Vignette(s)

[Cobalt Frost]

"All hands, this is the Captain. Be advised," Gabriel said, "passage into the Corridor via the Transition Barrier can be.. disconcerting. Any psi-sensitive crew who would like a psi-blocker, please see Dr. Holliday. We Transit in 15 minutes." He motioned to COB, who cut the shipwide 1MC, then stood and stretched. "I'm going to grab a snack. You have the bridge, Commander Taylor."

"Aye sir, I have the bridge," Connie replied to Gabriel's back as he headed for his ready room. Couldn't even bother to wait for my answer, she fumed. Connie allowed the anger to stew for a long moment before forcing it down under her standard 'calm and professional' veneer. She stifled a yawn (damned insomnia) and turned her attention to the viewscreen; displayed before her was the Transition Barrier.

She'd seen images of it before, of course, but she found that, as the saying went, pictures didn't do it justice. Connie was struck by the rawness of it, the.. violence, for lack of a better word. An eerie, unnatural gouge in the fabric of local space-time, born of residual energies from the passage of the Nexus and the unrefined but extremely potent destructive power of a trilithium-tainted warp core.

Beyond the Barrier lay the so-called "Corridor", a one-way tunnel through deep subspace that allowed access to a region of space far past the boundaries of the long-fractured Romulan Empire. It was there, where the Corridor came to an abrupt end, that the Federation had encountered the Celvani. The Celvani were the dominant force in the Free Stars' Alliance, a commonweath of several dozen technologically-advanced star systems. Apparently, and for quite some time, the FSA had been expecting contact with the Federation. Not only that, but thanks to an ancient prophecy they'd been waiting very specifically for contact with someone from Earth.

Who just HAPPENED to end up being Gabriel Frost, thought Connie darkly (and not for the first time), the man I'm forced to serve under...

 

[Mistral]

ok, i'm interested. Might want to watch sentence length-you were hovering around possible run-ons, there. Interesting either way, though.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

^Tightened it up a little. More later today..

 

[KobayashiMaru13]

Yeah, im interested as well. hope to see the next chapter and who and what exactly the Celvani and the Free Stars' Alliance are, and if their intentions are good or bad.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Not really going to be chapters, per se, more like little bits and pieces. The story is still very much a WIP, scattered through several notebooks and my noggin. The challenge I'm finding now is tying it all together cohesively.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

The scene in the holodeck shifted from the wrecked engine room of the USS Spitfire back to the Japanese dojo. Gabriel stepped over to the wall and grasped one of the katana displayed there, as if desperate for an anchor of some sort. He didn't take the sword from the wall, though.

"And if you give me that 'needs of the many' shit, I'll gut you like a fish. I must've heard that from every counselor in the fleet after I managed to get the Spitfire as far as Pacifica."

Connie's hand started towards her combadge, but stopped just shy of it. Threatening an officer like that, that's a court-martial offence, she thought. At best, it would end his career.. waitaminnit. Realization dawned; at their first (rather unpleasant) meeting, Gabriel had mentioned that he was.. not allowed, that's what he'd said.. to resign his commission. He hadn't elaborated further. He wants me to give him a way out. Not gonna happen. Part of me hates to admit it, but the Challenger can't afford to lose him.

"Does the offer to speak freely still stand, Captain?" she asked.

"Yes," said Gabriel, his voice tight. "Always."

"Then I'm going to be blunt. She's dead, Gabriel. Let it go. No matter how many times you run that holo-sim, no matter what the outcome is, she's still dead. She died doing her duty. So you gave the order that led to her death. So what? Part of the job, sir. The minute you assumed command of the Spitfire, hell, the minute you became an officer, you accepted that sometime, someday, you'd give an order and someone would die. Unfortunately, the first time it happened, that someone was the woman you loved."

"Love."

"And that's a big part of the problem, sir. You may have heard it before, but you're going to hear it again. Get. Over. It! Move on, and let her rest." Connie folded her arms across her chest, her hand still within quick reach of her combadge.

