2233
Phaser beams sliced the blackness of space.
The USS Kelvin and her crew were dying. The massive ship engaging the Kelvin unrelentingly unleashed missile after missile upon the battered Federation starship as it futilely tried to fight back with its own weaponry. But it was no match for the gargantuan ship's shields and weaponry.
The Kelvin's captain gave General Order 13: abandon ship. Shuttlecrafts began to flee the scene of battle, going as fast as their engines would take them.
The Kelvin herself was powering up her nacelles, propelling herself forward with every ounce of power left in her, gaining speed by the second.
Apparently, the captain of the doomed Federation vessel intended to ram the Kelvin into the huge maw of their attacker's ship.
Suddenly, the massive enemy ship was thrown on the defensive, lashing out with disruptor banks and torpedoes, but nothing could stop the determined hulk of the Kelvin and her suicidal captain. The Kelvin maneuvered around the protruding "claws" that greeted her as she flew deeper toward the belly of the beast.
At last, the doomed ship and what was left of her crew rammed into the ship. Explosions rippled across the massive vessel's hull, pieces of shrapnel and crew hurling out into space. The massive vessel lost power, and was dead in the water.
The scene was silent for a moment, nothing moved. The silence of the vacuum was once again restored.
Then, three Klingon Birds of Prey decloaked and moved in on the monstrous vessel. With its shields down, Klingon boarding parties were able to beam aboard the ship, instantly silencing any resistance that met them.
Among the Klingon boarding parties was General Japar, who was heading the assault. Artificial gravity was down, so the Klingons were forced to wear magnetic boots. Japar reached out and pulled one of the fallen crew members closer to him for a better look.
He muttered a swear in Klingon. "RomuluSngan," he said, spitting the name Klingon name for the Romulans. "Do not kill anymore of them," Japar ordered throughout the comm. "The Romulans may take it as an act of war." Japar switched his comm of and inspected some of the touch panels mounted on the wall. "But what I really wish to know, is how the Romulans came by this technology."
Dukan nodded thoughtfully. "And why waste such experimental technology on an attack on the Federation, especially now?"
Japar made a decision and opened up a general comm frequency again. "This is General Japar, pull back to the transport coordinates to beam back to the ships. We will bring this monstrosity to Klingon space—"
He was cut off when one of his warriors cried his name. Japar turned around, located the voice, and walked over. "What is it?" he barked. The warrior swallowed before answering. He pointed at a wall. "Look sir!" The soldier motioned to a wall where a stray disruptor beam had hit it, thus melting through the wall. The first thing Japar noticed, was the wall itself. It was metal, yet looked somehow...alive, organic, with green metallic lines running up and down it.
All the walls felt very much alive. Then the Klingon general noticed what his subordinate had want to show him. And before Japar's very eyes, the wall was literally beginning to heal itself. It look as if someone had poured acid on the wall, recorded it, then played it backwards. Alarmed gasps rose up around Japar's party. Japar himself took a step back, saying a curse. "What is it?" One of them cried. Japar looked around in alarm, and noticed other stray disruptor bolt blasts on the walls were also beginning to heal themselves.
"Back to the ship!" Japar said, starting off at brisk jog. It was an abomination, he thought, not meant for this time and place. It should be destroyed. Or...
He slowed as he thought of the battle between this behemoth and the Federation cruiser. Or it could be used to their advantage.
He halted and opened the comm wave again. "This is General Japar. Teams four through eight, remain aboard while we tow. Stun any Romulans you come in contact with." If the walls alone could be judged by the rate of healing, then the entire vessel could be in tip-top shape within the next day or so. If Japar didn't keep any of his men here, the Romulans could take back to ship and wipe out the Klingon warbirds as easily as it had the Kelvin.
Japar and Dukan made it back to transporter coordinates. "Remain here as well, the Romulans are tricky baktag."
His soldiers nodded and said, "Jlyaj."
Japar opened a comm wave to his ship. "Hljol!" he ordered. The shimmer of beaming engulfed him along with accompanied cold, and then he was suddenly on his ship.
"ChuyDah!" he ordered. The helmsman did as ordered and fired up the thrusters. Japar ave him a very specific set of orders, and relayed the message to the captains of the other two ships, who in turn gave the orders to their helm.
Japar's helmsman expertly guided the Bird of Prey into a position above and forward of the huge vessel, while the other two Birds of Prey took up positions on the port and starboard side.
As one, all three ships engaged their tractor beams, locking on to the huge vessel. And slowly, yet surely, they began to tow the vessel into the Neutral Zone, and beyond to Klingon space.
"General," Dukan said at a tactical station. "It appears a Federation cruiser is responding to a distress beacon emitted from the destroyed cruiser before it crashed."
Japar glanced calmly at him. "Present location?"
