Destiny in the Stars
It was a day almost like any other. Well, "day" because there was no true daytime or nighttime, as they were traversing the stars. Today was slightly different, as the U.S.S. Gallant was ferrying Ambassador Worf to Q'onos for an attempt at peace talks with the Klingons yet again. Captain Thomas Inman (He was actually Vice Admiral, but protocol dictated calling him Captain) caught himself wondering if it was even worth it. However, he knew in several ways that the Ambassador really wanted peace. One, the good captain was a Betazoid, and they were a telepathic race, and two, Thomas knew of Worf's history with both the Klingon High Council and The United Federation of Planets, as Worf had a loyal history with both.
T'beni, a Vulcan, was at her post, the science station, when she noticed an anomaly.
"Captain, There is an anomaly in sector 371, recommend we stop and investigate."
The Captain, his interest perked, asked "What kind of anomaly?"
T'Beni responded "An Einstein-Rosen Bridge, sir." She was extremely intrigued by it, as she thought it might go anywhere.
"Well, we're kind of on a tight schedule here," Tom remarked "Could it wait until we drop the Ambassador off?" His curiosity was piqued, but he was still a Starfleet Officer, and needed to do his job before going off all half-cocked, as the humans put it.
"Initial sensor readings indicate it will only last for, approximately, four more hours" T'Beni stated, her urgency now apparent, for a Vulcan.
"Very well, I'll ask the Ambassador if he doesn't mind exploring an anomaly one more time" Banshee grinned beneath his beard.
Telata'ix, a Jem'Hadar rogue also known in-crew as Tim, said "Sir, I recommend we go to red alert if we are to go investigate a possible wormhole"
"Why? There is no indication of any hostile intentions from it." The Captain almost smiled in amusement at his security officer's reaction to any unknown object.
"Then I at least suggest yellow alert, sir." The Jem'Hadar looked irritated at his captain's almost complete lack of caution.
"I tell you what, we'll go to yellow alert if somehow a ship were to come through."
A thing of little beauty, the ship was, but, in this time of war, beauty mattered little. She had some after-market modifications (what ship nowadays didn't?), on the outside and the inside. The modifications were mainly Borg in origin, which would normally be a cause for concern, but as these were made by liberated Borg engineers, they wouldn't try to assimilate the crew. If they were to try this on a normal Starfleet vessel, they would make a thing of beauty into something ugly, if efficient.
The Gallant, however, was a captured Breen Plesh Frigate, and it was already so ugly, the external Borg modifications were hardly noticeable. With the modifications, she was faster, her shields regenerated faster, and she could even fix her hull without the aid of a spacedock! It all more than made up for her less-than-normal crew of fifty. Normal Starfleet starships had crews in the hundreds, if not thousands, the few exceptions were the recently retrofitted NX-class, as well as the Defiant class and subclasses.
When it came to weapons, she was no slouch in that regard either. The Gallant had three fore Polaron dual heavy cannons and one fore Quantum Torpedo Launcher. Aft, she had two Polaron turrets, which weren't the most powerful of the weapons he had ever used, but they had a full three-hundred sixty degree turn radius. They were mainly to swat enemy fighters down before they could do any damage, while the Gallant could focus on the enemy ship.
Captain Toa Banshee went to his ready room to call the Ambassador. He was fairly certain that the ambassador would not be happy about this little detour.
"Captain Banshee to Ambassador Worf" Tom said as he tapped his combadge.
"Worf here"
"Ambassador, my science officer has found a possible wormhole in sector 371, it's a little out of our way, but she said that it could deteriorate in less than four hours, would you mind exploring a strange anomaly one more time?" Banshee wondered if Worf would explode or be in one of those quiet rages.
"I would be honored to do so, Captain. It has been a long time since I was in deep space." Worf boomed, in his deep voice. The Captain was relieved.
"You don't have to be there as quickly as first thought?" Banshee asked, somewhat warily.
"No, there has been a… development… and I don't need to be there until next week." Worf conceded.
"Very well, would you like to come up to the bridge? There's always room for a warrior such as yourself." The Captain asked.
"No thank you, I am training for battle on your Holodeck at the moment, and these Breen are tougher than I remember." Worf admitted. "I will come up if you were to be so kind as to inform me when we reach this wormhole. Worf Out"
The Captain was somewhat relieved. Ambassador Worf could be intimidating, even when he didn't mean it. He went out into the bridge and sat down in his chair.
"Helm, set course for sector 371. Engage."
The most annoying thing about this wasn't being beaten by a human, as they were a deceptive race, so it was normal that they try, and sometimes it worked. No, what was annoying was that he was *this* close to being able to step onto the Holy Ring, this Halo. Then this human, the Demon, came along and destroyed the holiest of relics. It was something that made Voro'Tuyokee *very* angry.
He was a member of the Intergalactic Coalition that the humans called the Covenant. As much as he thought the humans were inferior, he thought the name was fitting, and he brought it to the Prophet Guards, who brought it to the hierarchs themselves. Within a year, the name was changed to "The Covenant of the Forerunners", or just "The Covenant" for short. Of course, he didn't mention where he heard the name, otherwise the blessed Prophets would have never agreed to even hear the name.
Now he was a shipmaster, instead of a simple courier. His ship was a fine specimen, a light cruiser named Destiny of Fate, She might not have been the biggest, or the fastest, or the most powerful ship in the fleet, but she had the power to glass an entire human colony, something he had done on more than one occasion and enjoyed immensely. Even though he did feel a touch of sorrow for these beings, who chose to fight instead of join this Covenant.
At this time however, he needed to run away, something he was not used to. You see, the Demon had destroyed the Holy Ring by destroying his own ship, and the resulting secondary explosions were of sufficient power to pose a hazard to his ship. He had, just mere seconds ago, ordered a jump to slipspace on a random vector, as there was no time to compute the journey.
"Shipmaster, we are ready to engage!" said the Sangheili at the helm
"So be it, get us out of here so we may return and kill more of these pests" Voro'Tuyokee said, broken from his trance-like state of thought. "We will kill the vermin who destroyed this sanctum, and return as warriors, and not as animals with our tails tucked between our legs!"
As Destiny of Fate entered slipspace, a shockwave hit the cruiser, and the rift. The cruiser started to shake and rumble, then stopped when it entered slipspace. Voro'Tuyokee looked around in curiosity, as that had never happened before, even when hit with shockwaves much more powerful than that one. As it was traveling in slipspace, the helmsman yelled in fright.
"Shipmaster! We are no longer on the same course, we are going in an unknown direction, not on our sensors!"
"What? How is this possible?"
"I do not know, sir, but it may have been due to that shockwave we encountered entering the rift!"
Voro thought about this new information for a bit, then said "Very well, then, all crew members except the engineers shall be in cryosleep until we are about to exit The Void, if possible"
"As you command, Shipmaster"
"But first, tell the engineers to keep weapons online as long as possible, for we have no idea what will be on the other end of this journey, whether it be the human homeworld, or Sangheilios itself."