"While you're at it, remember that you're the captain of a starship, and there are people on board who are counting on you. I won't let you run away from that responsibility," she said, letting him know she'd caught on to his ploy. "Wouldn't be much of a first officer if I did."

"You're actually jealous of me?" Gabriel said, recalling something Connie said in an earlier argument.

"Am I jealous? Damn straight I am. Everything I've worked my ass off for has been handed to you on a latinum-plated replicator tray." Connie smiled, the first honest smile she'd given Gabriel since they'd met. "You have a lot of people who don't like you, Captain."

Images of Admirals MacAllister and Rosenthal, among several other people, flashed through Gabriel's mind. He turned to face Connie, a sheepish look on his face. "You have no idea."

"So, if for no other reason than to stick it to them, act like a captain! You have a bleeding-edge starship, and due in no small part to my efforts, if I may say so, a damned fine crew. But that center seat could use filling." Connie shot Gabriel a pointed look.

"We have.. issues, Captain, but we should.. we need to work them out. We wouldn't want to tarnish the Challenger name and legacy, now would we?" She came to attention. "Commander Constance Taylor, reporting for duty, sir." A simple thing, but something that had gone neglected in the heat of their first meeting.

"Computer," said Gabriel, "end prog.. belay that. Delete.." He paused, silent in thought for a moment as emotions raged. The choice, however, was not quite as hard as he'd have thought.

"Delete program Frost S-1."

Program deleted.

A surprised look crossed Connie's face. I certainly didn't expect that, but it is his demon to face.

"You're right, Commander. We need to work things out. Please schedule a weekly appointment with Counselor K'kroth at your earliest convenience.

"And welcome aboard."

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Red alert klaxons were screaming, echoing through every corner of the massive Gateway starbase. Admiral MacAllister swore under her breath. As if I didn't have a headache already... Her fingers danced over the controls of a barely-functioning terminal, somehow managing to coax the main viewscreen back to life. Telemetry from the station's damaged sensors as well as the few remaining WildCARD satellites flooded the screen. The images shocked everyone in Gateway's Ops center to silence.

Ensign Lynch's panicked voice finally broke the silence. "So many ships.. so many ships. Look!!" He stabbed a finger towards the viewscreen, where an innumerable wave of Calikron attack craft preceeded several dozen battleships of the Calikron's masters, the Ixu'Prohl. "So many..."

"We can see that!" barked MacAllister, cutting him off. "Are the thermoprotonic mines on-line?"

"B-barely," Ensign Lynch replied, composing himself somewhat. "If we can get one to fire, the rest should go off. But Admiral..."

"What?"

"Challenger is still in the Corridor."

And Erica is on board, she thought, her heart tightening. But I've got no choice. We have to try and stop them here.

"Blow the mine."

"Admiral?"

"I said blow it, goddammit!" Seeing the hesitation in Ensign Lynch's eyes, MacAllister stepped over to his panel and triggered the code sequence herself. The cold blackness of space near the station erupted in hellfire as the primal energies of the thermoprotonic mines were released...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Captain!" said Connie, her voice heavy with alarm. "I'm reading a wave of energy coming towards us at half-impulse relative."

"Towards us?" Gabriel asked. The Corridor was strictly one-way, or so they'd thought. "Composition?"

"Hang on, gotta readjust.." Connie's fingers played over the hard-light controls of the science station with virtuoso precision. "Picking up traces of chronitons, ionized gravitons, and.. thermoprotium?"

"Damn! They must have blown the mines."

"Impact in 50 seconds," called out Lt. Priest.

"Shields won't function in the Corridor," said Connie, gently countering the instinctive order. "We can't try to slow down, either; the gravimetric shear would rip the ship apart."

Gabriel's gaze went distant, a look Connie recognized that meant he was making a series of intense calculations.

"Lt. Priest," said Gabriel gravely, "arm a nova torpedo, maximum yield." The bridge went deathly silent. A nova torpedo in the Corridor? What were the consequences?

"Sir, I..."

"Do it," Gabriel hissed. Erica tapped in the command on her tactical console. "Awaiting your authorization, sir."

