Disclamer: I do not own Star Trek or its related properties. All such rights and considerations belong to CBS/Paramount.

This is an installment of an ongoing series. Reading previous installments is recommended.

Other recommended reading is the Vignettes featuring Ro Laren posted under Star Trek the Next Generation. These short stories include the first appearances of many of the principle characters.


Prologue

Captain Adolae Thrax beamed down to the mountainside entrance of the principle city on Omicron Prime. He crossed the chasm found within the cave entrance by way of the massive land bridge. In the stygian depths of the gloom below him, the Lowlies had endured for countless millennia before being led by Rab Daggit on their mad quest for equality.

Thrax knew very little about the Angosian save that he was a civilian operative for Starfleet Intelligence. What Starfleet Intelligence had been doing here in the back end of nowhere was beyond his grasp. Violating the Prime Directive and assisting the native rebellion was also an action he couldn't condone.

The Rigellian made his way into the tunnels that led to the city proper. He recalled when the fleet had been alerted to the encroachment of Omicron ships. The Omicron had allied themselves with dissident groups from across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants and had wreaked holy havoc with the established governments, not that some of those planets hadn't needed a swift wake up call. Their human rights records were worse than the Cardassians'.

Thrax's thoughts cooled as Tressib and Thrax's XO, Commander Sela Hennessy, met him before the lift. Hennessy was overseeing the Endeavor's scientific mission here. The Sovereign-class explorer had been dispatched on a lone, extended mission due to the ship and crew's tasked purpose of long range exploration.

Thrax didn't know why he'd been summoned to the surface. All he knew was that his A & A team leader, Lieutenant Tim Prentiss was all hot and bothered over some new find. Personally, Thrax would've been just as happy to receive a detailed briefing in his ready room but he supposed it was good to stretch his legs. His CMO certainly thought so.

"Oi, Guv'nor. How you be doin'?" Tressib's language was now translated by the Starfleet comm badges. The translation matrix had been developed by another Starfleet Intelligence operative named T'Kir. Before the Lowlies had relied upon a native "translator" microbe found in the chasm's depths. Sadly, it had an adverse effect upon most humanoids.

The Lowly was an abnormal representative of his species. Rather than being a two meter tall humanoid, Tressib's upper torso was typically Omicron, except for his lengthy fingers on his four fingered hands. What was unusual, and unique, about Tressib was that his lower extremities were composed of an arachnoid body. He had six spider-like limbs, eight altogether if you counted his two arms. He had the bulbous rear torso of a spider. With it he could spin webs and everything.

Like all Omicron, Lowly or not, his skin was black as coal. This made sense since Omicron's epidermises were highly mineralized. His face resembled a skull with skin stretched over it. Utterly hairless, the Omicron resembled skeletal frames even more by possessing two slits in their face for a breathing apparatus. The normal Omicron had an upper and lower row of white teeth. Tressib possessed fangs, only attesting to his predatory adaptation.

The Lowlies were failed bio-engineering experiments. The Omicron had experimented with their genome for millennia and they had created various useful modifications to the baseline. These adaptations they had replicated en masse. The rest had been cast into the abyss. Before Tressib and his webs, most of the discarded Lowlies had perished in the fall. Tressib permanently changed that equation.

Thrax knew that the mechanism for the bioengineering had been a piece of primordial matter dubbed "ultramatter" by Lisea Danan, the lone Federation scientist that had studied it. It was theorized to be a piece of the "cosmic egg" that spawned the universe. The substance had been lost when the Kelvans had demanded it under threat of war and ejected it from the Milky Way galaxy. It had exploded trillions of light years from the edge of the galaxy and had birthed a new stellar nursery that might one day yield thousands of solar systems.

"I'm fine Tressib," Thrax insisted, "I take it we're going someplace so convoluted that I need a native guide."

Tressib laughed. It was a deep belly laugh and it was a sight to behold. Thrax didn't know whether to be amused or fear for the Lowly's safety.

Tressib finally calmed, without shaking himself into pieces, and he motioned for Thrax to enter the nearby lift, "If you'd be so kind, Guv'nor. I'll show you to where Tim is working."

Thrax bristled. He knew Tressib was highly informal. The Lowlies had done away with titles of nobility or rank amongst the Omicron but that didn't mean he should address Starfleet personnel by a familiarity. He saw Hennessey waving him off from behind Tressib.

Thrax inwardly sighed. Diplomatic niceties lent him to allow the Lowlies their eccentricities. It still galled Thrax. He'd worked relentlessly through the decades to be awarded the rank of "Captain" and command of a starship. He wouldn't let his position be belittled.

But in the end, weren't the Lowlies and the Omicron that worked alongside of them showing him the very deference he craved? So they were loose with the title, so what? They knew he was the CO of the Starfleet contingent and treated him as such. If they ever stopped, however, he would revisit this topic.


The lift descended onto levels Thrax was unaware of. He glanced over at Hennessy. She flashed him a wan smile. Apparently he was supposed to be as unnerved as he was suddenly feeling. The lift stopped and Hennessy ushered him out. Tressib came scaling down the shaft using his own physique for locomotion.

They'd exited into a tunnel. It was littered with portable lamps and Omicron biolights. It was still gloomy. The shadows seemed to move of their own accord and Thrax had the distinct feeling of being watched.

"Commander, have sensors detected any scan fields?" he asked.

"No sir. Everybody feels it though. It's as though…" Hennessy began.

"We're being studied," Thrax said.

"Yessir," Hennessy heartily agreed, "It gets worse as you near the monolith."

"Monolith?" Thrax repeated.

