouted before deactivating it. “Detonate!”


****


“‘Hold tight’?,” asked Captain Cardonez as she swung herself off of the biobed. It felt strange to be able to move freely once more. “What the hell is going on?”

She never received an answer before the ship suddenly rocked violently as though it were a toy, being shaken in the hands of a giant child. The lights failed and Cardonez felt the sensation of falling once again.


****


Outside of the asteroid field, the five Mutuality ships sat silent and unmoving. In their midst was a sixth ship, Ranger. On the Bridge stood two men and they were watching a brilliant flare on the viewscreen when a large explosion hit the outer edge of the field.

“We got them!,” said Blake. He reached down and checked a nearby console. “It’s definitely a warp core breach. I’m detecting deuterium, duranium, and even a body. Although Heaven knows how it survived that.”

“I don’t trust this,” said the second man on the Bridge. He was older than Blake but he was dressed in a similar uniform, a single gold stripe around his upper arm. “Cardonez is smart enough to fool us.”

Blake smiled. “Ramius, I never knew that you had such trouble accepting victory. Testudo is destroyed. They couldn’t have survived that explosion.”

“They could have if they ejected their warp core.”

“To fool us,” asked Blake,” and leave themselves dead in the water?”

“It just doesn’t smell right,” said the former Starfleet Captain. “That’s all.”

“Captain Cutter,” said a third voice. It emanated from speakers installed in the walls and although it had a mechanical twinge to it, the voice of Captain John Rosekovitch had changed little. “I value your input. However, in this instance, I must disagree. There is a ninety-two percent probability that Testudo was destroyed. There is a six-point-two percent probability that Testudo survived the explosion, although she would be heavily damaged, certainly beyond repair. There are several other outcomes but the probability that they used their own warp core to deceive us is only point-zero-seven percent.”

“See?,” said Blake. “Testudo is dead and Cardonez along with her.”

“We could wait,” said Cutter,” and fire more charges…”

“No. we have a timetable to keep,” said Blake. “We cannot afford the time.”

“I concur,” said the voice of Ranger. “Captain Cutter, time grows short and we have much to do. We must copy your engrams and add them to our pool of knowledge. When the invasion comes, we must not fail. The Mutuality is all.”

“The Mutuality is all,” echoed Blake.

Cutter gazed out of the viewscreen. The light was dimming now, haloed between several asteroids. Finally, he looked away and towards Blake. “The Mutuality is all.”


The End.

 

[Galen4]

Sure! But I didn’t mean to create extra work for you.

 

[admiralelm11]

https://assinninewriting.wordpress.com/2024/02/05/star-trek-into-the-void-episode-twenty/

Warning: It's a wild ride!

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Oohh - totally ghost in the machine... And appropriately, it's Blake. And talk about shades of Kim Il Sun... The great leader remains president in perpetuity, even after his death. This is a mausolocracy... A necrocacy... The dead are in command. No shortage of voices from the other side: Blake, Stredu, Yannis (and his self-concocted harem - death has its privileges).

Totally a ghost story - Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

We're now stuck in the Gamma Quadrant. Time to turn tricks and learn how to scavenge for spare parts.

 

[admiralelm11]

It's okay, @Galen4. I don't mind being kept busy.