The anomaly hung in space, a wound in the materiel universe. It was florid pink, with flecks of neon blue. Every few seconds it would pulse and twitch, seemingly at random. Coils of what looked like lightning the colour of rotten eggs would roil and twist around its tendrils and then dissipate when they hit open void. A lone ship observed this, its white hull stark against the black of space. A single word in one of the languages of Earth was upon her hull, 'Enterprise'.
"What am I looking at Mr Data?" said Captain Jean Luc Picard. He had his hands crossed over his chest in contemplation. In his entire Starfleet career, he had never seen anything like this. They had been ordered into this quadrant when the anomaly had been observed by a ship carrying colonists to one of the moons of Gallamax. Being the closest ship, the 'Enterprise' had responded in record time. Now they hung in the void, watching an impossibility twist and writhe before their eyes.
"Unknown Sir, nothing of this nature has been seen before. It looks like some stellar phenomena, however Sir, Stellar phenomena does not move. Or create lightning" reported Data.
"Hmph" grunted Picard in acknowledgement. "Geordi, go look at it with your sight through one of the forward windows".
"I'm all eyes Captain" affirmed Geordi.
Lieutenant La Forge stood up smartly from his station at the front of the bridge and left via the lift. After a short walk, he arrived in one of the viewing lounges, empty now that the ship was on alert because of the anomaly.
"Computer, raise the shutters" said Lieutenant La Forge. At his command the shutters that were covering the windows raised up and let the sight of the anomaly in.
"Oh God… what in the hell… M-make it Stop" said Lieutenant La Forge, dropping to his knees, then falling on face like a drunkard. "C-computer… Alert m-medical… Close t-the shutters".
Several minutes passed on the bridge. Then an urgent comm link came over the bridge speakers.
"This is Dr Crusher, I've just found Lieutenant La Forge, he's unconscious in one of the viewing lounges, sweating like he's in the desert and moaning about his eyes and… faces in space Sir"
"Take him to sickbay Dr Crusher, we need to know what happened" said Jean Luc. He turned to his First Officer, Commander William Riker. "Will, take the bridge, I'm going to see Lieutenant La Forge and find out what happened to him". He then turned to his Psychic advisor, Councillor Troi.
"Councillor, would you accompany me?" asked Picard.
"Of course Sir" she answered.
"Sir, should I run a sensor scan on the anomaly?" questioned Commander Riker.
"Yes, probably number one, get Data to run through the ships archives again; I know someone somewhere must have seen something like this"
"Yes Sir" replied Riker.
Several minutes later, Jean Luc Picard found himself in sickbay, standing next to the semi-conscious body of Lieutenant La Forge. Dr Crusher appeared at his side.
"the scans show his brain patterns have changed, they almost reflect that of someone with severe depression and mental trauma. What ever happened to him it was quite the traumatic event"
"Will he be alright?" asked Captain Picard.
"Unknown Sir, I can wake him up a bit, so he can answer your questions" said Dr Crusher.
"Make it so"
Injecting Geordi with some medical concoction, Dr Crusher looked on, very confused and troubled. What had happened to Lieutenant La Forge?
As if hit by lightning, Lieutenant La Forge sat bolt upright, Councillor Troi fell back with a scream.
"Captain! It was horrible! I've never seen the like! Faces in space! Souls of the damned! Screaming, always screaming! Horror! Cosmic horror! I saw it Sir, the universe is not what we thought it was! He fell back on his bed with a muffled thump. "Endless… Entropy…" he muttered, and with that Lieutenant La Forge fell silent. Quickly recovering from his shock Captain Picard turned to Councillor Troi, who had fallen. Dr Crusher was by her side, helping her up.
"What happened Councillor?" asked Jean Luc.
"His mind… it's like it's been taken, and twisted then put back. His thought patterns are quite different, poisonous almost" she looked directly into Picard's eyes. "He is not the man we once knew"
"I see…" said Picard. "Dr, keep him sedated until I tell you otherwise, Councillor we need to get to the bridge".
