After an encounter with hostile Klingons and a spatial anomaly the Federation starship Resolution is transported into the Stargate universe. Trouble ensues as they have to learn how to survive in this new reality, build new friendships and alliances and maybe, just maybe, find a way home.
Destiny's Child (Star Trek AU/Stargate Crossover)
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Chapter One
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Destiny's Child
Disclaimer: I do not own most of the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own demented authorial amusement – sadly, all Star Trek and Stargate concepts and characters remain the property of Paramount, CBS, and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: For those of you who know me you know this fic is one of my oldest fanfic concepts, with the original version being a grand twenty years old now, one that I hadn't thought I would ever really be able to get back to properly. However, a talk with a friend of mine online led to a major plot tribble attack – as if plot bunnies weren't bad enough now you have plot tribbles lol – and this newest attempt to reboot this venerable old fic was born. I do plan some major changes from the previous versions – though I am excluding the timeline established in Star Trek: Picard, which I actually cannot watch for long as the pacing of the stories are so bloody slow, and naturally I am excluding Star Trek: Discovery – though what those changes are well you will just have to wait and see. Now then let's get cracking shall we.
~~~///~~~
Chapter One
Captain's Personal Log, Stardate: 71320.4
We have been diverted from our previous mission to investigate a spatial anomaly that has recently appeared on Federation long range sensors in a remote region of the Alpha Quadrant not far from our border with the Klingon Empire. It has been nearly a hundred years since the last manned Federation vessel entered this remote region and the whole crew seems to be gripped by a profound sense of excitement over what we might find after so long.
I have to admit that I share that excitement. It will be a very welcome change of pace after months of tension patrolling the border with the Klingon Empire and assisting with the establishment of new outposts in the region. If only I could shake this strange sense of unease I feel about this mission, I have no idea why, but I cannot help but feel like something is going to happen. What I do not know. Maybe the last few months of patrolling the border has made me paranoid, I don't know. We'll find out soon enough.
Sitting in the chair behind his desk in his quarters Captain Darian Parker concluded his latest personal log entry, before leaning back and swinging the chair from side-to-side thoughtfully. As he had said in the log, he couldn't shake the feeling that something untoward was going to happen to his ship and crew in this mission to investigate the anomaly. He didn't know what it was that was giving him these feelings – only that the profound sense of danger that he had cultivated over the years, really ever since he'd been an ensign assigned to the USS Gagarin during the first months of the Dominion War was twitching – and he vowed to be on his guard.
Still, he wouldn't lie and say he wasn't excited about getting to do a little bit of exploration for a change. It was after all what he, like everyone else, had joined Starfleet to do. It certainly was a nice change of pace from what they had been doing since the third-generation Sovereign-class starship – sometimes referred to as the Sojourner subtype – had first pulled out of McKinley Station eight months ago after the Resolution's maiden voyage had been completed.
In the year since they had been patrolling along the border between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, as well as delivering supplies, equipment, and personnel to a number of new outposts that the Federation had begun building in the area. In his father's time such a patrol would have been considered something of a cakewalk – due to the existence of the alliance between the Federation and the Empire – the perfect place to break in a new starship and her crew with the minimum amount of trouble. What little trouble encountered would normally have been the occasional band of Orion or Kzinti pirates – easily chased off if they were foolish enough to tangle with a Federation starship in the first place.
That was not the case anymore.
In the last few years relations between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, once warm and reaffirmed in the fires of the Dominion War, had turned distinctly cool. In fact, they were now downright frosty to say the least. All of it dating back to a disaster that had taken place nearly a decade ago when the nearest star to the Romulan home system, Hobus, had abruptly gone supernova without any of the normal warning signs that it was about to do so. The resulting gamma ray burst, and subspace shockwave had slammed into the Romulan system mere days later – despite a heroic and desperate attempt by Ambassador Spock to stop it – annihilating both Romulus and Remus and neither world planetary defence shield had been strong enough to withstand the fury of the blast. Only a few hundred thousand Romulans and about three or four hundred Remans had been able to escape the system before its destruction.
The disaster had torn the heart out of the once mighty Romulan Star Empire and horrified much of the quadrant with the sheer scale of the humanitarian catastrophe. Everyone that was but the Klingons who'd ceased on the opportunity presented by the suddenly vulnerable Romulans to both settle some old grudges with the Star Empire and expand their own territory. Since then, the Klingons had been slowly but surely bulldozing their way across the Romulan Empire, taking world after world despite the fierce resistance of the remains of the Romulan Fleet.
It had sparked an exodus into Federation space by tens of thousands of Romulan civilian refugees which showed no sign of slowing down. Attempts to mediate a peace settlement by the Federation Council had only been met by harsh words, militaristic posturing, and generally unrealistic demands from the Klingons, ultimately leading to the Empire once again withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords bringing an end to the alliance between them. Since then, Klingon patrols had become increasingly aggressive towards Starfleet ships patrolling the Federation side of their mutual border, armed clashes were becoming more and more common all the time.
It was pretty obvious to almost everyone – except some of the more idealistic, peacenik members of the old guard which sadly included the likes of Admiral Picard – in both Starfleet Command and the Federation Council that, once again, war was brewing between them and the Klingons. Darian, like many of his peers, was convinced that the only reason it hadn't started already was because – as aggressive as they could be – the Klingons were not stupid. With their forces bogged down in Romulan space they weren't about to expand their war to include the Federation. Even the most hawkish of Klingon Generals would know full well that would be a very foolish move as the Empire wasn't strong enough to fight both the Romulans and the Federation.
While there was still some hope that the tensions would be resolved diplomatically – keeping the peaceniks happy at least for now – the Federation and Starfleet had begun preparing for the possibility that they would not be and that they would once again be at war with the Klingons. As such they had begun preparing, upgrading their outposts along the border, and building new ones to create strong points that would stall any Klingon military advance into Federation space. Equipped with the latest anti-cloak sensors the Klingons would find it impossible to use their normal ambush tactics on the outposts, not to mention their latest weapons and defence technologies being present. The construction of additional more military orientated ships – like the Akira-class – had already begun as had the outfitting of ships with greater combat capabilities.
It was a not very subtle warning to the Klingons – assuming they'd listen which was never guaranteed with them – that while they hoped for peace, they were prepared to aggressively defend themselves and their space. The fire and pain of the Dominion War had taught the Federation some very harsh lessons, and they hadn't forgotten them so they were getting ready to defend themselves should war come. Darian personally hoped it wouldn't come, he had seen enough war and death during the Dominion War thank you very much, but if it did then he would do his duty and defend the Federation unto death if the need arose.
A bleep from the tabletop comm panel – rather than his comm badge – drew him out of his thoughts. "Bridge to Captain Parker," came the familiar voice of his Andorian first officer. Calmly he reached out and touched the panel.
"Yes commander?"
"Captain we're approaching the region where the anomalous readings are coming from," Commander Urlet reported from the bridge. "ETA is now five minutes. You asked to be notified."
"So, I did commander. Drop us out of warp as soon as we're within range. Also inform Starfleet Command that we are about to arrive. I will be right there."
"Aye sir," Urlet acknowledged.
"Parker out," Darian replied closing the connection. Then he took a moment to stretch, and loosen up muscles that had cramped somewhat while he had been sat her attending to the massive amount of paperwork that came with commanding a starship, before standing up, retrieving his uniform jacket from where he'd left it on the back of the chair and leaving his quarters, pulling on the jacket as he did so – inwardly grimacing as he noticed not for the first time recently how tight it was getting across his shoulders and chest.
Making a mental note to replicate a new uniform jacket in a larger size whenever he got the time, he began making his way down the corridors towards the closest turbolift, not for the first time since he'd been chosen to be her master, he noticed idly how much darker the corridors on the Resolution were in comparison to other ships he'd served on. Missing were the silver, beige, and blue tones of most other starships instead the metal bulkheads were darker more substantial grey and brown tones while still maintaining a comfortable spacious atmosphere onboard. The difference caused by the fact that the metal was a denser and more durable duranium/tritanium alloy as opposed to the normal tritanium panels, it was another very visible sign of the deteriorating situation in the quadrant as like all the Sojourner subtype Sovereigns the Resolution had been built with a greater emphasis on combat capabilities and survival. Though naturally they retained their ability to be explorers and anything else that the Federation might need them to be at any given time.
The sound of running feet approaching was another reminder to him of the more military nature that Starfleet was adopting as the quadrant continued to slowly fall apart politically. Moving slightly to one side he paused as a four of the marine detachment – all four were wearing exercise clothing that was dark with sweat – assigned to the Resolution appeared around the corner and togged past him pausing only to exchange a few polite nods to acknowledge his presence and rank. He arrived at the turbolift just as the marines disappeared around another corner.
"Bridge," he ordered stepping into the turbolift. The computer bleeped and the high-tech lift immediately began its journey to the bridge. A change in the background noise of the ship caught his attention and he knew that the Resolution was dropping out of warp speed having arrived at the edge of the anomaly field. I wonder what we're going to find here, he thought with a smile eager to get started on the investigation of the anomalies. Whatever they found he was certain that it was going to be interesting.
Very interesting.
The turbolift slowed and stopped, the doors opening out onto the bridge. With his normal, confident stride he moved out onto the bridge.
"Status," he ordered immediately moving towards the command chair.
"We're secure from warp speed and have the outer edge of the anomaly field, we're holding position the field is now thirty thousand kilometres directly ahead," Commander Urlet reported promptly from the first officer's station. "We have begun running preliminary scans."
"Very good. Put the anomaly field on screen," Darian ordered as he sat down, shifting slightly to make his well-muscled frame comfortable in the chair. Immediately the holographic screen at the front of the bridge activated replacing the plane bulkhead with an extremely high-definition view of the space ahead of the ship. A space that glowed with a strange ethereal green light that seemed to be focused into a series of what looked like rifts that glowed with a brilliant light, smaller ribbons of light filled the area in a random pattern and the whole place seemed to ripple as though they were looking at it through a sheet of running water. Drifting around the edge of the field was what looked like an accretion disc of some kind made of rocks, dust, and interstellar gasses.
"What are we looking at," he asked.
"Preliminary analysis shows a number of quantum and spatial distortions in subspace sir," Lieutenant Rakan reported from the main bridge science station. "We're also reading an intense graviton flux in the area; I cannot be sure without more data, but I think something has somehow caused the barriers that separate normal space from subspace to weaken in this region causing these anomalies to appear."
"What could cause that," Darien asked amazed at the occurrence. Back at the academy advanced subspace theory had been one of his favourite classes, something that had made quite a few of his classmate's blink as they'd always assumed that a man as muscular as he would prefer pounding weights in the gym to sitting quiet reading scientific papers. He'd maintained his interest in it even after graduating and had read many of the latest papers on subspace, but he knew of no theory that could explain such an occurrence.
"I have no idea sir," the joined Trill answered sounding even more bemused than Darien felt by the strange occurrence but also thrilled by it as investigating these kinds of things was what Starfleet officers lived for. "I request permission to launch a probe into the field it should give us more information on the anomalies."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves lieutenant," he cautioned. "I want to know how extensive this thing is first. Launch a series of class one probes to survey the outer edge of the field. Also, what's the accretion disc made from?"
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged the order sounding chagrined at being subtly told that they needed to take their time with these things. But then his current host was only his second host and only in his mid-twenties, thus they both still had quite a bit of youthful wanderlust about them, before giving the command to launch the probes with the appropriate survey program. Then he turned his attention, and the ships sensors on the accretion disc.
Within a few moments the results came in.
"Sensors indicate that the accretion disc is composed primarily of iron and silica rich asteroids, interstellar hydrogen and helium three," he reported, "curios we're picking up several smaller asteroids rich in materials we've never seen before."
"Interesting. Where is the nearest of them?"
"Six degrees to starboard at the edge of the field," Rakan replied. "The rock is not very large only three or four meters across. Captain, I recommend that we beam it aboard for analysis."
"Do it."
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged and relayed the command to the main transporter room. A moment later the readings on his console changed. "We have it sir. The main astrogeology lab will begin analysing it immediately."
"Understood," Darian answered a second before a dull rumbling boom, like a hundred base drums being hit at once rumbled through the hull and the deck beneath him shuddered. "What the hell? Report!"
"Sir we're taking fire," Lieutenant Commander Christopher Beach reported from the tactical station, even as red alert automatically began to sound, and the shields went up. But not before another blast of weapon's fire hitting the hull shook the ship.
"From where," Urlet asked.
"Klingon Bird-of-Prey looks like one of the new Sokat-class," Beach reported. "They're approaching on a bearing of zero-two-four by one-three-four. Looks like they used the anomaly to hide their approach."
"Are they nuts," Ensign Querr wondered from the helm. "A Bird-of-Prey, even one of the new ones, is no match for us."
"They're Klingons ensign," Beach replied, "common sense is not something that is generally in their lexicon."
"That will do commander," Darien warned as more disruptor blasts came in, only to sleet harmlessly off the shields being absorbed so effortlessly that the deck barely shivered with the impact. "But let's put a stop to this stupidity before it gets any further. Hail them."
"No response," Beach replied, a moment before a powerful impact shook the ship, "well unless you count a photon torpedo."
"Alright if they want to fight, we'll fight," Darian said with a sigh of resigned irritation. He had to wonder who the hell was in charge on the Klingon ship, an idiot? Surely, they had to know that they were no match for a Sovereign-class ship, they outgunned them more than a dozen times over. "Return fire all phasers, target engines and weapons only I want them disabled and not destroyed."
"Aye sir."
~~//~~
Klingon Vessel
A Few Minutes Earlier
Ch'lok son of Arax of the House of Qul'ot was bored, bored and more than a little frustrated. The reason for his frustration being the fact that he had been sent out here to investigate a subspace anomaly instead of being allowed to earn honour and glory in the battlefields of the Romulan front. His elder brother was there, having already earned a number of accolades for his bravery and courage, which would only go to improve the standing of their house in the power structure of the empire – there was even talk that he could be inducted into the Order of the Bat'leth – which was so not fair. Was he not a warrior too? Did he not have the rite to earn his own honour on the battlefield? Of course, he did though his father somehow never seemed to see it, always still seemed to see him as the youngest who needed to be protected or at very least guided to the least dangerous pursuits in their house fleet.
Like surveying the boundaries of this odd quantum anomaly. An anomaly that existed in a part of what had historically been Klingon space though it wasn't officially part of the empire at this time and hadn't been for nearly three centuries.
The crew around him seemed to sense the foul mood that he was in at being relegated to such a mundane task. It helped that they all quietly shared the frustration as they all wanted to be on the front lines against the Romulans, not sitting here in space on the opposite side of the empire charting spatial anomalies. They were Klingons not cowardly humans who preferred charting every spatial anomaly in sight to the glories of combat.
Abruptly the sensors came to life with a warning.
"What is it," Ch'lok asked, hoping for something interesting.
"There's a vessel dropping out of warp on the other side of the anomaly field," the warrior at sensors reported, "Federation starship, Sovereign-class."
Well, I was hoping for something interesting, Ch'lok thought. "On viewer," he ordered. The view screen at the front of the bridge came to life showing an image of the Federation starship floating there admit the stars, completely unconcerned that they were technically in a part of Klingon space even if the Empire didn't really bother to claim or patrol this area since there was nothing of any value – be it strategic or mineral – here for them to bother with.
"Have they detected us," he asked.
"No, the anomaly seems to be shielding us from their sensors," the other warrior reported. "They're own sensors are focused on the anomaly."
"Typical of them but this time it will cost them," Ch'lok said with a smile. "Bring us to full alert, charge all weapons and raise shields. Lay in a course to intercept, keep us as close to the anomaly as possible."
"We are going to attack them," L'Ret, his first officer and chief minder from his father, asked as alarms began sounding throughout the ship and the alert status bars began flashing amber. "Sir I should point out that that is a Sovereign-class starship. We are no match for them, if we engage them, they will surely quickly overpower and destroy us."
"Normally that would be true," Ch'lok agreed, "but they do not know we are here thanks to the anomaly. There shields and tactical systems will thus be down. If we can use the anomaly well enough, we can get close enough to land crippling shots before they even realize we are here."
"A good plan but it is a dangerous risk. If we don't disable them quickly enough and they get their shields up…"
"I know but as the Ferengi say the bigger the risk the bigger the win. Imagine all the honour, all the prestige we will gain if we take down a mighty Sovereign in a lowly Bird-of-Prey."
"It will be glorious."
"Indeed. Does anyone have any more objections?" There were none. "Excellent. Is our course set?"
"Course set. Disruptors and torpedoes ready."
"Execute. And give me a countdown to weapons range."
"Qapla," the whole bridge crew chorused a moment before the impulse engines engaged and they began to stalk their much larger, and far more powerful, prey using the sensor distortion of the quantum anomaly field instead of their cloaking device as a shield against the Sovereign's powerful sensors.
"Seventy thousand killicams to weapons range," the warrior at tactical reported. "Sixty thousand killicams."
"Any indication that they've seen us?" Ch'lok asked.
"None my lord. The Federation ship is launching probes, I believe they are planning to use them to chart the perimeter of the anomaly field."
"Keep an eye on those probes it would not do for one of them to spoil our surprise."
"Yes, my lord."
"Thirty thousand killicams to weapons range," weapons reported. Ch'lok allowed himself a slight, predatory smile as his time to strike drew every closer. With any luck and with the blessing of Khaless they would disable the Federation ship with their first shots allowing them to finish her at their leisure.
"Ten thousand killicams to weapons range…. five thousand… we are now within disruptor range."
"Bah."
At Ch'lok's shouted fire command their wing mounted disruptor cannons barked sending two emerald-coloured bolts of energy towards the Federation ship. In seconds they slammed into her secondary hull with a brilliant white flash – the blasts intended to pierce through to the engineer section and cause the warp core to be shut down to prevent a loss of containment. Shouts of triumph filled the bridge…
…only to die away into horrified silence as the flash faded revealing no damage to the hull, well beyond some light carbon scoring where the bolts had hit.
"What happened? Was there a malfunction," Ch'lok demanded.
"No, my lord I don't understand. Disruptors are functioning normally we should have punched a hole right through their hull," weapons reported.
"I believe I have an explanation the hull of the Federation ship is covered with an ablative armour matrix of some kind," sensors reported, "our disruptors weren't powerful enough to breach it. My lord the Federation ship is powering shields and weapons."
"Then we have no choice. Open fire all weapons, attack pattern chelik four."
"Yes, my lord."
Ch'lok watched calmly as his disruptors lashed out again this time slamming into the forming shields of the Federation starship making them flare slightly but otherwise doing no damage. More disruptor blasts shot across space and impacted the starships shields, the bolts disappearing in momentary flashes of Cherenkov radiation as the powerful regenerative shields of a Sovereign-class starship, designed as they were to withstand Borg disruptors and Jem'Hadar phased polaron beams, easily withstood them.
"My lord we are being hailed by the Federation ship."
