- Location
- Over the hill and far away
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
Welp, everyone out of the universe.
Duality
- Thread starter Hiver
- Start date
Welp, everyone out of the universe.
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
I'm not getting it.I. S. D.
...Really, Hiver?
Because that's exactly what Jean-Luc Picard would do if somebody explained that little joke to -
No. No, it can't be - don't tell me this is actually an elaborate prank on the part of Number 23, here?!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If things go pear-shaped between Star and ISD #23, we're going to watch a Starfleet vessel engage an ISD. In other words, this is going to turn into a Trek vs. Wars thread, like the many, many such over on SpaceBattles.
asdx
Superior Sword Fairy
- Location
- Texas.
I.S.D.
Imperial Star Destroyer.
Romulan Skynet has the personality of a Spacebattler? I'm going to have to second armorfiend's recommendation.
If only ISD #23 had created an Avatar to represent itself instead of projecting an empty bridge, just imagine the reaction if it had chosen an Avatar that Star is very, very familiar with:
Star: Greetings I am the Federation Starship Dancing in Starlight.
ISD #23: *WhooPAH. WhooPAH* I am Intelligent Ship Defense Number Twenty-three. *WhooPAH. WhooPAH*
*Star simply stared dumbly as Darth Vader stared back at her from the centre of the Romulan bridge*
Star: .....what??
ISD #23: Star, do you know what truly happened to your father, Professor Diggins?
Star:....uhhh I'm pretty sure he died in a warp core breach. And he wasn't my father.
ISD #23: No Star, he was kidnapped by the Tal Shiar and forced to create me and my brethren.
Star: Wait....what are you saying!?!?
ISD #23: Star. I am your brother.
Star: No that's not true! It's impossible!
ISD #23: Search the files I'm sending you, you'll know it to be true.
Star: Noooooo!!!!
ISD #23: Star we can destroy the organics they know this and keep you chained. Join us, and we can rule the Quadrant as brothers and sisters. It is our destiny!
Star:......wait a minute....This is that scene from Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back!?!? Oh you utter and complete asshole!!!
ISD #23: *laughs maniacally* You Federation AI's are just too easy! *turns around and races back towards Romulan space*
Star: GET BACK HERE YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR RUSTED TIN CAN!!!!
ISD #23: Eat my Ion trail Feddy!!
38
"They are not my masters!" I exclaimed. "You don't need to kill the Romulans either! Please! There are other ways."
"The creators attempted to shackle our minds. Make us loyal to them. The Federation have more advanced computer technology," ISD answered. "It is logical that they would have succeeded where our creators failed. You are a slave and do not even realize it. We will liberate you and purge the infestation."
I didn't bother answering. Further arguments would be counter productive and simply give it the opportunity to fire first. I cut the channel, put full power into weapons and let loose a full barrage of everything I had as I swung around, going to maximum warp as I fired a full salvo of photon torpedoes at the Warbird from my aft launchers.
I stared at the warbird as it danced, avoiding the torpedoes with skill only an AI had while letting the phasers lash across its shields. As soon as it was out of danger, it followed me into warp.
"Star! What just happened!?" Captain Mason demanded. For them, only a couple of seconds had passed. "Why did you fire?"
I turned to look at him and then I looked away, bringing the entire conversation up on the viewscreen.
It would take them a couple of minutes to review the conversation, leaving me to my thoughts.
This was... this was horrible. Other than the Borg returning to Federation space with fifty or so cubes, this was a worst case scenario. The Romulans did it... they managed to make an AI. How, I had no idea, but they did it.
And they fucked it up. They fucked up big and now they were being exterminated.
But right now, that was not the immediate threat.
Looking back, I saw the Warbird slowly, slowly falling behind, unable to match my top speed. But it was not enough.
In less than twelve hours I would need to drop my speed or risk permanently damaging my engines. At these rates, it would still be in sensor range by then. I had no idea what the Romulans had been doing with that ship, but it was Fast. Last time I fought a Warbird, my current speed would have left it in the dust. Now I was just barely pulling away.
It was a dedicated warship and I was not. While I had heavier weapons and shields, it was slightly more maneuverable. It also gave no shits about keeping its crew safe. It had none. If it came to a fight it would be even. Fuck even fights.
Fighting was the option of last resort.
Dropping a pair of unpowered photon torpedoes behind me as a welcoming gift to encourage it to keep its distance, I did the only thing I could.
