The next seven chapters will be about the Exodus Fleet entering one of the seven quantum realities. I just wanna get a feel for each universe, the one I or you if you want to vote for it, like the best will become the dominant story. But please wait until all seven chapters are up, never know you may like the next chapter posted after this one or the very last one.
Also note they won't necessarily be in order as they appeared at the end of the previous chapter. Anyhoo this one is about the Star Trek Verse. Enjoy!
The Quantum Gate closed behind them and everyone on the bridge of the Orion sighed in relief. Major Jacob O'Neill, tapped the button for the fleet comm channel. Gathering his thoughts he prepared for what he wanted to say.
"All ships this is the Orion. We did it. After four years of planning, the sacrifices of our lost comrades, our worlds, our galaxies, we're finally free of the Ori. I would like a senior meeting of the fleet commanders and all military and civilian leaders in one hour aboard the Orion. We need to discuss our next course of action. Scout ships are to scan and recon the local area. We don't want to anger any of the natives if we've stumbled into their territory by mistake. All ships begin system checks, ensure nothing was damaged. City ships and civilian transports maintain position within the center of the fleet, Jaffa Ha'taks, Asgard Battlecruisers and Tau'ri Warships shall maintain a perimeter around all other ships. That is all, Orion out."
He didn't know how or why, but everyone from the Tok'ra, the Asgard and the Jaffa were all looking to him for leadership. It was probably because his parents led the charge which eventuall brought about the end of the Goa'uld and the Replicators, and were now looking at him to lead them into a new world. Speaking of his parents, he didn't know how his mom and Thor had managed it but they'd somehow talked his dad into cloning all of SG1 in younger bodies....well except for Teal'c...he was still quite young for a Jaffa, or at least Master Bra'tac kept saying so anyway. He was glad they'd found a way to give the Jaffa their own immune systems, almost equal in strength to that fo a symbiote, which meant they'd live far longer than normal. It's estimated Master Bra'tac has another hundred years left in him at least. As for the rest of SG1 they were in stasis on Thors ship awaiting reanimation. Thor had left when his parents would awaken to Jacob, seeing as he was their son. Daniel and Vala would be awoken by the order of their daughter Sha're Jackson. Cameron Mitchell had declined the chance to 'start over' as it were, said he could here his grandma spouting warnings of hellfire and brimstone and him burning in hell if he did. Even though she'd been dead for years.
"Alright people....lets get to work!"
The Border between Romulan, Klingon and Federation space. "Captains Logs - Stardate 53187.2: It's been only a few months since the end of the war with the Dominon. The Enterprise is taking a quiet assignment in the space between the Romulan, Klingon, Frederation borders. Officially it belongs to no one since no one really wants to settle too close to any of their neighbours. The expanse of space holds a tight cluster of star systems across a space of a hundred and twenty light years. Most of the planets and moons in those star systems are either Class H, Class K or Class L. Most generally uninhabitable, which suits everyone just fine seeing as no one wants to live there anyway. Unofficially the area of space is concidered neutral between all three parties. Most scheduled meetings between the Romluans, Klingons and Federation tend to take place there, but in most cases it's what's commonly called within the Federation as 'dead space', a place where nothing really happens. Even the Dominion felt it was completely unimportant and left it alone....which was odd concidering that from there they could have launched attacks against all three powers from a single location. Anyway, it's wonderful to be back to doing what the Federation and Starfleet stand for once more....exploration, even if there's very little to explore out here. Computer End Log.
Picard sat back in his chair taking a sip from his cup of Earl Grey tea. The stresses of the war still evident but finally beginning to seep away with this new relaxing assignment. That is until a certain entity decided to ruin it all for him.
With a bright flash of light the great annoyance himself, the self-proclaimed god of chaos wearing the usual clothes he did when visiting these Federation types, his traditional starfleet uniform with Captains pips.
"My, my Jean-Luc, long time no see! How have you been!?"