"No doubt they want to talk us down the cowards. Weapons send them our reply. Then switch to attack pattern Kor nine."
A faint shiver ran through the deck as weapons sent a photon torpedo at the Federation ship along with another salvo of disruptor blasts. Neither had much effect beyond making a pretty light show around the Federation ship as her advanced shields took their firepower and stopped it cold. This time however the crew of the starship seemed to get the message as a powerful impact shook the ship.
"Direct phaser hit to our port shields," weapons reported as another yellow-orange phaser beam slammed into them, the blows – powerful enough to stagger a Vorcha-class cruiser – shaking them violently. "Shields at eighty percent. They're targeting our weapons."
"Evasive manoeuvres continue attack."
"Yes, my lord."
~~//~~
The Bird-of-Prey turned sharply to port causing a pair of beams from the Resolution to miss cleanly, while a third only grazed them making them flare with strain. Continuing to turn the Bird climbed high and steep, attempting to throw off the bigger ships targeting system. It did little good as a beam hit the Bird dead on visibly staggering it.
In retaliation the Klingons fired four photon torpedoes from their forward launcher.
Immediately automated defence systems took action to deal with the incoming weapons. The modern descendant of electronic countermeasures began broadcasting on all known Klingon torpedo guidance frequencies, attempting to confuse the targeting lock of the torpedoes. The tactic was only partially effective as only one torpedo veered off, its lock on broken. The remaining three continued to close in on the starship.
It was then that one of the newest systems added to all new Federation vessels made its presence felt as small bolts of phased energy – similar in many respects to the discharge of pre-Federation pulse phase cannons – shot out from numerous points on the hull as close in point defence opened fire. Two torpedoes were speared nearly instantly, both detonating together in brilliant fireballs of matter-antimatter mutual annihilation. The remaining torpedo pierced the defensive fire screen and slammed into the Resolution's starboard shields making them flare brilliantly and producing an asteroid sized cauliflower like explosion of light and energy as the torpedo detonated. The blast quickly faded as the shields absorbed and dispersed the energy back into space in the form of Cherenkov radiation.
Annoyed now the Resolution fired again unleashing multiple beams as well as a pair of her own photon torpedoes upon the impudent Klingon attack ship. Klingon shields flared brilliantly then collapsed completely as the two torpedoes impacted knocking them flat and blowing two burning holes in the hull of the Bird. Phaser blasts followed demolishing disruptors and impulse engines leaving the Bird spinning out of control helpless and burning.
~~//~~
Bridge
USS Resolution
"The Klingon vessel has been disabled sir."
Still in his command chair Darian nodded at Beach's report; he could see it himself on the holographic view screen. The Klingon ship was spinning helplessly like a broken toy, debris and burning plasma leaking from the breaches torn in its armoured skin. He couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for the crew of that Klingon ship as he knew it would be hell on Earth over there now, with numerous plasma and electrical fires likely having broken out all over the ship. While the Klingons had attacked without warning or provocation – and in defiance of all common sense that should have told them that this was a fight they couldn't hope to win – he couldn't help but feel for those who would be dead or dying over there.
"Scan the Klingon ship for life signs Mr Beach," he ordered. "If there are any lock onto them and beam the idiots into cargo bay four. Make sure it is filled with the appropriate anaesthetic gas, I don't want them making any trouble for us, while I decide what to do with them."
"Aye sir."
"Sir," Rakan called out in alarm, "the torpedo our countermeasures decoyed away is on course for the anomaly field. Impact in ten seconds."
Darian's eyes widened. "Lock phasers, shoot it down before it hits the field," he ordered.
"It's to late the torpedo is entering the field."
"On screen."
The view screen shimmered and changed to show once again the image of the anomaly field in all its strange, ethereal glory. The Klingon torpedo was a tiny dot of green that passed into the field and travelled for a few hundred metres before the gravitational forces inside the field tore it apart triggering a brilliant explosion as matter and antimatter encountered one another with the predictable violent response. The explosion expanded outwards, rippling, and distorting and causing lightning-like forks of energy to begin dancing between the closest anomalies which began to glow brighter and brighter sending out more of the spatial lightning.
"Report," Darien ordered watching in disbelief as the anomaly field turned into a seething mass of energy and spatial distortion in mere seconds. It seemed incredible that such a small explosion could cause such a massive and dramatic transformation in the behaviour of the strange phenomenon.
"Sensors report that the subspace fluctuations inside the field are growing in intensity and becoming increasingly random, we're also picking up increased tachyon emissions along with unusual phase fluctuations," Rakan reported, "if I had to guess I would say that the different forces at work within the field were finely balanced and the warhead detonation has destabilized them. Sir the field is beginning to expand, at its current rate of expansion it will hit us in three minutes."
"Helm back us off one quarter impulse," Darian ordered. "Mr Beach did we manage to get anyone off the Klingon ship?"
"Yes sir. Twelve survivors, they're unconscious in cargo bay four," the other officer confirmed even as the Resolution's impulse engines came to life and began to slowly back the starship away from the mutated phenomenon. However, before the starship could move more than a few hundred meters a massive lightning like arc of eldritch energy emerged from the anomaly field and slammed into the ship, the energy easily penetrating the shield and wrapping itself around the hull again and again both violently rocking the entire vessel and making the hull glow with a strange aura that to an observer would have looked almost like the phenomenon known on Earth as St Elmo's Fire.
A second stream of energy erupted from the anomaly and slammed into the staggering ship and like the first wrapped around the ship violently shaking the entire vessel for a second time in as many seconds. More bolts followed wrapping the ship in an aura of shimmering almost ghostly power. The Resolution began to move but instead of backing away from the danger and despite the best efforts of the impulse engines the ship was drawn towards the brightly glowing anomaly field like an iron filing being drawn to a powerful magnet.
"Report," Darien ordered picking himself up off the deck and settling back down into the command chair.
"Captain we've been hit by multiple quantum-gravitic discharges of some kind. They've penetrated our shields and are adhering to the hull somehow," Lieutenant John Ashton reported from the operations console even as another shudder ran through the ship as yet another bolt from the anomaly slammed into the energy surrounding them. "Structural integrity is holding; however, we are also caught in some kind of gravitational wake. It's overpowering the impulse engines and dragging us towards the anomaly field."
"Helm engines to full reverse."
"Aye sir," Querr acknowledged increasing the speed of reverse thrust from one quarter to full impulse. Immediately an audible rumbling of strain began to fill the air and the ship began vibrating fiercely as the Resolution fought to break free of the powerful gravitic forces that had her in their invisible, irresistible grip. "We cannot break free sir the gravitational forces are too strong," Querr reported as the rumbling of the sublight engines rose in pitch and volume turning into a howling roar. At the same time the vibration worsened escalating into a violent shaking. "We've slowed but we're still being pulled towards the anomaly one minute thirty seconds to impact."
Darien hurriedly tapped his comm badge. "Bridge to engineering can you increase power to the impulse engines?"
"Negative captain," Chief Engineer T'Lar reported from engineering sounding as grim as a Vulcan could. "Impulse driver coils have been partially depolarised by the energy field clinging to the hull. Full impulse is all I can give you; if we push the coils any harder in their current state, we run the risk of catastrophic overload."
"Understood," Darien acknowledged tapping the badge again to sign off. "Mr Rakan, can we disperse the energy field on the hull?"
"It might be possible captain. We can use the main deflector to run a resonance pulse along the hull on the opposing frequency range to the energy field it should in theory cancel out the field."
"Do it."
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged before his hands flew across his console as he accessed the controls for the main navigational deflector array and began configuring the device to generate the resonance pulse that would hopefully free the ship of the energy field that was pulling them towards the maelstrom the anomaly field had become despite the best efforts of the impulse engines to pull the ship away from the danger. In moments he made the required modifications to the deflector protocols and began priming the pulse to fire. "Resonance pulse powering up, twenty seconds till it's ready."
"Initiate the pulse as soon as it's ready Mr Rakan."
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged a few moments before the whole ship shook violently again and additional alarms sounded from the engineering and operations consoles.
"Warning, warning impulse driver coil overload detected," the ships computer reported in its usual infuriatingly unflappable female voice. "Automatic shutdown initiated." As the voice of the computer filled the air the roaring of the impulse engines abruptly vanished as all fuel flows to the impulse drive slammed closed while emergency vents opened releasing the plasma inside the driver coils of the advanced magnetoplasmadynamic engines instantly shutting them down, preventing a detonation that would have instantly vaporised a large chunk of the primary hull and torn the ship in half.
The result was immediate and dramatic.
No longer resisting the tremendous gravitational pull of the mutated anomaly the Resolution lurched forward with a sudden violent jolt that the inertial dampeners weren't able to completely cancel out, throwing crew members off their feet, out of their chairs or against consoles and bulkheads. Mere seconds later – faster than any of the staggered crew could recover let alone react – the forward hull of the starship impacted the edge of the anomaly.
Arcs of quantum energy raced along the whole of the ships six hundred and eighty-six metre length, brightening the aura around the ship into a twisting cocoon that clawed at the ablative armour matrix covering the ships duranium-tritanium alloy hull like a hungry lion clawing at the skin of a wildebeest. The ships outline began to blur, the space around her warping and distorting before seeming to shift from three dimensional to two dimensional to one, then in a brilliant flash the Resolution was gone, vanished into nothingness.
Moments later the unstable anomaly began to compress in upon itself, the delicate subspace super symmetry that had allowed its continued existence hopelessly compromised. With a speed that would have been frightening to any observers the anomaly collapsed, its previous broad expanse compressing down into a several small dots scarcely bigger than a football. One by one the dots joined the Resolution in vanishing, each disappearing into what appeared to be a momentary slit in the very fabric of the universe.
In less than an hour there was no sign that the anomaly field and the Resolution had ever been present at all beyond that was the shattered, burning remains of the Klingon ship that had started the trouble in the first place. A few hours later that too would vanish in a fireball as the damaged warp core, without anyone present to attempt to stabilize or shut it down, lost antimatter containment sending it and any records of what had just taken place here into oblivion.
Disclaimer: I do not own most of the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own demented authorial amusement – sadly, all Star Trek and Stargate concepts and characters remain the property of Paramount, CBS, and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: For those of you who know me you know this fic is one of my oldest fanfic concepts, with the original version being a grand twenty years old now, one that I hadn't thought I would ever really be able to get back to properly. However, a talk with a friend of mine online led to a major plot tribble attack – as if plot bunnies weren't bad enough now you have plot tribbles lol – and this newest attempt to reboot this venerable old fic was born. I do plan some major changes from the previous versions – though I am excluding the timeline established in Star Trek: Picard, which I actually cannot watch for long as the pacing of the stories are so bloody slow, and naturally I am excluding Star Trek: Discovery – though what those changes are well you will just have to wait and see. Now then let's get cracking shall we.
~~~///~~~
Chapter One
Captain's Personal Log, Stardate: 71320.4
We have been diverted from our previous mission to investigate a spatial anomaly that has recently appeared on Federation long range sensors in a remote region of the Alpha Quadrant not far from our border with the Klingon Empire. It has been nearly a hundred years since the last manned Federation vessel entered this remote region and the whole crew seems to be gripped by a profound sense of excitement over what we might find after so long.
I have to admit that I share that excitement. It will be a very welcome change of pace after months of tension patrolling the border with the Klingon Empire and assisting with the establishment of new outposts in the region. If only I could shake this strange sense of unease I feel about this mission, I have no idea why, but I cannot help but feel like something is going to happen. What I do not know. Maybe the last few months of patrolling the border has made me paranoid, I don't know. We'll find out soon enough.
Sitting in the chair behind his desk in his quarters Captain Darian Parker concluded his latest personal log entry, before leaning back and swinging the chair from side-to-side thoughtfully. As he had said in the log, he couldn't shake the feeling that something untoward was going to happen to his ship and crew in this mission to investigate the anomaly. He didn't know what it was that was giving him these feelings – only that the profound sense of danger that he had cultivated over the years, really ever since he'd been an ensign assigned to the USS Gagarin during the first months of the Dominion War was twitching – and he vowed to be on his guard.
Still, he wouldn't lie and say he wasn't excited about getting to do a little bit of exploration for a change. It was after all what he, like everyone else, had joined Starfleet to do. It certainly was a nice change of pace from what they had been doing since the third-generation Sovereign-class starship – sometimes referred to as the Sojourner subtype – had first pulled out of McKinley Station eight months ago after the Resolution's maiden voyage had been completed.
In the year since they had been patrolling along the border between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, as well as delivering supplies, equipment, and personnel to a number of new outposts that the Federation had begun building in the area. In his father's time such a patrol would have been considered something of a cakewalk – due to the existence of the alliance between the Federation and the Empire – the perfect place to break in a new starship and her crew with the minimum amount of trouble. What little trouble encountered would normally have been the occasional band of Orion or Kzinti pirates – easily chased off if they were foolish enough to tangle with a Federation starship in the first place.
That was not the case anymore.
In the last few years relations between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, once warm and reaffirmed in the fires of the Dominion War, had turned distinctly cool. In fact, they were now downright frosty to say the least. All of it dating back to a disaster that had taken place nearly a decade ago when the nearest star to the Romulan home system, Hobus, had abruptly gone supernova without any of the normal warning signs that it was about to do so. The resulting gamma ray burst, and subspace shockwave had slammed into the Romulan system mere days later – despite a heroic and desperate attempt by Ambassador Spock to stop it – annihilating both Romulus and Remus and neither world planetary defence shield had been strong enough to withstand the fury of the blast. Only a few hundred thousand Romulans and about three or four hundred Remans had been able to escape the system before its destruction.
The disaster had torn the heart out of the once mighty Romulan Star Empire and horrified much of the quadrant with the sheer scale of the humanitarian catastrophe. Everyone that was but the Klingons who'd ceased on the opportunity presented by the suddenly vulnerable Romulans to both settle some old grudges with the Star Empire and expand their own territory. Since then, the Klingons had been slowly but surely bulldozing their way across the Romulan Empire, taking world after world despite the fierce resistance of the remains of the Romulan Fleet.
It had sparked an exodus into Federation space by tens of thousands of Romulan civilian refugees which showed no sign of slowing down. Attempts to mediate a peace settlement by the Federation Council had only been met by harsh words, militaristic posturing, and generally unrealistic demands from the Klingons, ultimately leading to the Empire once again withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords bringing an end to the alliance between them. Since then, Klingon patrols had become increasingly aggressive towards Starfleet ships patrolling the Federation side of their mutual border, armed clashes were becoming more and more common all the time.
It was pretty obvious to almost everyone – except some of the more idealistic, peacenik members of the old guard which sadly included the likes of Admiral Picard – in both Starfleet Command and the Federation Council that, once again, war was brewing between them and the Klingons. Darian, like many of his peers, was convinced that the only reason it hadn't started already was because – as aggressive as they could be – the Klingons were not stupid. With their forces bogged down in Romulan space they weren't about to expand their war to include the Federation. Even the most hawkish of Klingon Generals would know full well that would be a very foolish move as the Empire wasn't strong enough to fight both the Romulans and the Federation.
While there was still some hope that the tensions would be resolved diplomatically – keeping the peaceniks happy at least for now – the Federation and Starfleet had begun preparing for the possibility that they would not be and that they would once again be at war with the Klingons. As such they had begun preparing, upgrading their outposts along the border, and building new ones to create strong points that would stall any Klingon military advance into Federation space. Equipped with the latest anti-cloak sensors the Klingons would find it impossible to use their normal ambush tactics on the outposts, not to mention their latest weapons and defence technologies being present. The construction of additional more military orientated ships – like the Akira-class – had already begun as had the outfitting of ships with greater combat capabilities.
It was a not very subtle warning to the Klingons – assuming they'd listen which was never guaranteed with them – that while they hoped for peace, they were prepared to aggressively defend themselves and their space. The fire and pain of the Dominion War had taught the Federation some very harsh lessons, and they hadn't forgotten them so they were getting ready to defend themselves should war come. Darian personally hoped it wouldn't come, he had seen enough war and death during the Dominion War thank you very much, but if it did then he would do his duty and defend the Federation unto death if the need arose.
A bleep from the tabletop comm panel – rather than his comm badge – drew him out of his thoughts. "Bridge to Captain Parker," came the familiar voice of his Andorian first officer. Calmly he reached out and touched the panel.
"Yes commander?"
"Captain we're approaching the region where the anomalous readings are coming from," Commander Urlet reported from the bridge. "ETA is now five minutes. You asked to be notified."
"So, I did commander. Drop us out of warp as soon as we're within range. Also inform Starfleet Command that we are about to arrive. I will be right there."
"Aye sir," Urlet acknowledged.
"Parker out," Darian replied closing the connection. Then he took a moment to stretch, and loosen up muscles that had cramped somewhat while he had been sat her attending to the massive amount of paperwork that came with commanding a starship, before standing up, retrieving his uniform jacket from where he'd left it on the back of the chair and leaving his quarters, pulling on the jacket as he did so – inwardly grimacing as he noticed not for the first time recently how tight it was getting across his shoulders and chest.
Making a mental note to replicate a new uniform jacket in a larger size whenever he got the time, he began making his way down the corridors towards the closest turbolift, not for the first time since he'd been chosen to be her master, he noticed idly how much darker the corridors on the Resolution were in comparison to other ships he'd served on. Missing were the silver, beige, and blue tones of most other starships instead the metal bulkheads were darker more substantial grey and brown tones while still maintaining a comfortable spacious atmosphere onboard. The difference caused by the fact that the metal was a denser and more durable duranium/tritanium alloy as opposed to the normal tritanium panels, it was another very visible sign of the deteriorating situation in the quadrant as like all the Sojourner subtype Sovereigns the Resolution had been built with a greater emphasis on combat capabilities and survival. Though naturally they retained their ability to be explorers and anything else that the Federation might need them to be at any given time.
The sound of running feet approaching was another reminder to him of the more military nature that Starfleet was adopting as the quadrant continued to slowly fall apart politically. Moving slightly to one side he paused as a four of the marine detachment – all four were wearing exercise clothing that was dark with sweat – assigned to the Resolution appeared around the corner and togged past him pausing only to exchange a few polite nods to acknowledge his presence and rank. He arrived at the turbolift just as the marines disappeared around another corner.
"Bridge," he ordered stepping into the turbolift. The computer bleeped and the high-tech lift immediately began its journey to the bridge. A change in the background noise of the ship caught his attention and he knew that the Resolution was dropping out of warp speed having arrived at the edge of the anomaly field. I wonder what we're going to find here, he thought with a smile eager to get started on the investigation of the anomalies. Whatever they found he was certain that it was going to be interesting.
Very interesting.
The turbolift slowed and stopped, the doors opening out onto the bridge. With his normal, confident stride he moved out onto the bridge.
"Status," he ordered immediately moving towards the command chair.
"We're secure from warp speed and have the outer edge of the anomaly field, we're holding position the field is now thirty thousand kilometres directly ahead," Commander Urlet reported promptly from the first officer's station. "We have begun running preliminary scans."
