Star Trek Online and the Mass Effect series belong to their respective owners.

Shepard will be a soldier class, Spacer/War Hero in this story, switches from Paragon to Renegade a bit.


TEMPORAL EFFECT-CHAPTER 2- Rise of Lazarus


Project Lazarus- Undisclosed location

Fiona Shepard woke up in what seemed to be a medical laboratory of some sort, the bright lights blinding her for a moment until they readjusted to last thing she remembered was watching from space as the Normandy was destroyed by a ship that strongly resembled a termite mound and then struggling as the air rushed out of her armoured EV suit...'Was I dead' she thought to he self for a moment, her head felt like an over-ripe melon ready to split, she brushed a hand through her almost crimson red hair that she had a habit of brushing behind one ear.

She realised what had awoken her when a female voice came over the labs intercom, "Shepard, wake up, I've got no time to explain, you need to get to the locker and get your gun and ammo" as Shepard got her bearings and spotted a locker in the corner she could hear alarms and muffled gunfire, almost instinctively she hurried over to the locker and found a pistol and a set of N7 armour, as she finished with the last clip on her armour the three gas cylinders over the far side of the room exploded almost knocking her to the floor.

The same female voice that if Shepard was hearing right had an Australian accent "you'll need to grab a thermal clip for your pistol"

Shepard looked around for the thermal clips and spotted them near where the cylinders had exploded before. It took Shepard less than 10 minutes to incapacitate the mechs in her way and picking up a new toy, the 'M100' Grenade Launcher which she put to good use against several large groups of mechs.

"Shepard, over here" called a dark skinned male who was using a biotic pull on several mechs, letting them drop into a deep void, "I thought you weren't supposed to be awake yet, things must be desperate if Miranda's got you running around"

Shepard irritated at all the noise retorted "What the hell is going on!"

"Yeah, I forgot this is all new to you, ok I'll fill you in," he paused to take a shot at another incoming mech, "The Alliance declared you KIA two years ago after the Normandy was destroyed."

"What condition was I in?" Shepard was still sceptical.

"You where nothing but meat and tubes when we found you but, I'm a soldier, not a doctor"

"Oh God Help!" a panicked voice crackled over the comms, Jacob was the first to respond "Wilson, I have Shepard with me...where are you?"

"Shepard's awake, I'm in Server Room B. Hurry!"

It barely took Jacob and Shepard one minute to sprint down the corridor and up a flight of stairs to find Wilson hidden behind some crates, with a cut in his leg caused by a mass accelerated slug.

"Bastard mechs got me in the leg, I need medi-gel"

Jacob applied a dose of medi-gel to Wilson's leg, sealing the wound almost immediately. The group where about to move off when Jacob stopped "Shepard I need to come clean, the project to revive you, Project Lazarus was a Cerberus funded operation."

"I fought you bastards when I was stopping Saren, some human supremacist group," Shepard was furious at this point, being resurrected by a bunch of terrorists, "We'd better get moving. I want off this station."

After fighting through two more groups of mechs Wilson rushed ahead to a locked door attempting to hack the electronic locks, "Quick we can get out this way."

The locks released on the door and they opened to reveal the director of Project Lazarus, Miranda Lawson had a very attractive appearance with long shoulder length black hair, she was often nicknamed 'the Ice Queen' in other operatives reports due to her cold attitude. "Miranda, but you're meant to be..." Wilson was interrupted by a single gunshot to the chest, "Dead" Miranda retorted glaring down at the corpse.

"I knew he was waiting to shoot me in the back," Shepard remarked, seemingly impressing Miranda.

"Good instincts, some people are far too trusting if you ask me"

"I've had enough of this station to last a lifetime"

"Or two in your case, we need to see the boss"

"Who, the Illusive Man, I know you work for Cerberus"

"Ah, Jacob I knew your conscience would get the better of you"

"That and the fact your logo is on nearly every wall panel in here"


Another Cerberus station - Undisclosed location


Shepard stepped into the QEC to see a human male with a cigarette in one hand and a half empty glass of bourbon in the other, then as he turned to face her she noticed something unusual...both of his eyes where artificial.

"Shepard"

"By what I hear I must have cost you a fortune...why?"

"Nobody wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack, whole colonies are missing."

"The Reapers are involved, one way or another"

"Precisely, I'm sending you to the most recent colony to go dark, Freedom's Progress."