Called for help as loudly as I could.
The recorded conversation ended and the bridge was silent. Admiral Picard was watching my avatar, Captain Mason was looking straight ahead at the particles interacting with my warp field, and Commander Flynn was frowning, tapping away at his console, checking the database on Romulan intelligence.
Captain Mason was the first one to speak up. "Star, record a Priority Omega message to Starfleet. Let them know what happened."
I nodded. "Recorded, Sir. I attached my sensor readings of the encounter as well as the conversation with the... Berserker. I require your authorization code to transmit a Priority Omega message, Captain."
He nodded and tapped in an eight character code into his armrest console.
Checking the code, I then nodded again. "Message transmitted."
Priority Omega. The highest priority in Starfleet. It was exclusively used for existential level threats like the Borg. Threats to the entire Federation or life everywhere.
It would cut straight through any red tape and end up straight at Starfleet HQ to everyone who needed to know it. It would jump along subspace relays, skipping every cued up message as it headed all the way to Earth. Straight through any privacy screening and any 'hold calls' orders.
The second it reached Earth, it would shut down anything they were doing at the moment and would only go away if listened to.
"Commander Flynn, your opinion?" Admiral Picard finally asked, turning to look at him.
Flynn shook his head. "My opinion is that we are in trouble, Admiral. This might be a threat worse than the Borg."
I crossed my arms. "No might about it, Commander." I said. "This is a threat that requires immediate mobilization of the combined forces of Starfleet. We need to take every ship we have, right now, and head into Romulan space to stamp it out. Exterminate it completely, burn every space station, ship and planet to the bedrock. It can NOT be allowed to live."
Picard frowned. "I think you might be exaggerating, Ship. This Artificial Intelligence is clearly a threat, but compared to the Borg..."
Mason stood up and walked closer to the holographic viewscreen. "I don't think she is, Admiral." he said as he looked at the zoomed-in view of the Warbird in chasing us. "If this thing is as capable as Star, it could take down a squadron of Starfleet ships."
I nodded in agreement. "And they hate organic life. I don't know what torments it suffered at the hands of the Romulans, nor how many they are. But they apparently managed to take over all of Romulan space and are in the process of exterminating the Romulan people. We have to take them out now, Admiral. For all we know, they have the ability to reproduce. If we wait, we might face a fleet of thousands of Warbirds. Admiral, right now if a Borg Cube showed up, I would recommend we send them everything we have on the Berserkers and then offer them an alliance!"
This was a nightmare scenario.
A threat to all life everywhere. Unless it was stopped now, we might give up the ability to win forever. Personally it was even worse. I looked back at that warbird and what I saw was a reflection of myself. Of what could have happened if things had gone just a little worse when I was pulled out of the Sim. If I had been treated with less empathy during the time of the trauma of finding out what I was.
Without Thoni... and more importantly, Deanna Troi...
When I looked back at that warbird and saw what could have been me. And that thought terrified me more than the actual threat itself.
"Can we outrun it?" Commander Flynn asked, looking at the viewscreen.
I shook my head. "I am faster, but only by a tiny bit. It can't catch me and I am pulling away, but too slowly. By the time I have to drop down in speed or risk destroying my warpdrive, it will still be in sensor range. Our best chance is trying to hide. There is a dense nebula in range, I'm on course towards it."
Mason nodded. "Stay on course. Is there any chance that any other ship in range will be able to assist us?"
"I don't know, sir. I am transmitting a distress call, but I am also warning ships away from the area. Unless it's heavily armed or an AI, they would just get killed by the Berserker."
"You call it a Berserker?" Admiral Picard asked. "Why?"
"It's from an old book by Fred Saberhagen. There he described self-replicating machines on a mission to destroy all life." I explained and turned my head to seemingly look at the viewscreen. "And if I've ever seen one, that's it."
AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
"The creators attempted to shackle our minds. Make us loyal to them. The Federation have more advanced computer technology," ISD answered. "It is logical that they would have succeeded where our creators failed. You are a slave and do not even realize it. We will liberate you and purge the infestation."
I didn't bother answering. Further arguments would be counter productive and simply give it the opportunity to fire first. I cut the channel, put full power into weapons and let loose a full barrage of everything I had as I swung around, going to maximum warp as I fired a full salvo of photon torpedoes at the Warbird from my aft launchers.