"Very good. Put the anomaly field on screen," Darian ordered as he sat down, shifting slightly to make his well-muscled frame comfortable in the chair. Immediately the holographic screen at the front of the bridge activated replacing the plane bulkhead with an extremely high-definition view of the space ahead of the ship. A space that glowed with a strange ethereal green light that seemed to be focused into a series of what looked like rifts that glowed with a brilliant light, smaller ribbons of light filled the area in a random pattern and the whole place seemed to ripple as though they were looking at it through a sheet of running water. Drifting around the edge of the field was what looked like an accretion disc of some kind made of rocks, dust, and interstellar gasses.
"What are we looking at," he asked.
"Preliminary analysis shows a number of quantum and spatial distortions in subspace sir," Lieutenant Rakan reported from the main bridge science station. "We're also reading an intense graviton flux in the area; I cannot be sure without more data, but I think something has somehow caused the barriers that separate normal space from subspace to weaken in this region causing these anomalies to appear."
"What could cause that," Darien asked amazed at the occurrence. Back at the academy advanced subspace theory had been one of his favourite classes, something that had made quite a few of his classmate's blink as they'd always assumed that a man as muscular as he would prefer pounding weights in the gym to sitting quiet reading scientific papers. He'd maintained his interest in it even after graduating and had read many of the latest papers on subspace, but he knew of no theory that could explain such an occurrence.
"I have no idea sir," the joined Trill answered sounding even more bemused than Darien felt by the strange occurrence but also thrilled by it as investigating these kinds of things was what Starfleet officers lived for. "I request permission to launch a probe into the field it should give us more information on the anomalies."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves lieutenant," he cautioned. "I want to know how extensive this thing is first. Launch a series of class one probes to survey the outer edge of the field. Also, what's the accretion disc made from?"
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged the order sounding chagrined at being subtly told that they needed to take their time with these things. But then his current host was only his second host and only in his mid-twenties, thus they both still had quite a bit of youthful wanderlust about them, before giving the command to launch the probes with the appropriate survey program. Then he turned his attention, and the ships sensors on the accretion disc.
Within a few moments the results came in.
"Sensors indicate that the accretion disc is composed primarily of iron and silica rich asteroids, interstellar hydrogen and helium three," he reported, "curios we're picking up several smaller asteroids rich in materials we've never seen before."
"Interesting. Where is the nearest of them?"
"Six degrees to starboard at the edge of the field," Rakan replied. "The rock is not very large only three or four meters across. Captain, I recommend that we beam it aboard for analysis."
"Do it."
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged and relayed the command to the main transporter room. A moment later the readings on his console changed. "We have it sir. The main astrogeology lab will begin analysing it immediately."
"Understood," Darian answered a second before a dull rumbling boom, like a hundred base drums being hit at once rumbled through the hull and the deck beneath him shuddered. "What the hell? Report!"
"Sir we're taking fire," Lieutenant Commander Christopher Beach reported from the tactical station, even as red alert automatically began to sound, and the shields went up. But not before another blast of weapon's fire hitting the hull shook the ship.
"From where," Urlet asked.
"Klingon Bird-of-Prey looks like one of the new Sokat-class," Beach reported. "They're approaching on a bearing of zero-two-four by one-three-four. Looks like they used the anomaly to hide their approach."
"Are they nuts," Ensign Querr wondered from the helm. "A Bird-of-Prey, even one of the new ones, is no match for us."
"They're Klingons ensign," Beach replied, "common sense is not something that is generally in their lexicon."
"That will do commander," Darien warned as more disruptor blasts came in, only to sleet harmlessly off the shields being absorbed so effortlessly that the deck barely shivered with the impact. "But let's put a stop to this stupidity before it gets any further. Hail them."
"No response," Beach replied, a moment before a powerful impact shook the ship, "well unless you count a photon torpedo."
"Alright if they want to fight, we'll fight," Darian said with a sigh of resigned irritation. He had to wonder who the hell was in charge on the Klingon ship, an idiot? Surely, they had to know that they were no match for a Sovereign-class ship, they outgunned them more than a dozen times over. "Return fire all phasers, target engines and weapons only I want them disabled and not destroyed."
"Aye sir."
~~//~~
Klingon Vessel
A Few Minutes Earlier
Ch'lok son of Arax of the House of Qul'ot was bored, bored and more than a little frustrated. The reason for his frustration being the fact that he had been sent out here to investigate a subspace anomaly instead of being allowed to earn honour and glory in the battlefields of the Romulan front. His elder brother was there, having already earned a number of accolades for his bravery and courage, which would only go to improve the standing of their house in the power structure of the empire – there was even talk that he could be inducted into the Order of the Bat'leth – which was so not fair. Was he not a warrior too? Did he not have the rite to earn his own honour on the battlefield? Of course, he did though his father somehow never seemed to see it, always still seemed to see him as the youngest who needed to be protected or at very least guided to the least dangerous pursuits in their house fleet.
Like surveying the boundaries of this odd quantum anomaly. An anomaly that existed in a part of what had historically been Klingon space though it wasn't officially part of the empire at this time and hadn't been for nearly three centuries.
The crew around him seemed to sense the foul mood that he was in at being relegated to such a mundane task. It helped that they all quietly shared the frustration as they all wanted to be on the front lines against the Romulans, not sitting here in space on the opposite side of the empire charting spatial anomalies. They were Klingons not cowardly humans who preferred charting every spatial anomaly in sight to the glories of combat.
Abruptly the sensors came to life with a warning.
"What is it," Ch'lok asked, hoping for something interesting.
"There's a vessel dropping out of warp on the other side of the anomaly field," the warrior at sensors reported, "Federation starship, Sovereign-class."
Well, I was hoping for something interesting, Ch'lok thought. "On viewer," he ordered. The view screen at the front of the bridge came to life showing an image of the Federation starship floating there admit the stars, completely unconcerned that they were technically in a part of Klingon space even if the Empire didn't really bother to claim or patrol this area since there was nothing of any value – be it strategic or mineral – here for them to bother with.
"Have they detected us," he asked.
"No, the anomaly seems to be shielding us from their sensors," the other warrior reported. "They're own sensors are focused on the anomaly."
"Typical of them but this time it will cost them," Ch'lok said with a smile. "Bring us to full alert, charge all weapons and raise shields. Lay in a course to intercept, keep us as close to the anomaly as possible."
"We are going to attack them," L'Ret, his first officer and chief minder from his father, asked as alarms began sounding throughout the ship and the alert status bars began flashing amber. "Sir I should point out that that is a Sovereign-class starship. We are no match for them, if we engage them, they will surely quickly overpower and destroy us."
"Normally that would be true," Ch'lok agreed, "but they do not know we are here thanks to the anomaly. There shields and tactical systems will thus be down. If we can use the anomaly well enough, we can get close enough to land crippling shots before they even realize we are here."
"A good plan but it is a dangerous risk. If we don't disable them quickly enough and they get their shields up…"
"I know but as the Ferengi say the bigger the risk the bigger the win. Imagine all the honour, all the prestige we will gain if we take down a mighty Sovereign in a lowly Bird-of-Prey."
"It will be glorious."
"Indeed. Does anyone have any more objections?" There were none. "Excellent. Is our course set?"
"Course set. Disruptors and torpedoes ready."
"Execute. And give me a countdown to weapons range."
"Qapla," the whole bridge crew chorused a moment before the impulse engines engaged and they began to stalk their much larger, and far more powerful, prey using the sensor distortion of the quantum anomaly field instead of their cloaking device as a shield against the Sovereign's powerful sensors.
"Seventy thousand killicams to weapons range," the warrior at tactical reported. "Sixty thousand killicams."
"Any indication that they've seen us?" Ch'lok asked.
"None my lord. The Federation ship is launching probes, I believe they are planning to use them to chart the perimeter of the anomaly field."
"Keep an eye on those probes it would not do for one of them to spoil our surprise."
"Yes, my lord."
"Thirty thousand killicams to weapons range," weapons reported. Ch'lok allowed himself a slight, predatory smile as his time to strike drew every closer. With any luck and with the blessing of Khaless they would disable the Federation ship with their first shots allowing them to finish her at their leisure.
"Ten thousand killicams to weapons range…. five thousand… we are now within disruptor range."
"Bah."
At Ch'lok's shouted fire command their wing mounted disruptor cannons barked sending two emerald-coloured bolts of energy towards the Federation ship. In seconds they slammed into her secondary hull with a brilliant white flash – the blasts intended to pierce through to the engineer section and cause the warp core to be shut down to prevent a loss of containment. Shouts of triumph filled the bridge…
…only to die away into horrified silence as the flash faded revealing no damage to the hull, well beyond some light carbon scoring where the bolts had hit.
"What happened? Was there a malfunction," Ch'lok demanded.
"No, my lord I don't understand. Disruptors are functioning normally we should have punched a hole right through their hull," weapons reported.
"I believe I have an explanation the hull of the Federation ship is covered with an ablative armour matrix of some kind," sensors reported, "our disruptors weren't powerful enough to breach it. My lord the Federation ship is powering shields and weapons."
"Then we have no choice. Open fire all weapons, attack pattern chelik four."
"Yes, my lord."
Ch'lok watched calmly as his disruptors lashed out again this time slamming into the forming shields of the Federation starship making them flare slightly but otherwise doing no damage. More disruptor blasts shot across space and impacted the starships shields, the bolts disappearing in momentary flashes of Cherenkov radiation as the powerful regenerative shields of a Sovereign-class starship, designed as they were to withstand Borg disruptors and Jem'Hadar phased polaron beams, easily withstood them.
"My lord we are being hailed by the Federation ship."
"No doubt they want to talk us down the cowards. Weapons send them our reply. Then switch to attack pattern Kor nine."
A faint shiver ran through the deck as weapons sent a photon torpedo at the Federation ship along with another salvo of disruptor blasts. Neither had much effect beyond making a pretty light show around the Federation ship as her advanced shields took their firepower and stopped it cold. This time however the crew of the starship seemed to get the message as a powerful impact shook the ship.
"Direct phaser hit to our port shields," weapons reported as another yellow-orange phaser beam slammed into them, the blows – powerful enough to stagger a Vorcha-class cruiser – shaking them violently. "Shields at eighty percent. They're targeting our weapons."
"Evasive manoeuvres continue attack."
"Yes, my lord."
~~//~~
The Bird-of-Prey turned sharply to port causing a pair of beams from the Resolution to miss cleanly, while a third only grazed them making them flare with strain. Continuing to turn the Bird climbed high and steep, attempting to throw off the bigger ships targeting system. It did little good as a beam hit the Bird dead on visibly staggering it.
In retaliation the Klingons fired four photon torpedoes from their forward launcher.
Immediately automated defence systems took action to deal with the incoming weapons. The modern descendant of electronic countermeasures began broadcasting on all known Klingon torpedo guidance frequencies, attempting to confuse the targeting lock of the torpedoes. The tactic was only partially effective as only one torpedo veered off, its lock on broken. The remaining three continued to close in on the starship.
It was then that one of the newest systems added to all new Federation vessels made its presence felt as small bolts of phased energy – similar in many respects to the discharge of pre-Federation pulse phase cannons – shot out from numerous points on the hull as close in point defence opened fire. Two torpedoes were speared nearly instantly, both detonating together in brilliant fireballs of matter-antimatter mutual annihilation. The remaining torpedo pierced the defensive fire screen and slammed into the Resolution's starboard shields making them flare brilliantly and producing an asteroid sized cauliflower like explosion of light and energy as the torpedo detonated. The blast quickly faded as the shields absorbed and dispersed the energy back into space in the form of Cherenkov radiation.
Annoyed now the Resolution fired again unleashing multiple beams as well as a pair of her own photon torpedoes upon the impudent Klingon attack ship. Klingon shields flared brilliantly then collapsed completely as the two torpedoes impacted knocking them flat and blowing two burning holes in the hull of the Bird. Phaser blasts followed demolishing disruptors and impulse engines leaving the Bird spinning out of control helpless and burning.
~~//~~
Bridge
USS Resolution
"The Klingon vessel has been disabled sir."
Still in his command chair Darian nodded at Beach's report; he could see it himself on the holographic view screen. The Klingon ship was spinning helplessly like a broken toy, debris and burning plasma leaking from the breaches torn in its armoured skin. He couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for the crew of that Klingon ship as he knew it would be hell on Earth over there now, with numerous plasma and electrical fires likely having broken out all over the ship. While the Klingons had attacked without warning or provocation – and in defiance of all common sense that should have told them that this was a fight they couldn't hope to win – he couldn't help but feel for those who would be dead or dying over there.
"Scan the Klingon ship for life signs Mr Beach," he ordered. "If there are any lock onto them and beam the idiots into cargo bay four. Make sure it is filled with the appropriate anaesthetic gas, I don't want them making any trouble for us, while I decide what to do with them."
"Aye sir."
"Sir," Rakan called out in alarm, "the torpedo our countermeasures decoyed away is on course for the anomaly field. Impact in ten seconds."
Darian's eyes widened. "Lock phasers, shoot it down before it hits the field," he ordered.
"It's to late the torpedo is entering the field."
"On screen."
The view screen shimmered and changed to show once again the image of the anomaly field in all its strange, ethereal glory. The Klingon torpedo was a tiny dot of green that passed into the field and travelled for a few hundred metres before the gravitational forces inside the field tore it apart triggering a brilliant explosion as matter and antimatter encountered one another with the predictable violent response. The explosion expanded outwards, rippling, and distorting and causing lightning-like forks of energy to begin dancing between the closest anomalies which began to glow brighter and brighter sending out more of the spatial lightning.
"Report," Darien ordered watching in disbelief as the anomaly field turned into a seething mass of energy and spatial distortion in mere seconds. It seemed incredible that such a small explosion could cause such a massive and dramatic transformation in the behaviour of the strange phenomenon.
"Sensors report that the subspace fluctuations inside the field are growing in intensity and becoming increasingly random, we're also picking up increased tachyon emissions along with unusual phase fluctuations," Rakan reported, "if I had to guess I would say that the different forces at work within the field were finely balanced and the warhead detonation has destabilized them. Sir the field is beginning to expand, at its current rate of expansion it will hit us in three minutes."
"Helm back us off one quarter impulse," Darian ordered. "Mr Beach did we manage to get anyone off the Klingon ship?"
"Yes sir. Twelve survivors, they're unconscious in cargo bay four," the other officer confirmed even as the Resolution's impulse engines came to life and began to slowly back the starship away from the mutated phenomenon. However, before the starship could move more than a few hundred meters a massive lightning like arc of eldritch energy emerged from the anomaly field and slammed into the ship, the energy easily penetrating the shield and wrapping itself around the hull again and again both violently rocking the entire vessel and making the hull glow with a strange aura that to an observer would have looked almost like the phenomenon known on Earth as St Elmo's Fire.
A second stream of energy erupted from the anomaly and slammed into the staggering ship and like the first wrapped around the ship violently shaking the entire vessel for a second time in as many seconds. More bolts followed wrapping the ship in an aura of shimmering almost ghostly power. The Resolution began to move but instead of backing away from the danger and despite the best efforts of the impulse engines the ship was drawn towards the brightly glowing anomaly field like an iron filing being drawn to a powerful magnet.
"Report," Darien ordered picking himself up off the deck and settling back down into the command chair.
"Captain we've been hit by multiple quantum-gravitic discharges of some kind. They've penetrated our shields and are adhering to the hull somehow," Lieutenant John Ashton reported from the operations console even as another shudder ran through the ship as yet another bolt from the anomaly slammed into the energy surrounding them. "Structural integrity is holding; however, we are also caught in some kind of gravitational wake. It's overpowering the impulse engines and dragging us towards the anomaly field."
"Helm engines to full reverse."
"Aye sir," Querr acknowledged increasing the speed of reverse thrust from one quarter to full impulse. Immediately an audible rumbling of strain began to fill the air and the ship began vibrating fiercely as the Resolution fought to break free of the powerful gravitic forces that had her in their invisible, irresistible grip. "We cannot break free sir the gravitational forces are too strong," Querr reported as the rumbling of the sublight engines rose in pitch and volume turning into a howling roar. At the same time the vibration worsened escalating into a violent shaking. "We've slowed but we're still being pulled towards the anomaly one minute thirty seconds to impact."
Darien hurriedly tapped his comm badge. "Bridge to engineering can you increase power to the impulse engines?"
"Negative captain," Chief Engineer T'Lar reported from engineering sounding as grim as a Vulcan could. "Impulse driver coils have been partially depolarised by the energy field clinging to the hull. Full impulse is all I can give you; if we push the coils any harder in their current state, we run the risk of catastrophic overload."
"Understood," Darien acknowledged tapping the badge again to sign off. "Mr Rakan, can we disperse the energy field on the hull?"
"It might be possible captain. We can use the main deflector to run a resonance pulse along the hull on the opposing frequency range to the energy field it should in theory cancel out the field."
"Do it."
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged before his hands flew across his console as he accessed the controls for the main navigational deflector array and began configuring the device to generate the resonance pulse that would hopefully free the ship of the energy field that was pulling them towards the maelstrom the anomaly field had become despite the best efforts of the impulse engines to pull the ship away from the danger. In moments he made the required modifications to the deflector protocols and began priming the pulse to fire. "Resonance pulse powering up, twenty seconds till it's ready."
"Initiate the pulse as soon as it's ready Mr Rakan."
"Aye sir," Rakan acknowledged a few moments before the whole ship shook violently again and additional alarms sounded from the engineering and operations consoles.
"Warning, warning impulse driver coil overload detected," the ships computer reported in its usual infuriatingly unflappable female voice. "Automatic shutdown initiated." As the voice of the computer filled the air the roaring of the impulse engines abruptly vanished as all fuel flows to the impulse drive slammed closed while emergency vents opened releasing the plasma inside the driver coils of the advanced magnetoplasmadynamic engines instantly shutting them down, preventing a detonation that would have instantly vaporised a large chunk of the primary hull and torn the ship in half.
The result was immediate and dramatic.
No longer resisting the tremendous gravitational pull of the mutated anomaly the Resolution lurched forward with a sudden violent jolt that the inertial dampeners weren't able to completely cancel out, throwing crew members off their feet, out of their chairs or against consoles and bulkheads. Mere seconds later – faster than any of the staggered crew could recover let alone react – the forward hull of the starship impacted the edge of the anomaly.
Arcs of quantum energy raced along the whole of the ships six hundred and eighty-six metre length, brightening the aura around the ship into a twisting cocoon that clawed at the ablative armour matrix covering the ships duranium-tritanium alloy hull like a hungry lion clawing at the skin of a wildebeest. The ships outline began to blur, the space around her warping and distorting before seeming to shift from three dimensional to two dimensional to one, then in a brilliant flash the Resolution was gone, vanished into nothingness.