Back on the bridge, Picard reviewed the sensor results.
"It's? What? This can't be right." said the Captain, quite confused.
"I know Sir… the data is contradictory" replied Riker.
"It reads as solid, yet has no mass, reads as hotter than the centre of a supernova, but then reads colder than the void around it. Captain, this… thing is very strange" said Data.
"Sir! The ship is moving! The anomaly is pulling us in!" said one of the bridge crew, operating Lieutenant La Forge's station.
"Turn us around, maximum warp! I've got a feeling we don't want to be anywhere near this thing" ordered Captain Picard.
Several seconds pass, and nothing happened.
"Take us to warp dammit!" bellowed Picard.
"I am Sir! The warp engines read as at full power! Whatever has us has us good!" replied the deck officer.
"Shields up! Drop to impulse power, we'll need all the power to our shields for… whatever this is" ordered Picard.
The 'Enterprise' raged against what ever held her and was pulling her in. In engineering, the ships warp core was screaming with the load put on it. In space, the tiny dot of the 'Enterprise' was slowly dragged into the anomaly. If the crew of the 'Enterprise' could see what was happening to their ship, at the last minute before they touched the outer skin off the anomaly, a stellar mouth opened and swallowed the ship into the incandescent body of the anomaly.
Riker reclined in his chair, his thumb and forefinger rubbing his eyes. "Rage, Rage, Rage. Rage against the dying of the light"
Picard grunted in affirmation. The ship shook. It shook like a thing possessed. Sparks flew and in some cases, panels fell from their mountings. The lights went off and Picard heard a voice in his head. "Welcome to the realm of the Gods' Jean Luc"
"I know your dreams, your ambition… I will make you see Jean Luc…"
"Come mortal, gaze upon the endless entropy of the Warp and despair!"
Picard looked about him, there was no one new on the bridge. Who had spoken? The main viewer showed nothing but static. Was it static? It seemed so, but then it also could be just the viewer failing to interpret what it was seeing. The ship's shaking began to grow stronger and stronger throwing crew members about like ragdolls. Captain Picard's head smashed into the wall then…
A sometime later, Jean Luc Picard regained consciousness. The rest of the bridge crew was coming to, Lieutenant Worf was already up and walking the deck with his remarkable Klingon physiology. The viewer showed nothing but space, clear clean space. However Picards control panel showed the warp engines were offline. They'd need time to repair them.
Picard was about to speak when he was interrupted.
"Sir!" yelled Commander Data. "Proximity alert! Several massive contacts 200 kilometres off our port bow!"
"On screen"
A fleet, a huge fleet. So many ships of such vast tonnage that not even the whole of Starfleet could oppose it. It looked like the mineral wealth of a whole sector had been dug up and turned into ships. The smallest was slightly bigger than the 'Enterprise'. The largest ship in the fleet was a massive beast, crenulated and savage. It was at least 20km long, bedecked in blue and white. It projected a barbaric aura of feral dynamism, like a hunting dog; like a war hound.
"We can't fight them" said Lieutenant Ya, her hands on the weapons panel. Her fists were clenched, knuckles white. By God, that fleet was huge!
"Number One, hail them, all frequencies, all languages. We need to know who they are, Starfleet needs to know about this" said Picard, his voice almost a whisper.
"Yes Sir, opening a hail" replied Riker.
"This is Captain Jean Luc Picard of the 'USS Enterprise'. We come in peace, on behalf of Starfleet; to whom am I speaking?"
The main viewer fizzed and crackled then a woman in a white uniform on an iron throne appeared. She looked young, not yet out of her thirties. She had brown hair and her uniform sported a red handprint over her left breast. And she was smiling like a predator. She looked directly into his eyes through the viewer.
"Greetings Captain, I am Captain Lotara Sarrin. Flag Captain of the vessel 'Conquerer', Flagship of the XII Legionnies Astartes 'World Eaters'."
She stood up and spun in a lazy circle then looked right back at Picard.
"And I have one question, Horus; or the Emperor?"