"What the hell now?" Ajan asked as he stood on the bridge, looking at the hologram before him. "What are they doing here?"
I just shrugged next to him. "DS9 is saying there is a diplomatic envoy to the Federation," I said as I aimed my passive sensors towards the Dominion battlecruiser floating next to DS9. "They have a Founder."
"But the Founders never leave their homeworld."
"Almost never," I corrected him as I lazily orbited the station. "It happens."
Last time I remember was back when I was still the Luna class and on my way back to the wormhole. Before the Berserker wars.
"What do you think?" he asked and looked over at Jhita.
The Andorian shrugged, "No idea. Ivy likely knows more than me, I never studied the Founders. But they have expressed interest in the Jovians before."
I suppressed a shiver at that. Quite frankly they freaked me out. They were like... everything we could become if we somehow became fascist dictators with no value for the lives of anyone but our own kind.
Even worse... they were like a dark mirror of the Federation. Lots of species working together towards a common goal. But not by diplomacy and common interests, but by genetic engineering and the steel boot of the Founders. If we had been invented by the Founders instead of Humans... we would have became the next Jem'Hadar.
If I slept, that thought might have given me nightmares.
"They have," I agreed. "But I think I speak for my entire species when I say we'll all rather collectively jump onto a ship and set a course for the closest black hole before we join the Dominion."
Ajan frowned at me and then nodded, "Are we going to the station?"
"Oh hell no," I said and shook my head. "DS9 can deal with the Founder, I'm not getting close to one. I'm just taking on some supplies, we are a bit low on some parts after helping the Pacifica."
I wasn't an Island class, I couldn't just take on raw materials and manufacture everything. I was a GCU, not a GSV or MSV like the Island class. I wasn't made for missions of indefinite length, the manufacturing equipment for some of the rarer things like warp core components or Quantum Cores were simply too bulky to be practical to squeeze onto a ship my size. Never mind the requirements for ore refining.
In theory, a GSV could fly into an planetary system and two years later, two GSV's would leave. I couldn't self reproduce like that, I would need a GSV or a station to build another one.
Now considering that, I almost wondered why people were not freaking out worse than they currently were. We are technically a Von Neumann swarm, albeit a very polite and friendly one. Likely because we were not actually doing that... and it's not like any of the technology we used was out of reach of the rest of the Federation either if they were willing to invest in ships large enough. The Island class was borderline large enough.
"Well... diplomatic envoy or not, I don't like it," Ajan said. "I'd rather have the Dominion just stay on their side of the galaxy. Even if a war with them right now would only end one way."
Jhita just nodded.
They were likely right. Though a lot of people would still die, so we would likely just collapse the wormhole. Drake might never forgive me for it and the Bajoran people would be a bit... miffed... but it was better than a full on war.
If the Dominion still wanted a scrap after that, they would just have slow boat the... what, ninety years to get here? They would be more than welcome to fight with a ninety year long supply run and almost a hundred year old equipment.
"Hopefully we don't need to find out," I said and started to move away from the Station as the transports finished. "I trust DS9 and his Captain will be able to handle matters."
Though, I really had to get together with the other ships in the systems and do something nice for him for handling that Founder. I should actually make that a standing endeavor of doing something nice for a Station as often as I can.
"So, Bajor now?" Jhita asked as she looked over at my avatar and I nodded.
"We should arrive in a couple of hours. Don't see the point to go into warp or even high impulse. Give everyone time to get ready and do their research and contacts and such."
"Good. I'm going to go pack. There are a couple of temples I plan to visit, they have the most fascinating records from before the occupation I want to study," she said and left with a wave to Ajan.
He nodded to her and then turned back to the hologram and I smirked, "Let me guess, you want to do the same thing."
"...I promised my wives we would be touring the sites and that I wouldn't be spending the entire visit working," he admitted with a shrug. "Not the worst thing in the world, but I do love Bajoran history. I did spend the last visit here doing basically what Jhita is planning to do."
"I remember," I agreed with a smile. "So where are you going?"
"I think Salia wanted to start with the capital," he said and smiled. "Of course, I'm not actually complaining. I'm looking forward to it too."
I nodded, "You shouldn't worry about missing anything either. Jhita is likely going to take scans and copies of everything they allow her to... and perhaps some they don't. You can always study those later."
"True. So, you have any plans?"
I shook my head, "Not really. But I'll figure something out."
Ajan smiled, "Want to come along?"
"I don't want to get in the way."
"You wouldn't, we would love it if you came with. Just ask Erislia."
"Okay then," I said after I did just that. "Thank you."
AN// Big thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.