Moments later the unstable anomaly began to compress in upon itself, the delicate subspace super symmetry that had allowed its continued existence hopelessly compromised. With a speed that would have been frightening to any observers the anomaly collapsed, its previous broad expanse compressing down into a several small dots scarcely bigger than a football. One by one the dots joined the Resolution in vanishing, each disappearing into what appeared to be a momentary slit in the very fabric of the universe.
In less than an hour there was no sign that the anomaly field and the Resolution had ever been present at all beyond that was the shattered, burning remains of the Klingon ship that had started the trouble in the first place. A few hours later that too would vanish in a fireball as the damaged warp core, without anyone present to attempt to stabilize or shut it down, lost antimatter containment sending it and any records of what had just taken place here into oblivion.
Chapter Two
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Chapter Two
Darian Parker groaned softly as consciousness returned. There was a dull pervasive ache throughput his whole body making it hard to think. Slowly he became aware of far more than just the faint, but pervasive, pain as the mental fog over whatever had just happened to him began to dissipate and he became more aware. He became aware that he was lying flat on a hard metal deck and that there was something lying across his back, something hard and metallic if not particularly heavy.
Sound returned and with it came quite the cacophony. From all around him he could hear the soft moans and groans of other people as they too started to recover from whatever it was, they had just been through. He could hear the harsh snapping, hissing crack of sparks and the crackling of a fire. Over it all though was the constant wailing of various different alarm klaxons. As the last of the mental cobwebs dissipated allowing him to think clearly again, he remembered everything that had happened. From there arrival at the site of a previously unknown quantum spatial anomaly and beginning to investigate it, to the unprovoked and utterly reckless Klingon attack upon them – really what had the Klingon commander been thinking when he committed his ship to the attack? Did he really think that his dinky little Bird of Prey, even if it was one of the newest model, would be able to stand against let alone defeat a Sovereign-class starship a vessel nearly ten times his size and with a corresponding increase in both shield strength and firepower? – to the errant Klingon photon torpedo – it's weapons lock on the Resolution having been completely scrambled by the modern descendant of electronic countermeasures – had impacted the anomaly field and detonated.
And in the process transformed the anomaly from a fairly placid thing into a raging maelstrom.
My crew I need to check on my crew, he thought urgently and stood up, feeling, and hearing, broken bits of composite ceiling tiles slide off his broad back as he did so. For a moment he swayed and his head spun alarmingly as a wave of nausea swept through him, he just managed to keep from falling back to the deck. To clear the disorientation he closed his eyes for a few moments and took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly, it was a basic form of meditation that a Vulcan classmate had taught him back in the academy. Feeling the nausea fade away to nothing he opened his eyes…
…to be greeted with a scene from every captain's nightmares.
The normally bright, spacious bridge of the Resolution was gripped with a smouldering semi-darkness. Thick acrid smoke, the result of a bank of auxiliary consoles that were burning merrily indicating that the automatic fire suppression system was offline, filled the air cutting the visibility to almost nothing. Something that wasn't helped by the fact that the main lights were off, the only illumination coming from pale blue emergency lights, the red flashing of the alert status bars and the flickering yellow-orange glow of the flames.
Thankfully there was just enough light to see that the bridge crew had survived and we're all, like him, picking themselves up from where they had been slammed to the deck by the convulsions of the ship. Before he could open his mouth to both check that everyone was alright and to request a status report a faint thrum of power ran through the entire ship. The overhead lights flickered momentarily, then came back on at the reduced intensity required of a red alert. Three things happened almost simultaneously after the restoration of main power.
First lights a number of consoles lit up as power once again began flowing through the EPS power taps. Second a fire containment forcefield appeared over the burning consoles, instantly snuffing the flames out as the presence of the field broke one side of the triangle that all fires needed to burn. Finally the environmental control systems whirred back to life quickly evacuating the smoke-filled, contaminated atmosphere from the bridge and replacing it with fresh, clean air.
"Is everyone alright," he asked and was relieved when he got a hubbub of assurances back that everyone was fine if a few were clearly a bit battered and bruised. "Right then status report. What the hell happened?"
"Sir sensor records indicate that we impacted the edge of the anomaly field after the impulse engines shut down," Lieutenant Ashton reported from operations immediately frowning as his hands danced expertly across his console. "The moment we impacted all our sensor readings went completely berserk, I cannot make heads or tails of them. Sensor systems are currently inoperative, I am resetting them now."
"Captain we are receiving damage and casualty reports from all decks," Commander Urlet reported from the first officers' station as Darian went back to his command chair and sat down.
"How bad is it?"
"Damage control reports minor damage to the outer hull, looks like some of the quantum energy we were exposed to was able penetrate the ablative armour matrix and cause some minor outer hull breaches. Repair drones are already at work, the hull will be repaired very shortly though the armour matrix will take several hours to completely restore. There were electrical fires burning on decks two, five, six, nine and fourteen but have since been extinguished by automated fire suppression.
"Commander T'Lar reports that the warp core is online though currently at reduced power output while they run diagnostics on the primary containment field generators," Urlet continued. "All fusion reactors have gone to full power to make up for the energy shortfall until they're done."
"Casualties?"
"Sickbay reports one hundred and twenty-three injured, sixteen seriously. No fatalities so far."
"Let's hope there aren't any," Darian said softly as he absolutely hated having to write letters of condolences to the loved ones of deceased members of his crew. He never knew what to say as somehow just saying that he was sorry for the loss never felt right, felt like a hollow thing to say to someone whose heart had just been broken. Urlet nodded in agreement, her commanding officer was not the only one who loathed that particular duty in fact she doubted that there was an officer anywhere in Starfleet who liked to write those kinds of letters. Not even Vulcans – who like all Andorians she instinctively somewhat distrusted as the centuries of bad blood that had existed between Andorians and Vulcans before the formation of the Coalition of Planets and later, after the end of the war with the Romulan Empire, the Federation had entirely gone away – could be that callous or cold.
"Mr Beach what's the status of our tactical systems," Darian ordered shaking off the somewhat melancholy thoughts that he always experienced when thinking about writing condolence letters.
"Sir shields and primary weapons are currently inoperative," Beach reported checking his screens, inwardly scowling as he saw the red lights on the shield, phaser and torpedo systems indicating that the systems were damaged and offline. "Point defence systems and ECM are however working normally. Damage control estimates we will have phasers back in about an hour, torpedoes within three."
"In other words, we're currently sitting ducks if anymore Klingons come along," Urlet said exchanging a concerned look with Darian. They were both aware of the fact that in their current condition even something like a Bird of Prey would have little difficulty in destroying them. "Try and speed up the repairs as much as possible Mister Beach."
"Aye sir."
"Ensign Querr what's the status of our propulsion systems," Darian asked the Katarian helmswoman.
"Sir our impulse engines are just coming back online," Querr reported. "However the warp drive is currently inoperative, the warp matrix has become completely depolarised. Engineering is working on it but estimate it will be several hours before we're capable of warp travel."
"Damn," Darian muttered, "alright keep me informed."
"Yes sir."
"Sir sensors are coming back online," Lieutenant Ashton reported. "Running scans now… what the hell?"
"Lieutenant?"
"Sir our sensors are detecting a massive shift in the quantum resonance signature of the space around the ship," Ashton reported sounding confused and prompting a concerned frown to appear on Darian's face as his knowledge of advanced subspace field theory said that it shouldn't be possible to change the quantum frequency of matter, that everything even antimatter and the most exotic dark matter resonated at precisely the same frequency. It was one of those few quantum physical laws that had so far proven immutable.
"Confirm that," he ordered.
"Confirmed sir the quantum resonance signature of the surrounding space is off by two point six seven megahertz."
"How can that be and what does it mean," Urlet asked.
"I believe that I may have an explanation for that commander," Lieutenant Rakan reported from the science station. "As you know the anomaly we were sent to investigate was filled with a number of different quantum anomalies that were destabilized by the detonation of the rogue Klingon torpedo."
"Yes," Urlet said slowly not quite sure where the Trill was going with this, though out of the corner of her eye she could see a frown starting to appear on Darian's face along with a suspicious look. Sometimes it was quite easy to forget that Darian Parker was a lot more intelligent than you realized, that behind his larger than normal muscles – the legacy of both a lifetime of physical training and being from a high gravity world that had been settled centuries earlier by one of humanities first generation warp one sleeper ships - was a man who had the equivalent of doctorates in advanced subspace field theory and quantum mechanics. Clearly he was beginning to suspect what was going on, what had happened to them and their ship.
"As you know we were hit by a number of quantum discharges after the explosion," Rakan continued, "I believe that those discharges somehow shifted the quantum signature of the space-time envelope that they formed around the ship which then pulled us into the anomaly with a corresponding quantum signature."
"What does that…" Urlet started to say only to be interrupted.
"…it means we could be in another universe commander," Darian said grimly, "and by that I don't mean the mirror universe either but somewhere completely different if the quantum resonance signature is anything to go by. Mister Rakan can you detect any differences in the space around us compared to our own reality?"
"I can sir," Rakan replied sounding as grim as he did as he delivered a potentially devastating sentence, the sentence that they were further from their home than even one of the most famous Starfleet vessels of modern times the USS Voyager had ever been. "Astrometric sensors confirm a number of differences in stellar positioning compared to home as well as several anomalies that weren't there in our own reality. For example Bajor is missing in its place is a Mutara-class nebula, there's a black hole where Cardassia should be."
"So we're really in another universe," Urlet asked interrupting him.
"It certainly appears that way yes."
Damn, Darian thought with an inward wince. He had hoped that the conclusion forming in his head from the moment the quantum resonance frequency change had been detected was wrong. Now it appeared that he was right and they were a very, very long way from Federation space and home.
"Lieutenant Rakan begin mapping the area around us," he ordered at last, "search for any sign of the anomaly that brought us here. With luck it won't be far away and we'll simply be able to fly back through the damned thing."
"Aye sir."
"And if it's gone?" Urlet asked him softly. "What do we do then?"
"The only thing we can commander. We survive and try to find another way home."
"Understood sir."
---///---
Sometime Later
Captains Log: Supplemental
It has been twelve hours since the incident with the Klingon ship and the quantum anomaly. Twelve hours since the ship and everyone aboard was, through a mechanism that nobody yet understands, thrown into a different quantum universe to our own. All attempts to find the rift that transported us here on our sensors have failed, there is simply no sign of it to be found anywhere.
With no current chance of getting back home, though I am hopeful that with time and analysis of all our sensor data we will find away, I find myself considering what we are going to do now. Senior staff are gathering in the briefing room hopefully we will soon have a plan on what to do next.
Darian was careful to place a calm expression on his face as he arrived in the briefing room behind the bridge. The rest of the senior staff were already present in the room, most of them with masks of real concern on their faces. Indeed the only one who showed no concern was Lieutenant Commander T'Lar but he was willing to bet that the calmness was only skin deep, that beneath that cool traditional Vulcan exterior she was as worried as the rest of them were.
Seeing him enter everyone stood up respectfully, but he waved them back to their seats before moving to his own and sitting down. Once everyone was in position he began what was probably going to be quite an… ugh interesting… meeting.
"I'm not going to sugar coat this people," he said in his usual down to Earth and direct manner as he was never one to beat around the bush in these meetings, "we're in trouble. As you know none of our sensors show any sign of the quantum spatial anomaly that brought us to this universe, not even a remnant trace of its existence. It's like it has simply vanished into thin air."
"Are we sure it was a spatial anomaly that brought us here, wherever it is," Colonel Masters, the head of the small contingent of Starfleet Marines assigned to the Resolution due to the rapidly degenerating political situation with the Klingons, asked. "That it was not instead the act of someone like Q?"
"While I would not put it past a Q, especially The Q, to do something like this it is most unlikely that they were behind it. All our sensor data confirms it as does all telemetry recovered from ship instrument records during the transition between realities," Commander Urlet replied. "That information coupled with the increasing number of differences in stellar patterns and structures being detected by the astrometric sensors confirms that as impossible as it might seem we are in a completely different universe to the one we belong in."
A brief grim silence met that as everyone present digested just what that meant. The Resolution had some of the most advanced astrometric sensors in the entire fleet, sensors that were directly inspired by the sensors the crew of Voyager had created during their cruise through the delta quadrant. Only there's were even more advanced, their improved designs the brainchild of a team at the Starfleet Corps of Engineers that had been directly headed by the ex-Borg Seven of Nine herself. With access to the latest Federation technology on top of her own knowledge they'd been able to both boost the range and efficiency of the sensors to the point that they could now measure the flux of up to four billion stars simultaneously compared to the three billion that the first-generation astrometric sensors on Voyager had been able to scan and measure.
"Analysis of the sensor data not only confirms that we are in a different universe to our own but that the very structure of subspace is slightly different here," Lieutenant Rakan added, "based on our current analysis it shouldn't negatively affect any of our systems in fact in all probability some systems will work even more efficiently than they do at home."
"Fascinating," T'Lar commented raising an eyebrow to intrigued 2.1. "Based on the information I have so far seen the difference in subspace strata in this reality should make our warp drives work with greater efficiency allowing us to achieve higher speeds with less power requirements and no danger of causing any of the weakening in subspace barriers that can occur at higher warp speeds."
"While interesting that doesn't really help us right now," Beach commented scowling, "what exactly are we going to do about our little predicament. How are we going to get back to our own reality? I don't know about the rest of you but I don't fancy spending the rest of my life in another universe, never to see home or family again."
"We will look for a way back home," Darian answered, "unfortunately that might take a considerable amount of time. We here need to determine just what we are going to do in the meantime."
For a few moments nobody spoke then Urlet spoke again. "Whatever we do we will accomplish nothing by just having the ship float here in interstellar space," she commented, "we should begin properly surveying some nearby star systems both for useful supplies, such as dilithium, as well as potentially habitable worlds where we could, if it comes down to it, set up a new home for ourselves."
"There is something that we could look into almost immediately if we start exploring," Rakan said leaning forward slightly some of the youthful enthusiasm of both host and symbiote showing.
"Oh?" Darian asked.
"Sir our long-range sensors have been picking up intermittent but highly coherent verteron particle emissions," Rakan answered, forcing himself to calm down even as both parts of him were practically chomping at the bit to get started investigating this. Between him and his symbiote he was only a hundred and twenty-two years old, still very young by Trill standards and thus extremely eager for new experiences. Still he forced himself to be professional about this.
"How coherent," Urlet asked interested knowing that there were very, very few things that could produce highly coherent verteron particles and all of them were potentially very useful.
"Completely coherent commander," Rakan answered. "They have also been accompanied by small subspace distortions consistent with wormholes, artificial wormholes."
Surprised silence greeted that announcement. Ever since the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole, and the revelation that it was a completely artificial construction made by extradimensional lifeforms that had long been considered gods by the Bajoran religion, the Federation had been attempting to develop the ability to create and sustain stable wormholes. It would usher in a whole new era of interstellar travel, getting around the very real limits that came with warp technology. Despite their best efforts they had so far not succeeded in creating a stable wormhole that lasted more than a few seconds before violently collapsing, usually causing considerable damage to anything nearby.
To learn that someone in this reality could actually do that, multiple someone's even if what Rakan was saying was correct, was thus both surprising and very interesting.
"It is worth looking into," Urlet admitted at last.
"It is," Darian agreed. "Where's the nearest source of the intermittent emissions?"
"A system two-point six light years from here," Rakan answered. "Long range scans confirm that it's a binary star system with several planets with the fourth planet being class m. We have not detected any sign of spacecraft or civilization of any kind. Which is most puzzling."
"No really," Lieutenant Ashton pointed out, "whoever is there could be shielding themselves from detection somehow or could be a kind of life form that our sensors are not designed to detect. This is a different universe to our own after all we cannot assume that life will follow the same kind of patterns and templates that it does in our reality."
"Good point still it will be worth investigating," Darian answered. The younger officer had a very good point, this was a different universe to their own so the laws and patterns of evolution in this reality could be very different to those that they were familiar with. Especially if there hadn't been an ancient alien race long ago who had seeded the genetic soup of numerous primitive worlds in the way the Preservers had in their own reality.
"Before we do this though there is something else that we need to discuss," Beach said calmly, "our Klingon prisoners in cargo bay four. We need to decide what exactly we are going to do with them. We cannot keep them unconscious forever."
Inwardly Darian grimaced slightly at that even as he acknowledged that Commander Beach had a point. He had had the survivors of the Klingon ship transported over because it had been the right thing to do, he couldn't have in good conscience left them aboard a dying vessel. And the Klingon ship had been dying after they were finished returning fire leaving the Bird of Prey spinning out of control helpless and burning with weapons and impulse engines destroyed by phaser fire. Had they still been in their own reality he would have simply kept them unconscious until he reached the nearest Federation starbase and turned them over to his superiors giving them the headache of what to do with them.
Unfortunately there situation now meant he would have to deal with that particular headache. Klingons were never easy to deal with at the best of times – not that they were ever able to physically intimidate him as he was every bit as strong as they were due to his heritage as a heavy gravity worlder – and this particular lot promised to be even more difficult than normal. Especially given that they had been boneheaded enough to challenge a Sovereign-class starship with a tiny Bird of Prey, something that most other Klingon commanders – even those commanding the powerful Negh'var-class battlecruisers which could actually match the Resolution's firepower though they would have the advantage in shield strength and agility over the Klingons – would think carefully about before committing to the battle.
"Transfer them all to holding cells," he said at last, making his decision. "Once they're all awake identify their commanding officer, if he or she is among the survivors, and bring them to me. What happens after that will depend on how the officer behaves. If they're reasonable then I might be convinced to let them have a little bit of freedom – though no weapons – here in non-restricted areas but if they're not… well we will leave them on an uninhabited planet somewhere with just enough supplies to get started."
"Maybe we should just maroon them somewhere and be done with it," Colonel Masters commented.
"Don't tempt me," Darian answered and he was tempted to do just that. "I'll try to make them see reason first but if they don't well then I'll leave them to their own devices somewhere where they cannot pester anyone else."
"Understood sir."
"Is there anything else?" Darian asked looking at the officers, wanting to know if any of them had anything else that they wished to say. "Very well then meet…"
"Bridge to Captain Parker."
The voice from the intercom breaking into him about to dismiss the meeting caused more than one of the other officers to chuckle slightly and exchange amused looks. You could always count on the comm to go off at the most awkward or inopportune times. It seemed like one of life's little annoyances. Darian for his part glared slightly at those chuckling, prompting them all to shut up and look more than a little sheepish, before tapping his commbadge.
"Parker here go ahead."
"Sir we're picking up a distress call on all subspace bands. It's coming from a system eight light years away."
"Station's everyone," Darian ordered to his officers before answering. "I'll be right out."
"Yes sir."
Standing up Darian quickly made his way out of the conference room/observation lounge at the back of the bridge and back onto the bridge itself. The other senior bridge officers moving a few paces behind him, and automatically moving back to their stations. Darian for his part moved to the command chair and sat down.
"Put the distress call on screen," he ordered.
