A/N: Another cooped up idea inside this wierdo head of mine. I certainly think that this concept has potential. ON TO THE FIC! (The franchises Star Trek and Halo do not belong to me. Halo belongs to Bungie, and Star Trek to CBS)
Chapter 1: Didn't See That Coming
August 13, 2552 22:07 Hours
Orbit around planet Reach
"Slipspace rupture detected."
"Gamma Station Control, reading multiple pings below the Orbital Defense Grid."
"Slipspace rupture detected."
"Yeah, we're picking up anomalies too."
"Are you reading this?"
"Slipspace rupture detected."
"Multiple Covenant signatures!"
"Slipspace rupture detected."
"Does anyone have a visual?"
"They're everywhere!"
"Oh, this can't be happening!"
"Must be the whole damn Covenant fleet!"
"Slipspace rupture detected."
2366 Paulson Nebula
Enterprise-D
"Mr. Crusher, status of the Borg cube?" Picard asked.
"Unchanged, sir. The Borg are still scanning for us." Wesley Crusher answered from his station at the helm.
Picard keyed his communicator. "Picard to Riker, how are those phaser settings coming along?"
"So far nothing new, Captain." Came the reply from his first officer, Commander William Riker. "We can still use the random modulating phaser adaptors from before, but we don't know how long those will hold up."
"Keep me informed. Picard out."
Picard drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair.
Picard's science and operations officer, the android Data, turned around. "Captain, I have discovered that certain bands of the phaser adaptors we used against the Borg before momentarily nullified the cube's power. I believe that if we use it before they adapt we can gain a serious advantage."
"Make it so." Picard ordered.
Data turned back when his station started beeping. "Captain," he said, pressing buttons on his console. "I am detecting a rift in the dimensional wall."
Picard was puzzled. It would take an immense amount of energy to even come close to doing that. Every single starship in Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire would have to pool their resources in order to do that. "Location?"
"It is resonating from the Borg cube. It seems they have discovered it too."
"Any threat?"
"If we were to be close enough to the rift, we would most certainly be transported to an alternate reality. There is no telling which we would be transported to."
"Full impulse, Mr. Crusher. Away from the rift."
"Yes, captain. Captain, the helm is not responding."
"Picard to La Forge. Can you get us away from the dimensional rift?"
"I'm not sure, Captain. All power has been cut off from the impulse engines and the warp core. We're not going anywhere."
"Try and re-establish power."
"Acknowledged. All systems have frozen."
"Captain," Data spoke up. "The Borg cube has disappeared into the rift."
"Status of the rift, Mr. Data."
"Unchanged, sir. We are being pulled in."
Picard's communicator sounded. "Riker to Picard, what the hell is going on?"
"A tear in the interdimensional wall has appeared, taking the Borg cube and pulling us in."
"What's the good news?"
"That was the good news."
"The bad news is that we have no idea where we will be transported, where the Borg have been transported, or if we will be able to return to our dimension." Mr. Data answered for the Captain.
"Mr. Data, how long until we are pulled inside the rift?"
"Thirty seconds, sir."
Picard keyed the loudspeaker. "Attention crew of the Enterprise, this is your captain speaking. We have encountered a tear in the interdimensional wall and are being pulled into it. I doubt we will be able to return. I want to say that I have been proud to be your captain and to have every single one of you on my ship. Picard out."
Fleet Master Thel 'Vadamee ordered his fleet into the human planet's orbit as soon as the Super carrier Long Night of Solace was destroyed. Now was the time to let the hammer fall. Vadamee's second in command, Sangheili Major Uban 'Shyumee kneeled to his commanding officer. "We have secured our position in this system, Fleet Master. Intelligence reports confirm that the humans will not be able to make a significant counterattack in the next fifty hours."
"Good." Vadamee replied. "Land our troops on the planet and begin the invasion." His officer nodded and strode off, giving orders to the crew.
Thel walked around the bridge of his ship, Seeker of Truth. The humans' defenses were quickly being overrun by his troops, and soon the planet would be taken.
"Fleet Master!" One of Vadamee's officers called. "Picking up a dimensional disturbance around our position!"
Vadamee walked to the console his officer was sitting. "The distortion is forming in the middle of the fleet, and it was most likely triggered when all of the ships in the fleet slipspace jumped here at the same time." "Then explain how this has not happened before."
"I cannot say, Fleet Master. Too few of these occurrences have happened for us to study them." The console showed a form inside the middle of the fleet. "Something is coming out."
The console showed a very large cube, measuring three thousand meters on each side. The cube was black, with spots of green here and there.
"Open a channel to the ship, if it is one." Vadamee ordered. "Channel open, Fleet Master." One of the officers answered.
"Unknown starship, this is Fleet Master Thel 'Vadamee of-"
"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. You culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
Vadamee was irritated. No one interrupted him around his fleet. "Borg ship, you and what army?"
