Author's Note: This is a fun little fic for my friend Muggy Mountain's birthday. I had been intending on trying to write a Star Trek / Final Fantasy X crossover for some time now after I discussed it with her and another friend, her prodding for it as her birthday fic gave me more reason to finally get it moving.
Disclaimer: I own nothing and do not make anything financially off of my fan fiction. All rights belong to Square and the Great Bird of the Galaxy.
Worlds Collide
"Commander, here are the reports you asked to be delivered to you," a young ensign handed over a few padds.
"Thank you, Curtis," Commander Birgitta Kuster replied, taking the items from Ensign Curtis Palmer. "It seems we have had a lot of activity the last few days."
"Aye, ma'am," Palmer answered. "Our observation posts have been seeing a great deal of movement through this vicinity with nomadic inhabitants heading toward the hunting post just northeast of here before moving on toward the Lake. There has also been a tenfold growth in the local wildlife populations."
"Interesting…" she murmured as she read the in-depth summaries while Palmer gave her the quick run-down. "And we still are modulating sensor frequencies and molecular scans to get a better idea about these creatures?"
"Not yet, Commander," he replied. "Lieutenant Hernandez is still trying to find out why we are receiving nothing besides the thermal readings."
Kuster sighed deeply and put the padds down on her desk then glanced out the wide, high window that opened up to a forest clearing and hillsides of white snow in the distance.
"I wish Starfleet would hurry up in sending the engineers they promised. I think Hernandez has come to his last thread of sanity being the only one," Kuster said. "Scientists and researchers in xenostudies aren't exactly trained for helping him in the repairs and daily duties."
"It hasn't been easy for anyone since we lost the away team, Commander," Palmer added quietly. "But don't think they are worried. They trust you and know you are doing what needs to be done."
"Thanks, Curtis, but I know morale is low in this strange outpost," Kuster smiled sadly. "Everything was going well until that new development appeared."
"Our listening and visual recording devices hidden around the planet have been picking up increased activity from… the thing," Palmer said, a lack of words stopping him momentarily.
"I thought the xenobiologists classified a scientific name and genus for it already?" Kuster mused with a laugh.
"They did but it keeps changing the conceptual plotting with each new attack," Palmer said. "It is getting stronger and much more deadly. The latest event on the largest of the southern islands nearly wiped out the entire population."
"Damn, this is genocide," Kuster shook her head. "And the inhabitants take it all in stride."
"From what the sociologists have been able to gather, this … creature returns every so often," Palmer explained. "And a person who has earned a special honor and power forces it to be dormant for a time. According to the research, this creature last appeared ten years ago: one of the shortest periods of what the inhabitants call a 'Calm'."
"It is so strange," Kuster spoke her thoughts aloud. "The ruins we have found and scanned show that an amazing civilization just short of warp-capable technology flourished here but was destroyed. Now it is reduced to this: pilgrims, drifters, and a few settlements scattered across the planet."
"Commander!!" called an officer from across the room, his panel and displays blinking and beeping in unison. "We're receiving readings of an anomaly heading our way. It is very large and moving quickly."
"It's coming," Kuster said and hurried to the console. "Computer, Red Alert. All hands to stations, this is not a drill."
The officers in the room moved with perfected precision as Kuster's team took their places and prepared for an assault that might or might not come. They had a few close calls when the new creature had passed them by or strayed into the vicinity. This time it was making a straight approach for their station.
"What's the ETA?" she asked.
"Any second, it is almost on us," Palmer said, turning from the tactical post.
"Shields at maximum! Phasers at full power," Kuster ordered.
The blow came with no warning. The entire building within the nestled hillside rumbled and shook violently. Lights dimmed and panels flickered when the generators attempted to stay online.
"Shields at five percent!" Palmer yelled over the noise of the klaxons.
"Fire at will," Kuster called out. "Get an emergency message out to the nearest Federation listening post before the subspace array is knocked out."
"It is already gone, Commander," a grim-faced man said, his dark hair and uniform covered in grime and dust.
"Then try and get those shields back up, Hernandez," Kuster leveled her gaze on her Chief Engineer. "We need to withstand this thing."
Another thrusting shudder hit the station and Kuster was thrown off her feet. Her head hit the edge of the console and she fell into darkness.
Commander Will Riker stretched out his back and shifted in his seat. Wincing, he carefully stood up from the chair.