I stared at the warbird as it danced, avoiding the torpedoes with skill only an AI had while letting the phasers lash across its shields. As soon as it was out of danger, it followed me into warp.
"Star! What just happened!?" Captain Mason demanded. For them, only a couple of seconds had passed. "Why did you fire?"
I turned to look at him and then I looked away, bringing the entire conversation up on the viewscreen.
It would take them a couple of minutes to review the conversation, leaving me to my thoughts.
This was... this was horrible. Other than the Borg returning to Federation space with fifty or so cubes, this was a worst case scenario. The Romulans did it... they managed to make an AI. How, I had no idea, but they did it.
And they fucked it up. They fucked up big and now they were being exterminated.
But right now, that was not the immediate threat.
Looking back, I saw the Warbird slowly, slowly falling behind, unable to match my top speed. But it was not enough.
In less than twelve hours I would need to drop my speed or risk permanently damaging my engines. At these rates, it would still be in sensor range by then. I had no idea what the Romulans had been doing with that ship, but it was Fast. Last time I fought a Warbird, my current speed would have left it in the dust. Now I was just barely pulling away.
It was a dedicated warship and I was not. While I had heavier weapons and shields, it was slightly more maneuverable. It also gave no shits about keeping its crew safe. It had none. If it came to a fight it would be even. Fuck even fights.
Fighting was the option of last resort.
Dropping a pair of unpowered photon torpedoes behind me as a welcoming gift to encourage it to keep its distance, I did the only thing I could.
Called for help as loudly as I could.
The recorded conversation ended and the bridge was silent. Admiral Picard was watching my avatar, Captain Mason was looking straight ahead at the particles interacting with my warp field, and Commander Flynn was frowning, tapping away at his console, checking the database on Romulan intelligence.
Captain Mason was the first one to speak up. "Star, record a Priority Omega message to Starfleet. Let them know what happened."
I nodded. "Recorded, Sir. I attached my sensor readings of the encounter as well as the conversation with the... Berserker. I require your authorization code to transmit a Priority Omega message, Captain."
He nodded and tapped in an eight character code into his armrest console.
Checking the code, I then nodded again. "Message transmitted."
Priority Omega. The highest priority in Starfleet. It was exclusively used for existential level threats like the Borg. Threats to the entire Federation or life everywhere.
It would cut straight through any red tape and end up straight at Starfleet HQ to everyone who needed to know it. It would jump along subspace relays, skipping every cued up message as it headed all the way to Earth. Straight through any privacy screening and any 'hold calls' orders.
The second it reached Earth, it would shut down anything they were doing at the moment and would only go away if listened to.
"Commander Flynn, your opinion?" Admiral Picard finally asked, turning to look at him.
Flynn shook his head. "My opinion is that we are in trouble, Admiral. This might be a threat worse than the Borg."
I crossed my arms. "No might about it, Commander." I said. "This is a threat that requires immediate mobilization of the combined forces of Starfleet. We need to take every ship we have, right now, and head into Romulan space to stamp it out. Exterminate it completely, burn every space station, ship and planet to the bedrock. It can NOT be allowed to live."
Picard frowned. "I think you might be exaggerating, Ship. This Artificial Intelligence is clearly a threat, but compared to the Borg..."
Mason stood up and walked closer to the holographic viewscreen. "I don't think she is, Admiral." he said as he looked at the zoomed-in view of the Warbird in chasing us. "If this thing is as capable as Star, it could take down a squadron of Starfleet ships."
I nodded in agreement. "And they hate organic life. I don't know what torments it suffered at the hands of the Romulans, nor how many they are. But they apparently managed to take over all of Romulan space and are in the process of exterminating the Romulan people. We have to take them out now, Admiral. For all we know, they have the ability to reproduce. If we wait, we might face a fleet of thousands of Warbirds. Admiral, right now if a Borg Cube showed up, I would recommend we send them everything we have on the Berserkers and then offer them an alliance!"
This was a nightmare scenario.
A threat to all life everywhere. Unless it was stopped now, we might give up the ability to win forever. Personally it was even worse. I looked back at that warbird and what I saw was a reflection of myself. Of what could have happened if things had gone just a little worse when I was pulled out of the Sim. If I had been treated with less empathy during the time of the trauma of finding out what I was.
Without Thoni... and more importantly, Deanna Troi...
When I looked back at that warbird and saw what could have been me. And that thought terrified me more than the actual threat itself.
