Star Trek Janus: Shadowy Depths
DISCLAIMER: Star Trek and all related characters are the property of Paramount Pictures, Inc and CBS-Paramount Television. No copyright infringement is intended. This work of fiction is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. And if requested by the copyright holders this work will be removed from the public domain. The original characters and events are the sole property of the author and may not be used without permission.
Author's note:
This piece uses the mirror universe, however unlike most stories it does not include the mirror counterparts of the Federation crew portrayed here. This is because while the mirror universe is the opposite of our own I do not believe that it means the alternate crew always has to be involved. As I believe the alternate crew would be somewhere else, doing the opposite or at the very least something markedly different to they're opposite numbers in our Starfleet. I have written this here so people do not feel cheated by the content of this work…. but I sincerely hope you will read on and enjoy it.
ISS Spartha
In standard orbit of Julian four
…How dare they order him to stand down! How dare those waterborne rodents claim to have discovered something that his space borne brethren could never reach! Captain Nathan Alderhay stalked around his ready room, his bodyguard outside ready to defend his charge but not witness his near maniacal rant. For 20 years Nathan had climbed each warm blood soaked rung of the rank chart in the Empires mighty Starfleet. He walked to his chair and sat down his finger angrily jabbing at the desk mounted PADD. His eyes lethargically read over the Empire Naval Patrol report with little enthusiasm past his wanton desire to find something wrong so he could legitimately blow a few dozen of those saps out of the water with the Spatha's well worn phaser arrays. His ready room was a twisting horrible tumult of cold-blooded and logically harnessed blazing fury; a raging tumult that lost its command of the room and was driven to its knees by nothing more than a repetitive high-pitched chirp.
"Alderhay."
"My good Captain, I trust you have found my report enlightening?"
"Hardly Commander, between your bluster I fail to see why the anomaly you have found is so interesting, especially when your seas are seemingly falling into open rebellion."
The line went dead, the use of the word rebellion, the most dreaded and putrid word that could pass between those who served the Empire with their hands wrapped around its instruments of war and dominion seemingly cut short their edged banter. Nathan's brows rose in an unaccustomed show of inner thought when a small childlike laugh wafted from the PADDs internal speaker.
"Oh now Captain, rebellions are really most trite when viewed beside what I have found, maybe you need to join me on my ship and see for yourself."
Alderhay had been monetarily wrong footed by his aquatic counterpart as his mind tried to take in the blatantly treacherous undertone in his request. Nathan was about to reply as the Commanders voice left one last mocking and gentile offer.
"And feel free to bring your bodyguard along with you… Captain."
USS Ark Royal
En-Route Julian four
The room was warm and the air damp as the four members of Starfleet and the S.F.M.C slept in their cramped, or cosy, cots. Three slept soundly as one was caught in chains of cold sweat and invisible demons that pricked the muscles of a troubled twitching brow. While his body rested underneath the sheets his mind registered only the tight bounds of twisted fabric that rubbed against ankles and arms. His breathing was short, erratic, trying to feed a heart that demanded oxygen to fight a war that was long over.
"Two minutes, TWO MINUTES!"
The grey cliffs now erupted in flame, as the water around them became a boiling cauldron of fountains of lead laced surf. No shuttles for these marines…no battles between the stars. Now they were cattle, poised and highly trained, but cattle non-the less. Their target was a terrorist camp situated in hills whose metals barred transport and gave too many plateaus for anti aircraft positions to slice gleaming white shuttled into flaming blackened hulks. So the Star Fleet Marines were going to war upon water using antiquated aqua-shuttles last seen on Kirk's Enterprise.
John glanced at the combat tricorder strapped to his left forearm for the hundredth time; they were going in blind, with only their rifles and their feet for equipment. Sergeant Major John David Bryant cast his eyes across his men who huddled into the cramped confines of the antiquated shuttle. Its only saving grace was that they would exit from the rear and not down the gullet of the enemy's fire.
John walked back to the control deck as his eyes were dragged toward the beach already being pulverised by the tell tale green streaks of disrupter fire and saw the first shuttle go in and be slammed with disrupter fire. Knowing that each shuttle could take 15 he only counted 6. He turned back to his men.