Freedom's Progress


"What can you tell me about the colony?" Shepard asked trying to get an idea of how significant the colony was.

"The 2183 records list the colony size as 912,810 people, possible mech defences, other than that there isn't a lot of information." Miranda said scrolling through a datapad.

There where no signs of life until they got past a large gate and breeched into one of the multiple pre-fabs, the moment they entered they had a squad of Quarians with their weapons drawn at them.

"Shepard...Is that you?" A short Quarian wearing a purple, black and gold enviro suit with a distinct tone of shock to her voice.

"Tali'Zorah the first conversation we had on the Normandy, you couldn't sleep because the ship was too quiet."

"Shepard what are you doing here?" Tali asked while signalling the squad to lower their weapons.

"Tali, why is your old commander working for Cerberus," one of Tali's squad noted raising his pistol towards Shepard, again.

"This colony went missing and neither the Alliance or the Council are doing anything about it, only Cerberus is." Raising her pistol towards Prazza she also retorted, "Are we going to have trouble with Prazza?"

It was that moment when Jacob commented on the elephant in the room, "This is a human colony, why is there a squad of Quarians here?"

"We where tracking a Quarian, Veetor who was on pilgrimage, we saw him enter the loading docks as we where landing."

"If he's alive he may know what happened here. We could team up and find him." Shepard added.

"Agreed," Tali said still astonished to see Shepard.


RRW Arcturus A- 2.4 LY from Serpent Nebula


"Leaving wormhole in 3...2...1...We are clear of the wormhole."

"Status report"

"Minimal damage to shields, transporters are offline due to a power surge, they'll be fixed in 30 minutes...no other damage." The Reman Chief Engineer Subcommander Veril reported from her console on the back wall of the bridge, she was rescued by Demala when the Elachi and Tal Shiar attacked the Reman colony of Crateris back when Demala held the rank of Centurion.

"Are sensors picking up anything?"

"There seems to be a large artificial metallic body at a bearing of 3-1-5 mark 0, there are antiprotons and dark energy traces converging around it, could be a by-product of starship propulsion, can't get detailed readings due to nebula interference around the metallic body, but it could be a station...Also long range scanners aren't picking up any systems that we know of." Subcommander Satra summarised most of the data that was appearing on the sensor display.

"Any conclusions, Satra?"

"There should be traces of Cardassian ship movements in this area, it is a significant probability that we have entered an alternate universe or timeline" Satra added.

"We'll need to determine that further, deploy sensor probes and signal the task group to follow at transwarp 14."

"Approximate arrival time 1 hour 10 minutes."


Freedom's Progress


"Veetor's reprogrammed one of the heavy mechs! It's tearing Prazza's squad apart!" Tali yelled, panicking as the YMIR mech rounded the corner and continued mowing through the Quarians with its arm-mounted heavy machine gun, "Get into cover near the loading bay gate I'll open it."

"Well they did want to get to Veetor first," Miranda quipped before getting into cover.

It took Shepard, Jacob and Miranda nearly 5 minutes to take down the mech using fire from the M100 Grenade Launcher, biotic skills, and tech overloads. They proceeded quickly to the office in the loading bay and found the Quarian who was suffering from a nervous breakdown.

"No monsters, No swarms, no no no," The lone Quarian was sitting at what seemed to be a security desk looking back and forth between the security monitors.

"Veetor?" Shepard asked reassuringly, trying to get the Quarian to calm down.

"No Veetor...not here, monster's can't find," Veetor kept quietly saying as if to avoid being heard.

"Why can't I just get a straight forward mission, In. Out. No problems." Shepard thought out loud as she hacked the security terminal, shutting it down.

"You're human...How are you here, the swarms took everyone?" Veetor said as he turned around surprised.

"We just got here, do you know what attacked the colony?" Shepard asked finally glad to get an answer from the Quarian.

"The monsters took everyone the swarms freeze you, they didn't see me, but I see everything," the Quarian returned to the security console and activated the monitors showing bi-pedal creatures that looked similar to an insect but about the same height as a human pushing strange looking pods.

"Is that a Collector?" Miranda was quick to recognise the creatures in the security footage.

"What's a Collector?" Shepard didn't have the slightest clue what Miranda was talking about.

"Rarely seen creatures that live beyond the Omega 4 Relay, I thought they where only a myth."

