Episode 101 – The Unborn Dream
"Space... A battlefield. Cold, dark, heartless. These are the voyages of the Federation Battleship Enterprise. Its mission, to defend Federation resources and colonies at all costs, and to protect the lives off all its people. And to go into battle, where no one has fought before..."
"Officer of the Watch, Commander Data's log, Stardate 2356.92, we are currently in the K7 star cluster, inspecting the 494-B system for enemy activity. No Romulan Warbirds have been detected in the area, but Starfleet and the Federation at large are on high alert."
The Combat Information Center of the Enterprise D was lit barely by the blue glow of the touch pad computers, with information streaming over their gleaming, fingerprint covered surfaces at unimaginable speed. At the Helm, a young Ensign sat watching Telemetry of his navigation sensors and paid close attention to the round targeting cursor that was passing over the stars.
Beside him sat the Operations Officer, indicated by his rank insignia to be a Lieutenant Commander. He seemed different, almost non-human. His skin was pale and he operated the station with unwavering concentration. "Ensign Crusher, I am sending you our current scans. Please update our coordinates accordingly."
"Yes, sir, Commander Data, sir." He was nervous, tense. He began pressing a combination of the touch screen keys and the physical ones placed beside each other in ironic contradiction.
A turbolift door at the aft end of the CIC opened and the two Marines stationed there saluted the man walking out, indicated to be a Captain by his insignia. He was young, in his mid twenties, with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard.
The man walked over to the tactical station, which was above a small pit with three chairs. His boots made a constant clanking noise as they stepped down upon the metal deck plating. He stared at the computer readouts and then up at the large, vertically positioned plotting board, with its lines and markings emanating a greenish-yellow glow.
The officer stationed there was a male Klingon, busy with the numerous calculations and monitoring everything that his sensors recorded. "How does everything check out, Lieutenant Worf?"
"Fine, Captain Riker, sir." A beep from the panel surprised him and he brought up the new data which was being sent to him. "Wait, I'm getting a strange reading. It's coming from... 223 Kilometers above the nearby star."
"Which star?"
"K7-494-B... This looks like... A Geodesic fold."
"A Geodesic fold? I thought that was impossible."
"As did I... But the sensor readings are clear."
"Okay, Action Stations."
Out in space, the Enterprise D floated idly amongst the vacuum of space, its nacelles glowing and the flaps on them adjusting their orientation every once in a while in order to stabilize the ship. Panels along the hull began to slide away and from them came cannons, which oriented themselves to aim at the nearby white pulsar only a few thousand kilometers away.
"Phase cannons have obtained lock on the Geodesic fold. Soon, we should be able to see who or what is coming from it." Another panel beep, and Worf began moving his fingers over touch and physical keys. "Sensors are detecting alterations from within the fold's subspace structure... I believe something is coming through."
The Operations Officer, Data, relayed what he was learning. "X-Ray detection scanners are picking up extremely anomalous readings coming not from the fold, but what is exiting it. Neutrino and Microwave emissions are acting strangely, as well."
The object was coming through. The shimmering rift above the star was violently shaking until at last, the thing leaped forward from within it, coming to a full stop approximately 1,000 kilometers away from the star. Suddenly, the fold collapsed in on itself and a large explosion rippled out into the star but dissipated before reaching even the ship that had come through. Parts of the star, starting at the contact point of the explosion waves, started to dim and grow black.
The ship that was now here was in a Cube configuration, much larger than the Enterprise, and was covered in mechanical pieces and only lit by a few green lights in certain areas.
Data continued his scans, as did Worf, and then Data discovered something astonishing. "Sir, the Star is collapsing in on itself. The gravitational field is not only interfering with normal space, but subspace as well. Several subspace rifts are forming. At this rate, some will intersect and this area will become extremely distorted. I am detecting lowering radiation levels in the area."
"What does that mean?"
"Simply that the rifts are leading somewhere else, but it seems to be a one-way connection." His panel beep and he read the data out to the Captain. "A rift is forming 3 kilometers off the port bow."
"Full reverse."
Ensign Crusher inputted the data and relayed it to the Captain. "No go, Captain. The rifts are interfering with our ability to generate a gravitational field that can move us away."