"Q!!!" Picard knowing that there was absolutely no point in calling for security, simply closed his eyes in resignation, put his cup down and strode out of his readyroom towards the bridge. If he had to suffer Q's madness he'd rather do it with the firm support of his command staff.
"Hey! Where are you going! Jean-Luc! Jean-Luc!!" Q quickly followed him out and smiled. "Well if it isn't my old pal, Riker!"
"Q." Commander Riker looked towards his Captain, noticed the pained look on his face and knew exactly how he felt. "What do you want Q? Come to gloat about how many people have died in the war, like you gloat over the suffering of other beings?" If Riker were a less civilized man he would have said he hated Q with all of his being. But the Federation is all about tollerance, acceptance of other races including their views of the universe...so he wouldn't bring himself down to that level.
"Hardly!" Q scoffed, their little war with the Dominion was beneath his notice anyway, he had far more important matters to deal with. "I'm actually here to view history in the making." Picard turned around and decided to get this over with.
"What are you talking about Q? I thought you were an Omnipitent, All powerful being who'd watched over the universe since it's birth, I'd concider you'd seen history in the making thousands, millions of times already."
"Oh Mon Capitan, how right you are, but this....this is so much more. What you and I are about to witness has never happened before in the history of the universe, and most probably never will again."
"Please tell me this has nothing to do with the Borg, my crew and I aren't ready to meet with them again...if ever."
"Oh don't be so dense Picard, what part of never happened before in the entire history of the universe do you not understand!? The Borg are insects in comparrison to this event!"
That worried Picard to no end, usually Q's games had leathal reprocussions....for he and his crew. He hoped he could talk Q out of whatever he was planning.
"Q, please whatever you're planning, put a stop to it now!"
"Me? What makes you think I have anything to do with this? I'm just an observer like yourself, what's going to happen is the result of forces beyond our universe."
"Beyond our universe?"
"Yes Picard, you and I are about to witness the exodus of a people from their own reality into ours. Oh and before you start to worry, no it's not that sorry excuse of a reality you call the mirror universe, they don't have the power or the technology for this....then again neither do you. But that's what makes it so exciting!"
Data turned in his chair to look at Q, a confused expression on his face.
"Q, by exodus, do you mean they are fleeing their own home reality so as to enter into our own?"
"Yes my little professor of the humanities, that's exactly it. Apparently some higher beings in their reality have gotten it into their heads that they should be worshipped as Gods, so they've enslaved all the lesser sentient humanoid life forms in thier own home galaxy with some religious nonsesne and now their conquering three others. It hasn't been exactly perfect mind you, they've completely wiped out all life in two whole galaxies and are now in the final stage of conquering the third. That's why they're leaving you see...no hope of survival so why not jump ship into a reality where their enemy doesn't even exist!"
The absolute looks of shock and horror on the faces of the bridge crew where rather amusing to Q. But to Picard and his people....they were sickened.
"All life, in two entire galaxies....wiped out?" Picards face was pale with shock....it was worse than the Borg could ever hope to be. It made the war with the Dominion look like a brief skirmish between children.
Q suddenly became deadly serious, something he did in only the rarest of moments when he wanted to make sure those who listened knew that what he was about to say was absolutely without a shadow of a doubt important beyond their feble ability to comprehend.
"Yes Picard, completely wiped out. All hope of winning against them became a distant dream within the first year of their war, even the combined power of three galaxies wasn't enough to defeat them. But the survivors are coming Picard and they are coming now. I will warn you, treat them fairly and as the poor, lost souls that they are, for if you anger them, their wrath will be mighty and your people will know the end has come." Some of his mirth returned as he went on. "I have little hope for the Romulans however, they will notice them and see a new people to conquer, not exactly the wisest choice they'll make, to anger beings who not only looked into the abyss, but went charging into it kicking and screaming and came out the other end ready to completely annihilate anyone who would threaten their way of life again."