"Computer, release safeties on nova torpedo, authorization Frost Gamma Gamma Three Echo Niner."

Authorization accepted, the computer stated. Firing.. now. The viewscreen showed the blinding blue of the nova torpedo streaking towards the onrushing wave of roiling energy...

 

[The Badger]

As you say, this is all just 'bits and pieces' at the moment. But it's written well, and I want to find out more about what is going on.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

As you say, this is all just 'bits and pieces' at the moment. But it's written well,

Thank you! I really appreciate that.

and I want to find out more about what is going on.

Yeah, me too That's not entirely true, but I'm definitely going to work at letting the characters tell the story rather than me telling them what the story's going to be.

 

[Mistral]

Although all the parts are seemingly cut off from each other beyond characters in common I am starting to sense a thread...keep going, you really have my attention now.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Lights blinked on and off erratically, casting bizarre shadows across the bridge as the cleanup continued. Similar scenes were being played out all over the ship. After the 'incident' in the Corridor, Challenger was a mess.

I still don't know how we made it through that without being atomized, Connie thought, absentmindedly rubbing the back of her head. Ouch. She turned her attention back to the mostly-functional console in front of her.

"Can't seem to get a signal from any Starforce or Starfleet automated beacons," said Connie, "but triangulation based on local star clusters and gravimetric anomalies... Hell, I even used that dwarf star on the edge of the sector. I'm sorry, Captain, but that's Celvanos IV." She lowered her head and whispered, "or what's left of it."

Gabriel felt like he was going to puke, but he couldn't tear his eyes from the screen. A vaguely spherical cluster of rock and various other debris hung in space where the Celvani homeworld should have been. In his mind's eye, Gabriel could see the blue-white gem of the world he loved.

"Life signs?" he croaked.

"Captain, there's no way.." started Lt. Ch'kal, seated at the Ops console.

"LIFE SIGNS!" roared Gabriel. Connie stepped over to and past Lt. Ch'kal, who'd gone pale at the captain's outburst. Deftly, Connie massaged the console and directed the ship's main sensors at the remains of the planet. It only took a moment to get the readings.

"Nothing, Captain. I... " As the debris slowly rotated on what remained of its axis, the battered but recognizable shape of Starbase Gateway. Connie quickly gave the order: "Helm, set your course for the station, one-quarter impulse."

"Set my course for the station, one-quarter impulse, aye..."

 

[Cobalt Frost]

"Bridge, Sickbay."

"Sickbay, Bridge. Go ahead, Doctor."

"Captain," said Dr. Holliday, "we have a problem."

"Tell me something I don't know," Gabriel replied drily. The ship rocked as another wave of gravimetric energy from the remains of Celvanos IV washed over it. The dead planet's gravity well was seemingly refusing to accept fate. Strategic bursts from Challenger's RCS quads kept the ship on station.

"The shear is getting worse," Connie remarked.

"Captain," the doctor repeated.

"What?"

"Sickbay has been overrun with psi-sensitive crew.. at least, the ones who could actually get themselves here. I have staff all over the ship, dealing with this."

Gabriel sighed, allowing frustration to seep into his voice. "And your point, Doctor?"

"My point, Captain," she hissed, "is that Something Is Wrong. This happened within minutes of our sighting of the remains of Celvanos IV. I believe it's a clue to the mystery of our current situation."

"Great, Scooby, I'll be sure to pass it along to the rest of the gang." Gabriel stabbed at his armrest, cutting the channel before Dr. Holliday could protest further.

"Scooby?" asked Connie...

 

[Mistral]

Ah, and now a mystery! Way cool!

 

[Cobalt Frost]

They would have to butt heads at a time like this, thought Connie. Facing a wave of Calikron swarmships, the MSD lit up like a Christmas tree from all the damage indicators... Captain Frost was trying to get LCDR Priest's attention, but she was ignoring him, focusing instead on making Lt. Tomovik, the helmsman, do as she wished.

"Erica..."

"...order you to disengage..."

"Ms. Priest..."