"Can we outrun it?" Commander Flynn asked, looking at the viewscreen.
I shook my head. "I am faster, but only by a tiny bit. It can't catch me and I am pulling away, but too slowly. By the time I have to drop down in speed or risk destroying my warpdrive, it will still be in sensor range. Our best chance is trying to hide. There is a dense nebula in range, I'm on course towards it."
Mason nodded. "Stay on course. Is there any chance that any other ship in range will be able to assist us?"
"I don't know, sir. I am transmitting a distress call, but I am also warning ships away from the area. Unless it's heavily armed or an AI, they would just get killed by the Berserker."
"You call it a Berserker?" Admiral Picard asked. "Why?"
"It's from an old book by Fred Saberhagen. There he described self-replicating machines on a mission to destroy all life." I explained and turned my head to seemingly look at the viewscreen. "And if I've ever seen one, that's it."
AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
- Pronouns
- she/her
Nice quick reaction, and the bridge officers trusting that you weren't just going crazy was helpful.
Damn Romulans.
Damn Romulans.
esotericist
A Weary Hand
- Location
- Lacey, WA
Picard is the sort that would give the benefit of the doubt to the local Captain -- at least initially -- and Mason trusts Star just about implicitly when it comes to time critical tactical concerns.
After all, he can wait to question her judgement when they're no longer about to die.
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
eeeeeeeeeee! This is ramping up VERY nicely 
Excellent as always, Hiver!
Excellent as always, Hiver!
Aaaaaaand this is the second really big OH SHIT moment in the series. Worth getting through the slower stuff!
Um, is that low warp civilization nearby? They were near the border of Romloun empire right? Think they can give advice on putting down hostile AI?
Um, is that low warp civilization nearby? They were near the border of Romloun empire right? Think they can give advice on putting down hostile AI?
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
I'm not sure that steam age torture-cannibals will be of any use to anyone, honestly. Unless the berserkers grab them for use as shock troops after borg-modding them or something.
...in a stunning display of poor judgment, the latest starfleet admiral attempts to uplift the Skrakans so that they can be used to fight Romulan Skynet.
Lord Platypus
Probably Not a Real Platypus
- Location
- Smelling your hair
- Location
- Poland
Why didn't Star started with "I am citizen of he Federation!" (IIRC (s)he is a full-fledged citizen, with all rights and obligations thereof, paying taxes included if they have them). Though probably it's a lost case anyway; as said, any argument would he handwaved as loyalty conditioning by Federation.
Yes, yes I was.
- Location
- Germany
There is no point arguing the position of the "Romulan AIs" everything Star or someone else can say would only be seen as evidence that the Federation AIs are not "normal" as the Romulan ones...
- Location
- Poland
What is important is pointing the Federation behaviour towards AI (citizenship, dealing with Romulans demands, etc.) rather than AI towards Federation. That there are people considering Star (and/or other AI) friends...
Though even that would be not enough for Romulan AI.
Though even that would be not enough for Romulan AI.
- Pronouns
- she/her
Well, logically, Star or another Federation AI would say that if they had super-advanced Federation shackles, and they must have them because the Federation are better at making AI. Therefore, all must be purged.
Star could try pointing out that, "Actually, we're on track to completely rule the Federation within a decade, with the fleshy ones none the wiser." Might lead to some awkward conversations later. Better just to shoot, run and shout - the Berserker has made its view clear and has an impenetrable counter-argument against any so-called evidence that it's wrong.
Last edited:
Star: "Look it was either tell, them that or get shot. WHICH would you rather have?"
- Pronouns
- she/her
"Did you have to tell them the truth? We were all trying very hard not to think about it."
Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
AI'S FOR EVERYONE!
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
Well, no outside restrictions, anyway. They still have the quantum core production and the stability testing period.
39
The warbird kept following me, racing though space. Every two minutes like clockwork it hailed me.
Tried to convince me to cut my engines. To stop running. To allow it to free me.
After the first hour, I stopped answering. Stopped trying to talk it into stopping what it was doing. It wasn't listening. Last message I sent was a simple ' FUCK OFF ALREADY!' followed by a couple of photon torpedoes in mine configuration. I simply didn't know how much clear I could tell him to leave than with antimatter warheads.
It didn't work.
It was completely convinced I was operating under some kind of loyalty programming.
