The Thirteenth Colony
Chapter One
Just FYI, I set this during late Season 5 of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (just for the heck of it) and Season 3 of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It ties together Kara's fate with the finale of Crossroads, Part II, with the exception of the revelation of the Dylan Four (I can't even begin to understand how we could fit that into this story). It starts off with a focus on DS9, but that will eventually change. Neither franchise is mine, or else this would be canon so fast your head would spin.
Star Trek is copyright Paramount. BSG is copyright NBC Universal.No copyright infringement intended. So say we all.
Captain's log, stardate 50617.3: The Defiant has been ordered into the Gamma Quadrant, to study a gas giant approximately 100 light-years from the wormhole. Due to the unique synchrotron radiation and strategic position near the Dominion, Starfleet Command believes it would serve as an excellent covert listening post—if the Jem'Hadar have not acquired it already.
On the bridge of the Defiant, Captain Benjamin Sisko is sitting in the command chair. Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax is at the helm, while Chief Miles O'Brien, Doctor Julian Bashir, Lieutenant Commander Worf, and various other personnel man the other stations.
"Benjamin, we're nearing the planet, but I'm detecting what appear to be dozens of ships in orbit around the gas giant, none with any known configuration."
Sisko looked up with a start. "Very well. Drop us out of warp, and put it up on screen. Chief, cloak the ship."
"Aye sir," the Irishman replied in his typical brogue. On the screen, the crew sees the planet, they notice two things. 1) a large cyclone-like storm on the planet, and 2) dozens of ships in orbit around the planet. One appeared to be a wheel of some sort with a spire in the middle, and another was large, black, and almost appeared to resemble an alligator.
Benjamin stood up with a start and walked towards the helm. "Did they detect us, Old Man?"
The Trill scientist replied, "I don't think so, Benjamin. They don't seem to have anything resembling traditional warp drives."
Bashir chimed in. "But that big black ship has nacelles of some sort, doesn't it?"
Worf pressed several buttons on his tactical console. "I believe that they are not in fact warp engines, but landing bays. I count at least 40 to 50 small craft of various types in these bays, and at least two or three more in the gas giant's primary storm. I believe that it is a type of military vessel, possibly a carrier or battleship. Sensors read a name across one of the nacelles, 'Galactica.'"
Sisko turned to the Klingon. "It must be three times the size of a Galaxy-class ship! Does it pose any threat?"
"No sir. Its technology is extremely substandard, possibly late 21st century at best. No shielding or energy weapons, and its missiles are thermonuclear-based."
Bashir reported from his station. "We have a problem. I'm detected 41,400 humans in and around the planet, not including us."
O'Brien gaped. "Humans, without warp drive, making it 75,000 light-years from Earth to this planet?"
Sisko nodded, "I agree Chief, it is a mystery. Let's assume that this 'Galactica' is their command ship. Open–"
Dax interrupted. "Benjamin, those two small fighters in the storm are getting close to the planetary hard deck. The life-signs in one of them is getting weak."
"We'll just have to hope saving their pilot's lives is a sufficient hello. Take us in, prepare transporters and tractor beams, and let's hope to God our hull can withstand it."
O'Brien looked over. "Sir, it'll be a close one without our shields."
"I know Chief. Let's just hope Dax will get us in and out before we get crushed like a tin can." He smiled at his friend of two lifetimes.
Bashir walked over to Sisko. "Sir, if they don't have warp drive, isn't this a violation of the Prime Directive?"
"Well, they had to have gotten here somehow. Get down to sickbay and prepare for injuries."
The doctor sighed and walked towards the turbolift. "Yes sir."
Upon arriving near the ships, Sisko turned to O'Brien. "Chief, get ready to decloak and tractor these two ships to safety."
He tried, but received only a buzz from the computer. "Sir, we've decloaked, but the radiation is interfering with the tractor. I don't think we can use it."
"Then what about the transporter?"
"Yes sir, I think that can be done."
"All right then, let's do it."
"Visual!"
Major Lee "Apollo" Adama finally saw the Viper piloted by Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, just over a minute before both of their ships would be crushed by the pressure of the gas giant. He tried to calm her down. "Okay Kara, I'm coming to get you."
The only response on the wireless was Thrace's voice, now peaceful in a way it so rarely was, saying, "Lee, I'll see you on the other side."
"Kara, please, listen to me! Come back."
"Just let me go."
"Godsdamn it, Kara! You come back! Come back!"
"It's okay. Just let me go. They're waiting for me."
If either of them had looked at their DRADIS or up from their cockpit, they might have been able to make out a ship dozens of times larger than each of their fighters, flying above them.
"Benjamin, if we don't beam her up now, we'll lose her."
"Very well then. Energize."
Starbuck closed her eyes, as a bright light surrounded her.
Her Viper exploded.
Apollo screamed.
He could barely hear his father, Admiral William Adama and commander of the battlestar Galactica, yell on the wireless for him to pull his ship up.
In the Defiant sickbay, a woman in a helmet and flight suit was beamed onto a biobed, badly burned and injured. Doctor Bashir and two orderlies quickly came to her aid.
"All right, let's get this uniform off of her and get her stabilized. What are her vitals?"
The nurse handed him a PADD. He shook his head and touched his communicator pin.
"Sickbay to bridge. Captain, it's a human female in her late twenties. She's got third-degree burns on 85 of her body, and plenty of other injuries, including some old and new. I can stabilize her, but I don't have all the tools I need here to fix her completely. We need to take her back to DS9, and we need to do it now."
"Doctor, you were the one complaining about the Prime Directive. Kidnapping her from her people does not sound exactly like upholding it."
"I know sir, but if their medicine is anything like the rest of their technology, she won't have a chance."
On the bridge, Sisko closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Very well Julian, do what you can. Sisko out. Dax, cloak the ship and lay in a course for DS9, warp 7."
Dax shook her head. In a former life, she was a diplomat, and she did not agree with this, but as an officer the only thing she could say was, "Aye sir."