"...lay in an escape vector..."

"LIEUTENANT COMMANDER!" Gabriel thundered, shooting to his feet. Born of long habit, Erica's training took over, and she came to attention and barked a crisp "Sir!" before she could stop herself.

"I am still the captain of this ship," said Gabriel icily, as Challenger rocked at the impact of another torpedo, "and I'm doing my best, given the situation." A voice called out from the tactical pit: "Shields at 32%" as another torpedo hit; Gabriel could feel the thump-thump-thump through the deckplates as Challenger replied with a salvo of quantum torpedoes.

"You know that in certain circumstances, a starship is considered expendable, but I'm trying my damnedest to avoid that, and I could use your help."

"My help?" LCDR Priest asked incredulously.

"So, you have two choices: one, get your ass into the tactical pit and show me why your Battle College ratings were so high, or two, I have Lt. Avallios give you a very personal tour of the brig." At this, the Celvani security chief gave Erica a predatory glare.

"I'll have your rank and command for this," Erica spat.

"Better than you have tried, Lieutenant Commander. Now choose."

"Aye, sir." LCDR Priest took the lead chair in the aforementioned tactical pit, ignoring the blood of Gabriel's former lead Tac Officer on the console. Gabriel sat back in the center seat and activated the joystick and throttle build into his chair. "You have chosen.. wisely." Connie glanced at Gabriel and saw the slight grin cross his face that meant he'd amused himself with an obscure reference to old Earth 'pop culture'. Connie rolled her eyes and went back to finding power to reinforce the shields.

"On the 1MC, COB," said Gabriel, "all hands prepare for extreme maneuvers." COB repeated the order on the shipwide comm channel, and throughout the ship, the crew strapped themselves in to the nearest grav-chair. Simultaneously, the main computer strengthened the SIF/IDF and brought the verniers on the wing binders to hot standby.

"Helm, transfer control, if you please, then task your station for auxiliary tactical."

"On your word, Captain," said Lt. Tomovik, doing as instructed. "Defensive weapons and countermeasures on-line."

"Ms. Priest, reload all torpedo bays and full charge to all phaser arrays," Gabriel ordered. "Give me a firing solution."

"Aye, sir," she replied. "Combat holographics on-line, targets of opportunity plotted and locked."

"Very well. On my order, you may engage at your discretion." Gabriel tightened his grip on the joystick and throttle. "Execute!" He jammed the throttle forward; Challenger's impulse engines roared to full, and the mighty starship leapt at the Calikron swarmships...

 

[Mistral]

You have alot going on and obviously a plan for this-I'd love to see larger pieces, although the way you're telling it is intriguing.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

^Glad you're enjoying it! And yes, I do have something resembling a plan, although as mentioned in my 'question to fanfic authors' thread, I'm going to look at what I've written more as a rough sketch, instead of an inviolate frame as I had been. "Product and colors may vary," as they say. And believe it or not, I haven't even introduced the one character who will be a common denominator throughout the three planned 'series'.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Shortly after reporting to her posting as Counsellor on board Challenger, Lieutenant Commander K'kroth had ordered the soundproofing of her office walls reinforced. In addition, she'd had sonic dampeners installed, after one particular incident on a previous billet. That was a lesson learned the hard way, she thought, before chiding herself for the momentary distraction.

Considering the private and usually deeply personal information shared in her office, the precautions she'd taken were certainly wise things to do. Right now, however, LCDR K'kroth felt certain that she'd done those things in preparation for this precise moment. Despite having reconciled their differences for the most part, a detente of sorts, Captain Frost and Commander Taylor still had issues. And at this precise moment, anything resembling detente was a thing of the distant past.

"YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS SON OF A BITCH!" Connie bellowed.

"I just pointed out..." started Gabriel.

"I KNOW what you were trying to point out, Captain, but I suggest you back up that shuttle-train of thought and listen!"

"Please sit down, Commander," clicked K'kroth. She tried to control it, but her lower mandibles twitched excitedly at the display between the captain and XO. These two were a veritable latinum mine of human psychological data. "I think the captain, in his own way, makes a valid point. But," she said, cutting off Connie as she'd opened her mouth to retort, "he could have been more tactful."

