Chapter 1 – Part One - Enemy
A ring object stood deep within the Vulcan Mountain, Selaya – inactive, unused in uncounted millennia - made of a metal known to Federation scientists – Quantium 40. The rock face vibrated slowly at first, gradually increasing becoming ever more violent by the second. A geyser, of what appeared to be water spread out horizontally vaporising whatever it came into contact with – creating a four meter long tunnel almost nine feet high through the rock-face. Where the middle of the ring had once been empty of anything, it was now covered by a watery membrane that seemed to glow eerily in the dark - creating shadows where none existed previously.
What emerged was a kind of organic armour with a mottled yellow and black colouring, standing about eight feet tall. Wherever the clawed feet trod they crushed rock as easily as a human would paper. Down the side of the mountain it went unnoticed. Never putting a foot wrong, or slipping despite the loose gravel and soil. On several occasions it descended using its powerful claws to gouge holes in the sheer rock-face – where this was not feasible it leaped unfazed by the distance to the ground below – just prior to impact it slowed seeming to float as though it weighed no more than a leaf. A couple of Vulcan's gave the trespasser an odd look, but before they could speak or utter any cry for help as crimson beams resembling electricity shot from each clawed hand; all that remained was smoking ashes. Down the path it ambled, no particular hurry in reaching its destination.
If the Federation had been at full strength the tremor and energy readings would have been detected, but it wasn't – the handful of worlds that had survived unscathed were fast becoming refugee centers taking in any and all they could. For many, orbital bombardment had been the most merciful way to die. Those that survived had been forced to endure the horror of sickness and disease that followed. As ecologies changed, and food became scarce, famine then took its toll on all the devastated worlds, at least those that still managed to still support life. Many didn't and were now burnt out cinders incapable of bearing life for millennia to come, worlds like Trill and Rigel IV.
Although the Star Fleet was back to thousands of ships again they had been forced to bring ships out of retirement, and in some cases vessels that had been mothballed entirely. The older class vessels stuck to performing errands of mercy, providing supplies and medical aid. For the newer more up-to-date vessels, even more was expected of them and their crews.
The personnel on Voyager never noticed anything, most had been working extended or double shifts to stay on top of things – many not having slept in almost thirty hours or more. Captain Chakotay rubbed tired, sore eyes, sure the console had flashed a warning, but when his hands moved towards the blinking light found that it had stopped – or had not been there to begin with. Must get some sleep, he thought. Not slept in fifty hours he was even thinking of ordering the Doctor to provide another stimulant. The bridge of Voyager was a hive of activity as coordinating the relief mission was time consuming – but – there was an undercurrent of overwhelming fatigue hidden deep below the surface. Everything just took that little bit longer. Officers of every rank were fetching and carrying supplies, Captaincy was no exception, all hands to the pumps.
The recent geological instability of Vulcan was largely due to the orbital bombardment done, and as the result of a recent rockslide two officers, an Andorian and Bolian were busy scanning for any dead or injured. A combadge beeped, "Lieutenant Kim to K'roesh."
The Andorian science office smiled, glad it was not his, the Bolian however tried to suppress a groan. Tapping the communicator he tried to muster enthusiasm, and vigor, unfortunately he failed at both. A tired sigh was his answer, "I am here what is it? I was kinda hoping for a break" he said irritably.
On the Bridge of Voyager Kim smiled, "Sorry but no rest not even for the wicked. Lieutenant it would appear there was some kind of energy disturbance on Mount Selaya, can you investigate at once?"
The Bolian tapped his combadge, "Understood sir, on my way." Looking at the path up the mountain his eyes opened wide in horror, he was almost dead on his feet but was expected to…. "Up there?" he asked. "You've got to be joking…..right?" The only person he thought could hear this remark was the Andorian ensign, Kalan, who was every bit as bedraggled as he looked, even one of his antennae drooped slightly. Across the whole of the Federation chronic fatigue was taking its toll, and where a normally well disciplined, oiled regime worked, it now began to fall apart at the seams.
"I heard that" laughed Kim.
"Damn, thought I'd turned it off" he cursed.
"We detected high levels of neutrino's and verteron particles; their presence seemed to indicate some kind of wormhole."
Both made their way up the path that grew steeper and more insurmountable with every step. Every footfall became harder, and more impossible with every step, lifting a foot an inch felt like two feet. In another way they were both lucky, if it could be called that, where a merciless Vulcan sun would beat down upon them it was now obscured by clouds of ash. It felt like the biting wind it was trying to flay the skin from their bodies, the cold wind penetrated deep into their bones - mainly due to constant state of enervation they were suffering from. To some extent it was hard to tell which was worse; unwavering hot or arctic cold.