"John…"
Bryant was about ready to rip off the head of the marine who dared to use his first name…
"John"
It wasn't one of his marines his hand dropped to his sidearm as a matter of course. John glanced to all corners of the shuttle but the owner of the voice still eluded him.
"John David!"
Bryant was suddenly surrounded by an enlisted mans quarters as his head exploded with a blunt throbbing pain as his head met the cots roof. John rubbed his head and quietly swore to himself. His eyes weren't adjusted to the dark but the faint perfume told him everything he needed to know.
"Sarah?"
"Yeah John you should really gag yourself sometimes"
"Yeah you wish."
"Yeah I do that way I won't wake up at 0300."
"That late?"
"Come on."
"Aye, Master Chief."
John lifted himself up and out of his bunk and wrestled with his marine green shirt…it didn't go particularly well with the training pants he slept in but at 0300 hours he doubted anyone would notice. As he fought to get his combat boots on as quietly as possible he felt the two green eyes of Master Chief Petty Officer Sarah Gibson burn into him. He did feel a little guilty Sarah slept so lightly that she would have made a great marine, but it also meant that his nightmares woke her on more than one occasion.
John followed her out of their makeshift basha and into the oppressing brightly lit corridors of the USS Ark Royal. John soon found his space legs again even at this early hour, the time when gamma shift went about their duties with little in the way of overt chit chat. Bryant noticed that the Master Chief was wearing a uniform skirt and smiled as it framed her aft beautifully. Soon the enlisted pair was down in the business decks of the Ark Royal, she was a Nova class with only one major difference to her sister ships. Her cargo bays had been hollowed out with clamshell doors running across starboard and port. And in place of work bees she had been outfitted with two impulse patrol boats, armed to the teeth with duel type III phaser rifle turrets and a few 24th century bazookas to boot.
She was also unique, the first of her kind and as the paranoia of the Dominion war had abated, probably the last as well. Between the stars in the Federations latest war the usefulness of the small fighters had been starkly illustrated. This had finally trickled down to the often forgotten Federation Naval Patrol, whose losses had been just as severe as the fleets as the Dominion used smaller and lighter naval ships that quickly cut into and decimated Naval Patrol fleets. So the Naval Patrol wanted something that could deliver small ships with a mighty array of firepower right between hell's teeth. So the little Nova class with shields, torpedoes, phaser arrays and landing struts was picked out for the experiment. Then the modified Nova was packed full of combat tested fleet personnel and a platoon worth of marines (preferably crazy or ex-special forces or in some way not quite right by they standards of the marine handbook) and the Ark Royal was ready to go.
John ran his hand over one of his boats and couldn't resist jumping in to check the double rifle mount; Sarah just leaned against the hull and sighed. John had finally climbed up one of the black nylon rope ladders and was checking the dead phaser mount, ducking and weaving under the heavy-duty servo arms that in time of crisis would carry the boats and their marines into harms way. John heard his friend and Master Chief sing her perfect and somewhat annoying tune of grunts and dismal hums.
"You didn't have to come down here!"
"Oh yeah and just let you scream your head off again."
"Damn squids always wrapping people up in cotton wool."
"You should know."
Sarah laughed out her reply as her NCO training took the sting out of her annoyance when faced with the Sergeant Majors good-humoured banter. John quickly disembarked from the USS Albion one of the two impulse patrol boats the other, USS Bulwark, were named in honour of two amphibious assault ships used by the ancient Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.
"Yeah, as I was a squid all those years ago."
John took Sarah's shoulder in his grip and squeezed it; any other show of camaraderie would be dicey. Bryant then checked the servo arm control console in the centre of the ex-cargo bays, the maintenance boys of course would have made sure it was good to go, but John wanted to see for himself so he could lead his marines knowing he had checked as many things as he could of before the call.