"Aye sir," Lieutenant Ashton acknowledged and entered the command on his console. Immediately the holographic view screen came to life showing the face and upper torso of a stately, middle aged human woman. She was wearing a sleek peace coloured dress and had hair grey hair done up in an extremely elaborate bun arrangement. She was backdropped by what was clearly a control room of some kind, with people in grey uniforms running back and forth between various consoles, and everything was periodically shaking violently.
"To anyone who can hear me," the woman was saying, "my name is High Chancellor Travell of the Tollan. Our planet is under attack by the Goa'uld, our planetary defences are failing and we are sustaining massive damage and casualties. If anyone can hear me please assist. Repeat this is High Chancellor Travell…"
"Can we respond to them," Darian asked.
"Negative sir the transmission appears to be one way."
"We have to help them," Urlet said as the Tollan leader continued with her desperate calls for assistance for her embattled planet.
"I know," Darian replied. "Red alert, all hands to battle stations. Ensign Querr set course for Tollan maximum warp."
"Aye sir."
Immediately alarms began wailing throughout the Resolution summoning the crew to their battle stations. Moments later the great starship came around and leapt into warp on course for the Tollan homeworld…
…and their first encounter with the Goa'uld.
---///---
Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the dust I hope you all enjoyed it. I apologise for this chapter taking so long to be ready hopefully the next one won't take as long. Until next time.
Darian Parker groaned softly as consciousness returned. There was a dull pervasive ache throughput his whole body making it hard to think. Slowly he became aware of far more than just the faint, but pervasive, pain as the mental fog over whatever had just happened to him began to dissipate and he became more aware. He became aware that he was lying flat on a hard metal deck and that there was something lying across his back, something hard and metallic if not particularly heavy.
Sound returned and with it came quite the cacophony. From all around him he could hear the soft moans and groans of other people as they too started to recover from whatever it was, they had just been through. He could hear the harsh snapping, hissing crack of sparks and the crackling of a fire. Over it all though was the constant wailing of various different alarm klaxons. As the last of the mental cobwebs dissipated allowing him to think clearly again, he remembered everything that had happened. From there arrival at the site of a previously unknown quantum spatial anomaly and beginning to investigate it, to the unprovoked and utterly reckless Klingon attack upon them – really what had the Klingon commander been thinking when he committed his ship to the attack? Did he really think that his dinky little Bird of Prey, even if it was one of the newest model, would be able to stand against let alone defeat a Sovereign-class starship a vessel nearly ten times his size and with a corresponding increase in both shield strength and firepower? – to the errant Klingon photon torpedo – it's weapons lock on the Resolution having been completely scrambled by the modern descendant of electronic countermeasures – had impacted the anomaly field and detonated.
And in the process transformed the anomaly from a fairly placid thing into a raging maelstrom.
My crew I need to check on my crew, he thought urgently and stood up, feeling, and hearing, broken bits of composite ceiling tiles slide off his broad back as he did so. For a moment he swayed and his head spun alarmingly as a wave of nausea swept through him, he just managed to keep from falling back to the deck. To clear the disorientation he closed his eyes for a few moments and took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly, it was a basic form of meditation that a Vulcan classmate had taught him back in the academy. Feeling the nausea fade away to nothing he opened his eyes…
…to be greeted with a scene from every captain's nightmares.
The normally bright, spacious bridge of the Resolution was gripped with a smouldering semi-darkness. Thick acrid smoke, the result of a bank of auxiliary consoles that were burning merrily indicating that the automatic fire suppression system was offline, filled the air cutting the visibility to almost nothing. Something that wasn't helped by the fact that the main lights were off, the only illumination coming from pale blue emergency lights, the red flashing of the alert status bars and the flickering yellow-orange glow of the flames.
Thankfully there was just enough light to see that the bridge crew had survived and we're all, like him, picking themselves up from where they had been slammed to the deck by the convulsions of the ship. Before he could open his mouth to both check that everyone was alright and to request a status report a faint thrum of power ran through the entire ship. The overhead lights flickered momentarily, then came back on at the reduced intensity required of a red alert. Three things happened almost simultaneously after the restoration of main power.
First lights a number of consoles lit up as power once again began flowing through the EPS power taps. Second a fire containment forcefield appeared over the burning consoles, instantly snuffing the flames out as the presence of the field broke one side of the triangle that all fires needed to burn. Finally the environmental control systems whirred back to life quickly evacuating the smoke-filled, contaminated atmosphere from the bridge and replacing it with fresh, clean air.
"Is everyone alright," he asked and was relieved when he got a hubbub of assurances back that everyone was fine if a few were clearly a bit battered and bruised. "Right then status report. What the hell happened?"
"Sir sensor records indicate that we impacted the edge of the anomaly field after the impulse engines shut down," Lieutenant Ashton reported from operations immediately frowning as his hands danced expertly across his console. "The moment we impacted all our sensor readings went completely berserk, I cannot make heads or tails of them. Sensor systems are currently inoperative, I am resetting them now."
"Captain we are receiving damage and casualty reports from all decks," Commander Urlet reported from the first officers' station as Darian went back to his command chair and sat down.
"How bad is it?"
"Damage control reports minor damage to the outer hull, looks like some of the quantum energy we were exposed to was able penetrate the ablative armour matrix and cause some minor outer hull breaches. Repair drones are already at work, the hull will be repaired very shortly though the armour matrix will take several hours to completely restore. There were electrical fires burning on decks two, five, six, nine and fourteen but have since been extinguished by automated fire suppression.
"Commander T'Lar reports that the warp core is online though currently at reduced power output while they run diagnostics on the primary containment field generators," Urlet continued. "All fusion reactors have gone to full power to make up for the energy shortfall until they're done."
"Casualties?"
"Sickbay reports one hundred and twenty-three injured, sixteen seriously. No fatalities so far."
"Let's hope there aren't any," Darian said softly as he absolutely hated having to write letters of condolences to the loved ones of deceased members of his crew. He never knew what to say as somehow just saying that he was sorry for the loss never felt right, felt like a hollow thing to say to someone whose heart had just been broken. Urlet nodded in agreement, her commanding officer was not the only one who loathed that particular duty in fact she doubted that there was an officer anywhere in Starfleet who liked to write those kinds of letters. Not even Vulcans – who like all Andorians she instinctively somewhat distrusted as the centuries of bad blood that had existed between Andorians and Vulcans before the formation of the Coalition of Planets and later, after the end of the war with the Romulan Empire, the Federation had entirely gone away – could be that callous or cold.
"Mr Beach what's the status of our tactical systems," Darian ordered shaking off the somewhat melancholy thoughts that he always experienced when thinking about writing condolence letters.
"Sir shields and primary weapons are currently inoperative," Beach reported checking his screens, inwardly scowling as he saw the red lights on the shield, phaser and torpedo systems indicating that the systems were damaged and offline. "Point defence systems and ECM are however working normally. Damage control estimates we will have phasers back in about an hour, torpedoes within three."
"In other words, we're currently sitting ducks if anymore Klingons come along," Urlet said exchanging a concerned look with Darian. They were both aware of the fact that in their current condition even something like a Bird of Prey would have little difficulty in destroying them. "Try and speed up the repairs as much as possible Mister Beach."
"Aye sir."
"Ensign Querr what's the status of our propulsion systems," Darian asked the Katarian helmswoman.
"Sir our impulse engines are just coming back online," Querr reported. "However the warp drive is currently inoperative, the warp matrix has become completely depolarised. Engineering is working on it but estimate it will be several hours before we're capable of warp travel."
"Damn," Darian muttered, "alright keep me informed."
"Yes sir."
"Sir sensors are coming back online," Lieutenant Ashton reported. "Running scans now… what the hell?"
"Lieutenant?"
"Sir our sensors are detecting a massive shift in the quantum resonance signature of the space around the ship," Ashton reported sounding confused and prompting a concerned frown to appear on Darian's face as his knowledge of advanced subspace field theory said that it shouldn't be possible to change the quantum frequency of matter, that everything even antimatter and the most exotic dark matter resonated at precisely the same frequency. It was one of those few quantum physical laws that had so far proven immutable.
"Confirm that," he ordered.
"Confirmed sir the quantum resonance signature of the surrounding space is off by two point six seven megahertz."
"How can that be and what does it mean," Urlet asked.
"I believe that I may have an explanation for that commander," Lieutenant Rakan reported from the science station. "As you know the anomaly we were sent to investigate was filled with a number of different quantum anomalies that were destabilized by the detonation of the rogue Klingon torpedo."
"Yes," Urlet said slowly not quite sure where the Trill was going with this, though out of the corner of her eye she could see a frown starting to appear on Darian's face along with a suspicious look. Sometimes it was quite easy to forget that Darian Parker was a lot more intelligent than you realized, that behind his larger than normal muscles – the legacy of both a lifetime of physical training and being from a high gravity world that had been settled centuries earlier by one of humanities first generation warp one sleeper ships - was a man who had the equivalent of doctorates in advanced subspace field theory and quantum mechanics. Clearly he was beginning to suspect what was going on, what had happened to them and their ship.
"As you know we were hit by a number of quantum discharges after the explosion," Rakan continued, "I believe that those discharges somehow shifted the quantum signature of the space-time envelope that they formed around the ship which then pulled us into the anomaly with a corresponding quantum signature."
"What does that…" Urlet started to say only to be interrupted.
"…it means we could be in another universe commander," Darian said grimly, "and by that I don't mean the mirror universe either but somewhere completely different if the quantum resonance signature is anything to go by. Mister Rakan can you detect any differences in the space around us compared to our own reality?"
"I can sir," Rakan replied sounding as grim as he did as he delivered a potentially devastating sentence, the sentence that they were further from their home than even one of the most famous Starfleet vessels of modern times the USS Voyager had ever been. "Astrometric sensors confirm a number of differences in stellar positioning compared to home as well as several anomalies that weren't there in our own reality. For example Bajor is missing in its place is a Mutara-class nebula, there's a black hole where Cardassia should be."
"So we're really in another universe," Urlet asked interrupting him.
"It certainly appears that way yes."
Damn, Darian thought with an inward wince. He had hoped that the conclusion forming in his head from the moment the quantum resonance frequency change had been detected was wrong. Now it appeared that he was right and they were a very, very long way from Federation space and home.
"Lieutenant Rakan begin mapping the area around us," he ordered at last, "search for any sign of the anomaly that brought us here. With luck it won't be far away and we'll simply be able to fly back through the damned thing."
"Aye sir."
"And if it's gone?" Urlet asked him softly. "What do we do then?"
"The only thing we can commander. We survive and try to find another way home."
"Understood sir."
---///---
Sometime Later
Captains Log: Supplemental
It has been twelve hours since the incident with the Klingon ship and the quantum anomaly. Twelve hours since the ship and everyone aboard was, through a mechanism that nobody yet understands, thrown into a different quantum universe to our own. All attempts to find the rift that transported us here on our sensors have failed, there is simply no sign of it to be found anywhere.
With no current chance of getting back home, though I am hopeful that with time and analysis of all our sensor data we will find away, I find myself considering what we are going to do now. Senior staff are gathering in the briefing room hopefully we will soon have a plan on what to do next.
Darian was careful to place a calm expression on his face as he arrived in the briefing room behind the bridge. The rest of the senior staff were already present in the room, most of them with masks of real concern on their faces. Indeed the only one who showed no concern was Lieutenant Commander T'Lar but he was willing to bet that the calmness was only skin deep, that beneath that cool traditional Vulcan exterior she was as worried as the rest of them were.
Seeing him enter everyone stood up respectfully, but he waved them back to their seats before moving to his own and sitting down. Once everyone was in position he began what was probably going to be quite an… ugh interesting… meeting.
"I'm not going to sugar coat this people," he said in his usual down to Earth and direct manner as he was never one to beat around the bush in these meetings, "we're in trouble. As you know none of our sensors show any sign of the quantum spatial anomaly that brought us to this universe, not even a remnant trace of its existence. It's like it has simply vanished into thin air."
"Are we sure it was a spatial anomaly that brought us here, wherever it is," Colonel Masters, the head of the small contingent of Starfleet Marines assigned to the Resolution due to the rapidly degenerating political situation with the Klingons, asked. "That it was not instead the act of someone like Q?"
"While I would not put it past a Q, especially The Q, to do something like this it is most unlikely that they were behind it. All our sensor data confirms it as does all telemetry recovered from ship instrument records during the transition between realities," Commander Urlet replied. "That information coupled with the increasing number of differences in stellar patterns and structures being detected by the astrometric sensors confirms that as impossible as it might seem we are in a completely different universe to the one we belong in."
A brief grim silence met that as everyone present digested just what that meant. The Resolution had some of the most advanced astrometric sensors in the entire fleet, sensors that were directly inspired by the sensors the crew of Voyager had created during their cruise through the delta quadrant. Only there's were even more advanced, their improved designs the brainchild of a team at the Starfleet Corps of Engineers that had been directly headed by the ex-Borg Seven of Nine herself. With access to the latest Federation technology on top of her own knowledge they'd been able to both boost the range and efficiency of the sensors to the point that they could now measure the flux of up to four billion stars simultaneously compared to the three billion that the first-generation astrometric sensors on Voyager had been able to scan and measure.
"Analysis of the sensor data not only confirms that we are in a different universe to our own but that the very structure of subspace is slightly different here," Lieutenant Rakan added, "based on our current analysis it shouldn't negatively affect any of our systems in fact in all probability some systems will work even more efficiently than they do at home."
"Fascinating," T'Lar commented raising an eyebrow to intrigued 2.1. "Based on the information I have so far seen the difference in subspace strata in this reality should make our warp drives work with greater efficiency allowing us to achieve higher speeds with less power requirements and no danger of causing any of the weakening in subspace barriers that can occur at higher warp speeds."
"While interesting that doesn't really help us right now," Beach commented scowling, "what exactly are we going to do about our little predicament. How are we going to get back to our own reality? I don't know about the rest of you but I don't fancy spending the rest of my life in another universe, never to see home or family again."
"We will look for a way back home," Darian answered, "unfortunately that might take a considerable amount of time. We here need to determine just what we are going to do in the meantime."
For a few moments nobody spoke then Urlet spoke again. "Whatever we do we will accomplish nothing by just having the ship float here in interstellar space," she commented, "we should begin properly surveying some nearby star systems both for useful supplies, such as dilithium, as well as potentially habitable worlds where we could, if it comes down to it, set up a new home for ourselves."
"There is something that we could look into almost immediately if we start exploring," Rakan said leaning forward slightly some of the youthful enthusiasm of both host and symbiote showing.
"Oh?" Darian asked.
"Sir our long-range sensors have been picking up intermittent but highly coherent verteron particle emissions," Rakan answered, forcing himself to calm down even as both parts of him were practically chomping at the bit to get started investigating this. Between him and his symbiote he was only a hundred and twenty-two years old, still very young by Trill standards and thus extremely eager for new experiences. Still he forced himself to be professional about this.
"How coherent," Urlet asked interested knowing that there were very, very few things that could produce highly coherent verteron particles and all of them were potentially very useful.
"Completely coherent commander," Rakan answered. "They have also been accompanied by small subspace distortions consistent with wormholes, artificial wormholes."
Surprised silence greeted that announcement. Ever since the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole, and the revelation that it was a completely artificial construction made by extradimensional lifeforms that had long been considered gods by the Bajoran religion, the Federation had been attempting to develop the ability to create and sustain stable wormholes. It would usher in a whole new era of interstellar travel, getting around the very real limits that came with warp technology. Despite their best efforts they had so far not succeeded in creating a stable wormhole that lasted more than a few seconds before violently collapsing, usually causing considerable damage to anything nearby.
To learn that someone in this reality could actually do that, multiple someone's even if what Rakan was saying was correct, was thus both surprising and very interesting.
"It is worth looking into," Urlet admitted at last.
"It is," Darian agreed. "Where's the nearest source of the intermittent emissions?"
"A system two-point six light years from here," Rakan answered. "Long range scans confirm that it's a binary star system with several planets with the fourth planet being class m. We have not detected any sign of spacecraft or civilization of any kind. Which is most puzzling."
"No really," Lieutenant Ashton pointed out, "whoever is there could be shielding themselves from detection somehow or could be a kind of life form that our sensors are not designed to detect. This is a different universe to our own after all we cannot assume that life will follow the same kind of patterns and templates that it does in our reality."
"Good point still it will be worth investigating," Darian answered. The younger officer had a very good point, this was a different universe to their own so the laws and patterns of evolution in this reality could be very different to those that they were familiar with. Especially if there hadn't been an ancient alien race long ago who had seeded the genetic soup of numerous primitive worlds in the way the Preservers had in their own reality.
"Before we do this though there is something else that we need to discuss," Beach said calmly, "our Klingon prisoners in cargo bay four. We need to decide what exactly we are going to do with them. We cannot keep them unconscious forever."
Inwardly Darian grimaced slightly at that even as he acknowledged that Commander Beach had a point. He had had the survivors of the Klingon ship transported over because it had been the right thing to do, he couldn't have in good conscience left them aboard a dying vessel. And the Klingon ship had been dying after they were finished returning fire leaving the Bird of Prey spinning out of control helpless and burning with weapons and impulse engines destroyed by phaser fire. Had they still been in their own reality he would have simply kept them unconscious until he reached the nearest Federation starbase and turned them over to his superiors giving them the headache of what to do with them.
Unfortunately there situation now meant he would have to deal with that particular headache. Klingons were never easy to deal with at the best of times – not that they were ever able to physically intimidate him as he was every bit as strong as they were due to his heritage as a heavy gravity worlder – and this particular lot promised to be even more difficult than normal. Especially given that they had been boneheaded enough to challenge a Sovereign-class starship with a tiny Bird of Prey, something that most other Klingon commanders – even those commanding the powerful Negh'var-class battlecruisers which could actually match the Resolution's firepower though they would have the advantage in shield strength and agility over the Klingons – would think carefully about before committing to the battle.
"Transfer them all to holding cells," he said at last, making his decision. "Once they're all awake identify their commanding officer, if he or she is among the survivors, and bring them to me. What happens after that will depend on how the officer behaves. If they're reasonable then I might be convinced to let them have a little bit of freedom – though no weapons – here in non-restricted areas but if they're not… well we will leave them on an uninhabited planet somewhere with just enough supplies to get started."
"Maybe we should just maroon them somewhere and be done with it," Colonel Masters commented.
"Don't tempt me," Darian answered and he was tempted to do just that. "I'll try to make them see reason first but if they don't well then I'll leave them to their own devices somewhere where they cannot pester anyone else."
"Understood sir."
"Is there anything else?" Darian asked looking at the officers, wanting to know if any of them had anything else that they wished to say. "Very well then meet…"
"Bridge to Captain Parker."
The voice from the intercom breaking into him about to dismiss the meeting caused more than one of the other officers to chuckle slightly and exchange amused looks. You could always count on the comm to go off at the most awkward or inopportune times. It seemed like one of life's little annoyances. Darian for his part glared slightly at those chuckling, prompting them all to shut up and look more than a little sheepish, before tapping his commbadge.
