Star Trek:
Merikus



Neil R. Haagensen

Prologue


The trip was long and boring, but he was excited. In a few minutes he would have a ship of his own to control. He thought that his pilot was snoring but it was only the life support fans. They were about seventeen miles above the Earth's surface, on their way to the U.S.S. Merikus. The stars shone brightly through the inky blackness of the night, and the sun's rays illuminated the planet.
"Um...Captain?" said the crewman.
"Yes, Mr. Parker?" the man replied.
"We are almost at the rendezvous point, sir," Lt. Commander Parker announced, "Is your speech ready?"
"Of course," the captain answered.
The shuttlecraft continued through space until it came up upon one starship. It was rather small for the average starship of its age, maximum occupancy of two hundred fifty personnel. The ship seemed to be made out of one big plate that was set upside down on another. The ship was streamlined, not that it would need to be in space, but aesthetics were not to be avoided. Its warp nacelles were stuck on the side and to the rear.
"A truly beautiful sight."
"Sir?" said Parker.
"Sorry, Matt, I was just admiring the ship," the Captain answered, "almost reminds me of an automobile my father treasured."
"The 1959 Pontiac?" Parker asked.
"Yes," he replied "A truly remarkable machine, for its time frame, of course."
"Of Course"
The shuttle had come up upon the landing area of the ship and the pilot took her in. There were many crewmembers on the deck and as the shuttle landed a person blew a whistle to announce the arrival of their captain. The door opened and out stepped a tall man with blond hair. The hair only covered half of his head though, the other half was completely bald. He walked up to a podium that had been placed there for this occasion, and stepped up.
"Good morning," His voice was deep and aged, "I have a speech here for you but first I must read you some paperwork."
The man glanced down at the device he was carrying.
He began to read, "I, Captain Robert Anderson hereby accept command of the StarFleet vessel U.S.S. Merikus, registry number NCC-3510, and all the rights and privileges hereto. I also accept the command of the crew, as they may be the finest I will ever command."
The crowd cheered in appraisal.
"Well, now that's over with, I would like to let you on a little secret... I listen to everybody, not just the department heads. If anyone, ANYONE has a problem they may feel free to bring that problem to me. I know that saying something like this may get me into a lot of problems but I just want to let the crew know that I may be the nicest captain that they have ever seen," continued Captain Anderson, "Dismissed!"
Anderson let out a sigh of relief as the crew dispersed throughout the ship to perform their assigned duties. He had a hard day and was ready to go to bed, even at nine in the morning, he hated speeches. Robert Anderson found his room easily; the captain's quarters are the most important in the entire ship. He set his bags down and went to the desktop terminal.
"Computer, bring up article #43217 and ready signature," ordered Captain Anderson.
The computer beeped back and up popped a document about the chain of command and abuse of power. The Captain read through half of it and found it hard to concentrate. He walked over to the replicator.
"Coffee with milk and sugar, warm," He barked.
There was a slight humming sound and the machine produced the requested beverage. Anderson picked it up and ordered some music. He wandered back to his desk and hummed along with Jan and Dean while they were singing the song entitled "Linda".
For lunch Anderson visited the replicator unit mounted on the bridge wall. There he requested a roast beef sandwich with cheese and lettuce.
"I thought you would order something different," came a voice from behind him.
"Aaron?" said the captain as he turned around, "Aaron!"
"Robert," said Aaron as they clasped each other in a big bear hug.
"Where have you been, you old man?" asked the older of the two.
"I'm not that old, Da-... er...Captain," said Aaron as he caught himself almost addressing his own father as just that.
"Don't worry about protocol around me, Aaron, just make sure you don't do that in front of the suits," Anderson Said.
"Just visiting the Enterprise," continued the son, "But what about that sandwich?"
"I usually order it when something is on my mind, I know," said Anderson, "but I have something on my mind right now."
The captain and tactician took their respective seats as the entire ship got ready to depart.