Looking at the faces and in most cases scanning the thoughts of those around him he went on, he didn't want to cause a panic among this crew, who knew what they'd do, they might end up accidentally atomized.
"Do not confuse them for invaders Jean-Luc, they are simply refugees looking for a new home, I shall leave you to witness this great event in the making, who knows you might in the next few hours meet your greatest allies or your worst enemies if you manage to muck it up. Cheerio!" And with that he flashed out to view the event himself in the relative privacy of one of the higher planes. His people and other higher beings were making room for the Acended that were coming, Q thought them to be absolute bores himself, what with their non-interferance policy, they were a bit like the rest of the Q and a number of other higher beings in the universe....but the Ori...he shivered at the thought of them, although they would have had no power over the Q if they had manage to enter this reality, the fact they'd gone so absolutely out of control with thier power was a shock to many a higher being.
Captain Picard looked thoughtful, concidering what Q had told them.
"Mr Data review everything Q told us and send a brief report to Starfleet on the situation, these people may need medical aid or repairs for their ships if what Q told us is true. Also we'll need to find them homes, as soon as we have information on their biological needs we'll start focusing on planets for them to colonize."
"Yes sir." Data turned back to his console and with android enhanced speed and reflexes he reviewed, summarized and send the information back to Starfleet under a level four encryption code. It took him less than forty seconds.
Lt. Commander Smith who was at tactical noticed the sensors had picked something up.
"Captain sensors have detected a quantum event point-five lightyears away. Bearing 210 mark 37." He continued scanning, no telling what it could be after all, one couldn't go by just Q's word alone.
"Helm plot course and take us there at Warp five. Engage."
The Enterprise's engines powered up as the warp bubbled formed around the ship and then probelled it at Warp five towards their new mission.
Fifteen minutes later at the site of the quantum event.
"Captain we have arrived at our destination. The quantum event is approximetelly one million fifity thousand kilometers ahead of us."
"On screen."
The viewscreen activated to show a blue pulsing blob of energy that with each pulse it got bigger and bigger until it was at least eighty times the size of the Enterprise. Picard had ordered them to reverse another three-hundred thousand kilometers from it just to be safe. Data was running every scan he could possibly think of on the quantum event, while Geordi was running multiple simulations on the effects it would have on the warp field, structural intergrity and dozens of other vital systems to make sure it wasn't a threat to them, so far it wasn't. Then it happened.
"Captain! The quantum event is folding the very fabric of space/time!" Data's outburst was shocking at best that a cizilization had the technology to do such a thing, and from a completely different reality at the same time.
"It appears as if whatever technology they are using is creating a fold in the space/time continuum. By the readings I'm recieving from the other side of the event, they are not only crossing over from a completely different reality but also a different galaxy as well."
"Amazing...to think such people have achieved such a level of understanding of space/time." Picard was in awe of it all. Riker on the other hand was also in awe, but for a different reason.
"And to think, these people are running away from an even greater force than themselves, it scares me to think what they've been through, what they must have sacrificed to survive." Everyone on the bridge grew silent after that, it was the kind of nightmare scenario that no one in the Federation had even concidered. The Borg were terrifying but at least they didn't outright kill, at least not right away. They have no control of their actions, they're following a directive programed into them at the moment of assimilation. The enemy of these people were making their followers commit attrocities in the name their Gods.
"Sir, ships incoming!" At Lt. Commander Smith announcement, hundreds of ships came pouring through the quantum fold, followed by hundreds more. They were slightly odd. Some looked like you'd expect ships to look like, except for their lack of nacelles. Some were long and elegent, others slightly bulkier, but no less elegent. However the oddest of them all were the triangular, pyramid shaped ships. Other smaller ships came through, some slightly larger than a shuttle. The other thing that surprised him were their various sizes. Some were massive. They dwarfed the Enterprise like Jupiter dwarfs the Earth. Others were small two man fighters, obviously playing escort to a number of civilian ships. What surprised them even further were the two flying cities, that were larger than everything else in the fleet.