Sarah let John finish his poking around as that was how he got back to normal after a bout of night terrors; he wouldn't talk about and tried as often as he could to do this ritual on his own, a ritual that sometimes took on a macabre edge with the distant look haunting a pair of youthful blue eyes. As John looked across to each of the massive doors that would open up to push his boats out into the deep blue sky or viscous foaming surf Sarah piped up again.
"This may be our last training exercise before we are de-mobbed, you know?"
"Sarah those rumours have been going around since we bloody left the refit!"
"Yeah but the Dominion war is long gone."
"Yeah like every other war, look right now we can give the Naval Patrol a fast moving symbol of power…an armed star ship with a couple of patrol boats to boot. Until we get too expensive to run or get mothballed in spending cuts we will just be a quiet oddity that helps the seas of the Federation run smooth."
Imperial Naval Patrol Base Julian Julian four
Commander Alexia West leaned back in her soft leather chair, a warm and sensuous air danced in from the sea, carrying the fresh cirrus hues of blossoms and fruit all savagely undercut by the salty signature of the sea. She was terribly young to command a full fleet and a shipyard of her own. But that didn't really bother her; looks and a sharp blade were really useful for promotion from underneath the nearest Admiral. West let a long and poised finger draw itself around the rim of her snifter full of Andorian Brandy, they may have been mere evolutionally throwbacks, but like the ancient bootleggers they could mix a good drink. Her console beeped to give her fair warning of Captain Alderhay's arrival. She hoped that he was fighting mad and ready for a verbal duel…of course if she had guessed wrong and acted immaturely she was faced with the proposition of…well…unpleasantness.
"Well, Commander West?"
"Please sit Captain, and allow your most masculine of guards to partake of my staff's hospitality."
West's lips twitched in mirth as once again her star sailing guest was at a loss. But her smile also concealed a measure of met expectations as she caught a sight of the type II phaser hanging at his waist. Alderhay's bodyguard left as he was guided by one of West's alluring lesser amazons. West stayed silent and sipped her drink as her eyes wandered over Nathan Alderhay. Trying to gauge the man she had only read about in reports from a family that she had only heard about through second hand rumour from the very seat of the Empire. Nathan's eyes were cold brown pits of nothingness as he sat prim and proper opposite her desk. Alexia hummed an old lullaby before speaking.
"Captain may I welcome you to I.N.P.B Julian and the Julian ship yards, I am pleased you decided to join me."
"Join you? Commander I must warn you that I am here as a member of the Terran Empire, as such your treacherous language is my most pressing concern."
"Of course, Captain. I would expect no less from the Alderhay family, though perhaps you would allow my to show you what I have found that puts such language in my mouth?"
Alexia smiled leaning back in her chair feeling more confident of her surrounds, she wasn't dead and as a close range phaser bolt was the usual reply to any talk of treason she had a momentary reprieve. West stood and tossed a PADD over to the Captain. As Alderhay read through it with more vigour than the report he had read in his ready room an hour or so earlier, Alexia went about gathering her accruements of state.
She was clad in the daily duty uniform of the Empire Naval Patrol: a one piece suit of deep blue with black trim around the waist and shoulders, her left shoulder was emblazed with the symbol of the Empire that stretched right around from front to back. Her right shoulder was all black and its only contrast came with the three silver bars of a Commanders rank. West reached for her peak cap and her half cape; both throwbacks to the archaic sea rovers who use the wind and the compass to ply their trade. She remained standing with a casual stance that sacked of standing at ease with a little of flaunting her wears, after all like all martial branches of the Empire you were expected to use every weapon at your disposal. She stood and let Nathan finish.
"Tell me Captain, have you ever seen a Naval Patrol ship yard? They are very interesting places."
Nathan stood up and looked through the large gold gilded doors to see if his bodyguard was in sight, he wasn't, and as Nathan twisted back round he realised he had fallen into arcadia's web. The Commander had used the gambit of treason to get him running to her at warp 8. And now he was here she was showing him, teasing him with something that could incite mutiny and treason….Nathan wondered if this was just some ruse by Imperial Internal Security. It had been known for the agents of purity and devotion to the Empire to run a Captain half way across the quadrant into honey traps like these. But Alderhay doubted he would come into their plans as he had achieved 97% first attack fatalities over his last three cleansing missions and his follow up attacks had been fiery exclamations marks to the Empires view of dissention.