Captain's Log, Stardate: 913129.5
I have recently taken command for the first time of my StarFleet career. The U.S.S. Merikus is an average ship, no special technologies, and definitely not the most advanced ship of the fleet. I enjoy the ship nevertheless, comfort and maneuverability that only come with this class of ship. The Merikus class of ship is sleek and the most maneuverable class of ship in all of StarFleet. It is also one of the smallest, with a crew capacity of only two hundred and fifty, even an Intrepid class ship could carry almost four hundred. Then there was the Defiant class, a small, light starfighter, a crew capacity of 80 and no living room...

Anderson was in his office, waiting for the news to come in that they had reached the Devora system. He already had breakfast and wasn't very hungry so his replicated sandwich was just sitting there, half eaten. His first night aboard the ship went well, but he was really disturbed by the orders that StarFleet has given him.
"Captain...?...," came a voice through his commbadge.
He tapped it, "What is it, Mr. Parker?"
"Um...Well, sir, we have arrived at the Devora system,... and,... you wanted to know when we were in scanning range of the planet?" he stuttered.
"Yes, I'm on my way," Anderson said before he tapped his badge off again.
The Captain got out of his chair, leaving article #43322 on his desk viewer. He headed through the door of his quarters to the bridge.
The bridge was less than ascetically pleasing, but it was comfortable. The command chair was flanked by the second officers' chairs, with about a man's length between the chair and the ops and con consoles. The same length was between the helmsmen and the main viewer. Just behind the chair and to the captain's left sat the tactician and the science officer was to his right.
Once on the bridge the captain ordered the planet on the viewer and a scan for quantum particles. The science officer complied, but Aaron, the captain's son, asked what they were looking for.
"Just wait...," mumbled the captain.
"Wait for what?!?" Aaron exclaimed.
Robert Anderson shot his son a deep and angry glance, "You may be my son," he started, "but I will STILL treat you like any other member of the crew!!!!!!"
"S...Sorry, sir," answered Aaron.
Captain Anderson would have looked back at the screen but he thought he saw a tear drop from his son's eye. A heavy weight dropped on his heart. He looked back at the screen, not in anger, but in embarrassment. He never wanted to hurt his son in any way.

After his shift Captain Anderson paid a visit to Aaron's quarters. The call button made its little chime to signal a visitor at the door. Anderson waited, and waited. No one came to the door. At last, tired of waiting, Robert Anderson paged the computer and asked where his son was.
"Section Ten, Deck 5," was the computer's response.
Captain Anderson went to the turbolift and reiterated what the computer told him. With a slight hum the Captain was on his way to apologize to his son. He was hoping Aaron wouldn't be too upset, at least not too much to accept an apology.
"Section Ten, Deck 5," beeped the computer.
As the doors opened Aaron appeared.
"Aaron!" exclaimed Captain Anderson.
"Save it, Dad, I don't want to be yelled at again," Aaron replied.
"Sorry," the senior Anderson said, "I'm sorry for yelling at you on the bridge. I'm just tense about this mission and I want it to go smoothly."
"I guess I'm sorry too, for steeping out of line," said Aaron Anderson.
"Well, let's go to the bridge so we can see if we found it..."
"I suppose you won't tell me what we are looking for?" asked Aaron.

"The Omega Particle," the Captain said to his senior officers, "is the most dangerous thing in the galaxy. I would give an order to destroy it, but that would collapse subspace in this sector. I do however, order it to be held in a tractor beam until we reach Starbase 75. There, StarFleet will order it to be taken to the space outside our galaxy and have it destroyed."
The Captain waited for any questions or comments and got none. He was glad that this crew was getting along with him so well. He was also glad that his son wasn't angry any more.
"Dismissed!" Anderson ordered his crew.
As he walked out the ship went into red alert. The klaxons blared and the ships lighting had changed. Anderson asked his second in command what had happened.
"Transwarp signatures!" the commander replied.
"Borg?" asked Anderson, "Damn! I can't believe it!" he said when his commander nodded an affirmative.
"Plan Beta!" he mumbled to himself and gave the order to detonate a torpedo next to the particle.
"Sir?" asked Aaron, "Didn't you say StarFleet ordered you not to destroy it here?"
"Not exactly," responded the very stressed out Captain, "StarFleet wanted me to capture it, unless the Borg show up."
"Very well," said Aaron.