"Parker here go ahead."
"Sir we're picking up a distress call on all subspace bands. It's coming from a system eight light years away."
"Station's everyone," Darian ordered to his officers before answering. "I'll be right out."
"Yes sir."
Standing up Darian quickly made his way out of the conference room/observation lounge at the back of the bridge and back onto the bridge itself. The other senior bridge officers moving a few paces behind him, and automatically moving back to their stations. Darian for his part moved to the command chair and sat down.
"Put the distress call on screen," he ordered.
"Aye sir," Lieutenant Ashton acknowledged and entered the command on his console. Immediately the holographic view screen came to life showing the face and upper torso of a stately, middle aged human woman. She was wearing a sleek peace coloured dress and had hair grey hair done up in an extremely elaborate bun arrangement. She was backdropped by what was clearly a control room of some kind, with people in grey uniforms running back and forth between various consoles, and everything was periodically shaking violently.
"To anyone who can hear me," the woman was saying, "my name is High Chancellor Travell of the Tollan. Our planet is under attack by the Goa'uld, our planetary defences are failing and we are sustaining massive damage and casualties. If anyone can hear me please assist. Repeat this is High Chancellor Travell…"
"Can we respond to them," Darian asked.
"Negative sir the transmission appears to be one way."
"We have to help them," Urlet said as the Tollan leader continued with her desperate calls for assistance for her embattled planet.
"I know," Darian replied. "Red alert, all hands to battle stations. Ensign Querr set course for Tollan maximum warp."
"Aye sir."
Immediately alarms began wailing throughout the Resolution summoning the crew to their battle stations. Moments later the great starship came around and leapt into warp on course for the Tollan homeworld…
…and their first encounter with the Goa'uld.
---///---
Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the dust I hope you all enjoyed it. I apologise for this chapter taking so long to be ready hopefully the next one won't take as long. Until next time.
Chapter Three
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Authors Note: I am honestly surprised by how quickly this chapter has come together. I have adjusted things in comparison to the previous versions of the story to make things a bit more even between the Resolution and the Goa'uld so that neither has a massively overpowered advantage against the other. I will admit that in the previous versions I did give the Federation people a bit too much of an advantage, that is no longer going to be the case though that doesn't mean the Goa'uld will get a massive advantage either. Finally conversation in bold represents the distorted voice of a Goa'uld speaking through their host. Okay now that that's over with lets crack on with the chapter shall we?
---///---
Chapter Three
Goa'uld Mothership
Tollana Orbit
A Short Time Later
Sitting on the pel'tac throne Tanith felt a profound sense of satisfaction as he watched the planet below burn under a relentless barrage of plasma blasts from his ship's cannons. For centuries the Tollan had resisted the Goa'uld, their superior technology affording them protection from the wrath of those who they should have worshipped as their gods. Even as little as two years ago they had been able to stand against the gods destroying three motherships – two belonging to Heru'ur and one to Zipacna – in a matter of just a few days, the latter assisted by the ever-meddlesome Tau'ri team called SG-1.
Now though everything had changed and not past time.
After more than a thousand years of exile Anubis had returned to the empire. And he had brought with him powerful new technological advancements, advancements that with a bit more time and appropriate recruitment would soon see him claim the throne and title that had been denied him for far too long by the High Council. Advancements that had let him bring the Tollan to heel for his master, forcing them to build him some bombs that incorporated the famed Tollan phase shifting technology which would allow them to bypass most physical stargate fortifications. Like the one that protected the Tau'ri stargate, something he had ordered the Tollan High Chancellor to do as both a test and a means of eliminating the people of that world who had been making far too much of a nuisance of themselves over the last few years while sitting smug behind the protection of the Asgard.
Unfortunately the Tollan had broken the agreement rather than use the weapon, choosing to sacrifice themselves and their planet rather than let Anubis had the weapons that were his due. It was brave of them, and he could see the hand of the accursed Tau'ri in it, as it sacrificed their world and their existence as a civilization. One had to admire such bravery and he did even as he began raining retribution down upon them.
That had begun an hour ago.
By this point the capital and the other two major cities on Tollana had been virtually razed to the ground. With the bombardment now moving on to the larger towns while gliders and Al'kesh assaulted the smaller settlements as the last of the planets once formidable defensive network of ion cannons had at last been silenced. Knowing that they were beaten the Tollan had begun trying to escape the planet, with numerous spacecraft from small shuttles to large passenger ships attempting to leave the smouldering world – only to be easily shot down by his forces. Nobody would be allowed to escape as the Tollan had defied the gods for the last time and would pay for their insolence with their lives.
"My lord," the Jaffa manning the main console called back to him.
"Yes?" Tanith asked.
"My lord sensors are detecting an object entering the system at high speed," the Jaffa reported, "it appears to be a ship, unknown configuration. My lord it is not travelling in hyperspace."
"So someone dares to come to the Tollan's aide do they," Tanith said even as he inwardly cursed himself for allowing the Tollan to continue sending a planetary distress signal. It had been amusing to hear Travell pleading with whoever might be listening for help for her doomed planet. Now it appeared that indulging in allowing her to send the distress call was coming back to bite him and someone, someone who didn't fear the Goa'uld as they should as nobody this side of the Asgard got to defy the will of the gods, was answering her. Though what did the Jaffa mean by them not travelling in hyperspace? Every spacefaring civilization known to the Goa'uld used hyperspace, even the Asgard used hyperspace. It was really the only reliable method of achieving faster than light travel in a reasonable timeframe.
After a moment he decided it didn't matter. These newcomers, whoever or whatever they were, would bow to him as their god – as lesser beings should – or he would destroy them. It was as simple as that.
"How long until they arrive?"
"Two minutes my lord."
"Prepare to intercept them as soon as they arrive. Recall half our gliders and Al'kesh from the surface to support us. The rest are to continue with the attack upon the Tollan."
"Yes my lord," the Jaffa, Nyr'u Tanith recalled his name to be, acknowledged before giving the order to the gliders and Al'kesh currently attacking the surface while accessing the ships navigational controls moving them up into a slightly higher orbit where – if a battle erupted i.e. if the incoming ship was foolish enough to defy the Goa'uld – manoeuvring would be easier in comparison to the lower orbit needed for planetary bombardment that they had been maintaining.
For the next minute or so nothing happened then he saw the unknown vessel, using an equally unknown faster than light propulsion system, dropping back into normal space well within weapons range.
"My lord the unknown ship has arrived. Sensors confirm one vessel bearing one two nine by zero six seven, distance twenty thousand kilometres. There shields are up and their weapons systems appear to be powered."
"Show me."
"Yes my lord."
The holographic tactical HUD appeared over the triangular viewport at the front of the pel'tac showing an image of the newly arrived alien warship. Tanith leaned forward on his throne to examine it a bit more closely. The vessel was unlike anything he had ever seen, or indeed anyone in his entire genetic line had ever seen, before and appeared to be composed of a number of simple mathematical shapes in the form of circles, ovals and rectangles arranged and fitted together in a complex but beautiful arrangement. The vessel was large and constructed of a previously unknown metallic alloy and covered with some type of armour whose composition the ships computer couldn't identify.
He noted that the energy shield around the vessel was quite powerful and had a structure that didn't match anything in the Goa'uld database, the force field also didn't take the form of a bubble around the ship in the way that Goa'uld shields did. Instead it seemed to be composed of a series of layers that conformed to the contours of the ships hull, it was a style of defensive field that the Goa'uld had experimented on and off with for a few millennia now – as conformal shield theoretically would allow a much greater degree of protection and greater energy efficiency than conventional bubble shields did – but had never gotten it to work. Not even the great creator of all Goa'uld technology P'tah or even Anubis had been able to get that type of shield to work in practice. These aliens, whoever they were, obviously had which meant that they would be a challenging opponent to defeat.
"My lord we are being hailed," Nyr'u reported.
"Very well I will hear what they have to say. Put them through."
"Yes my lord."
Immediately the HUD changed bringing in the image of the commander of the unknown warship. Tanith was surprised to find himself face to face with an athletic male human wearing an unknown black and grey uniform with a red undershirt – neither of which did much to hide a muscular build that was enough to make Tanith inwardly drool as he considered what a good host this human would make – which had four odd gold pins on the collar. An arrowhead shaped badge was located on the right side of his chest. Immediately the human spoke in an accent that Tanith had never heard before.
"Attention unknown vessel," the human said. "This is Captain Darian Parker of the Federation starship Resolution. You are ordered to cease your attack upon this planet and withdraw at once. If you do not we will be forced to engage you."
Tanith was instantly incensed. How dare this human make demands of him when he should have been bowing to him as his god. Despite his rage though he had to respect the human's boldness. Which was why he responded in the only way he could by flaring his eyes…
…and laughing.
---///---
Bridge
USS Resolution
A Few Moments Earlier
What a strange looking ship, was the first thought that passed through Darian's mind as the Resolution dropped out of warp and approached the Tollan planet and came face to face with its attacker. He had seen some very strange designs for starships over the course of his career from the ray-shaped Galor and Keldon-class warships of the Cardassian Union, to the beetle-shaped attack ships of the Jem'Hadar to the cuboid ships of the dreaded Borg but this one was perhaps the strangest of all.
It was a pyramid.
"Tactical analysis Mr Beach," Darian ordered as the alien vessel started to rise out of the lower orbit of the planet it had been maintaining, allowing it to bombard the surface far more effectively. Something that it had clearly been doing for the last hour, ever since they had received the Tollan distress call, as evidenced by the huge amounts of smoke and dust that he could see spreading throughout the atmosphere from where the ship had been firing.
"Sir the alien vessel is heavily armed we're reading up to sixty weapons batteries spread across the hull," Beach reported scanning his sensors, "tactical analysis indicates plasma-based weapons similar to type two disruptors. No torpedo launchers detected."
"What about their shields," Urlet asked exchanging a mildly concerned look with Darian at Beach's report. Type two disruptors were unusual to say the least as while they could be powerful they were less effective against modern deflector shields than the more common type three disruptors used by the Romulans, Klingons and the Breen due in no small part to the fact that unusually for energy weapons they didn't employ any real form of phased energy just a mass of superheated plasma. Still they both knew better than to underestimate the power of the weapons and the level of threat that they could pose to their ship. "Can we damage them?"
"Yes commander we can. Sensors indicate that the alien shields are one or two generations behind our own. Captain sensors indicate that a number of additional craft are coming up from the surface, we read twelve fighters and four Runabout-sized craft likely a bomber or heavy attack fighter. They're all armed with two scaled down versions of the alien weapons and the heavier ones appear to be equipped with plasma bomb launchers and unlike the smaller vessels are shielded. They're approaching on an attack vector, three minutes to intercept."
"Launch the Cobra's," Darian ordered referring to the six Cobra-class warp fighters that were stored in their main shuttle bay. The Cobras were the modern slightly smaller descendants of the Peregrine-class fighters of the Dominion War which despite their smaller size were considerably more powerful than the older Peregrines as that class had begun its life as a fast courier only later being outfitted with heavier phasers and a torpedo launcher to serve as attack ships, "order them to assume CSP formation three around us. Mr Ashton hail the alien vessel let's get this over with."
"Aye sir," both Beach and Ashton acknowledged before carrying out the tasks that they had been assigned.
"Hail acknowledged sir your on," Ashton reported as the holographic view screen changed to bring in an image of what had to be the strangest bridge design that anyone on the bridge of the Resolution had ever seen. There were only two visible consoles with a human figure wearing chainmail armour of all things manning them while at the back, sitting on a throne upon a raised platform was a human figure wearing elaborate brown robes with an odd silver device wrapped around his right hand. Standing on either side of the raised dais were two statues each holding a bowl-like brazier with real flames flickering in them while the walls were all gold and covered in Egyptian-style hieroglyphics. It honestly looked more like something that you would find in some pharaoh's palace in Ancient Egypt than something that belong on the bridge of an advanced interstellar warship.
Sheesh and I thought the Ferengi were bad for bling, Darian thought gazing upon all the gaudy gold decoration before speaking and issuing the obligatory warning to these unknowns to break off their attack. "Attention unknown vessel, this is Captain Darian Parker of the Federation starship Resolution. You are ordered to cease your attack upon this planet and withdraw at once. If you do not we will be forced to engage you."
For a moment his opposite number on the bridge of the Goa'uld warship blinked and looked shocked that he was actually being threatened, then abruptly his eyes lit up as though there were whitish-gold lights behind them and the Goa'uld laughed in a distorted, utterly inhuman voice. "I find insolence amusing human," the being said in that same distorted inhuman voice. "Who are you to threaten a god? If you apologise now and kneel before me I will be merciful."
Darian raised an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan fashion, it was a sign of how long humans and Vulcans had associated with one another that they'd started to use each other's mannerisms without even thinking about it. "I very much doubt you are a god," he said calmly, "what I do see however is someone attacking and murdering innocents it stops now. Either you break off and leave or I will open fire."
"I am the great god Tanith you dare to threaten me!"
This is getting us nowhere, Darian thought. "I do and to prove my point Mister Beach fire a warning shot across Mister Tanith's bow."
"Aye sir," Beach acknowledged giving the command to his console. A moment later a phaser beam blasted out from the Resolution's dorsal forward phaser array and shot across the distance between the two ships, skimming past the Goa'uld ship close enough to make its shields flare but otherwise do no damage. On the screen Darian watched the bridge of the Goa'uld ship shudder from the backwash of the beam.
"YOU DARE," Tanith thundered enraged and slightly fearful at feeling his ship shiver with the backwash. "I will tolerate this insolence no longer. Kree'shak chel Jaffa."
The communications link closed down as the Goa'uld terminated the transmission from there end. The image of the alien warship returned a moment before a golden bolt of energy was launched towards the Resolution. The blast slammed into the forward shields and shattered, breaking apart and dispersing in a momentary shimmer and flare of Cherenkov radiation. Darian noted with approval that the ship absorbed the blast with only the faintest of shudders.
"Direct hit on our forward shields. No damage," Beach reported as the Goa'uld ship fired another bolt, and another, and another. A distant rumble of thunder ran through the ship and the deck shivered slightly under the attack. "Multiple hits. Shields down by point zero five percent."
"Captain I believe we have shown them enough that they cannot seriously hurt us," Urlet pointed out as more plasma disruptor bolts slammed into the Resolution's powerful deflector shields and sleeted ineffectively off into space.
"Shields at ninety-eight percent," Beach reported, "shield matrix regenerating now, full power in two seconds."
"Alright enough is enough," Darian said as more bolts slammed into the shields. "Open fire all phasers. Target their weapons I want them disabled, not destroyed."
"Aye sir," Beach acknowledged entering the commands into his console. A moment later there came the familiar thrum of phaser fire through the ship as the Resolution's weapons opened fire upon her attacker, sending sequential searing yellow-orange energy beams into the Goa'uld shields making them flare with strain. "Multiple hits on the enemy ship sir. There shields are down to ninety percent. Sir enemy fighters and bombers approaching."
"Detach our CSP to deal with them but stand by with point defence if any of them get through," Darian ordered as more disruptor bolts slammed into the shields as the Goa'uld kept firing only to be answered with phaser blasts. "Keep firing all phasers until the Goa'uld have either been disabled or retreated whichever comes first."
"Aye sir."
Battle was joined.
---///---
Cobra Leader
That Same Time
"Roger that command will do."
Sitting, cocooned in a full environmental suit as while the cockpit of the fighter had atmosphere they had learned the hard way not to take it for granted, Lieutenant Juan Reyes acknowledged the order from Commander Beach on the Resolution. He immediately relayed the order to the rest of his small squadron - while the more peacenik members of Starfleet Command, like Admiral Picard, had not been able to stop them being assigned to major capital ships like the Resolution due to the ever-rising tensions and likelihood of war with the Klingons they had managed to limit the numbers that any one ship could carry – even as he broke away from the combat space patrol they'd been maintaining around the Sovereign-class ship and began advancing upon the approaching enemy fighters and heavier bombers. His screens showed the others doing the same while behind them their mothership and odd pyramid ship began firing high intensity energy blasts at one another.
Juan paid it no mind as he guided his fighter closer to the incoming enemy. His sensors reaching out ahead of him seeking a target to lock onto, finding it nearly instantly as the seconds to phaser range counted down. While he waited he assessed the enemy fighters they were certainly odd-looking things a vaguely oval central pod that connected to a pair of forward swept bat-like wings. They appeared lightly armed with just two plasma disruptor cannons with no torpedoes or missiles – certainly nothing like the twelve micro-quantum torpedoes in his internal magazine – being carried, no shields and very thin armour. Still he knew better than to underestimate them and the skill of their pilots.
A bleep from the console informed him that they were now within weapons range. Without hesitation he pressed the trigger on his right control stick. Balls of yellow-orange phaser power flew from the pulse phaser cannons built into the wings of his fighter, slicing across the intervening space nearly instantly and slamming into the first enemy fighter with searing force. Instantly the fighter crumbled into a plume of highly energized flotsam as the bursts of phased nadion particles simply ripped it apart at the subatomic level. Around him the rest of his squadron did the same, their initial volley of phaser fire removing half the enemy fighters from the field in a devastating first strike.
The enemy returned fire bolts of golden energy bursting forth from their cannons towards the approaching enemy who was daring to defy there god. None of the relatively slow-moving bolts of plasmatic death got anywhere near the Federation fighters which deftly evaded them. Not deterred the Jaffa pilots fired again, this time being rewarded with a few hits not that it did anything as meters from the hulls the bolts broke apart and dissipated in a bluish shimmer of radiation and a small cauliflower of radiant energy revealing the presence of energy shields around the Cobra's.
Juan and his colleagues returned the favour unleashing a blistering barrage of both heavy pulse phaser from cannons and beam phaser fire from their secondary turret arrays. The result was absolutely devastating as guided by one of the most sophisticated target acquisition and tracking systems that the legendary Starfleet Corps of Engineers could produce every single bolt or beam struck a target. The remaining death gliders simply vanished in momentary bursts of flame and radiant energy as the phasers consumed them, leaving nothing behind but clouds of superheated elementary particles.
Despite being shocked by the easy destruction of their escorting gliders the Jaffa piloting the four Al'kesh bombers pressed on heading towards the ship engaging their god.
In his cockpit Juan raised an eyebrow, impressed despite himself by the enemy determination, as he brought his fighter around in pursuit. A turret on the underside of the closest target swung around and began firing bolts at him. Most of the shots went wide as clearly whatever targeting system these guys were using was utter crap, though a few did nick his shields making them flare but not doing much in the way of damage to a force field that had been designed to repel fire from the powerful disruptors of Klingon Birds of Prey and Jem'Hadar attack ships.