The ship shook violently and Worf's sensors detected the cause. "Sir, two rifts intersected with the reactors of the unknown vessel. It was destroyed."
Data's panel began heating up, and when he registered this, he moved away from it. Suddenly, the panel exploded, causing shards of glass to fly out over five feet and imbed themselves in the face of one of the Marines standing by the Ready Room entrance. He instantly dropped over, dead.
Stating the obvious, Data said, "Ops control from the CIC is down."
Captain Riker sat down in the Captain's chair and locked the safety harness down upon himself. He coughed a few times and then asked Data, "Can you reroute it to one of the auxiliary stations?"
"I will try, sir." He moved toward the Aft end of the CIC, fighting the shaking of the ship by adjusting his weight accordingly. He quickly sped his fingers over keys at the port-most station and the displays changed. "I have Operations control, sir. Attempting to shunt power to the stabilizers. Ten percent of reserves rerouted..."
The shaking was significantly less violent, allowing Data and Worf to run more scans. Worf's panel was showing data which he needed to share, "We are moving toward one of the rifts."
The Captain unlocked his restraints and walked up beside of Worf. "How?"
"I'm not sure, sir."
"Do we have shields?"
"Thirty two percent, why?"
"If we go through that thing, we don't know where we might come out."
Data began tapping keys after he heard Captain Riker. "I will attempt to get more power routed to the shields."
Slowly, the Enterprise moved into the blue field of particles marking the rift's event horizon, in a rotational dance, spinning around and around as it sunk into the deep tear in subspace.
"Crusher, can you even us out?" The Captain had to hold onto railing to keep from getting dizzy.
"Yes, sir. Using RCS Thrusters to compensate for gravitational drift..." As soon as the young Ensign inputted the commands, the Enterprise stopped rotating and was now facing the rift, slowly falling into its dense gravitational well.
Commander Data bent down over the dead Marine and checked his pulse. When he sensed nothing, he picked up a device from a panel in the wall and touched a button on its screen. "Combat to Sickbay. We have injured."
It was a woman's voice which answered, "Acknowledged. I'll send a team. Crusher out."
Suddenly, the turbolift doors opened and in walked an African American man, wearing a strange device in front of his eyes. He saluted the Captain and called for his team to move in from the lift. Three men came through, two holding a large device resembling a TV screen, but without the plastic casing, and one carrying a toolbox. They walked over to the Ops station and began pulling out tools in order to remove the old panel that had exploded.
Data walked over to the leader, the black man. "Hello, Geordi."
"Data, how does everything look?"
"We are slowly falling into a subspace rift, with no means of escape." He looked briefly at the dead Marine, his tactical vest shredded by the glass and large gashes torn into his face. "It was my fault. I could have easily taken the full brunt of the explosion, with only minimal superficial damage but instead I chose to back away, and now one man is dead."
Geordi placed his hand on Data's shoulder and sighed. "Don't worry about it. This job is supposed to be risky. These men were prepared as best as they possibly could have been."
"Yes, thank you, old friend."
"Don't mention it. Your station will be up and running in no time." He let Data alone and went back to assisting his fellow officers with connecting the new panel.
On the starboard side of the CIC was an indentation, with a station there. A single female was manning it, listening through a headset she was wearing. Every indication pointed to this station being the Comm station, and the woman there called the Captain over. "Sir, I'm getting a strange signal that sounds like it's coming from the rift."
"Could it just be radiation being picked up by our receiver and translating into noise?"
"No, sir... I can hear a syntax and structure, but I'm still not sure exactly what it is I'm hearing." The Captain picked up his own headset and clipped it onto his ear. All he could hear was strange electronic static, but with a pattern, like a language. He set the headset down and sighed, thinking everything over.
"Ensign Crusher."
"Captain, sir?"
"Take us... In to the rift. Maximum thruster speed."
"Captain?"
"You heard me. I don't think it's possible to escape, and our only other option is to go inside."