"We'll need to take him with us to determine what else he knows" Miranda said, she didn't notice though that Tali had caught up with them.

"You can't take Veetor with you, he needs medical treatment," Tali responded rather angrily, the Quarians and Cerberus didn't exactly have the best track record.

"We can take the Omni-tool data, we only need the data on the Collector's," Shepard responded defusing some of the tension.


Cerberus Station


"The data you collected confirmed my suspicions, the Collector's are involved," the Illusive Man said taking a draw on his cigarette.

"What do you know that you're not telling me?" Shepard was quick to notice that the Illusive Man was holding something back.

"These attacks are the only time the Collector's haven't acted through a third party, they usually like to keep behind the Omega 4 relay, no ship other than the Collector's have returned from the relay, I presume you know what that means."

"It's practically a suicide mission, so either I'll need an army or a damn good team to take them down."

"You'll have dossiers on the best of them, but I recommend you go after a Salarian scientist, Mordin Solus first. I have also tracked down a pilot, the best as he keeps telling everyone."

"Just like old times, huh Commander," Shepard instantly recognised Joker's voice, she stepped out of the QEC and proceeded with their chat until Joker redirected her towards the dock to their new ship, Normandy SR-2.


RRW Arcturus A- Citadel Station 1 hour 15 minutes after exit from wormhole


The Citadel fleets scrambled into defensive positions with the Destiny Ascension at the lead just after the taskforce lead by the Arcturus-A burst back into sub-light speeds and performed a full-stop no less than 1,000 km ahead of the Citadel fleet.

"Ah, the welcoming committee," Demala commented calmly.

"Sensors are not recognising any known ship designs, and I scanned something called the 'extranet' apparently the current year is 2185." Satra was quick to state the obvious as the Citadel fleet was visible on the viewscreen.

"Are we under the Temporal Prime Directive?" Demala asked as she tried to get her head around all the new elements in play.

"I don't think so Admiral, the events in this timeline are so different that I think it is a true alternate timeline, not a case of interference or divergence."

"Ah shit, I hate when this happens. Open all hailing frequencies." Demala ordered bringing her palms up to her face, then looking back up to the viewscreen.

"Channels are open, audio only...must be a problem at the receiving end."

"This is Admiral Demala of the Romulan Republic Warbird Arcturus, we are on a peaceful exploration assignment, I am also accompanied by the USS Hubble from the United Federation of Planets and the IKS D'k tahg of the Klingon Empire." Demala gave the standard speech for most ship commanders on peaceful missions, she started to worry though as a minute passed before she got a response.

"This is Matriarch Lidanya of the Asari dreadnought Destiny Ascension flagship of the Citadel fleet, we do not recognise any of the groups you mentioned. We'll need Citadel Security to confirm your identity."

"That'd be easier done on the station, if it'd be acceptable I can have the USS Hubble dock at the Citadel." Demala requested, receiving silence as the Matriarch consulted with C-Sec.

"That will be acceptable, you're cleared for docking at bay 47, C-Sec will be waiting" Matriarch Lidanya replied before cutting the channel.

"Tovan, request permission for myself and Captain Kitara to transport onboard of the Hubble." Demala ordered.

"Permission granted, Captain Kitara is ready for transport to the Hubble." Tovan replied as he received information on his console.

"Prepare point-to-point transport to the Hubble, Tovan you're with me. Satra you have the bridge...Energize." Demala ordered before both her and her first officer disappeared in a sparkling green light.


USS Hubble - Docking at Citadel Docking Bay 47


Alarms blared on the Hubble as it went to 'Blue Alert' and sped forward, closing the gap to the Citadel in 2 minutes before slamming to a halt precisely lining up with the docking bay. Several 'clunks' could be heard as docking clamps gripped onto the hull and the boarding tunnel locked on to the ship.

"Damn, according to the sensors that station is 44.7km long and has a diameter of 12.8km...You could fit Spacedock in here and still have more than enough room to move a fleet." The Hubble's first officer Elisa Flores quipped from the helmsman's console.

"Security team to port airlock 1," Captain Daniels ordered.

"They probably won't attack but I'd advise carrying weapons of some sort. At least Kitara's ready." Tovan advised, before looking across to the female Klingon wearing a Bortasqu type uniform with her Mek'leth attached to her left hip and a disruptor pistol in it's holster on her other hip.

"A Klingon warrior is always prepared for battle." Kitara retorted.