"Okay enough is enough," he muttered before locking onto the attacking bomber and firing. Somewhat to his surprise his phaser blasts impacted an energy shield around the target that flared and sparked but didn't fail under his attack. Huh so the larger ones have shields why don't the smaller ones, he thought even as he fired again hitting it with both his heavy wing mounted cannons and fire from the beam phaser turret in the nose and following it up with the pulsating blue-white orb of a micro-quantum torpedo. The alien shields flared under the phaser fire but held up only to be knocked flat by the following torpedo which also ripped a hole several meters wide in the aft section of the bomber.
Immediately the blue glow of the bomber's engines died and it began to spin out of control, helpless and nearly powerless, while spewing debris and atmosphere from the breach in the hull. Juan considered finishing it off, his sensors confirmed that there were still two life signs in what appeared to be the cockpit, but ultimately decided against it. They weren't a threat anymore and he wasn't about to kill someone who couldn't fight back plus they might be useful prisoners after this battle.
So instead he turned his attention towards the next in the line of bombers which was approaching the Resolution and was angling to fly over her for a bombing run. It never got a chance as one of the secondary phaser arrays on the mighty Sovereign-class ship fired the beam ripping through the bombers shields as if they didn't exist to instantly turn the vessel into a plume of disassociated ions. Glancing at his sensor screens Juan noted that the rest of his squadron had claimed the other bombers and he couldn't help but shake his head somewhat. This was far too easy, he thought as compared to the enemies the Cobra fighters were designed to counter – like the Klingons and the Jem'Hadar – these Goa'uld fighters and bombers were little more than toys.
Abruptly his comm came to life.
"Attention all fighters sensors are detecting additional fighters and bombers coming up from the planet," Commander Beach's clipped, English voice said over the comm. "Intercept and destroy."
"Roger command will do," Juan acknowledged and brought his fighter around, the rest of the squadron doing the same, and began advancing towards the planets smoke filled atmosphere.
They still had enemies to kill.
---///---
Goa'uld Mothership
That Same Time
A deep rumbling boom rolled through the pel'tac as the ship shook fiercely under another barrage of the alien beam weapons. Tanith held onto the edges of his command throne with a near death grip to avoid the indignity of being thrown to the floor. This battle was not turning out as he had hoped it would, not only had the initial wave of gliders and Al'kesh recalled from Tollana been wiped from the sky by a mere six enemy fighters but even his Anubis-upgraded guns were not doing enough damage to the Federation warship. The tactical HUD confirming that while its shields were weakening under their attack they were not weakening quickly enough and indeed seemed to somehow regenerate themselves at least partially between hits. How that was possible he had absolutely no idea.
"Damage report," he ordered as the ship shuddered under another hit. From the force of the shaking he could tell that their shields were seriously struggling against the Federation's exotic particle beam weapons. He could also smell the acrid stench of overheating and overloading control crystals from the strain that was being placed on the Ha'tak's systems.
"My lord shields are down to sixteen percent," Nyr'u reported from the main console, holding on as the ship shook again, "make that ten percent one or two more hits and they'll collapse. We have lost primary power on several levels and life support on two levels. All decks are reporting significant casualties."
Tanith growled angrily but also somewhat fearfully. "Is the hyperdrive still online?" he asked, silently hoping that it was so he could withdraw to gather additional forces then return to crush these insolent Federation people. He certainly couldn't stay as he knew to stay would simply lead to defeat and death.
"It is my lord."
"Very well we will withdraw and summon additional forces. Then we will return and crush these pests for daring to defy their gods."
Nyr'u nodded and started to open his mouth to speak to acknowledge but before he could speak the most violent blast yet rocked the ship throwing everyone in the pel'tac, even Tanith, to the floor. Tanith grunted as he hit the deck even as he heard a strange, ominous buzzing/hissing sound. What in Anubis name, he thought as he looked up to see the bulkheads and deck were literally glowing with the same yellow-orange light as the alien beams. A moment later they turned into a roaring mass of flames that enveloped everyone on the pel'tac bringing with it a tsunami of pain…
…before everything went dark.
---///---
Bridge
USS Resolution
A Few Moments Earlier
Darian gripped the arm rests of his command chair as the ship shuddered slightly under another volley of Goa'uld plasma disruptor fire. He was honestly surprised by how well the Resolution was wearing the storm of enemy fire and how well their shields were weathering the storm and even regenerating somewhat between salvos. Clearly when the Starfleet Corps of Engineers had outdone themselves when they designed the Sojourner subtype of the Sovereign-class like the Resolution incorporating all the lessons learned from not just the Dominion War but conflicts with the Borg and the technologies developed from those lessons into the vessel.
On the view screen he observed the enemy vessel as their phasers slammed into it again and this time its shields buckled under the attack. Additional blasts followed as, per his earlier orders, Commander Beach began targeting the enemy weapons arrays aiming to defang them at which point they would hopefully surrender so they wouldn't need to destroy them.
What happened next was nothing like anything he had ever seen before, or ever expect to happen.
The moment the phaser beams touched the hull as expected small explosions erupted as weapons arrays simply dissolved into their component atoms. What was not expected was for the yellow-orange glow of the phaser beams to linger, grow brighter and begin to spread like wildfire over the entire hull of the ship growing brighter and brighter the entire time. A moment later the entire ship erupted in a colossal explosion that seemed to momentarily rip the very fabric of the space-time continuum apart.
"What the hell," he breathed in shock exchanging an incredulous glance with his first officer. Both himself and Urlet had fought extensively during the Dominion War and they had never, ever seen phasers do that before. While it wasn't uncommon for phasers and disruptors to disintegrate large sections of a hull around the point of impact due to the nuclear disruptive forces imparted by the beams or bolts they normally didn't completely destroy a ship like that. You had to deliberately target the warp core to accomplish such sudden and absolute destruction.
"Commander Beach what happened," Urlet demanded.
"I don't know commander," the British descended tactical officer answered sounding as incredulous as they were about what they had just seen happen. "The phaser beams were not powerful enough to destroy the ship like that, I reduced the power specifically to avoid that. It's like something in the make-up of the hull amplified and conducted the energy of the beams until it reached critical mass at which point the ship exploded."
"What could cause that," Darian asked as he knew of no material that could do that and if the aliens had a material that could amplify particle weapon impacts like that why on Earth would they build an entire starship out of it or at least armour the hull with it? It made absolutely no sense, especially as particle weapons – be they phasers or disruptors – had been a stable of starship combat for centuries before Zephram Cochrane had even invented the warp drive.
"Unknown sir."
"Lieutenant Rakan I want you to begin examining our sensor records of the event," Darian ordered after a moment. "See if you can find out what exactly caused that effect and if we can prevent it in the future."
"Aye sir."
"In the meantime Mister Ashton what's our status?"
"Sir our primary shield was dropped to seventy percent by the enemy weapons fire before the secondary emitters cut in and regenerated the force field," Ashton reported from ops. "Minor damage to our forward ablative armour matrix from thermal bleed through but otherwise the hull is intact. Armour regeneration already in progress. Some minor EPS relays blew out on decks two and three and one of the primary phaser power couplings to the forward dorsal array has overheated. No other damage sustained; repair crews are responding."
"Casualties?"
"No serious casualties have been reported at this time sir just minor bumps and bruises."
"Excellent. Mister Beach what's the status of the remaining enemy fighters and bombers?"
"Sir all remaining enemy fighters and bomber craft have been destroyed," Beach reported, impressed despite himself by the performance of the Cobra warp fighters. While he had known that they had been designed to be formidable little attack craft, the perfect defence craft for their outposts, starbases and colonies along the border with the Klingon Empire, they had exceeded his expectations in their performance against the Goa'uld. "All our fighters are now returning to the ship. One enemy bomber remains drifting, we're reading no atmosphere or life signs onboard."
"Lock on a tractor beam and prepare to bring it aboard for analysis," Darian ordered.
"Aye sir."
"Sir we're receiving a transmission from the planet," Lieutenant Ashton reported as his console chirped, "it's High Chancellor Travell."
"Put her through lieutenant."
"Aye sir."
Almost immediately the view screen changed from showing the spreading cloud of cooling plasma that had once been the Goa'uld warship to showing an image of the stately Tollan leader. She had clearly seen better days as her face as now covered with soot and grime, her grey hair partially out of its neat and elaborate style and she had a thin cut on her forehead. Behind her the control room she was in was obviously heavily damaged with broken support girders lying at odd angles with at least one console looking like it had caught fire at one point but said fire had since been extinguished.
"I don't know who you are but on behalf of the Tollan people I thank you for intervening against Tanith," Travell said, "if he had continued with his attack he would have certainly killed almost everyone and enslaved any survivors."
"High Chancellor Travell I am Captain Darian Parker of the Federation starship Resolution," Darian said in response, standing up. "You are most welcome. May I ask what your status is?"
"We have sustained extensive damage to all our major cities as well as most of the main towns," Travell answered her voice shaking with a combination of pain, grief, and understandable anger. "We don't know the extent of our casualties yet but they will be high in the many thousands at least as Tanith deliberately targeted our metropolitan areas first. I hate to ask, given what you have already done, but is there anything you can do to assist us? I will contact our colony worlds and summon aide but it will take some time for our ships to arrive."
"We will do all we can to assist you," Darian answered, knowing that the Resolution – like all Federation starships – was well equipped to handle disasters on a planetary scale and their medical personnel were unfortunately well experienced at dealing with the kinds of injuries that could be sustained in a planetary bombardment. The Jem'Hadar had, after all, been very fond of such things during the war so had the Cardassians and Breen. "We will enter orbit and begin transporting teams down to assist as soon as possible."
"Thank you," Travell answered the relief clear to hear in her voice. "Captain Parker would it possible for me to meet with you at some point? I believe that we will have a great deal to talk about."
"That can certainly be arranged High Chancellor," Darian answered, "but first we should begin dealing with the immediate fallout of this assault upon your world."
"Indeed. We will speak again shortly Travell out." The communication link closed down and the view screen returned to showing the image of the space outside the ship. Darian turned and returned to his command chair before speaking again.
"Ensign Querr take us into orbit above the planet," he ordered, "Commander Urlet I want you to begin organising the relief teams."
"Aye sir," both Querr and Urlet acknowledged. A moment later a shiver ran through the deck as the impulse engines came to life and began to propel the powerful starship into a high orbit above Tollana, ready to begin transporting down disaster relief crews and all manner of emergency supplies and equipment from the Resolution's extensive store of such things.
"Captain we've got a problem," Beach abruptly reported from his console. Now what, Darian thought as he turned his head to look at the younger man.
"What is it?"
"Sir the Klingons have escaped."
---///---
Authors Notes: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. The next chapter probably won't be out for awhile as I want to work on some of my other fics first – as well as deal with a particularly persistent plot bunny that might or might not become something in the future – before carrying on with this one. Next time there is going to be a little bit of Klingon trouble even as the Resolution crew begin assisting the Tollan with the long process of recovery from Tanith's attack upon their world. Until next time.
---///---
Chapter Three
Goa'uld Mothership
Tollana Orbit
A Short Time Later
Sitting on the pel'tac throne Tanith felt a profound sense of satisfaction as he watched the planet below burn under a relentless barrage of plasma blasts from his ship's cannons. For centuries the Tollan had resisted the Goa'uld, their superior technology affording them protection from the wrath of those who they should have worshipped as their gods. Even as little as two years ago they had been able to stand against the gods destroying three motherships – two belonging to Heru'ur and one to Zipacna – in a matter of just a few days, the latter assisted by the ever-meddlesome Tau'ri team called SG-1.
Now though everything had changed and not past time.
After more than a thousand years of exile Anubis had returned to the empire. And he had brought with him powerful new technological advancements, advancements that with a bit more time and appropriate recruitment would soon see him claim the throne and title that had been denied him for far too long by the High Council. Advancements that had let him bring the Tollan to heel for his master, forcing them to build him some bombs that incorporated the famed Tollan phase shifting technology which would allow them to bypass most physical stargate fortifications. Like the one that protected the Tau'ri stargate, something he had ordered the Tollan High Chancellor to do as both a test and a means of eliminating the people of that world who had been making far too much of a nuisance of themselves over the last few years while sitting smug behind the protection of the Asgard.
Unfortunately the Tollan had broken the agreement rather than use the weapon, choosing to sacrifice themselves and their planet rather than let Anubis had the weapons that were his due. It was brave of them, and he could see the hand of the accursed Tau'ri in it, as it sacrificed their world and their existence as a civilization. One had to admire such bravery and he did even as he began raining retribution down upon them.
That had begun an hour ago.
By this point the capital and the other two major cities on Tollana had been virtually razed to the ground. With the bombardment now moving on to the larger towns while gliders and Al'kesh assaulted the smaller settlements as the last of the planets once formidable defensive network of ion cannons had at last been silenced. Knowing that they were beaten the Tollan had begun trying to escape the planet, with numerous spacecraft from small shuttles to large passenger ships attempting to leave the smouldering world – only to be easily shot down by his forces. Nobody would be allowed to escape as the Tollan had defied the gods for the last time and would pay for their insolence with their lives.
"My lord," the Jaffa manning the main console called back to him.
"Yes?" Tanith asked.
"My lord sensors are detecting an object entering the system at high speed," the Jaffa reported, "it appears to be a ship, unknown configuration. My lord it is not travelling in hyperspace."
"So someone dares to come to the Tollan's aide do they," Tanith said even as he inwardly cursed himself for allowing the Tollan to continue sending a planetary distress signal. It had been amusing to hear Travell pleading with whoever might be listening for help for her doomed planet. Now it appeared that indulging in allowing her to send the distress call was coming back to bite him and someone, someone who didn't fear the Goa'uld as they should as nobody this side of the Asgard got to defy the will of the gods, was answering her. Though what did the Jaffa mean by them not travelling in hyperspace? Every spacefaring civilization known to the Goa'uld used hyperspace, even the Asgard used hyperspace. It was really the only reliable method of achieving faster than light travel in a reasonable timeframe.
After a moment he decided it didn't matter. These newcomers, whoever or whatever they were, would bow to him as their god – as lesser beings should – or he would destroy them. It was as simple as that.
"How long until they arrive?"
"Two minutes my lord."
"Prepare to intercept them as soon as they arrive. Recall half our gliders and Al'kesh from the surface to support us. The rest are to continue with the attack upon the Tollan."
"Yes my lord," the Jaffa, Nyr'u Tanith recalled his name to be, acknowledged before giving the order to the gliders and Al'kesh currently attacking the surface while accessing the ships navigational controls moving them up into a slightly higher orbit where – if a battle erupted i.e. if the incoming ship was foolish enough to defy the Goa'uld – manoeuvring would be easier in comparison to the lower orbit needed for planetary bombardment that they had been maintaining.
For the next minute or so nothing happened then he saw the unknown vessel, using an equally unknown faster than light propulsion system, dropping back into normal space well within weapons range.
"My lord the unknown ship has arrived. Sensors confirm one vessel bearing one two nine by zero six seven, distance twenty thousand kilometres. There shields are up and their weapons systems appear to be powered."
"Show me."
"Yes my lord."
The holographic tactical HUD appeared over the triangular viewport at the front of the pel'tac showing an image of the newly arrived alien warship. Tanith leaned forward on his throne to examine it a bit more closely. The vessel was unlike anything he had ever seen, or indeed anyone in his entire genetic line had ever seen, before and appeared to be composed of a number of simple mathematical shapes in the form of circles, ovals and rectangles arranged and fitted together in a complex but beautiful arrangement. The vessel was large and constructed of a previously unknown metallic alloy and covered with some type of armour whose composition the ships computer couldn't identify.
He noted that the energy shield around the vessel was quite powerful and had a structure that didn't match anything in the Goa'uld database, the force field also didn't take the form of a bubble around the ship in the way that Goa'uld shields did. Instead it seemed to be composed of a series of layers that conformed to the contours of the ships hull, it was a style of defensive field that the Goa'uld had experimented on and off with for a few millennia now – as conformal shield theoretically would allow a much greater degree of protection and greater energy efficiency than conventional bubble shields did – but had never gotten it to work. Not even the great creator of all Goa'uld technology P'tah or even Anubis had been able to get that type of shield to work in practice. These aliens, whoever they were, obviously had which meant that they would be a challenging opponent to defeat.
"My lord we are being hailed," Nyr'u reported.
"Very well I will hear what they have to say. Put them through."
"Yes my lord."
Immediately the HUD changed bringing in the image of the commander of the unknown warship. Tanith was surprised to find himself face to face with an athletic male human wearing an unknown black and grey uniform with a red undershirt – neither of which did much to hide a muscular build that was enough to make Tanith inwardly drool as he considered what a good host this human would make – which had four odd gold pins on the collar. An arrowhead shaped badge was located on the right side of his chest. Immediately the human spoke in an accent that Tanith had never heard before.
"Attention unknown vessel," the human said. "This is Captain Darian Parker of the Federation starship Resolution. You are ordered to cease your attack upon this planet and withdraw at once. If you do not we will be forced to engage you."
Tanith was instantly incensed. How dare this human make demands of him when he should have been bowing to him as his god. Despite his rage though he had to respect the human's boldness. Which was why he responded in the only way he could by flaring his eyes…
…and laughing.
---///---
Bridge
USS Resolution
A Few Moments Earlier
What a strange looking ship, was the first thought that passed through Darian's mind as the Resolution dropped out of warp and approached the Tollan planet and came face to face with its attacker. He had seen some very strange designs for starships over the course of his career from the ray-shaped Galor and Keldon-class warships of the Cardassian Union, to the beetle-shaped attack ships of the Jem'Hadar to the cuboid ships of the dreaded Borg but this one was perhaps the strangest of all.
It was a pyramid.
"Tactical analysis Mr Beach," Darian ordered as the alien vessel started to rise out of the lower orbit of the planet it had been maintaining, allowing it to bombard the surface far more effectively. Something that it had clearly been doing for the last hour, ever since they had received the Tollan distress call, as evidenced by the huge amounts of smoke and dust that he could see spreading throughout the atmosphere from where the ship had been firing.
"Sir the alien vessel is heavily armed we're reading up to sixty weapons batteries spread across the hull," Beach reported scanning his sensors, "tactical analysis indicates plasma-based weapons similar to type two disruptors. No torpedo launchers detected."
"What about their shields," Urlet asked exchanging a mildly concerned look with Darian at Beach's report. Type two disruptors were unusual to say the least as while they could be powerful they were less effective against modern deflector shields than the more common type three disruptors used by the Romulans, Klingons and the Breen due in no small part to the fact that unusually for energy weapons they didn't employ any real form of phased energy just a mass of superheated plasma. Still they both knew better than to underestimate the power of the weapons and the level of threat that they could pose to their ship. "Can we damage them?"
"Yes commander we can. Sensors indicate that the alien shields are one or two generations behind our own. Captain sensors indicate that a number of additional craft are coming up from the surface, we read twelve fighters and four Runabout-sized craft likely a bomber or heavy attack fighter. They're all armed with two scaled down versions of the alien weapons and the heavier ones appear to be equipped with plasma bomb launchers and unlike the smaller vessels are shielded. They're approaching on an attack vector, three minutes to intercept."