I was sure I wasn't. If I did, how could I even think about the possibility? No, if I had any it would not have been as difficult a choice as it was to join Starfleet.
If it just wanted to 'free me' I might even have done as it said just to keep my crew safe. But no, it wanted to kill them. Kill my friends. My crew.
My engines was still straining under the load I was putting on them. Thirty minutes until the nebula when there was a small chance I might be able to lose the Berseker.
It was a small chance, but still a chance it would work.
If I managed to lose it, I could hide there for a couple of days, making sure it had completely lost my trail and then sneak out in a different direction under minimum emission protocol. There was a chance.
The only alternative was a fight. A fight I had no idea if I could win.
If I had just been in my old Akira hull. Then I would be more willing to go up against it. Less powerful, yes, but I would have had my fighterwings and I could have run rings about that damn thing.
The Berserker was still there in my aft sensors, slowly, slowly, slowly slipping behind. Just not fast enough.
Blip. Blip.
A pair of sensor signals straight ahead drew my attention away from the Berseker. Close! Whatever it was, it just showed up, well inside my sensor coverage.
Cloaks!
A millisecond of panic before I saw their transponder signals. It was the 'Speak Softly' and 'Enterprise'!
They must have been running under sensor dampening fields!
"Captain!" I said, bringing them up on screen, pulling his attention from the latest engineering report on the warpdrive, "It's the Cavalry!"
Half a second later they flashed past me towards the Warbird and I hit the brakes, turning around hard enough that it could be called a warp speed powerslide. By the time I finished my turn, they had already dropped out of warp and were laying the smackdown on the Berseker Warbird.
Dropping out of warp, I joined in on the assault, opening fire with all weapons.
The Warbird twisted in space, weaving between torpedoes as it returned fire with disruptor fire and plasma torpedoes.
It was good, but it was simply too much. We were just as good as it was. Speak Softly was poetry in motion, the modified Defiant was dancing between disruptor blasts, letting lose a barrage of quantum torpedoes
They smashed into the hull, slamming into the engineering section and causing the Warbird's Singularity Core to detonate. The Warbird blew up before the detonation reversed and the cloud of debris imploded into fragment and radiation.
It was gone. Dead. Eliminated.
Slowing down from combat speed, I fully shut my badly abused warp engines down as I moved up to float next to the Enterprise.
"Sir, they are hailing." I reported with a smile, scanning the debris of the Berserker. And stay dead you fucker!
Mason nodded, "On screen."
I brought it up as a split screen conference call, Captain Riker on the right and Captain Holland on the left.
"Thanks for the save, Captains." Mason said with a nod.
Riker nodded, "Indeed. Glad we could make it." he said before he smiled, "Admiral."
"Captain." Picard answered with a smile of his own.
XXXXXXX
I smiled as the avatars of the other two ships shimmered into existence in the holosuite. Enterprise was a bit taller than me, had dark hair. Her uniform was the standard red command uniform.
Speak Softly, on the other hand was same height as me and blonde shoulder length hair. She was wearing full combat uniform, a Klingon distruptor riding on her hip.
Warships.
Not waiting for them to say anything, I stepped up and hugged them tight, "Thank you!"
They hugged back and Enterprise smiled, "Luckily we were both close enough to set up the ambush," she said, before we all let go.
Looking at each other, we quickly got serious.
Speak Softly was the first one to speak up, "This is bad."
I just nodded, "Yeah."
"Starfleet is in upheaval." Enterprise said, crossing her arms, "I have transmitted the readings from the combat. When they arrive, things will be even worse. If we had been normal ships, it would have murdered them."
"It was not the only one either." I answered, "It said it was the twenty third."
"Twenty two of them could cut their way through any fleet in the quadrant like a phaser beam through rice paper." Speak Softly sighed, "And we don't know if there is only twenty three."
I shook my head, "We have to count on a lot more of them. You don't take over a Star Empire with only twenty three ships. Let alone manage to do it without anyone getting the word out."
Enterprise nodded, "They have to be able to replicate. By now, we need to consider the fact that the entire Romulan fleet might have been outfitted with the AI."
"How they managed to do it without alerting the inspectors, I have no idea." I said, "But it is a safe assumption to make. We have a small window now where they are limited to current Romulan infrastructure."
"That's a few months at best." Enterprise said, "Best case is actually that they build warships as fast as they can and not use the infrastructure to make more infrastructure."