"Demala to Arcturus, beam over two phaser stun pistols and my Tholian sword with it's scabbard." Demala ordered over her communicator before the pistols and the sword appeared before her.

"I don't think I'd like being the odd one out, ready to see what we're up against." Captain Daniels said before grabbing his phaser stun pistol from under the captain's chair. "Elisa you have the bridge."


As the 343m long starship docked several C-Sec officers mobbed around the entrance to the boarding tunnel, unsure of what would come out of it, or whether the contents where hostile. The doors opened revealing the 25 year old Admiral with pale skin, long maroon red hair flowing down to around halfway along her back and piercing silver grey eyes who was wearing a black version of the Romulan Republic uniform with tactical red trim and Admiral rank shoulder pads, to her left was Captain John Daniels who had crew cut brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing the Odyssey type captains uniform with white shoulders, a red band around the chest and arms, and four gold pips on his collar showing his rank. Further to her left was Captain Kitara who had black hair done up in braids and brilliant hazel coloured eyes. To Demala's right was her first officer Subcommander Tovan Khev who had short black hair and dark grey eyes he was wearing the same uniform with tactical red trim.

Demala proceeded to introduce her away team to the apparent leader of the security force.

"I'm Captain Bailey of Citadel Security or C-Sec, I would ask you to disarm before proceeding any further and we also need to put you through a biometric scan." An average height human male who looked like he had seen his fair share of crimes called.

"I would be going against Romulan regulations if I disarmed by away team but, I reassure you that they will not fire unless either I or they are directly threatened and they will shoot to disable, not to kill. Also my team and I will consent to a biometric scan." Demala tried reassuring the C-Sec officer.

"It is Citadel policy for any new visitor to disarm, what makes you different?" The man asked getting irritated at the conflict.

"The fact that I am a flag officer of the Romulan Republic, and by regulations of the Romulan Republic I am required to have atleast one armed guard when I am on any new station or planet. Commanding officers of a starship are also authorized to arm themselves on a new station." Demala tried explaining their rights.

"Well I might be able to bend the rules a bit, you don't exactly look like the individuals that would cause too much damage. Also it's likely the council will like to see you at some point, they're what you could call the governing body around here."

"Atleast we won't get be breaching the prime directive." Tovan said quietly to his commanding officer.

"What is this 'Prime Directive' that your first officer pointed out?" Capt. Bailey was somewhat interested.

"We are restricted to not interfere in any way, shape or form in another society, without official invitation or consent form the governing body of said society, if a society invites us to interfere we then have to determine if they have achieved FTL travel." Demala summarised the Prime Directive, as the Romulan Republic was closely allied with the United Federation of Planets it was expected that they where to follow certain regulations to prevent diplomatic difficulties.

One of the doctors that C-Sec had brought along with them started scanning the new arrivals with a holographic tool attached to their forearm, "Strange, this one seems to have partial human DNA the rest is unidentified," the Asari doctor noted before scanning the other officers.

"This black haired male has unidentified DNA, so does the black haired female but not related." The Asari continued.

"I'm half-Romulan half-Human, Tovan here is a full blood Romulan, and Kitara here is a Klingon, Captain Daniels over there is obviously a human." Demala explained as the Asari kept scanning them.

"I've managed to get you an audience with the council in the embassies, apparently you have gotten their attention." Capt. Bailey said.


Normandy SR-2 - 90 minutes after USS Hubble docked at Citadel Station


"Commander Shepard, the Illusive man would like to speak with you on the QEC." Kelly Chambers, the ships yeoman said as Shepard left the elevator.

"Shepard , we've picked up a lot of additional comm traffic from the Citadel, apparently they've made first contact with a race that isn't using element zero to travel at FTL speeds, I don't need to say how much this could advance the human race." The Illusive Man tried convincing Shepard to steal technology from the Romulan dreadnought.

"The answer is no, I will not attack or steal from a race that could potentially help us fight against the Reaper's." Shepard ordered before storming out of the QEC, she refused to deal with any potential ally in an underhanded manner, she made her way back to the CIC.

"Commander, you have a new message on your private terminal," Kelly informed Shepard from her console on the right side of the galaxy map.

'Let's see, spam, spam, email from Councillor Anderson, better open that.'