"It's gonna snow" Kalan remarked, "Really bad – we've got maybe an hour – tops." A half later they encountered the strange being, his first erroneous thought was that it was Borg; which brought a wave of sadness over the death toll of Wolf 359 – almost four hundred ships lost – and a lot of good friends, tapping his combadge, "K'roesh to Voyager"
Greeted by the dulcet tones of its Captain, "Chakotay here, what have you found?"
"I think we just found the being that walked out of the wormhole", he stated, eyeing the other warily.
"Standby, a security team will beam down momentarily."
They never even had chance to scream as twin beams of crimson hit both officers.
It terminated the connection to their ship and their lives.
Sitting in the Captain's chair felt like a burden, especially of late, too much destruction – could the Federation ever recover? He really, really hoped it would but it was doubtful things would ever remain the same again. In order to survive Starfleet would have to change some of its operating principles – to become more militaristic; deep within his core a part of him loathed the very thought of it. He had not heard from the security team in an hour, yet they could not spare anyone else to investigate, not at this time. Drifting through another report he barely even glanced at it, let alone read it. Sleep being the thing he desired most in the entire world. Mind wandering, he remembered a conversation he'd had a few years ago with Riker, of his once admonishing Commander Shelby for pushing too hard, of trying to go without rest, of being too driven – not that he'd do that now with her being an Admiral. The decision had been right at the time but unfortunately with things being so stretched most were either too strung out to sleep; or taking something to help keep them awake. An action Starfleet abhorred but today they blindly looked the other way – too many lives were at stake. Too many planets still needed aid. As a result both he and Kim were too slow on the uptake; instead of spotting the subspace anomaly while it was forming they did so as the alien ship was halfway through.
"Captain! There a ship coming through some kind of subspace rift"
Sensor scans showed that it resembled a huge flying wing measuring at over three kilometers wide, with a bulge in the centre and a huge grill at the back which was alive with the blue glow of gravitic engines.
"Hailing frequencies! Go to yellow alert." Truth was as much as he wanted some real action half of the ship's crew was too tired, the other half were planet side providing relief.
"No response Captain"
Grim determination took over as his fatigue was washed away in a sea of pure adrenaline. "Red alert!" he shouted, "Inform Vulcan that an unknown alien ship is in orbit. Relay that same message to Starfleet Command"
"Their shields are up blocking most our sensor readings – although….hang on…."
The wait seemed to take forever, coupled with his already fraying nerves didn't help. "Harry, have you got something?" Chakotay asked tempestuously.
"They're firing….at us!" Kim yelled. Running horizontally down the middle of the entire length of the ship was a groove which in many ways was very similar to the collimated phaser rings on current starships – just larger and far more powerful, glowing a ruby colour as the main beam weapon powered up. Blood coloured energy erupted from both tips as it fired.
"Tom," Chakotay shouted, "Evasive manoeuvres!" Sudden acceleration pushed the bridge crew back in their seats as they rapidly moved out of the way.
Even Voyager seemed to shudder in fear at the near miss.
"They missed, and barely. Harry what the hell were they firing at us?"
"Some kind of plasma beam, they're attempting to gain another lock on us"
"Keep us moving we cannot afford to stay still. Harry can we take a direct hit?"
"I'm on it," Tom replied continuing to keep Voyager moving as it dodged and jinked. "Doubtful," Kim responded, "best guess is that it would blow the ship in half. A Sovereign could weather a few shots but not us"
Decidedly unhappy about their tactical situation, although not unexpected paused briefly from his analysis as a thought from a few moments ago came back to the fore – change or die. Where the shields might be next to useless they had other far more durable defenses. Time to be more aggressive he thought, "Drop shields and deploy armour. Lock all phasers and quantum torpedoes and fire!"
"Sir they're firing again."
It was almost as though the larger ship had tired of playing, swatting the smaller Federation vessel aside. Voyager reeled under the impact. Shields that would have failed and doomed the entire vessel, this time the armour weathered the storm, intact but far from whole as it spun out of control. The metal of the ship screamed in protest and pain. A second and a third shot caused the armour to melt and the hull began to buckle.
Tom Paris struggled to regain control before they could fire again, "Too late" he muttered, mind screaming constantly in defiance, you bastards!
A huge explosion rocked the tiny vessel. Chakotay barely got the chance to scream in pain as he impacted with the view screen. The rest of the bridge crew suffered similar fates. The poor newly promoted Lieutenant Kim was hurled from the aft section straight into his best friend at navigation. Engineering was no better off – Lieutenant Commander B'Elanna Torres bounced off three walls before finally striking the force field protecting the warp core. Neelix who was busy enjoying his favourite past-time as head chef was hurled head first into the burning stove with enough force to smash his skull apart, if that wasn't bad enough half a dozen unsecured knives embedded so deep only the hilts were visible. Blood flowed across the floor of the bridge like a small stream, almost ankle deep in places. Those not dead were soon to be, unless immediate medical aid could be given.
Voyager was dead.