The torpedo flew out the tube and exploded next to the swirling mass that was named the Omega Particle. The ship had already turned around and engaged its engines. Warp 2 was the best they could achieve; without subspace warp drive is impossible. The field was being collapsed by the subspace shockwave that was coming at the ship at the speed of light. The ship rattled as it slowed, but they were still going about seven times the speed of light.
Then the ship's speed normalized... and then increased. They had outrun the shockwave. A Borg Sphere came out of transwarp at the edge of the affected space and went in. The sphere came back out and re-entered the transwarp conduit. It never fired a shot.

The crew was a little shaken up by this experience, but otherwise fine. As everyone settled down a new transwarp conduit opened. This time the accuracy seemed a little skewed. The conduit was farther from the ship than it was from the area of space that was affected by the detonation, but it was still far from either of them.
The captain held his breath as a ship that was so different from any Borg vessel that it couldn't be Borg came out. After a closer inspection the ship cleared as being a Federation ship. The registry number printed on it was NCC-74656. After ordering a search of the Federation databanks Anderson came to the conclusion that this ship was indeed the U.S.S. Voyager.
"Hailing frequencies!" ordered the captain, "This is Captain Robert Anderson of the U.S.S. Merikus, a StarFleet vessel, registry number NCC-3510, ready to help, please respond."
"This is Captain Janeway of the U.S.S. Voyager... we are glad to be home!" came a voice from the communication Systems.
"Sorry to break it to you, but you aren't quite home. We have a new type of interstellar drive that has let us fly what would be 3 years at normal warp in under an hour. Our mission was to capture or destroy the Omega Particle, and we have accomplished the latter."
"Well at least there is hope," said Janeway.
"Wait a sec... I think my first officer is telling me that there is a planet around here that is capable of supplying resources for construction of multi-phased warp nacelles," said Captain Anderson.

Captain's Log, Stardate: 913136.25
We have spent a week outfitting the starship Voyager with multi-phased warp. And the test flight is ready, if successful it will place them about one thousand light years closer to Federation borders. I have apprised StarFleet of our situation and they have agreed.

The face of a blonde, female StarFleet captain was on the Merikus viewscreen. Captain Anderson was performing some last minute checks with his crew while talking to Captain Janeway.
"We each will be capable of about half of the speed normally attainable by multi-phased warp. We had to use some special materials from our own nacelles that are impossible to replicate with shipboard replicators," Anderson said to Captain Janeway.
"Understood," Janeway responded.

Voyager moved into position and readied its nacelles. It seemed to sit there forever, and then its nacelles flared up. When the light died down the ship was gone. The Merikus received a signal a minute later saying that the trip was a success, and they were proceeding towards home.
The starship Merikus slowly rotated into the position that was occupied buy the U.S.S. Voyager a moment ago. A spiraling vortex opened about where the planet's axis would be if it were tangible. Then, out of the vortex, a sphere appeared. It was Borg, and under orders to assimilate Voyager.
Merikus would have engaged her engines, if the Borg sphere had not fired its energy weapon. The beam of green light flew across the starry background and landed on the starboard nacelle of the Federation ship. In a great burst of light the nacelle disappeared; all that was left was some debris and a stub where the piece of technology used to be.
This event took place again, with one difference: The sphere fired on the second nacelle, ripping it in half, leaving just barely the front of it behind. The Merikus was crippled, and would not be able to achieve multi-phased warp.