On the off chance that the rumors are true and you actually are alive, then I would like to talk to you on the Citadel. A lot has changed in the last two years, you put me on the council. The least I can do is give you an opportunity to speak for yourself about what we've been hearing.

"Joker, set a course for the Citadel" She ordered over the intercom to the helmsman.


Citadel Embassies


When Demala, Tovan, John and Kitara walked into the human embassy on the Presidium the first person they saw was a tan-skinned human male with very short black hair, then as they looked around they saw three aliens one was a blue skinned female that most would call attractive with ridged cartilage where the hair of a human would be, then they saw some form of alien that looked to be avian in appearance with bony ridges on his face and head, the third alien was hooded but looked like the 20th century Earth stereotype for an alien with big eyes.

"I'm Admiral Demala of the Romulan Republic, this is my first officer Subcommander Tovan Khev, the other two are Captain John Daniels of the United Federation of Planets and Captain Kitara of the Klingon Empire, may I ask who I'll be speaking with?"

"I'm Councillor Anderson councillor and representative for the Systems Alliance, these are the other councillors, Councillor Tevos of the Asari Republics, Councillor Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy, and finally Councillor Valern of the Salarian Union, we heard you needed consent to officially start first contact by what Captain Bailey has told us it has to do with what you call a 'prime directive', what is that exactly?"

"The prime directive or Starfleet General Order 1 states that no officer of Starfleet is to interfere in any way, shape or form with the natural development of another civilisation without that civilisations invitation or consent, it also extends to say that we can't interfere with any pre-FTL civilisation, but I think we can rule that out. The Romulan Republic has adopted many of the regulations from our allies in the United Federation of Planets." Demala explained the summary of the Prime Directive to the council.

"Would have come in useful with the Krogan Rebellions, I think we can all agree to allow you to give us further details on how you got here without mass effect technology." Councillor Anderson stated whilst looking to the other councillors who gave a simple nod.

"As of Earth date November 8th 2410 we where sent to investigate an anomaly in Romulan space with a small taskforce, this anomaly turned out to be a wormhole, we detected traces of antiprotons, dark energy, chronitons which are usually associated with time travel and a few other trace particles, I then decided to investigate further and we came out on this end about 2.4 light-years away from this station." Demala explained to the council, she could see that the Turian wasn't believing anything she said.

"Wait so you're saying you travelled back in time 225 years?" Councillor Anderson was astonished.

"We didn't just travel back in time but also from a parallel universe." She could see the look of disbelief on all the councillors faces.

Councillor Anderson took this moment to ask something without the councils approval, "Do you have any experience with a race known as the Reapers?"

"Reapers?" Demala was completely lost as to why the councillor asked the question.

"Ah, the race of sentient AI starships that wait in dark space to come and destroy all life every 50,000 years...we have dismissed that claim." The Turian sarcastically remarked, earning a death stare from Anderson.

"I wouldn't be as rash as to dismiss that claim, numerous groups of races namely the Federation have had numerous encounters with AI controlled starships with vague origins." Demala glared at the Turian almost hissing as her patience was running thin at his arrogance.

"People of my race have trouble believing things that we cannot see, do you have any proof of what your saying?" Councillor Sparatus said, the sound of scepticism clear in his voice.

"Individuals from the Asari race like myself, can connect to the minds of others if you would consent," the Asari councillor explained as diplomatically as usual.

"Most of the events concerning AI starships happened well before my time, so I wouldn't have detailed memories of them, but I do have extensive records aboard my ship, I would allow you to bring a small security detail with you if you would like to come aboard," Demala knew exactly what linking minds involved, she had 'mind-melded' with Vulcans before needless to say, she didn't like it. Looking around she could see the look of distrust amongst the councillors.

"I would prefer that I show you records aboard my ship, as an Admiral I do have something's in my mind that may pose a security hazard for the Romulan Republic if released to just anyone." Demala was mainly just using that as an excuse not to have someone poke around in her mind.

"Although it is unorthodox for our side at least, I think we can agree to discuss this further on your ship, we'll arrange a security detail and a shuttle, they should be ready in 10 minutes." Councillor Valern said, his intent was probably to get a look at some of the technology that may have been in the ship.

"Ah, Admiral you know we have those records on the Hubble and it's already docked at the station," Captain Daniels said quietly as they walked out of the embassy.

"Yes and your ship is lacking in space. Also they can't bring an excessive amount of security with them if the ship isn't docked at the station." Demala replied back.