"She did say she wanted me to be completely honest," said Gabriel.

"Honesty can be tempered with diplomacy, sir," Connie replied, anger coloring her voice. "I..." The timer on the counsellor's desk chirped, and Connie found herself cut off for the second time in as many minutes. She shot K'kroth a dark glare, but said nothing; when Connie had set up these sessions, she and Gabriel had agreed on a one-hour time limit. The idea had been to avoid taking them away from their duties for too long, but sometimes, thought Connie, an hour just wasn't long enough.

K'kroth reached over and turned the timer off. "We'll pick this up again next week. Captain, Commander," she said as Gabriel and Connie stood.

"Counsellor," they said in unison. The door hissed open, and Gabriel stood back to let Connie through first. After they'd both left, K'kroth stretched, fluttering her vestigal wings as she pulled some tube grubs from the small refrigerator in the wall. She munched a few as she thought about today's session, glad she'd taken the extra time to remove anything breakable from the office. Especially after the session three months ago...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Later that evening, Connie reported to Gabriel's office to deliver a manifest of the cargo they'd recently traded for. She tabbed the 'call' button on his office door.

"Come in," said Gabriel. Connie stepped in, and despite the thermal lining of her uniform, shivered violently.

"Is there a reason it's so cold in here?" she chattered. Gabriel was seated behind his rough-hewn wooden desk, wearing.. what did he call them? jeans and a t-shirt?.. and looking completely comfortable.

"The heating units on the Destiny's Moon could rarely manage to get the temperature above 40 degrees Fahrenheit," explained Gabriel, "so I got used to it. In fact, I have a hard time sleeping if it's much warmer than that."

"Must have been rough on your Academy roommates," Connie remarked.

"Actually, I had two Andorians and a Celvani from the Crystelliar Trye province."

"Hmm, weren't you lucky," she deadpanned. "Here's the manifest you asked for."

"Thanks," said Gabriel, taking the proffered PADD. For a long moment, he looked up at Connie, amused by her efforts to look like she wasn't freezing, then: "Dismissed, Commander."

Connie would have said something about the smirk on Gabriel's face, but she was just too damned cold. She bit off a quick 'on your word, Captain' and scurried out as fast as protocol allowed. Then, she headed straight for her quarters and the hottest shower she could tolerate...

 

[Cobalt Frost]

"You claim to be a compassionate, caring god," said Gabriel, a hint of anger coloring his voice, "and you tell me this? That all we have fought for, suffered for, died for.. I have 'but to ask' and it'll all be wiped away?"

This is My offer, child, said the entity with a benevolent smile.

"How dare you? You're worse than the Q. I reject your 'offer'!"

The entity's smile quickly became a tight grimace. Tread lightly, Traveller.

"How dare you?" Gabriel repeated. "I.. I'm dumbfounded by your arrogance. If you are what you claim, then one of your gifts to your children was free will. Would you rescind that gift? If I accepted your offer, I would nullify not only the choices of my crew but the choices of every being in this universe. I cannot, cannot do such a thing.." Gabriel paused for a moment as a thought occured to him.

"And I don't think you will, either."

I need not your permission.

"Ah, but I think you do. Just like every other so-called omnipotent being that comes along, why not just do it? We'd certainly never know the difference. You'd just hit some cosmic reset buttion, and the universe would rewind a little before going on its merry way, with none the wiser. I'd bet that someone would know, which is why you can't act on your own."

Gabriel pointed an accusatory finger at the entity. "And don't you dare claim this is all some sort of 'test'. Life is test enough without you or some other 'all-powerful' cosmic being running us through a maze like lab rats.

"Now, if you don't mind, return me to my ship -- at the exact moment you removed me -- and mind that nothing is changed."

Very well, scowled the entity. I shall return you to your pitiful vessel, and I shall not interfere. But you shall rue the day, and before long you shall find yourself begging for My aid and assistance..