"Are you all right, Will?" Counselor Deanna Troi asked from her spot next to him on the Bridge of the Enterprise-D.
Riker turned back to her with a strained smile, "I tried a new holodeck workout program of Worf's last night. I'm not in as good of shape as I thought."
"Stretching might help," Troi scolded him in good humor.
"I was thinking I may have hurried through that," the commander said, sitting again after finishing his pacing. "Once my shift is over I will make sure I make the time."
"You better do that before you end up in Sick Bay," she replied.
A beeping noise caught the attention of both senior officers and they turned toward the source.
"Commander, we are receiving a coded priority one message on a secure channel for Captain Picard from Starfleet Command," Lieutenant Commander Data announced.
"Riker to Picard," the commander tapped the comm. "We are receiving a priority one communication from Starfleet."
"Send it in here to my Ready Room," the captain's voice came across the internal communications system.
"Aye, Captain," Data acknowledged, his fingers flying across the console.
"I'm getting the feeling we will have a new mission assignment soon," Troi mused out-loud.
"That isn't just your empathic hunch telling you so?" Riker grinned. "We will find out soon enough."
Within a half-hour, Captain Jean-Luc Picard walked onto the Bridge from his Ready Room. The older officer strode purposefully to the center of the room to give orders to his crew.
"Helm, set a new course heading for one-two-five mark three. Warp five," Picard ordered before turning to the rest of the crew. "Starfleet has lost contact with a duck-blind research facility in a nearby sector. They said it is of the utmost importance we get there immediately. At fifteen hundred hours I want all Senior Officers to meet in the Observation Lounge for further reports and information. Until then, stay the course."
"Fuf! Muug yd dryd," a young, blond Al-Bhed girl whispered as she crawled through the bushes.
"Rikku, where did you go?" Tidus' voice carried from far away.
"I'll be right there!!!" Rikku yelled back.
"Not safe here," Kimahri commented. "Rikku must stay with Yuna and Guardians."
"It is never safe in a place Sin has recently attacked," the rough, deep voice of Auron added.
"No matter what it is, Sin certainly messed it up real bad," Tidus frowned as he kicked a large piece of metal resting near his foot.
All around the traveling party of Guardians and Summoner lay bent and twisted pieces of metal and other strange materials. They had come upon the debris at the edge of Macalania Forest late in the day. The group decided to stop for a rest before moving on toward the Temple at Lake Macalania but was not going to stay long considering the aftermath they had discovered.
"I wonder what this was," Lulu questioned in her thoughtful tone. "It does not look like any building structures I have ever seen."
"I got it!!!" Rikku exclaimed as she came bouncing out of the bushes holding a metal item in her gloved hand.
"What is it?" Yuna queried, looking into her cousin's hands that held the treasure.
"I dunno…" the girl said, biting her lip while she moved a part that snapped into place then poked at the innards of the contraption with a shard of hard bark. "It matches the rest of this stuff… but it doesn't look Al-Bhed."
"Who else would use machina?!" exclaimed Wakka as he bounced his blitzball impatiently. "No one but da Al-Bhed, dat's who! Ya know Sin always punishes those who don't follow Yevon."
"Come on, Wakka. This looks pretty bad… people might have died," Tidus frowned and crossed his arms, glancing at Rikku, hoping that her feelings were not hurt despite Wakka's ignorance of her heritage. "Even if it was Al-Bhed or Yevonites."
"Yeah!" Rikku added on and wandered over to a fallen tree, perching herself on the trunk while she tinkered with the gadget.
"Ehh… still they should'a followed da rites and prayer," mumbled Wakka while he walked away but when a slew of beeps and chirps suddenly erupted from the device Rikku held, he came running back.
"Yikes!" she screeched and toppled backward nearly throwing the apparatus into the air out of surprise, but managed to catch it while she tumbled backward off the tree trunk.
"Rikku, are you all right?" Yuna raced over to the young girl and helped Rikku back to her feet.
"Woah, dat was some strange noise ya made it do," Wakka said. "We better leave it. Best we don't make Sin come after us, too!"
"One piece of machina will not make that much of a difference," Auron said, turning back toward the trail with his large sword hefted over his shoulder. "Wakka is right, though. We need to keep moving before it gets dark."
"Aww, darn," Rikku pouted, her bottom lip sticking out as she dragged herself toward the group but packed her new toy away in her bag. "Things were starting to get interesting."