"As long as I don't have that arrogant petaQ on my ship," Kitara snarled, although not loud enough for the embassy staff to hear.

"I think I like you already, Kitara. Anyway both you and Daniels here are coming over to the Arcturus." Demala chuckled.


RRW Arcturus A - 10 minutes later


"This is the RRW Arcturus flight control, we'll be locking a tractor beam on to your shuttle, please disengage your engines to prevent damage." A voice came from the shuttles speakers, confusing the occupants who had never heard of a tractor beam before.

"Better do as they say" Councillor Anderson leaned forward to the pilot to get a better view of the dreadnought.

Everyone jumped a bit in their seats as the tractor beam pulled them towards the sizable hangar, they passed through some kind of barrier with a green glow to it, after a short while the tractor beam gently placed them down into an empty bay before each of the councillors and their security detail left the shuttle.

"Welcome to the RRW Arcturus-A, you've already met my first officer Tovan Khev, Captain Daniels and Captain Kitara. There are a few crew members of the Arcturus here that you haven't been introduced to yet, first is the Chief Science Officer Subcommander Satra, next to her is Chief Medical Officer Subcommander Hivan and Chief of Security Lieutenant Commander Sobaak, he's a Vulcan.

"Is that standard technology where you come from?" Councillor Valern asked curiously taking mental notes as he was going.

"Yes, the tractor beam allows us to get shuttlecraft and fighters into the hangar much faster than if they used their own engines, in hostile environments it can be the matter of life or death. It also helps to move debris away from the ship and can be used to tow starships at FTL speeds." Demala informed the council without letting them know too many details.

"I noticed that you've mentioned a 'Federation', who exactly are they?" Councillor Sparatus asked only he had refrained from his normal sceptical tone, probably due to them being at a disadvantage being on a foreign vessel.

"The United Federation of Planets is one of the three most prominent powers where we come from, it consists of more than 150 races including Humans and spread over thousands of colonies, it got founded in 2161 after the end of a war between Earth and the Romulan Empire." Captain Daniels said. He immediately noticed that the council was surprised at the sheer number of races in the Federation.

"And this Romulan Empire?" The Turian councillor was even more interested at what the young Admiral was saying.

"Was a major power in the beta quadrant until some members decided it might be a good idea to play with technology they didn't understand and caused a supernova that destroyed the homeworld, then a year ago the Romulan Republic split from the Empire and declared its sovereignty, and managed to ally with the Federation and the Klingon Empire, which until recently where in a state of war." Demala summarised some of the details of the Romulan Empire's downfall.

"I also noticed that you don't seem to use mass effect technology to achieve FTL." Councillor Anderson noticed from reports he had received just after the dreadnought had arrived.

"If you would like, under diplomatic protocols I can give you a quick tour of the ship after we finish the presentation if you would follow me, we can begin." Demala said signalling the council to one of the turbolifts, as everyone managed to squeeze into the turbolift. "Holodeck" the young Admiral called as the turbolift doors closed and the lift made a brief hissing noise, the doors opened again and the Councillors where signalled over to what seemed like and empty room with some type of heavy wire mesh on the walls.

Demala tapped a few buttons on the wall making a row of solid chairs appear from nowhere, earning confused looks from the council, "I figured you might be more comfortable sitting down" Demala sat down to prove that the chairs where safe. After all of the council where seated she began the presentation, "Begin presentation AI starship encounters, start section planet killer."

"On stardate 4202.3, the Federation starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701 answered a distress call from system L-374 to discover that a cone shaped AI controlled 'doomsday weapon' as a Captain Kirk called it at the time had destroyed all the planets in system L-370 and critically damaged the USS Constellation using an energy beam made from pure anti-protons, this planet killer also had a hull made from solid neutronium, a substance that is pretty much indestructible. The only way to disable this ship was to direct the USS Constellation into the planet killers maw whilst initializing an unstable reaction of matter and anti-matter in the Constellations engine core." Demala patiently explained the first encounter with an AI starship.

"Do you know why it was attacking planets?" Councillor Tevos asked, shocked at what she saw.

"The planet killer destroyed planets to provide itself with fuel. The next sections get a bit more interesting, start section V'ger probe." Demala said answering the Councillors question and ordering the holodeck computers to continue with the next sections.