"Not bloody likely!"

..and your cries shall fall on deaf ears. There was, somewhat surprisingly, neither noise nor flash of light. Gabriel found himself back on the bridge of Challenger as if he'd never left.

"Captain?" Connie asked. "There was a bizarre energy spike, and you disappeared for less than a picosecond."

"We'll discuss it in detail later, Commander," Gabriel replied. "Suffice it to say I met a being who claimed to be God.."

"God?"

"As in THE God, the Almighty, Creator of all things.. that God."

"Ooo-kay."

"Whether it was or not, however, I'm pretty sure I pissed it off..."

 

[Cobalt Frost]

"Captain," said LCDR Priest, "you don't want to go in there. Besides..."

"Get the Hell out of my way, Commander," Gabriel said, his voice deathly cold.

"...I can't let you in, my tricorder's registering a coolant leak that..." The rest of the sentence went unfinished as Gabriel lashed out, striking Erica in the solar plexus. LCDR Priest doubled over as the air was violently expelled from her lungs, then she slammed unconscious to the deck as Gabriel followed up with an axe kick. Gabriel stepped over her insensate form and pried the blast door open just wide enough to snake through.

The lights in the impulse control room that Gabriel entered flickered erratically then managed a weak but steady light. It was a good sign; it meant that the engineering teams throughout the ship struggling to at least get the battery backups reconnected were having some success. In order to restore main power, though, the superspace furnace would require extensive recalibration. Considering the beating Challenger had just taken, it would be a miracle if it functioned again at all.

Gabriel's last (and last-ditch) attack run had surprised the Calikron, driving their cruisers off and buying Challenger a little breathing room. The Calikron would be back, though, and soon.

Gabriel had been with one of the engineering teams, working to get the forward phaser arrays back on-line, when he'd gotten the call from Lt. Avallios. It seemed as a 'parting gift' the Calikron had left behind a phalanx of their Darkfire combat drones. Connie, working with another team, had detected the drones beaming in to the portside impulse deck. She'd left the team behind and had managed to hold off the drones long enough for the Black Seven to arrive and secure the impulse deck. The Black Seven found they pretty much just had to mop up after the Commander, although the effort in defense of the ship had cost Connie her life.

Seeing Connie's shattered body lying on the deck hit Gabriel like a ton of duranium, and he collapsed on his knees next to her, silently cursing his inability to cry. One of the Black Seven commandos spoke up, his voice reverent.

"Sir, it was incredible. Her phaser rifle had fired its last charge, so she took it like a club and..." A curt gesture from Lt. Avallios silenced the commando, telling him this is not the time. Avallios shifted uncomfortably on his feet, though, unsure of what to do. Despite the wailing klaxons and other sounds, an unnatural silence hung in the room.

It was Gabriel who broke the silence, throwing his head back and howling his rage at an uncaring universe. Three of the Black Seven, Klingons all, joined in. When Gabriel finished, his throat raw, he leaned over and dipped a finger in Connie's still-warm blood. Avallios' eyes widened as he realized what Gabriel was about to do.

"Sir, no..." But he was powerless to stop him. Next to the tattooed stripe on his left cheek, Gabriel used Connie's blood to paint a second stripe. As he did so, he chanted in a rarely used Celvani language, the so-called 'lost high tongue'. His first Bloodquest yet unfulfilled, thought Avallios, and he takes on a second? Never in Celvani history or legend has such a thing happened. Avallios shuddered as he thought of the implications of such an action, but he remained silent. It was not his place to question his commanding officer, or his friend. One of the commandos had an idea of what was going on, though, and he growled in awe.

"Such songs will be sung of this day," he whispered. "They will echo through the galaxy..."

 

[Mistral]

Ok, now you've got me scratching my head and chomping at the bit. Hope you get back to this soon...

 

[Cobalt Frost]

^I appreciate the praise!! I have a couple more 'sketches' to post, then I'm going to rewind a bit.. There's a certain Cadet ready to graduate from Starfleet Academy, and her commission to Ensign and first posting will kickstart the whole shebang...