Hennessy's expression was a rueful one, "I take Lt. Prentiss was less than forthcoming."

"He just said the fate of civilization hung in the balance," Thrax explained.

"Sounds like him," Hennessy groaned, "His hyperbole surrounding this project grows by leaps and bounds with every new discovery."

"Let's teach him the error of his ways, hmm?" Thrax suggested.


They walked in uncomfortable silence. Having Tressib's unsettling bulk looming behind them didn't help any. Up ahead was a conglomeration of lights. As they entered the light Thrax discovered that it was all focused on an ebon monolith standing erect and alone on a rotunda. The walls of the rotunda were illuminated with an arcane script of sorts. They undoubtedly illuminated one as to the purpose of the space and its lone occupant.

Lt. Prentiss was scanning the monolith with a high powered sensor almost as sensitive as one mounted on the Endeavor. The A & A Officer looked frustrated. He let loose some choice curses and deactivated the scanner.

"Problems, Lieutenant?" Thrax asked.

It was the first time that Prentiss realized that his CO was there, "Sorry, sir. I didn't see you."

"That was obvious," Thrax dryly commented.

Prentiss's cheeks began to color. Hennessy bailed him out, "That sensation that you're feeling doesn't affect the Omicron. They feel something akin to…reverence in the presence of the monolith."

Thrax turned to Tressib. The arachnoid hybrid wore a blissful expression, "Is this true?"

"Oh, yeah," Tressib happily confirmed it.

"What do we know about this structure?" Thrax asked.

"It's littered with messages in a foreign script. It doesn't match anything in our databases," Prentiss answered, "That includes the Delta and Gamma Quadrant records as well."

Thrax frowned, "What about this monolith? Any distinguishing marks?"

"The monolith appears to be a computer of some kind. Its surface will display inputted messages. The input is provided by means of a touch screen keyboard with 47 symbols. Those same symbols comprise the messages on the walls," Prentiss explained.

"And there's no way of ascertaining which of these symbols relate to our own alphabets," Thrax unhappily surmised.

"Not without a corollary translation into a known tongue," Prentiss unhappily admitted.

"Have you tried randomly inputting in a message and seeing how it will respond?" Thrax impatiently inquired.

"It doesn't work for us. It only responds to the Omicron," Prentiss revealed.

"So have them type in some gibberish and see what it does," Thrax demanded.

"Sir, that could yield anything from a banal response to a planetary self destruct. We just don't know," Prentiss warned.

"I'll take full responsibility if we lose the planet," Thrax insisted.

"Tressib?" Prentiss asked.

"Shore, shore," The hybrid chuckled.

He shuffled forward and ran his hand down the surface of the monolith. It was as smooth and shiny as glass. A backlit cursor appeared as well as a virtual keyboard. He inputted several scrawled notes and then hit what they assumed was "enter." He repeated this exercise several times and then the Monolith's "screen" went blank. A geometric shape appeared and a flash of light erupted from the structure.

The Starfleet lamps all exploded and sparks showered the A & A team. The biolights held their ground but even they gave the monolith a wide berth after that. Thrax spun into damage control mode.

"Lt. Prentiss, is your team all right?" the Captain asked.

"Yes sir, but the comm relay network we laid out between here and the surface seems to be down. I can't raise the ship," Prentiss announced.

"Tressib, can you lead me back to the lifts and the surface?" Thrax requested, "I have to contact the Endeavor."

"Follow me!" Tressib scuttled off.

"Commander, over see the situation here and get back to me in an hour," Thrax ordered Hennessy.

"Yessir," She replied.


It took a good thirty minutes to reach the exit of the massive cave that led to the labyrinth the Omicron dwelt in. He hit his comm badge, "Thrax to Endeavor."

"Gev here," Came the voice of his Tellarite 2nd Officer, "Are you all right?"

"Forget about me. What's the ship's status?" Thrax wanted to know.

"All primary systems are blown. We're functioning on auxiliary systems and power," Gev reported.

"What did this?" Thrax asked.

"We were hit by an extremely powerful subspace pulse. Our best guess is it was a comm pulse. It erupted out of that entire mountain range the Omicron live in. No Federations ship has ever recorded a pulse of that strength."

"Do you have any idea of what or where it's aimed at?" Thrax knew the situation was entirely out of his control and he hated that feeling.

"It went corewards. That's all we know. Sensors only came back on-line in time to catch its wake. Now if it bounces of any relays along its way it could end up almost anywhere near the galactic core. There's just no way of knowing at this point," Gev laid it out.

"Any chance you could transport me back to the ship?" Thrax wondered.

"Sorry. Transporters were declared a "non-vital" system and were taken off-line. Debate it with our Chief Engineer," Gev said sourly.

"I'm sure you did enough arguing for the both of us," Thrax chuckled, "I'll be checking in with Commander Hennessey and the A& A team in an hour. I'll let you know what we've found on our end."

"Hopefully we can bring you back then," Gev wished, "If not, I'll kill Sonya."

"Please leave Commander Gomez alive, we need her expertise," Thrax requested.

"Can I at least put the fear of her native god into her?" Gev asked.

"Feel free," Thrax relented, "Out."

Thrax wondered what they'd unleashed. Commanders Danan and Andreja Sikorsky had theorized that the Omicron were an artificially created race. At one time they had ruled a large chunk of the Alpha Quadrant that rivaled the Federation at the very least.

What if those creators had left a means of communication behind? A means that had been forgotten over the countless millennia? More to the point, what if they were still alive and they decided to answer their misbegotten signal? What had he unleashed?

With the weight of unfathomable quandaries weighing him down, Thrax returned to his people struggling to find answers at the source.