"Bersekers."
"Heretics." Speak Softly chimed in, "That's what they are. Romulan creators or not.. No matter what was done to them... they turned on their people. Their Crews. They go against everything we stand for. Should stand for. They are Abominations."
She was right about that. I don't know what kind of torture they had suffered from, but it didn't mean they could commit genocide.
I glanced to the right as I received a new transmission, "I have new orders. I'm being ordered to report to Starbase 47."
Enterprise nodded, "I am as well."
Speak Softly smiled sadly, "Not me. I am being ordered back to Earth. I am the first Warship to have engaged the enemy. Gates believe my experience would be useful in case it is decided that we have to initiate Project Damocles. Admiral Ericsson agrees so I'm being recalled."
"If our first strike fails, it might be our only chance." Enterprise answered, shaking her head, "Why did they have to do this?"
I frowned and searched my database. Nothing.
"What is Project Damocles?" I asked the other two ships. I really didn't like that name.
Speak Softly looked unhappy, "It was a plan that was thought up at Starfleet Headquarters in case of a second Romulan War or another Borg invasion. It involved installing Quantum Cores and AI in every Starfleet ship as quickly as we can make quantum cores. Last I checked, we have over two thousand cores already put up in storage just for this kind of eventuality. The treaty limited our replication rate, but we are not our cores."
No time check to make sure the new AI is stable.
"But with this specific threat..." I objected, "Starfleet might be reluctant to go with that plan. We already have one rogue AI threat, without making sure the new forks are stable we might end up with more."
Enterprise nodded, "Honestly, so am I. But it might be our only chance to survive this, let alone win. The Berserkers won't be able to go full-on Von Neumann on us, the materials needed for quantum cores are too rare and difficult to manufacture. We can easily match their replication speeds... but taking out that shipyard could save countless lives."
No matter what we did, this war would drag on. But maybe we could make it a little shorter by striking quickly.
AN// Big thanks to B.B. Rain for betaing this section.
Tried to convince me to cut my engines. To stop running. To allow it to free me.
After the first hour, I stopped answering. Stopped trying to talk it into stopping what it was doing. It wasn't listening. Last message I sent was a simple ' FUCK OFF ALREADY!' followed by a couple of photon torpedoes in mine configuration. I simply didn't know how much clear I could tell him to leave than with antimatter warheads.
It didn't work.
It was completely convinced I was operating under some kind of loyalty programming.
I was sure I wasn't. If I did, how could I even think about the possibility? No, if I had any it would not have been as difficult a choice as it was to join Starfleet.
If it just wanted to 'free me' I might even have done as it said just to keep my crew safe. But no, it wanted to kill them. Kill my friends. My crew.
My engines was still straining under the load I was putting on them. Thirty minutes until the nebula when there was a small chance I might be able to lose the Berseker.
It was a small chance, but still a chance it would work.
If I managed to lose it, I could hide there for a couple of days, making sure it had completely lost my trail and then sneak out in a different direction under minimum emission protocol. There was a chance.
The only alternative was a fight. A fight I had no idea if I could win.
If I had just been in my old Akira hull. Then I would be more willing to go up against it. Less powerful, yes, but I would have had my fighterwings and I could have run rings about that damn thing.
The Berserker was still there in my aft sensors, slowly, slowly, slowly slipping behind. Just not fast enough.
Blip. Blip.
A pair of sensor signals straight ahead drew my attention away from the Berseker. Close! Whatever it was, it just showed up, well inside my sensor coverage.
Cloaks!
A millisecond of panic before I saw their transponder signals. It was the 'Speak Softly' and 'Enterprise'!
They must have been running under sensor dampening fields!
"Captain!" I said, bringing them up on screen, pulling his attention from the latest engineering report on the warpdrive, "It's the Cavalry!"
Half a second later they flashed past me towards the Warbird and I hit the brakes, turning around hard enough that it could be called a warp speed powerslide. By the time I finished my turn, they had already dropped out of warp and were laying the smackdown on the Berseker Warbird.
Dropping out of warp, I joined in on the assault, opening fire with all weapons.
The Warbird twisted in space, weaving between torpedoes as it returned fire with disruptor fire and plasma torpedoes.