"In the 2270's the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, yes the same one was sent to investigate an energy cloud measuring 2 AU across that was within 54 hours of entering the Sol system, inside of this cloud was an extremely large probe several times the size of any starship created at the time, this probe had a sensor that as a side effect of scanning an object it destroyed it's target, it also had a plasma energy weapon capable of 'one-shotting' any ship at the time as humans would probably say. After the Enterprise investigated further they discovered an old Earth probe named Voyager 6. Apparently Voyager 6 had been transported across to the opposite side of the galaxy and was discovered by what we only know as the 'machine planet', the inhabitants of this planet interpreted a message that the Voyager 6 probe, the message apparently read 'Learn all that is learnable and return that knowledge to the creator', apparently these inhabitants took that literally and gave the probe the equipment and subroutines to be able to learn everything that a machine could, essentially giving the probe sentience. This probe apparently was disabled after one of the Enterprise merged somehow with the machine, other details however are somewhat vague."

"Do you know anything about this 'machine planet' that was mentioned?" Councillor Sparatus asked, the presentation was swaying his opinion slightly but he was still sceptical.

"There is a fair bit of speculation on the matter but the general consensus is that the inhabitants of the 'machine planet' may have been a pseudo-race that call themselves Borg."

"Borg, sounds Swedish." One of the security detail remarked, earning a distinct groan and facepalm from the Admiral, "I am really tired of hearing that, by the way who are you?"

"Operations Chief Ashley Williams, ma'am," she stated with the discipline that only soldiers had.

"Do you have any proof, that they are connected?" The Turian asked as arrogant as ever.

"Yes I do, but first you need to know what threat the Borg present to all races on our side. Start section Borg, specifically the Battle of Wolf 359 then the Battle of Sector 001 including Borg ground units and finally recent unimatrix attacks."

The next part of the presentation started with the image of an assimilated Captain Picard, Borg designation 'Locutus of Borg' giving the infamous line the collective said before they engaged a ship or planet, the image changed to the disastrous engagement.

"The Battle of Wolf 359 is to date, the worst tactical engagement in Federation history against a single target. Out of a fleet of 40 ships including light and heavy cruisers 39 where destroyed 11,000 lives lost, the only ship to survive was the USS Enterprise-D NCC-1701-D, the only way that vessel was disabled was when the crew of the Enterprise managed to upload a virus prior to liberating Captain Jean Luc Picard or Locutus of Borg from the collective, I still have a hard time watching that."

The presentation continued with the Battle of Sector 001, it looked to be a hopeless battle as the transmissions of the battle where played over the speakers, all that changed with a ship sweeping past gracefully bearing not so much a name but a legacy, the USS Enterprise-E NCC-1701-E which under the command of Captain Picard taking de facto command of the fleet, they fired glowing red photon torpedoes into a small spot on the hull of the cube until the Enterprise banked hard and fired three quantum torpedoes making the cube quake as they tore it apart, but not before it released a sphere towards Earth.

"Wait are energy weapons common in your universe?" Councillor Valern asked showing an acute interest.

"Yes they are but as you'll see in the next part of the presentation, they aren't perfect." Demala remarked before ordering the presentation to continue.

The next part of the presentation showed several Borg drones in combat with Starfleet, Romulan and Klingon personnel who where using phasers, plasma and disruptor weapons, they only got an average of 5 shots off until the Borg adapted to block the energy weapons, one of the Starfleet officers didn't notice the drone coming behind them until it was too late, the drone stuck two tubes into their neck and began assimilating the victim, the Klingons fared better as they switched to their Bat'leths and started hacking through the drones, one of the Romulans switched rifles to a TR-116B, the more observant in the viewers noticed that the officer who had switched rifles was none other than Demala and that one of the Klingons was Captain Kitara, after she had switched rifles she had minimal trouble destroying the drones, blowing some of their heads off.

"Ah, the Borg incursion of Defera...It was a glorious battle." Kitara exclaimed.

"What was that weapon that you switched to?" Councillor Valern asked again, trying to judge their tactical skills.

"I can't tell you the exact details as they are classified, what I can tell you it is a high impact chemically propelled projectile rifle, developed for use where energy dampening fields are in place, continue presentation," Demala was careful not to divulge too many details.