"Launch the Cobra's," Darian ordered referring to the six Cobra-class warp fighters that were stored in their main shuttle bay. The Cobras were the modern slightly smaller descendants of the Peregrine-class fighters of the Dominion War which despite their smaller size were considerably more powerful than the older Peregrines as that class had begun its life as a fast courier only later being outfitted with heavier phasers and a torpedo launcher to serve as attack ships, "order them to assume CSP formation three around us. Mr Ashton hail the alien vessel let's get this over with."
"Aye sir," both Beach and Ashton acknowledged before carrying out the tasks that they had been assigned.
"Hail acknowledged sir your on," Ashton reported as the holographic view screen changed to bring in an image of what had to be the strangest bridge design that anyone on the bridge of the Resolution had ever seen. There were only two visible consoles with a human figure wearing chainmail armour of all things manning them while at the back, sitting on a throne upon a raised platform was a human figure wearing elaborate brown robes with an odd silver device wrapped around his right hand. Standing on either side of the raised dais were two statues each holding a bowl-like brazier with real flames flickering in them while the walls were all gold and covered in Egyptian-style hieroglyphics. It honestly looked more like something that you would find in some pharaoh's palace in Ancient Egypt than something that belong on the bridge of an advanced interstellar warship.
Sheesh and I thought the Ferengi were bad for bling, Darian thought gazing upon all the gaudy gold decoration before speaking and issuing the obligatory warning to these unknowns to break off their attack. "Attention unknown vessel, this is Captain Darian Parker of the Federation starship Resolution. You are ordered to cease your attack upon this planet and withdraw at once. If you do not we will be forced to engage you."
For a moment his opposite number on the bridge of the Goa'uld warship blinked and looked shocked that he was actually being threatened, then abruptly his eyes lit up as though there were whitish-gold lights behind them and the Goa'uld laughed in a distorted, utterly inhuman voice. "I find insolence amusing human," the being said in that same distorted inhuman voice. "Who are you to threaten a god? If you apologise now and kneel before me I will be merciful."
Darian raised an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan fashion, it was a sign of how long humans and Vulcans had associated with one another that they'd started to use each other's mannerisms without even thinking about it. "I very much doubt you are a god," he said calmly, "what I do see however is someone attacking and murdering innocents it stops now. Either you break off and leave or I will open fire."
"I am the great god Tanith you dare to threaten me!"
This is getting us nowhere, Darian thought. "I do and to prove my point Mister Beach fire a warning shot across Mister Tanith's bow."
"Aye sir," Beach acknowledged giving the command to his console. A moment later a phaser beam blasted out from the Resolution's dorsal forward phaser array and shot across the distance between the two ships, skimming past the Goa'uld ship close enough to make its shields flare but otherwise do no damage. On the screen Darian watched the bridge of the Goa'uld ship shudder from the backwash of the beam.
"YOU DARE," Tanith thundered enraged and slightly fearful at feeling his ship shiver with the backwash. "I will tolerate this insolence no longer. Kree'shak chel Jaffa."
The communications link closed down as the Goa'uld terminated the transmission from there end. The image of the alien warship returned a moment before a golden bolt of energy was launched towards the Resolution. The blast slammed into the forward shields and shattered, breaking apart and dispersing in a momentary shimmer and flare of Cherenkov radiation. Darian noted with approval that the ship absorbed the blast with only the faintest of shudders.
"Direct hit on our forward shields. No damage," Beach reported as the Goa'uld ship fired another bolt, and another, and another. A distant rumble of thunder ran through the ship and the deck shivered slightly under the attack. "Multiple hits. Shields down by point zero five percent."
"Captain I believe we have shown them enough that they cannot seriously hurt us," Urlet pointed out as more plasma disruptor bolts slammed into the Resolution's powerful deflector shields and sleeted ineffectively off into space.
"Shields at ninety-eight percent," Beach reported, "shield matrix regenerating now, full power in two seconds."
"Alright enough is enough," Darian said as more bolts slammed into the shields. "Open fire all phasers. Target their weapons I want them disabled, not destroyed."
"Aye sir," Beach acknowledged entering the commands into his console. A moment later there came the familiar thrum of phaser fire through the ship as the Resolution's weapons opened fire upon her attacker, sending sequential searing yellow-orange energy beams into the Goa'uld shields making them flare with strain. "Multiple hits on the enemy ship sir. There shields are down to ninety percent. Sir enemy fighters and bombers approaching."
"Detach our CSP to deal with them but stand by with point defence if any of them get through," Darian ordered as more disruptor bolts slammed into the shields as the Goa'uld kept firing only to be answered with phaser blasts. "Keep firing all phasers until the Goa'uld have either been disabled or retreated whichever comes first."
"Aye sir."
Battle was joined.
---///---
Cobra Leader
That Same Time
"Roger that command will do."
Sitting, cocooned in a full environmental suit as while the cockpit of the fighter had atmosphere they had learned the hard way not to take it for granted, Lieutenant Juan Reyes acknowledged the order from Commander Beach on the Resolution. He immediately relayed the order to the rest of his small squadron - while the more peacenik members of Starfleet Command, like Admiral Picard, had not been able to stop them being assigned to major capital ships like the Resolution due to the ever-rising tensions and likelihood of war with the Klingons they had managed to limit the numbers that any one ship could carry – even as he broke away from the combat space patrol they'd been maintaining around the Sovereign-class ship and began advancing upon the approaching enemy fighters and heavier bombers. His screens showed the others doing the same while behind them their mothership and odd pyramid ship began firing high intensity energy blasts at one another.
Juan paid it no mind as he guided his fighter closer to the incoming enemy. His sensors reaching out ahead of him seeking a target to lock onto, finding it nearly instantly as the seconds to phaser range counted down. While he waited he assessed the enemy fighters they were certainly odd-looking things a vaguely oval central pod that connected to a pair of forward swept bat-like wings. They appeared lightly armed with just two plasma disruptor cannons with no torpedoes or missiles – certainly nothing like the twelve micro-quantum torpedoes in his internal magazine – being carried, no shields and very thin armour. Still he knew better than to underestimate them and the skill of their pilots.
A bleep from the console informed him that they were now within weapons range. Without hesitation he pressed the trigger on his right control stick. Balls of yellow-orange phaser power flew from the pulse phaser cannons built into the wings of his fighter, slicing across the intervening space nearly instantly and slamming into the first enemy fighter with searing force. Instantly the fighter crumbled into a plume of highly energized flotsam as the bursts of phased nadion particles simply ripped it apart at the subatomic level. Around him the rest of his squadron did the same, their initial volley of phaser fire removing half the enemy fighters from the field in a devastating first strike.
The enemy returned fire bolts of golden energy bursting forth from their cannons towards the approaching enemy who was daring to defy there god. None of the relatively slow-moving bolts of plasmatic death got anywhere near the Federation fighters which deftly evaded them. Not deterred the Jaffa pilots fired again, this time being rewarded with a few hits not that it did anything as meters from the hulls the bolts broke apart and dissipated in a bluish shimmer of radiation and a small cauliflower of radiant energy revealing the presence of energy shields around the Cobra's.
Juan and his colleagues returned the favour unleashing a blistering barrage of both heavy pulse phaser from cannons and beam phaser fire from their secondary turret arrays. The result was absolutely devastating as guided by one of the most sophisticated target acquisition and tracking systems that the legendary Starfleet Corps of Engineers could produce every single bolt or beam struck a target. The remaining death gliders simply vanished in momentary bursts of flame and radiant energy as the phasers consumed them, leaving nothing behind but clouds of superheated elementary particles.
Despite being shocked by the easy destruction of their escorting gliders the Jaffa piloting the four Al'kesh bombers pressed on heading towards the ship engaging their god.
In his cockpit Juan raised an eyebrow, impressed despite himself by the enemy determination, as he brought his fighter around in pursuit. A turret on the underside of the closest target swung around and began firing bolts at him. Most of the shots went wide as clearly whatever targeting system these guys were using was utter crap, though a few did nick his shields making them flare but not doing much in the way of damage to a force field that had been designed to repel fire from the powerful disruptors of Klingon Birds of Prey and Jem'Hadar attack ships.
"Okay enough is enough," he muttered before locking onto the attacking bomber and firing. Somewhat to his surprise his phaser blasts impacted an energy shield around the target that flared and sparked but didn't fail under his attack. Huh so the larger ones have shields why don't the smaller ones, he thought even as he fired again hitting it with both his heavy wing mounted cannons and fire from the beam phaser turret in the nose and following it up with the pulsating blue-white orb of a micro-quantum torpedo. The alien shields flared under the phaser fire but held up only to be knocked flat by the following torpedo which also ripped a hole several meters wide in the aft section of the bomber.
Immediately the blue glow of the bomber's engines died and it began to spin out of control, helpless and nearly powerless, while spewing debris and atmosphere from the breach in the hull. Juan considered finishing it off, his sensors confirmed that there were still two life signs in what appeared to be the cockpit, but ultimately decided against it. They weren't a threat anymore and he wasn't about to kill someone who couldn't fight back plus they might be useful prisoners after this battle.
So instead he turned his attention towards the next in the line of bombers which was approaching the Resolution and was angling to fly over her for a bombing run. It never got a chance as one of the secondary phaser arrays on the mighty Sovereign-class ship fired the beam ripping through the bombers shields as if they didn't exist to instantly turn the vessel into a plume of disassociated ions. Glancing at his sensor screens Juan noted that the rest of his squadron had claimed the other bombers and he couldn't help but shake his head somewhat. This was far too easy, he thought as compared to the enemies the Cobra fighters were designed to counter – like the Klingons and the Jem'Hadar – these Goa'uld fighters and bombers were little more than toys.
Abruptly his comm came to life.
"Attention all fighters sensors are detecting additional fighters and bombers coming up from the planet," Commander Beach's clipped, English voice said over the comm. "Intercept and destroy."
"Roger command will do," Juan acknowledged and brought his fighter around, the rest of the squadron doing the same, and began advancing towards the planets smoke filled atmosphere.
They still had enemies to kill.
---///---
Goa'uld Mothership
That Same Time
A deep rumbling boom rolled through the pel'tac as the ship shook fiercely under another barrage of the alien beam weapons. Tanith held onto the edges of his command throne with a near death grip to avoid the indignity of being thrown to the floor. This battle was not turning out as he had hoped it would, not only had the initial wave of gliders and Al'kesh recalled from Tollana been wiped from the sky by a mere six enemy fighters but even his Anubis-upgraded guns were not doing enough damage to the Federation warship. The tactical HUD confirming that while its shields were weakening under their attack they were not weakening quickly enough and indeed seemed to somehow regenerate themselves at least partially between hits. How that was possible he had absolutely no idea.
"Damage report," he ordered as the ship shuddered under another hit. From the force of the shaking he could tell that their shields were seriously struggling against the Federation's exotic particle beam weapons. He could also smell the acrid stench of overheating and overloading control crystals from the strain that was being placed on the Ha'tak's systems.
"My lord shields are down to sixteen percent," Nyr'u reported from the main console, holding on as the ship shook again, "make that ten percent one or two more hits and they'll collapse. We have lost primary power on several levels and life support on two levels. All decks are reporting significant casualties."
Tanith growled angrily but also somewhat fearfully. "Is the hyperdrive still online?" he asked, silently hoping that it was so he could withdraw to gather additional forces then return to crush these insolent Federation people. He certainly couldn't stay as he knew to stay would simply lead to defeat and death.
"It is my lord."
"Very well we will withdraw and summon additional forces. Then we will return and crush these pests for daring to defy their gods."
Nyr'u nodded and started to open his mouth to speak to acknowledge but before he could speak the most violent blast yet rocked the ship throwing everyone in the pel'tac, even Tanith, to the floor. Tanith grunted as he hit the deck even as he heard a strange, ominous buzzing/hissing sound. What in Anubis name, he thought as he looked up to see the bulkheads and deck were literally glowing with the same yellow-orange light as the alien beams. A moment later they turned into a roaring mass of flames that enveloped everyone on the pel'tac bringing with it a tsunami of pain…
…before everything went dark.
---///---
Bridge
USS Resolution
A Few Moments Earlier
Darian gripped the arm rests of his command chair as the ship shuddered slightly under another volley of Goa'uld plasma disruptor fire. He was honestly surprised by how well the Resolution was wearing the storm of enemy fire and how well their shields were weathering the storm and even regenerating somewhat between salvos. Clearly when the Starfleet Corps of Engineers had outdone themselves when they designed the Sojourner subtype of the Sovereign-class like the Resolution incorporating all the lessons learned from not just the Dominion War but conflicts with the Borg and the technologies developed from those lessons into the vessel.
On the view screen he observed the enemy vessel as their phasers slammed into it again and this time its shields buckled under the attack. Additional blasts followed as, per his earlier orders, Commander Beach began targeting the enemy weapons arrays aiming to defang them at which point they would hopefully surrender so they wouldn't need to destroy them.
What happened next was nothing like anything he had ever seen before, or ever expect to happen.
The moment the phaser beams touched the hull as expected small explosions erupted as weapons arrays simply dissolved into their component atoms. What was not expected was for the yellow-orange glow of the phaser beams to linger, grow brighter and begin to spread like wildfire over the entire hull of the ship growing brighter and brighter the entire time. A moment later the entire ship erupted in a colossal explosion that seemed to momentarily rip the very fabric of the space-time continuum apart.
"What the hell," he breathed in shock exchanging an incredulous glance with his first officer. Both himself and Urlet had fought extensively during the Dominion War and they had never, ever seen phasers do that before. While it wasn't uncommon for phasers and disruptors to disintegrate large sections of a hull around the point of impact due to the nuclear disruptive forces imparted by the beams or bolts they normally didn't completely destroy a ship like that. You had to deliberately target the warp core to accomplish such sudden and absolute destruction.
"Commander Beach what happened," Urlet demanded.
"I don't know commander," the British descended tactical officer answered sounding as incredulous as they were about what they had just seen happen. "The phaser beams were not powerful enough to destroy the ship like that, I reduced the power specifically to avoid that. It's like something in the make-up of the hull amplified and conducted the energy of the beams until it reached critical mass at which point the ship exploded."
"What could cause that," Darian asked as he knew of no material that could do that and if the aliens had a material that could amplify particle weapon impacts like that why on Earth would they build an entire starship out of it or at least armour the hull with it? It made absolutely no sense, especially as particle weapons – be they phasers or disruptors – had been a stable of starship combat for centuries before Zephram Cochrane had even invented the warp drive.
"Unknown sir."
"Lieutenant Rakan I want you to begin examining our sensor records of the event," Darian ordered after a moment. "See if you can find out what exactly caused that effect and if we can prevent it in the future."
"Aye sir."
"In the meantime Mister Ashton what's our status?"
"Sir our primary shield was dropped to seventy percent by the enemy weapons fire before the secondary emitters cut in and regenerated the force field," Ashton reported from ops. "Minor damage to our forward ablative armour matrix from thermal bleed through but otherwise the hull is intact. Armour regeneration already in progress. Some minor EPS relays blew out on decks two and three and one of the primary phaser power couplings to the forward dorsal array has overheated. No other damage sustained; repair crews are responding."
"Casualties?"
"No serious casualties have been reported at this time sir just minor bumps and bruises."
"Excellent. Mister Beach what's the status of the remaining enemy fighters and bombers?"
"Sir all remaining enemy fighters and bomber craft have been destroyed," Beach reported, impressed despite himself by the performance of the Cobra warp fighters. While he had known that they had been designed to be formidable little attack craft, the perfect defence craft for their outposts, starbases and colonies along the border with the Klingon Empire, they had exceeded his expectations in their performance against the Goa'uld. "All our fighters are now returning to the ship. One enemy bomber remains drifting, we're reading no atmosphere or life signs onboard."
"Lock on a tractor beam and prepare to bring it aboard for analysis," Darian ordered.
"Aye sir."
"Sir we're receiving a transmission from the planet," Lieutenant Ashton reported as his console chirped, "it's High Chancellor Travell."
"Put her through lieutenant."
"Aye sir."
Almost immediately the view screen changed from showing the spreading cloud of cooling plasma that had once been the Goa'uld warship to showing an image of the stately Tollan leader. She had clearly seen better days as her face as now covered with soot and grime, her grey hair partially out of its neat and elaborate style and she had a thin cut on her forehead. Behind her the control room she was in was obviously heavily damaged with broken support girders lying at odd angles with at least one console looking like it had caught fire at one point but said fire had since been extinguished.
"I don't know who you are but on behalf of the Tollan people I thank you for intervening against Tanith," Travell said, "if he had continued with his attack he would have certainly killed almost everyone and enslaved any survivors."
"High Chancellor Travell I am Captain Darian Parker of the Federation starship Resolution," Darian said in response, standing up. "You are most welcome. May I ask what your status is?"
"We have sustained extensive damage to all our major cities as well as most of the main towns," Travell answered her voice shaking with a combination of pain, grief, and understandable anger. "We don't know the extent of our casualties yet but they will be high in the many thousands at least as Tanith deliberately targeted our metropolitan areas first. I hate to ask, given what you have already done, but is there anything you can do to assist us? I will contact our colony worlds and summon aide but it will take some time for our ships to arrive."
"We will do all we can to assist you," Darian answered, knowing that the Resolution – like all Federation starships – was well equipped to handle disasters on a planetary scale and their medical personnel were unfortunately well experienced at dealing with the kinds of injuries that could be sustained in a planetary bombardment. The Jem'Hadar had, after all, been very fond of such things during the war so had the Cardassians and Breen. "We will enter orbit and begin transporting teams down to assist as soon as possible."
"Thank you," Travell answered the relief clear to hear in her voice. "Captain Parker would it possible for me to meet with you at some point? I believe that we will have a great deal to talk about."
"That can certainly be arranged High Chancellor," Darian answered, "but first we should begin dealing with the immediate fallout of this assault upon your world."
"Indeed. We will speak again shortly Travell out." The communication link closed down and the view screen returned to showing the image of the space outside the ship. Darian turned and returned to his command chair before speaking again.
"Ensign Querr take us into orbit above the planet," he ordered, "Commander Urlet I want you to begin organising the relief teams."
"Aye sir," both Querr and Urlet acknowledged. A moment later a shiver ran through the deck as the impulse engines came to life and began to propel the powerful starship into a high orbit above Tollana, ready to begin transporting down disaster relief crews and all manner of emergency supplies and equipment from the Resolution's extensive store of such things.
"Captain we've got a problem," Beach abruptly reported from his console. Now what, Darian thought as he turned his head to look at the younger man.
"What is it?"
"Sir the Klingons have escaped."
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Authors Notes: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. The next chapter probably won't be out for awhile as I want to work on some of my other fics first – as well as deal with a particularly persistent plot bunny that might or might not become something in the future – before carrying on with this one. Next time there is going to be a little bit of Klingon trouble even as the Resolution crew begin assisting the Tollan with the long process of recovery from Tanith's attack upon their world. Until next time.