"Seven hundred thousand kilometers away, picking up the destroyed craft's shuttlecraft."
"We have plenty of time then, to enter the Neutral Zone. What is their ETA?" Japar asked.
Dukan glanced at his station. "Within two hours after picking up the survivors, sir."
"And when will we enter the Neutral Zone?" Japar asked, his mind already on other things.
"Within the hour, sir."
Japar nodded. "Good. I will be in my quarters. The bridge is yours." And with that, Japar left to his room.
As soon as the doors closed, he went straight to a comm unit and opened up a direct link with the Klingon High Council.
After the formalities, he reported his findings and his speculation on how they could use the technological advances to their advantage.
"You think like a warrior," one of the Council members said approvingly in Klingonese. "Our scientists will see what they can do. You shall have a warm welcome awaiting you. This is a historic day indeed."
Japar bowed his head. The transmission was cut.
Japar smiled his crooked smile. A historic day indeed.
Twenty-Five Years Later; 2258
Klingon scientist Delong'Mua scanned the bit of the Narada's computer casing he was working on. He glanced over at his fellow scientists, who were each also studying and reporting any new bit of data that they discovered aboard the Narada. Even after all these years, the army of scientists that occupied the Narada still made a new discovery—no matter how minuscule—every day.
At the moment, the Narada was orbiting the prison world of Rura Penthe. The Klingon High Council changed the location of the massive ship every few weeks or so, to keep any Federation spies—if there were any—from discovering the Klingons had taken the ship and its crew captive.
After all these years, it was still a mystery to every Klingon how the Romulans came by this technology.
There were theories about time-travel and other technobabble, but Delong'Mua though it was a load of Rekata dung. Obviously, on their side of the border, the Romulans were making much more advanced weaponry and technology than they let the outside galaxy believe.
Not that the Klingon Empire was complaining that they came across the sacred piece of high-tech weaponry. In the years since they found the Narada, they had created more advanced warbirds, better weaponry, better everything. Anything from household kitchen appliances to space stations.
After logging his findings, Delong'Mua packed up his scanning equipment, closed his case, and stood and walked across the huge bridge.
The super-structure alone was unimaginable. The very design was mind blowing. Although it did have its defaults. Like the fact that it looked like the Romulans stop building in one place, and started to build another project aboard the ship. The Romulans were known to be impatient.
Delong'Mua stepped up to a turbolift and clicked to call button. The speed with which it got there was pleasing. After stepping inside, Delong'Mua choose the floor his quarters were on and the lift descended.
Delong'Mua leaned against the turbolift metal, green lined wall. The only bad part about this job was that he needed rest. After twenty-five years, the Klingon scientists had only just begun to scratch the surface of the Narada. Some of the more Higher-Ups said that the technological advances made in the Narada shouldn't even be around for another century or so. There was so much untapped potential here that Delong'Mua was actually sad that he must sleep. He was a damned good scientist if he might sat so, he thought. His father never expected him to become much of anything when he was a child. It was his mother who encouraged him to become a scientist, after she saw his deductive reasoning and building skills. It was either become a detective, or a scientist. He had never been more happier to be a scientist than at this point in time.
The lift doors opened up on his deck and he walked out, down the hall to his bedroom.
Strangely enough, the Romulans had never made any effort to rescue its crew or it massive starship. There had never even been any mention of it. Which was also fine with the Klingons. If the Romulans didn't wish to bring it up, then neither would they. Perhaps somehow the Romulans were ashamed of the Narada, and didn't wish to have it or its crew back. Odd, but very plausible. Very Romulan. They did strange things all the time.
And true, the Klingon Empire had made many technical advances, but so did the Federation. In the few space engagments the Klingons had had with the Federation in the years since the Kelvin incident, the warbirds reported that the Federation ships were just as advanced as the Klingon warbirds. Suggesting that the before the Kelvin was destroyed, they got a good scan of the Narada while its shields were down. The escaping shuttlecraft must have taken those scans back to the Federation, thus making nearly all the technical advances the Empire had. Nearly.
The Feds had only but scans, whereas the Klingon Empire had the real thing.
After entering his quarters, Delong'Mua took out his padd that held all his shift's findings and plugged it into a wall unit that would catalog it with the rest of the scientists discoveries. It then deleted all the information on Delong'Mua's padd so that, if he was a spy, he wouldn't be able to take it off the ship. Any and all members of the science team were forced to go through security when they left the ship, to make sure they weren't taking anything they shouldn't with them.
He tucked his padd away and flopped down on his bed. He was about to get ready for sleep, when his comm unit chimed.
He groaned and muttered a Klingon curse. He picked up the unit and answered it. "What?" he asked.
"Dr. Delong'Mua?" It was the voice of his superior.
His composure instantly changed. "Yes sir, it is me. How may I help you?"
