MARS—UTOPIA PLANITIA, 2385
Captain's Log, Stardate 41187.5. I am about to take command of the USS Marathon, a recently refitted Nova-class survey ship intended to serve as a test-bed for new tactical systems and second-generation slipstream navigation. We are to engage in war games, systems tests, and advanced tactical exercises along the Cardassian border, in cooperation with Cardassian and klingon teams. Tensions with the Typhon Pact have been escalating. I can only hope what we're practicing won't become necessary.
"Captain on the bridge!"
The call came from Commander Colleen Gibran, the half-Orion first officer of the Marathon. Like a number of the Marathon command crew, Aodhan Mackenzie was of mixed-species heritage, though none of the Nova-class test bed's senior officers shared his human-Vulcan-Betazoid ancestry, or the unusual hybrid telepathic abilities his genome gave him. He wore his thoroughly human, sand-colored hair in a ponytail, sported a carefully trimmed goatee, and wore a longer version of the Starfleet uniform jacket that resembled the flag officer's uniform, sans gold trim.
"As you were," he countered the general rise to attention Gibran's announcement provoked. "Lieutenant Commander Takeda, status report."
Operations Chief Valerie Takeda, one of the few full humans aboard, had remained standing, and responded as Gibran headed to the command console between her and Aodhan's chairs.
"All systems coming online now, sir, and the ship is running beautifully. The tactical systems are in place and all tests indicate they should be fully operational, and the same is true of the slipstream drive, though there may be a slight decrease to the general adaptability of the primary deflector."
Mackenzie nodded at his ops chief's oblique reference to the prototype ablative armor generator, reverse-engineered by the Corps of Engineers from technology the USS Voyager had brought back from the Delta Quadrant nearly a decade ago. "Good news. And our time to departure?"
"Whenever you give the order, sir.".
"Course laid in, Captain," affirmed Ensign Asothi Talas, the ship's communications and navigation specialist, from her seat next to helm officer Horran Ziyal.
"Excellent." Mackenzie assumed his chair and, as Cdr. Gibran did the same beside him, he activated the ship-wide broadcast system. "All hands, this is the captain. We are about to embark on a course for the edge of Federation space, where we will join in an unprecedented interspecies war-games operation. While our objectives will test this vessel and ourselves to her limits and our own, I have every faith that each of you is equal to the task. Our departure begins in five seconds. Carry on." He deactivated the comm system and turned to face the main viewer. "Ensign Ziyal? Take us out."
The USS Marathon glided smoothly out of its construction bay, passing by the vessels still in the works before angling away from the surface of the red planet. The starship accelerated toward deep space, her crew counting down the seconds before they would be traveling at warp to a weeks-long exercise in the Badlands, where both the heavily refitted science vessel and her crew would be taxed to their limits conducting both war games and research aimed at turning the treacherous region of space from a navigational hazard to a strategic asset for the Federation. The Marathon also carried a slightly larger security contingent than usual, thanks to the integration into the crew of a six-person Hazard Team, who would join Cardassian specialists and elite klingon warriors in strenuous infantry tactical exercises and equipment testing.
On the bridge, Ensign Horran Ziyal's fingers hovered over her control panel as she waited to activate the slipstream drive. The young Bajoran officer, as the Marathon's primary helmsman, would have a central role in the starship's performance in the coming weeks, and navigating the treacherous nebulae and other deep-space phenomena of the Badlands was a challenge she could hardly wait to tackle. At last, Captain Mackenzie sounded the order every helmsman worth their replicator access loved to hear:
"Engage."
Stars turned to streaks of light and then to the swirling blue tunnel of a quantum slipstream tunnel as the Marathon accelerated to lightspeed.
—
STAR TREK: THESE ARE THE VOYAGES
VOLUME I: THE COLLECTOR WAR
—
"Sir," Ziyal called, "I'm reading a buildup in some sort of static energy charge following our flight path. I'm not sure what—"
She was cut off as the Marathon lurched, spilling some of the bridge crew from their seats before the inertial dampeners could compensate. An EPS conduit in the ceiling burst, pouring sparks across the deck, as displays cracked and fizzled. Regaining his bearings, Mackenzie saw that the familiar starfield on the main viewer had vanished, replaced with a massive structure built around a glowing, shifting ball of energy.
"Status report!" he barked. "Tell me we didn't lose anything vital, and then tell me where we are!"
Takeda had managed to grab her console to keep her feet, and had the data ready at once. "Minor power surges across the ship, but vital systems appear unaffected, sir," she answered. "Holodeck One is nonfunctional, but we still have engines, life support, transporters, and tactical systems. Engineering reports a few bumps and bruises, but nothing serious. Sensor data is scrambled, though: I can't make heads or tails of what we just experienced."
"Ensign Ziyal?"
"Astrometrics are online, sir, but the available readings have inconsistencies relative to the charts—and if these readings are accurate, we've somehow ended up close to the Alpha-Gamma border."
"There's something else, Captain," Takeda added. "I'm detecting another superstructure in the system, several times the size of this one, and we have subwarp vessels on an intercept course."
"Hostiles?" Gibran asked.
