Star Trek: Odyssey 22: Ghosts of Tomorrow
The Alexandria rocked from the multiple phaser impacts on their starboard shields. A pair of quantum torpedoes flew through space towards the Alexandria. Allensworth hoped that Lieutenant Dowey saw them as he did. Luckily, he did. The blue collared Lieutenant entered commands into his console and the Alexandria maneuvered accordingly around the torpedoes.
The latest fierce battle was now taking place in the El-Adrel system. The Federation was barely staying with the Terran Empire in this battle. The Alexandria moved at full impulse through the debris of other starships. The debris was of both Federation and Imperial starships and Captain Allensworth wasn't entirely sure if his ship was moving among the dead of friends or foe.
An Imperial starship came into view and was now Allensworth's new target. "Fire quantum torpedoes."
Three blue torpedoes launched out into space and slammed into the Saber class starship. The ship spun out of control before erupting into a ball of fire. Another Imperial starship, this time an Akira class, came from the Alexandria's port side firing phasers causing the ship to rock even more.
In Sickbay, Plumley rolled her eyes at the constant turbulence they were experiencing. It was preventing her from doing her job perfectly. She could still do her job but it was just an annoyance. Her nursing staff was handling the wounded while Amanda handled a more pressing matter; the birth of Christine Nycz's child. One would think she'd pick a better time to give birth. Hell, she might as well give birth after a quantum filament hit the ship. Doctor Plumley looked up at her.
What the hell is she doing? She's holding her god damned breath.
"Breathe, Christine. You need to breathe." The rocking stopped for the moment and Doctor Plumley took advantage of the opportunity. "Alright, Christine, with the next contraction, I want you to push while I count to ten."
Christine bore down as hard as she could when the next contraction hit. She squeezed her eyes shut and her face was set in a scowl as she pushed. Nycz mentally cursed the Mirror Alex Merriell for doing this to her but she was not going to condemn the child for its biological father's doing.
Speaking of which, her Alex Merriell came into the room just after she stopped pushing. Amanda looked up from where she sat at Christine's feet. "Ah, Commander, you're just in time."
"As soon as the battle was over, Captain Allensworth sent me down here." Alex said.
Alex walked over to Christine and held her hand. The second her hand closed on his was the same instant where he wanted to detach his hand because of the Klingon like grip she had. Now he knew what Dustin meant when he told him not to hold Christine's hand during birth.
"Two more pushes like the last one and Zoe will be out." Plumley said. "Now just breathe a bit to gain your strength and clear your head and get ready for the next contraction."
Christine nodded as she focused now entirely on her body's effort to bring Zoe into the world. She was glad Alex was there with her. She could've probably done it without him but she felt better knowing he was there.
The next contraction began and Christine pushed as hard as she could while Amanda maintained the count for her. Alex took a mental note of how ironic the scene was. Here was Christine giving birth, bringing a new life into the world while people nearby were dying.
With death brings new life. He thought to himself.
Once more Christine's body shuddered with her efforts to push with her latest contraction.
"Keep going. That's it." Amanda encouraged. "Push!"
Christine pushed with the last ounce of strength, screaming. The head of the infant came out first, and then the rest of the body slid out.
"You can relax now. Zoe's out." Plumley said. "She's beautiful."
Christine laid her head against the headrest and breathed deeply. Alex kissed her on her forehead. "You did wonderful."
After the infant was wrapped in a blanket, Amanda handed her over to Christine as the new mother cried with joy.
"Hello, my beautiful one." Christine said.
Zoe Ryan Nycz looked up at her parents with crystal clear azure eyes. Alex, who had remained in awe struck silence finally found his voice. "She's beautiful."
"She definitely is." A voice said behind them.
Alex turned around as Christine swiveled her head to see Captain Allensworth standing there.
"Captain? We didn't hear you come in."
"I came in shortly after you did, Alex. I didn't want to intrude on your moment." He extended a hand out to shake his second officers, who in return shook it. "Congratulations, Alex. You too, Christine." He said as he lightly squeezed her shoulder affectionately. "I personally wanted to greet the newest member to our family." He reached over and lightly ran a finger down the side of Zoe's face. "Welcome aboard."
Captain's Log: Stardate: 58667.4. The ship is traveling at low warp towards Starbase 157. We barely managed to defeat the Terran Empire at El-Adrel. We suffered heavy damage and moderate casualties during the battle. If we keep having battles like this one, I don't see how we'll win this war. We need to be able to battle the empire without paying a price like the one we paid today. On a more positive side, Counselor Nycz has given birth to a girl named Zoe Ryan Nycz.
Captain Allensworth ended his log and leaned back in his chair in his ready room going over the events of the day. He stared at the table as he thought.
Meanwhile, Commander Sparhawk sat in the command chair on the bridge as Captain Allensworth sat in his ready room. All of the senior officers were at their stations with the exception of Counselor Nycz. She was currently in her quarters with her daughter. Commander Merriell was at the Ops station but the shift was about to change and the new father could go see his daughter.
Suddenly, a noise filled the bridge that sounded like a power failure. The crew looked around and saw no sign of any power failure.
"Sir," Zofchak said. "We're dropping out of warp."
"Cause?" Sparhawk asked.
Zofchak shook his head. "Nothing that I can find, sir. We just can't seem to maintain a stable warp field."
"Captain Allensworth to the bridge." Sparhawk called out.
Allensworth walked out onto the bridge just as a beeping came from Ops. Merriell looked down and read the readings aloud. "Sir, some kind of rift is forming several thousand kilometers off the port bow."
"What kind of rift?" Allensworth asked.
"Unknown, sir." Merriell replied.
"On screen." Allensworth said.
The screen showed a blue mixed with red rift with no visible boundaries in front of them.
"Sir," Lieutenant McKenzie said from the Tactical station. "A ship is emerging."
From what appeared to be the center of the rift, a ship of unknown design appeared and headed directly for the Alexandria. It was as large and sleek looking as a Sovereign class starship. It appeared to be part of the Sovereign class family as the Nebula, Galaxy and New Orleans classes were part of the Galaxy class family.
"Definitely Federation starship." McKenzie said. "Vesta class."
"Vesta?" Zofchak asked in surprise.
"Reading registry now, sir." Allensworth continued to stare at the new starship. "NCC. One Seven oh One. F." McKenzie reported. Allensworth looked back at his tactical officer as did everyone else on the bridge. McKenzie ignored them all as she stared at the screen saying the name of the ship. "USS Enterprise."
Another beeping, this time from Hoshi's communication station, caught Allensworth's attention. "Sir, we're being hailed." She reported.
"On screen." Allensworth said without much hesitation. He was about as curious as ever as to why a starship from the future has traveled back and was now making contact with him and his crew.
The screen switched over from the image of the starship to the image of a woman that had to be no older than thirty getting up from her command chair on the bridge of her ship. She was clearly of Asian descent with some Caucasian features. She had green eyes and long dark brown hair. The uniform she wore was similar to the ones worn now, except there was no zipper on the front collar, the top of the uniform came down to just above the knee like a skirt but she also wore pants that had the division color down the side of the leg. She also wore knee high boots that the pants were tucked loosely into; similar to the way Starfleet officers wore their boots back in the twenty-third century.
Allensworth started off the encounter with the usual saying. "I am Captain Jermaine Allensworth of the starship Alexandria."
"I know you who are, Captain. I am Captain Kyou Zofchak of the starship Enterprise. We have come back in time to stop your destruction."