"There has been a prison brake on Rura Penthe," his superior said. This mildly interested Delong'Mua, his thoughts were of sleep and the Narada's systems. "Oh?" he said simply.
"Indeed. It is the crew of the Narada."
Delong'Mua thought his heart stopped. "What?" he croaked, all thoughts of the Narada and sleep vanished from his mind.
"They somehow escaped from the prison and commandeered a Bird of Prey and went into stealth. We have no idea where they are."
"What shall we do?" Delong'Mua asked, fear creeping into his voice. "We're moving the Narada again," his superior replied. "You're needed on the bridge. As you know, you're one of the few people who actually know how to drive this thing."
"I shall be there shortly, sir." They both signed off. Delong'Mua gathered himself and stood, glancing quickly in the mirror to make sure he looked acceptable.
He headed for the turbolift at a brisk jog and was on the bridge in record time. He was at the helm shortly thereafter, running preflight diagnostics and powering up the massive engines the Narada commanded.
"Doctor, we are clear to leave the system," another scientist told him. Security personnel were arriving on the bridge now, taking up defensive positions in and around the bridge.
Delong'Mua swallowed. He'd only piloted the massive Narada only twice before, and each time he did it only made him more nervous. Powering up the maneuvering thrusters, he hesitantly gave them juice, slowly propelling the Narada with the space station it was docked with.
Two Birds of Prey decloaked and come along side the Narada on either side, providing escort.
Delong'Mua blew out a breath and hit the engines. They roared and blasted the Narada away from Rura Penthe.
Or they would have, if one of their escorts hadn't opened fire on them.
A explosion rocked the bridge. The renegade Bird of Prey—most likely the one Nero and his crew had commandeered—hurtled over the Narada and destroyed the other escort before it could bring itself about.
"Weapons!" Delong'Mua's superior barked. Delong'Mua glanced at him frantically. "Sir, we only have control over phasers, we have not—"
"I know what we control, Doctor! Now fire all weapons!" The CO roared. Delong'Mua nodded and turned back to his stations. "All phasers, firing now, sir."
Red phaser beams lashed out at the Bird of Prey. But it was already too late. The commandeered warship had already gone into stealth again.
"Pathak!" the CO roared.
"Sir, something is docking with the bay!" a technician cried.
"Close the bay doors!" The CO commanded.
"Too late!"
An explosion rocked the ship. "They entered forcefully," Delong'Mua supplied. The security guards on the bridge swarmed into the halls, heading straight for the docking bay.
Silence reigned once more.
Delong'Mua looked to his superior, as did the rest of the bridge. "We must remain here," he said to them.
The doors hissed open ten minutes later. The bridge crew turned to look expectantly at the doors. What they saw made their hearts stop beating for a millisecond.
Instead of Klingons, Romulans swarmed into the room.
Disruptors discharged, screams and battle cries filled the air, and death swept down upon the Klingon bridge crew.
Delong'Mua, who had hidden underneath his console prayed a silent prayer as the Romulans began to drag away dead Klingon bodies.
Delong'Mua was rather small for a Klingon male, and this was evident as he was grabbed out from under the console. He cried out in surprise.
"Couldn't hide forever, Klingon scum," a throaty Romulan voice hissed.
Delong'Mua opened his eyes and came face-to-face with Nero, the former captain of the Narada. He spit in Delong'Mua's face.
"Twenty-five years, I was on that barren prison world. Many of my men died, Klingon. And for what? We did no harm to you to deserve such treatment."
Delong'Mua swallowed. It took every ounce of courage to speak to the tall Romulan. "You are...Romulan," he said in a shaky voice.
Nero sneered. "The I hope you rot in all the hells there ever was, Klingon." And with that, Nero reached out and snapped Delong'Mua's neck with a sharp twist.
Delong'Mua's body slumped to the floor in a heap.
Nero regarded the dead Klingon as he would a dead fly. H turned to Ayel. "Are the prisoners bound?"
His second in command nodded. "Put them in the airlock and vent it," Nero said coldly. "And prepare the ship for battle. Many more Klingons are about to die."
Ayel bowed.
In the next hour, an armada of forty-seven Klingon warbirds attacked the Narada and fought a losing battle.
Although the warbirds were advanced, they didn't stand a chance against the Narada's shield penetrating torpedoes, a weapon they had not yet dissected and put to use yet.
The final warbird disintegrated before Nero's eyes.
Shrapnel—the only thing left of the warbirds—occupied the space above the Rura Penthe now.
Nero looked to the helm and smiled glacially.
"Lay in a course for...Vulcan."
"Yes, Captain," the helmsman replied and turned to his console to do so. The stars outside became streaks as the metal behemoth known as the Narada, outfitted with unheard-of futuristic Borg technology, hurtled into maximum warp toward Vulcan.