With the threat of a cloaked dagger far away, Nathan rose to accompany Alexia, the two officers started to saunter toward the massive and imposing slip ways and dry docks that made up the arteries and veins of a perverse living symbol of flesh and tritanium to the might of the Terran Empire; the flesh of the ship yard toiled below the two officers in the dank pits of the dry docks…captured labour put to work carrying out the dangerous and laborious task of building the frameworks of the Naval Patrols watery steeds. Nathan looked down with pure curiosity on the scenes below him. The Fleet used Marines as shock troopers and deadly scalpels and cleaves, but below him the most feared soldiers in the universe had been turned into a sort of frightful nanny. Each marine stood in their daily uniforms with nothing more than a long stick…it looked like a stick at any rate…West just kept on walking as the click-click of her boots kept Alderhay moving along in time.
"Captain we use slave labour like any branch of the Empire does, I believe the fleet uses slave labour for some cooking and I believe many a female slave helps relieve some of the more vigorous flag officers."
Nathan was about to lay his curiosity aside for the untermenschen in the pits of the Naval Patrol forges as a mighty Klingon roar exploded from the pits where flashes from plasma torches mingled with the crimson butterflies of bolt welders, Nathan saw a Klingon make a break toward one of the nasty nannies and in a second the innocent looking stick came to life caught in a baleful dull red glow. West stopped and cast a lazy look upon the scene akin to the look on Nathan's face as he cast rebellious crew into the agoniser booth to let them mull on their error with a little pain to focus the mind. Nathan was utterly captivated by the scene as the burly Klingon with his welder attempted to take the marine's head off at the shoulders, but with a slight sidestep and a viscous short stab the Klingon was on the ground and crying out, as the marine kept the red stick in contact with the Klingon's thick alien hide as the smell of gently roasted flesh mingled with the other heavy odours of a shipyard.
Soon the writhing creature no longer held any cursorily for the fleet officer to familiar with seeing this pitiful display of alien weakness on his won ship day in and day out. Soon the wonders of the shipyard again held Nathan's eyes as he saw the sharks of the Empire come to life in the numerous dry docks scattered around him. Soon Alexia had guided the Captain through the concrete jungle of mourning rigs and cranes to the out edges of the ship yard that were brushed with soft white sands and inviting seas. A vision of paradise savagely sliced in two by a ship sized phaser barrage that jetted like a gods angry gaze into the side of Patrol ships long past their best; and like all things of that age in the Empire they were summarily used to strengthen their younger replacements by means of their slow and painful demise.
Nathan looked behind him and saw the massive phaser cannons in their swivel batteries all pointing out to sea, but after a momentous stream of fire he was confused to why they had fell silent, especially as before him there still was something of the old vessels still afloat. His eyes studied the now silent gun emplacements until a searing red glow momentarily took his site and as he turned round the battered target fleet was no more laying in pieces at the bottom of a turquoise sea.
"Our ships only use impulse engines my dear Captain, using warp in atmosphere is suicidal and counter productive as it would cause a terrible incident. So our phaser batteries need at least two minutes to fully recharge or we risk cutting power to the rest of the ship, naval tactics require a little forethought, something I doubt you have been introduced to."
Alexia smiled and looked out to sea as she felt the electricity ripple off a bristling spaceship Captain. She let him stew a while as the breeze caught her half cloak and lifted it up showing of her shapely form…the game of power politic was as much theatrical flair as intellectual superiority…she let him catch her out of the corner of his eye before going on. The scene was set and now it was the time for the act where words of treachery and deceit were spoken as softly as words of tender solace.
"Well, Captain, I hope my command has suitably impressed you."
"And I am meant to be impressed why?"
"Because it proves my amply abilities in command, and perhaps will help me if you find this next question… morally testing."
"The question being?"
"What do you know of our past Emperor Tiberius? Or more to the point… a Captain by the name of James Tiberius Kirk?"