"Yes, sir." Slowly, he entered the new heading and speed and watched as the ship confirmed and began moving, at maximum thruster power, into the large spatial distortion directly in front of it. "200 meters away, 150, 100, 50, Captain, we're inside the rift. Navigational sensors can't get a lock on anything to maintain a heading. We're going into a spin."
And so the Enterprise spun wildly as I flew through the rift, but the ride only lasted a few seconds as it was soon thrown out, once again into the vacuum of space. But there were no stars around the ship, only a deep darkness, long into the infinite expanse.
"Ensign Crusher, where the hell are we?"
"Captain, I'm not sure, I'm not detecting anything..."
Data's panel beeped. "Captain, passive photon scans are detecting a light source... Over 32,048,000 light years away."
"On viewer?" Data nodded and the front section of the CIC, which had been just a large area of glass with digital readouts on it before, switched over to a view of the Starboard aft cameras. They were amazed at the sight. They were seeing the Milky Way Galaxy, from outside of it. "The hell? Where are we?"
"Sensors are registering us at 299,999,987.36 light years away from the brim of the Delta Quadrant. We are in the Void."
"The Void?"
"An area of nothingness that spans the distance between two Galaxies. Interesting..."
"What?"
"We are close to the Andromeda Galaxy. At maximum Warp, we can be past the outer rim in 12 days."
"On viewer." They were now seeing a the outer edge of the Galaxy, with cursors highlighting various stars and displaying readouts on them. He clipped on a headset again and then tapped a few physical keys on the Comm panel. "Engineering, do we have Warp?"
"Only up to Warp 5." Down in Engineering, Geordi was standing amongst a large amount of radioactive storage tanks, pipes, valves, water pumps, and various other equipment. This gigantic room was a power plant, 3 decks high and extending nearly ¾ of the length of the Engineering section. He adjusted the headset he was wearing and picked up a tablet PC, signing it and handing it to another engineer, dressed in a jumpsuit and wearing a hardhat.
Data ran the calculations. "At that rate, it will take 20 hours to breach the edge."
"Better that than nothing. Geordi, keep us going until we get there."
"You got. LaForge out." He walked over to a pipe, punched in a code and turned the valve. He watched a scanner attached to the pipe as it showed a multispectral scan of the steam that began to flow through. He logged the data on a small hand-held device and continued going over more of the systems.
Geordi rounded the corner, prepared to check a special tank when suddenly there was a bright, bluish-white flash. In front of him stood a man, dressed in an enlisted uniform with a rank patch on his right shoulder of Specialist.
"Specialist... ?"
"Q."
"Q?"
"Yes, that is who I am, and I've come with a very important message. You have to talk to your Captain, tell him it's a bad idea to go into the Andromeda Galaxy or else you'll miss your chance to get home, today."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Look, we can do this the peaceful way or I can force the ship to turn around."
"Wait, how are we going to get home today? We're millions of light years away. And who are you? How did you transport here at Warp? Have you been on the ship?"
"All these human questions! Shush!" He snapped and for some reason, Geordi was unable to open his mouth. "32,048,202.41 light years away and increasing by the second, to be exact. Now, I can answer some questions. No I haven't been on your ship. I'm from some place you've never heard of, the Q Continuum. We're a race of Omnipotent beings, yes beings with infinite power, and I just haven't the time to explain anything else right now.
"Suffice it to say, this is the Continuum's mess, which I've come to attempt to clean up. And you're going to get home because we're going to send you home. See, I was messing around with the Borg... A very nasty race, and I decided to give them very limited knowledge of how to possibly open a Geodesic fold. I was curious to see what they'd do with it. Unfortunately, this happened." He rolled his eyes and then noticed something. "Ah, safety first, yes!" Suddenly, a hardhat appeared on his head.
Geordi managed to mumble.
"Oh, alright." Q snapped his fingers and the engineer was suddenly able to move his mouth. He walked over to a computer panel and pressed a button on it.
He began speaking into his headset, "Attention security, we have been boarded, send a Marine Assault Team to Engineering A-"
Q sighed, rolled his eyes, and snapped, making Geordi once again unable to speak. He snapped again, causing all of the entrances to Engineering to suddenly disappear. "There, are you happy? Guess I'll have to do everything the hard way."