Inside the ship Commander Nicholas Roberts was panicking. He tapped his commbadge and told the captain that the ship was incapable of multi-phased warp. Commander Roberts also informed the captain that there were enough of the nacelles left to modify the ship for normal warp drive.
"But that would take about three years!" exclaimed Captain Anderson.
"I know, Captain, but... if we are to get home that is the best we can do," the chief engineer replied.
"Um... ... uh... ... Very well," said Captain Anderson, "start working on it."

Captain's Log, Stardate: 913131.5
We have recently begun construction of a pair of warp nacelles for the U.S.S. Merikus. I have ordered the crew to scout the nearby star systems for the resources required to reconstruct the warp drive. We have so far found about fifty percent of the required materials...

"Captain, we have found a large titanium deposit, and an equally sized deposit of gold," came the voice of Commander Data.
The captain tapped his badge and told him to return quickly with as much of each as the shuttle could carry. The captain was eager to get the warp drive operational because of a recent discovery.
"Restart simulation, rate of collapse increased by one point two five percent," he ordered the holodeck computer.
The computer responded by regenerating the scene: The place was the bridge of the Merikus. On the viewscreen was a collapsing star. As the star collapsed a torpedo of some function entered the star and detonated. Captain Anderson looked at one of his display panels; he was pleased with the results.

"Set a course," said the captain as soon as he was on the bridge, "seven-four mark two-zero"
"Aye sir," said Lt. Commander Parker, "... wha... um, Captain, this course puts us near a star predicted to go supernova within the hour."
The captain nodded in acknowledgement, and gave the word to engage the newly completed warp engines.
"Great," said Mr. Parker, "we get lost three years away from StarFleet and the second week we are out we fly right into a supernova."

There was a bright flash that seemingly created the Merikus out of nowhere. As the ship slowed it came into orbit of the doomed star. The ship was very close to the star and seemed to glow with a light of its own. A faint distortion surrounded the ship, because the captain allowed the shields to be raised.
The star was shining bright through the window of the conference lounge. The captain had ordered all the senior officers to the meeting.
"So, why are we here?" asked Aaron.
"I have found a way to get us home," said Captain Anderson, "but we needed; a supernova to help us get there."
"What? Are we going to be pushed towards StarFleet by an exploding star?" Mr. Park asked jokingly.
"No...," said the captain, "because of my history in StarFleet chemistry labs, I have found a way to generate about half of the required materials we need to power our inter-phased warp. All I ask you to do is search for the other half," he continued, "The liquid latinum, and some trilithium."
"Trilithium is very unstable," said Commander Roberts.
"I under most circumstances," replied the captain, "but, if we combine it with the quantum titanium... and then add the latinum, it will become..."
"Tritomorphinine?" announced Aaron Anderson as if he were answering a teacher's question.
"Correct," the older Anderson said, "which is..."
"The heart of our inter-phased warp nacelles!" exclaimed the chief engineer.
"And all we need to do to get our hands on some quantum titanium is to generate an extremely strong gravity well at the center of this star..."

The ship rolled around and found itself aiming the main torpedo tube straight at the star. As the torpedo was launched the main deflector powered up. The torpedo entered the star and as depicted on the simulation the star underwent a major reaction. No sooner had the dish been shut off then the outer layers of the star blew off.
The U.S.S. Merikus did a backflip in space and sped away from the star as fast as it could muster. The outer layers of the star peeled off like the skin on an orange. Each time a new layer left the star a shockwave would follow, decimating the old layers. The star had almost shrunk down to its original size when an explosion that could have ripped any other star into a trillion pieces forced its way out d overtook the other shockwaves.

"Status report," ordered the captain.
"We have survived," said the tactician, "seven personnel injured, no causalities."
"Acknowledged," said Captain Anderson.
"Sir! One of our weapon racks have exploded!" continued Aaron Anderson, "Just now, reporting three injured and one dead!"
"Damn! ... I thought we made it without a scratch..." the captain muttered, "Lock sensors on the previous position of the star."