"No sign they've charged shields or weapons," Pradesh replied. "But it's difficult to tell at this range, and their configuration isn't like anything we've seen before."
"Put the ships on-screen. Raise shields and prepare to open communications," Mackenzie ordered. "If they want a fight, they'll have one, but we aren't here to start something. Ensign Talas, anything yet?"
The Andorian shan shook her head as Takeda altered the signal to the main viewer. "Nothing so far—wait. That's odd. They're definitely transmitting to us, but it's short-range radio only. I'll see if I can translate." She paused, tilting her head to listen. "Oh, my. It's a multilingual broadcast, and I have no idea what three of the languages are—but one is definitely Federation Standard."
"Patch it through," Mackenzie ordered immediately. On screen, a massive starship appeared, dwarfed by the structure they'd seen before, but still many times larger than the Marathon, and arranged in an unusual inverted crucifix around what looked like an interior version of a traditional Vulcan warp ring.
"Unknown vessel, you have breached protected Citadel space. This is Matriarch Lidanya of the Destiny Ascension. We are prepared to render assistance should you require it. Please respond. Unknown vessel—"
"Matriarch Lidanya, this is Captain Aodhan Mackenzie of the Federation Starship Marathon. We encountered an unknown spatial phenomenon and have come a little out of our way. We're all fine over here, but we seem likely to be stuck here until we can reverse-engineer whatever caused our arrival in the first place, so if there's anyone we should talk to about making arrangements, we'd be happy to meet them."
"Sir, they've altered their signal," Talas informed him. "Still lightspeed radio, but I'm getting a visual component now."
"Onscreen."
The image of the alien ship was instantly replaced by an image of a very humanoid—very blue—alien woman, utterly human but for her skin color and the fact that, in lieu of hair, she appeared to possess a cluster of short tentacles, swept back to follow the curve of a human head.
"Greetings, Captain Mackenzie," she opened. "I am Matriarch Lidanya, captain of the Destiny Ascension and commander of the Citadel Fleet. We noted your arrival when a disruption to the mass relay's energy field caused a disruption in the departure schedule. If—why, you're human!"
"You've met humans before?" Gibran asked.
"Of course she has, Commander," Talas spoke up. "She's speaking Federation Standard."
"Federation—pardon me, but that's the second time you've mentioned a 'federation.' And your vessel is like none we've ever encountered." Mackenzie smiled wanly.
"As I said, we've come a little out of our way. In fact, Lieutenant Takeda, run a quantum resonance scan of the Matriarch's vessel." The alien pursed her lips.
"A quantum—" Takeda interrupted the blue woman with her report.
"Sir, we're more than a little out of our way. We aren't just in another universe—I'm actually detecting a minor variance in the laws of physics, and I think it might explain the lack of a warp signature on the Ascension."
For a moment, everyone was very still.
"A… quantum alternate universe? With different physics? Captain, I know a number of asari scientists who will be very eager to speak with you. I assume a warp drive is your means of faster-than-light travel?" At Mackenzie's nod (he decided to avoid mentioning slipstream to any of the aliens, at least for now), she continued: "I won't bore you with the details over a comm channel, but we achieve faster-than-light travel by means of a substance we call element zero, which, when exposed to an electrical current, creates what we call mass effect fields, which are capable of altering the mass of physical bodies within them." She smiled.
"You, I assume, do things differently, and presumably your FTL drive was somehow snared in the Citadel Relay's field and pulled through to our universe. In any case, you should make arrangements to dock at the Citadel and meet with the Council—I'll forward your docking permission to Kithoi Ward travel control and let the Council know you're coming. If no one is there to greet you, simply request a skycar to the Presidium. Good luck, Captain."
The channel winked out. On-screen, the Destiny Ascension turned around and swept into the distance.
"Flight path and coordinates have been forwarded from the Ascension," Ziyal reported.
"Docking identification code received as well," Talas added. "They were awfully friendly, in a way. I don't think even human-Vulcan first contact went quite so smoothly."
"We're not out of the woods yet," Gibran noted. "We still have to take ourselves to their leaders, and starship captains have a history of taking the unknown better than do politicians."
"We can cross that bridge when we come to it, Number One," Mackenzie noted. "Lieutenant Pradesh, tell Lieutenant Fessenden to prepare to accompany me in a diplomatic landing party. Commander, the three of us should be sufficient for talking to this Council, whoever they are. Lieutenant Commander Takeda, you'll have the conn once we disembark. Sit tight, but monitor our vitals and be ready for an emergency beam-out: I'd like the trust these people, but we don't know them yet. All clear?" A round of affirmations and aye-ayes echoed around the bridge. Mackenzie faced the viewer, hands clasped behind his back, and nodded in reply.
"Excellent. Helm, set course and take us in."
Hey, new story! Sorry about the long delay on DAWN (if anyone actually reads that): the "Jaundice" arc has been a heck of a headache. I'm about halfway through that chapter now, though, and through with finals, so an update should be forthcoming. I'll probably balance that, this, and possibly "Children of Necessity" (which has bits written for it, just not as much as I'd like) going forward. Future updates to this story will also, with any luck, be a bit longer, but that'll be on a case-by-case basis.