He snapped one final time, unsealing Geordi's mouth, making the doors reappear, and making himself disappear.
The MAT was busy setting up Plasma Torch equipment when the doors finally reappeared. The leader nodded, aimed his rifle, and opened the door. But there were no signs of anything.
Geordi noticed their entrance and called out. "It's clear! He left!"
The Sergeant signaled two officers to check the area and walked the rest to check on Geordi. "I think the Captain will wanna see you, sir."
"Yeah, thought so..."
Geordi was with the Captain and Commander Data in the Situation Room, a small area behind the CIC with various instruments for displaying sensor readouts and a table running down the middle with a computer console at every seat. There was no light save for that coming from the computer panels and instruments around the room. Captain Riker was sitting at the head of the table, looking at Geordi as the engineer explained the encounter.
"So he just introduced himself as some kind of omnipotent being and asked us to turn the ship around? If he's so powerful, why can't he just send us back from where we are now?"
"I-"
"Oh, Captain, we may be omnipotent, but we still have rules and order. It's not complete anarchy. My job is to get you home on your own power." The same Q from before was now standing at one of the computer stations, entering in data. Suddenly, the readout changed on most of the screens, showing a computer generated energy cloud and the Enterprise approaching it. "We need to reproduce what happened at K7-494-B. We need to cause Enterprise to open a subspace rift, fly through, and arrive somewhere back in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy."
"Somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant?"
"Well, when you're using primitive machinery, folding space is tricky business."
"Okay. What is it you want us to do?"
"Go back to where you started and we'll go from there."
"Alright. But somehow I get the feeling you're not telling us everything. Why is it so important to get the Enterprise back to a race of all powerful beings like yourselves?"
"In time, my dear captain, in time. All will become clear to you. But remember this: the Lion is the Key."
"The Lion is-" Suddenly, Q disappeared, and left the three officers bewildered. Captain Riker walked back into the CIC and sat in the Captain's chair, bringing a monitor console up that allowed him to see everything that was happening. "Helm, All-Stop."
"All-Stop, aye." Ensign Crusher entered the commands, slowing them from Warp and down to 0 KPH.
"Port, one quarter."
"Port one quarter, aye." After he entered the commands, the port Impulse engine fired up to one quarter of its maximum output, rotating the ship in the exact opposite direction from which it was going.
"Can you find the location at which we entered the Void?"
"There should be a kind of spatial anomaly there, we can look for that, sir."
"Get us there, ASAP."
"Aye, initiating Warp 5.62, our current maximum speed, sir." He was constantly using the Pitch, Yaw, and Roll wheels, along with the three levers for increasing speed to adjust their direction accordingly to the information appearing on screen. They were there, floating in an area of seemingly empty space, but all scans indicated that there was some kind of disturbance at this location.
"Where is that Q? What are we supposed to do here?"
Commander Data turned around from the Ops station to speak to the Captain. "Sir, it may be as simple as flying through the anomaly at a low warp speed."
"Are you sure? What would be the minimum speed?"
"Warp 3."
"Then... Take us in, Ensign Crusher."
"Aye." The computer responded to his request, using a warp field to launch the ship into the rift. There was a lot of violent shaking, and suddenly the Enterprise appeared in the middle of a field of stars, nowhere near the black hole that had formed in the process of what brought them into the void.
But what was there was even worse. A gigantic field of debris, with half ships, broken apart, hull plates and even bodies floating everywhere. "Where are we?"
The Ensign scanned the positions of the stars. "The Sol System, sir. Near Neptune."
Data turned his head to face the Captain. "These ships are all Federation. Some are Galaxy class. There is enough debris here for 37 ships."
"37? That's nearly a quarter of the fleet... What's happened here?"
"Sir?" It was the Radio Operator at the Comm station. "I'm receiving an encrypted message, text only. It's asking for your authentication code."
The Captain pulled a hand-held pad like device from a pocket on his uniform and nodded, as a message to ask the officer to send the message to the device. Once receipt was confirmed, he entered his code and the message appeared, reading only, "IN THE EYE OF THE LION, WE WATCH AND WAIT FOR YOU. DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE."