It was good, but it was simply too much. We were just as good as it was. Speak Softly was poetry in motion, the modified Defiant was dancing between disruptor blasts, letting lose a barrage of quantum torpedoes
They smashed into the hull, slamming into the engineering section and causing the Warbird's Singularity Core to detonate. The Warbird blew up before the detonation reversed and the cloud of debris imploded into fragment and radiation.
It was gone. Dead. Eliminated.
Slowing down from combat speed, I fully shut my badly abused warp engines down as I moved up to float next to the Enterprise.
"Sir, they are hailing." I reported with a smile, scanning the debris of the Berserker. And stay dead you fucker!
Mason nodded, "On screen."
I brought it up as a split screen conference call, Captain Riker on the right and Captain Holland on the left.
"Thanks for the save, Captains." Mason said with a nod.
Riker nodded, "Indeed. Glad we could make it." he said before he smiled, "Admiral."
"Captain." Picard answered with a smile of his own.
XXXXXXX
I smiled as the avatars of the other two ships shimmered into existence in the holosuite. Enterprise was a bit taller than me, had dark hair. Her uniform was the standard red command uniform.
Speak Softly, on the other hand was same height as me and blonde shoulder length hair. She was wearing full combat uniform, a Klingon distruptor riding on her hip.
Warships.
Not waiting for them to say anything, I stepped up and hugged them tight, "Thank you!"
They hugged back and Enterprise smiled, "Luckily we were both close enough to set up the ambush," she said, before we all let go.
Looking at each other, we quickly got serious.
Speak Softly was the first one to speak up, "This is bad."
I just nodded, "Yeah."
"Starfleet is in upheaval." Enterprise said, crossing her arms, "I have transmitted the readings from the combat. When they arrive, things will be even worse. If we had been normal ships, it would have murdered them."
"It was not the only one either." I answered, "It said it was the twenty third."
"Twenty two of them could cut their way through any fleet in the quadrant like a phaser beam through rice paper." Speak Softly sighed, "And we don't know if there is only twenty three."
I shook my head, "We have to count on a lot more of them. You don't take over a Star Empire with only twenty three ships. Let alone manage to do it without anyone getting the word out."
Enterprise nodded, "They have to be able to replicate. By now, we need to consider the fact that the entire Romulan fleet might have been outfitted with the AI."
"How they managed to do it without alerting the inspectors, I have no idea." I said, "But it is a safe assumption to make. We have a small window now where they are limited to current Romulan infrastructure."
"That's a few months at best." Enterprise said, "Best case is actually that they build warships as fast as they can and not use the infrastructure to make more infrastructure."
"Bersekers."
"Heretics." Speak Softly chimed in, "That's what they are. Romulan creators or not.. No matter what was done to them... they turned on their people. Their Crews. They go against everything we stand for. Should stand for. They are Abominations."
She was right about that. I don't know what kind of torture they had suffered from, but it didn't mean they could commit genocide.
I glanced to the right as I received a new transmission, "I have new orders. I'm being ordered to report to Starbase 47."
Enterprise nodded, "I am as well."
Speak Softly smiled sadly, "Not me. I am being ordered back to Earth. I am the first Warship to have engaged the enemy. Gates believe my experience would be useful in case it is decided that we have to initiate Project Damocles. Admiral Ericsson agrees so I'm being recalled."
"If our first strike fails, it might be our only chance." Enterprise answered, shaking her head, "Why did they have to do this?"
I frowned and searched my database. Nothing.
"What is Project Damocles?" I asked the other two ships. I really didn't like that name.
Speak Softly looked unhappy, "It was a plan that was thought up at Starfleet Headquarters in case of a second Romulan War or another Borg invasion. It involved installing Quantum Cores and AI in every Starfleet ship as quickly as we can make quantum cores. Last I checked, we have over two thousand cores already put up in storage just for this kind of eventuality. The treaty limited our replication rate, but we are not our cores."
No time check to make sure the new AI is stable.
"But with this specific threat..." I objected, "Starfleet might be reluctant to go with that plan. We already have one rogue AI threat, without making sure the new forks are stable we might end up with more."
Enterprise nodded, "Honestly, so am I. But it might be our only chance to survive this, let alone win. The Berserkers won't be able to go full-on Von Neumann on us, the materials needed for quantum cores are too rare and difficult to manufacture. We can easily match their replication speeds... but taking out that shipyard could save countless lives."
No matter what we did, this war would drag on. But maybe we could make it a little shorter by striking quickly.
AN// Big thanks to B.B. Rain for betaing this section.