They hadn't noticed the Enterprise yet, it may have something to do with the fact that they had reversed into a small nebula that was masking their presence from their sensors.
Finally the last ship came through, it looked like a much larger version of the bulky but eleganat ships from earlier, but at least twice their size and at least a third larger than the Enterprise herself. After that ship came through the quantum fold collapsed into itself, but seemed to pulse several times before sealing completely. The readings coming through the sensors indicated there was no trace of the quantum event, that it was as if the fold had never been there in the first place.
"Sir the last ship through the fold is broadcasting a localized, non-encrypted transmission to the other ships in the fleet. Audio only."
"All ships this is the Orion. We did it. After four years of planning, the sacrifices of our lost comrades, our worlds, our galaxies, we're finally free of the Ori. I would like a senior meeting of the fleet commanders and all military and civilian leaders in one hour aboard the Orion. We need to discuss our next course of action. Scout ships are to scan and recon the local area. We don't want to anger any of the natives if we've stumbled into their territory by mistake. All ships begin system checks, ensure nothing was damaged. City ships and civilian transports maintain position within the center of the fleet, Jaffa Ha'taks, Asgard Battlecruisers and Tau'ri Warships shall maintain a perimeter around all other ships. That is all, Orion out."
"Captain, I've analyzed the message. It did not run through the universal translator. It was spoken in English."
Although it wasn't surprising really, they'd heard of humans in other realities before, like the mirror universe, but to think humans had developed ships capable of crossing the vast space between galaxies and even more amazing the rift between universes. It was simply amazing.
"Also captain, I've been going over the sensor logs of the quantum fold aswell as the space beyond it and I've discovered something rather interesting."
"More interesting than humans who seem to be able to cross the vastness of galaxies and realities data? What could be more amazing than that?" Data blinked, turned himself and his chair to look the captain in the eye.
"I discovered that the fold was emitting chronotron particles. As they passed through the fold not only did they crossover from another reality, they also crossed over from a different time." Picard looked slightly pained... "However I must point out that since they are not from our reality this does not bring the Temporal Prime Directive into effect, since their crossing over does not contaminate our timeline."
"Thank you Data. Just out of curiosity, do you know from how far in the future they're from?" Data looked at the captain a little oddly.
"I cannot tell you how far from the future they've come Captain." Data paused slightly, wondering how the Captain would take his news, Picard shrugged as if it didn't matter anyway, but Data went on. "Because they did not come from the future." That brought the everyone to a slight pause. "The chronotron particles I detected indicated that they infact come from the past, roughly four hundred years from the past. Also if they are speaking English then it is possible we are dealing with humans from an alternate Earth, which is likely seeing as 'Orion' is a constilation seen from Earth. We could be encountering humans that never experienced the Third World War, that unified before political tensions reached that stage. However seeing as we did not hear anyone mention Earth, that might not be the case. I am at this point simply speculating, but it seems likley."
Picard concidered it and he wondered it if was true, what had brought them all together? For his Earth it took the total destruction of every Earth government during the Third World War, Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight and first contact with the Vulcans to unify the human race. He shook his head, he'd find out soon enough when they established first contact with them.
"Helm, bring us out of the nebula, quater impulse."
"Aye Captain."
The Enterprise moved out of the nebula and towards the impressive fleet of ships. The majority of which seemed to be made of the one hundred and four gigantic transport ships, well over a thousand of the Pyramid Ships and the other large ships that surrounded them.
"Sir, we've been scanned. The Orion is moving towards us." Picard nodded, the command ship of the fleet would be the one to make first contact.
"All stop." He commanded. The ship came to a stop.
"All stop, Captain."
"We are being hailed."
"On screen."
To Be Continued.....
Author's Notes:
This was the first of seven chapter that will show the Exodus fleet entering each reality . As I said at the top of the page the one I or you, if you wish to vote for the best will continue on to become the dominant story.