"Fleet Master! The ship is charging its weapons and have targeted us!" an officer reported. "Shields up, ready the plasma cannons." Vadamee ordered, taking up his chair.
The flagship rocked slightly as the Borg weapon hit the shields. "All ships return fire." Vadamee commanded. "Yes, Fleet master. All batteries firing." Came the acknowledgements.
The front screen showed the Borg ship being pummeled by the plasma torpedoes and beams. Then they just stopped having any effects. "Why aren't we doing damage to the ship?" Vadamee demanded. "Cannot be determined at the moment, Fleet Master. The Borg ship has almost cut through a section of our shield."
"Recompensate power to strengthen that shield."
"Yes, Fleet Master. Fleet Master, one of our ship's shields have been disabled." There was no way that could have happened. "Open communications with that ship." Vadamee ordered.
The view screen changed to show what looked like humans, mostly dressed in black robotic parts. The officers on the bridge were attacking the black humans. Vadamee demanded an update on the ship's situation. An Unggoy came to the microphone and started gibbering about humans appearing in a haze of green smoke and taking members of the crew. Plasma weapons were being heard in the background. The unggoy screamed as he was taken away.
"All ships, fire at will at the Borg ship. Destroy it." The ships obeyed, but nothing happened. "Status!" Vadamee shouted to one of his sensor officers. "Scans have shown that the Borg ship has adapted to our plasma weapons and is currently rebuilding itself."
"Is there any other non-plasma weapon on board?" Vadamee demanded. "We have some laser-based weapons, but I doubt-" "Fire them!" Vadamee commanded.
The Borg ship took more damage as all ships equipped with the lasers collided with the hull. Then the Borg adapted again.
"Send boarding parties to cube. Destroy it from the inside." Vadamee commanded. The Flagship rocked as it was hit with a large salvo. "What was that?"
"Trajectory suggests the blast came from the same ship that had the half-black humans on board. They must have taken over this ship." One of the officers announced.
"Open fire on that ship. Do not let that plague continue." The sound of the plasma cannons firing echoed inside the bridge. The plagued corvette exploded in a conglomeration of blue explosions.
Riker keyed his communicator. "Riker to Picard. What just happened?"
"It seems as though we are in another reality, Number One. And it looks like the Borg are here with us." The lighting dimmed as the ship rocked. "What was that?"
"The Borg must be firing at us again." Lt. Cmdr. Shelby suggested. "That might be it, Commander, but why would they wait a few minutes to destroy us when they had us with our shields down, and main weapons systems offline? I'm going up to the bridge." Riker walked out of the lab and headed for the nearest turbolift.
Riker didn't believe what was on the viewscreen. The Borg cube was getting its ass whooped by a huge fleet of alien ships. Captain Picard stared at the viewscreen as well.
"Captain, we are being hailed by one of the alien ships." Data said.
"Onscreen." The viewscreen changed to show a long, thin bridge, with aliens in different colored armor, denoting rank. One alien, in a floating chair, had different armor from the rest, clad in dark gold armor. He spoke in a dialect that involved lots of growling and every other word sounded like 'blarg'.
"Mr. Data, how long will it be before the universal translator is operable?" Picard asked.
"We only need several seconds more of dialogue, captain." His officer replied.
Riker waited in anxiety. Finally the alien language became comprehensible, and at last spoke with an accent.
"…if you do not identify yourselves we will fire on your vessel!" the alien captain said.
"No!" Picard said, putting his hand up. "I apologize for the delay. Our universal translator requires several seconds to fully translate alien languages. Can you tell us where we are?"
"You are human. You are our enemies. You will be destroyed." The alien said. Riker knew this was getting bad.
"I assure you we are not your enemies. If you will just let us leave from the presence of your fleet we will be happily on our way." Picard said.
"We have been at war for almost twenty of your years." The alien said.
Picard looked at Riker. He was thinking the same thing. The Federation isn't at war with anyone right now. Any war hasn't lasted almost twenty years.
The alien ship rocked as it was hit with something. One of the alien officers spoke up. "Fleet Master! The Borg ship has taken over several more of our ships!"
Picard looked at Data, who was furiously tapping away at his console. "Scanners do show Borg lifesigns aboard some of the alien vessels. Captain, I am also reading human lifesigns on the planet below.
Humans? It would suggest that these were the humans the aliens were fighting. Data also said that a number of human ships were on a heading to here with a warp speed of approximately warp 2.6. How could these alternate humans travel at much slower speeds than the Enterprise? They must have gone back in time along with swapping realities.
"Mr. Crusher," Riker commanded. "Plot a course that takes us out of the fleet fastest while they're distracted with the Borg. Go to warp seven and rendezvous with the human sips en route here."
"Plotting a course. The route selected should take us less than a minute to meet with the human forces."
"Engage." Picard said.
The stars elongated on the viewscreen when the Enterprise went to warp. Remarkably, the aliens did not respond to their disappearance.
The time reaching the human fleet was filled with an uneasy silence.
The main questions of the hour were Where are we? And How will we get back?