The next thing the councillors saw was a small taskforce consisting of the RRW Arcturus, an Odyssey class and a Galaxy-X class dreadnoughts, and a D'deridex class battle cruiser engaging a vessel that looked remarkably similar to the V'ger probe, a long cylinder with six arms sticking out from the middle, it took remarkable amounts of energy and projectile weapon fire until it finally cracked apart, a tally was keeping track of the projectile weapon damage from the torpedos, going up by 64 megatons each time one of the photon torpedoes hit, and significantly more for each time a quantum torpedo hit it's target, the presentation finished and the audience was shocked.

"We'll that is the end of the presentation, any questions, or can we continue to the tour?" Demala asked out of courtesy.

"I think we've learnt enough from the presentation for the time being." Councillor Sparatus quickly stated wanting to get an idea of the workings of the dreadnought.

"As you might have guessed, this room is the holodeck, it can be used for recreation or tactical training, in addition the entire ship is outfitted with holo-emitters." Demala said before moving out of the room with the group following closely. "We are currently on what is called the Crew deck, it contains the mess hall, medical bay which has the capacity to act as a small hospital if needed, we can treat most trauma, infections and other complaints. This deck also contains a small science research lab." Demala explained quickly, no matter what universe, medical bays looked roughly the same, so she guided them into the turbo lift again.

"Engineering," Demala called as she did before, as the turbolift took of, most of the group turned their attention to the small screen showing the turbolifts position as it raced to the rear of the ship, finally opening it's doors.

Demala heard Ashley Williams say something to the human councillor, "Garrus would really hate this ship."

"Let me guess whoever Garrus is, he likes talking in the lift." Demala replied.

As they rounded the corner into a short corridor the automatic doors at the end opened revealing the massive room with a sphere in the middle that seemed to be making a rather loud rumbling noise.

The Salarian Councillor noticed the power output reading on one of the engineering consoles, "I'm curious what do you use to power this ship?"

"Romulan ships or warbirds are powered by an artificial singularity, we keep it contained using powerful magnetic fields other than that I can't say anything about the specifications. Watch out kiddies...it's a long way down." Demala said only giving enough details to answer the question as they grouped around the hand railing surrounding the singularity core.

"Do the other races use these artificial singularities?" Councillor Valern was more curious than ever.

"Most other races that we have come across use matter/anti-matter annihilation to power their ships, again I am restricted with what I can say, if you would like we can finish the tour with the bridge," Demala was careful not to release critical information.


RRW Arcturus A - Bridge


"This is the main bridge of the ship, nearly all functions can be managed from the numerous consoles, opposite to the turbolift is the ready room or CO's office..." Demala was interrupted by an alarm from the sensor console.

"Admiral, a vessel just appeared, by scans of the extranet it resembles a...SSV Normandy, only larger and by what I can tell by some of the other ships around here it's not Systems Alliance." Satra reported with Councillor Anderson looking over her shoulder.

"Well duty calls, I think we should be back on the Citadel" Councillor Sparatus said, concerned at the fact that there was a 'Normandy' type starship not broadcasting Alliance IFF codes.

"I'll need to report back to the governments back on my side, if these 'Reapers' are active they may be a significant threat to the Romulan Republic and it's allies, however I would like to have a representative from this side, possibly someone who has seen one of these 'Reapers' first hand, and the Federation will probably want to bring a formal diplomatic team here. Wormhole's not going anywhere so we may as well make the most of it." Demala said, she had a 'gut-feeling' that these Reapers were going to be a problem at some point.

"Ashley Williams here helped combat what we think may have been a Reaper two years ago, I can assign her if she is in agreement." Councillor Anderson said with authority as Chief Williams stepped forward.

"Councillor, you know I don't work for anyone but Systems Alliance," Ashley was never comfortable working under a non-Alliance officer.

"Who said you'd be working for me?" Demala asked.

"Well, I'd be on your ship." Chief Williams responded sharply.

"I expect one thing of anyone on this ship, that is to stay loyal to whichever representative body you belong to. Anyone who doesn't follow that rule, I have no time for." Demala said, inspirationally.

"Fine, I'll go with them." Chief Williams said to Anderson.

"I think you'll fit in fine here, If you would like I can show you to what will be your quarters for the duration of your stay, Tovan will you escort the Councillor's back to their shuttle and answer some of the questions they might have."


Next chapter may be faster paced, and will include opinions from Operations Chief Williams on the Arcturus and the powers of the 'Star Trek' universe, it will be a direct continuation of this chapter as well.

Please give constructive feedback. Thanks.