A Universe of Change: Realized Probability

Disclaimer: see chapter one.

Author's Notes: Hope u enjoy this.

Summary: The Enterprise C and D blunder into the borderland between the Scarren Empire and The Peacekeepers. This fic is a part of AlbertG's Ruinations series and has been written with his express permission.

Chapter Three The Scarrens

Bearing down on the two Federation starships was a massive, blocky viscous looking warship the likes of which they had never seen or encountered.

At the forefront of the ship was an incomplete sphere with four rectangular structures jutting out of it and curving backwards for several hundred meters.

As one continued backwards, the vessel became thinner and began to taper off until the last third of the warship. There was a large vulnerable looking spherical structure at that junction that was connected to a round barrel that contained the ships engines. The arrival of this humongous warship had stunned them all but Captain Picard quickly overcame his shock, he couldn't freeze, his crew needed him.

"Red Alert! Mr. Yar, tactical analysis!" he ordered urgently in a calm tone as alarms began blaring across the bridge.

Tasha Yar, standing at tactical had been frozen in shock at the sudden appearance of the massive warship, but her captain's calm tone broke her trance and her fingers flew across her tactical console. She scanned the warship bearing down on them and answered her Captain. "Sir, the ship's nearly 4 kilometers long. I'm reading numerous plasma canons all along the hull and several unidentified beam weapons. I'm also reading some missile launchers."

"What type of missiles?" demanded Picard.

Tasha's hands played over her board once, "They're…nuclear sir, just nuclear missiles," she said in disbelief.

Picard turned to look at Tasha, "Nuclear missiles?" he said in surprise, interrupting her report.

Tasha nodded, then continued here analysis. "I'm reading a shield generator but they're not active, and sir they…might not need them, their armor is many times thicker than on any ship we've ever encountered," she paused for a second, "sir I'm reading over 70,000 life forms onboard."

"Seventy thousand?" Picard repeated in disbelief.

"Yes, Sir."

Picard thought about what their options were and gave into some of Garret's suggestions. "Notify Captain Garret that we will attempt to open a peaceful dialog."

"Aye, Sir."

At this moment Commanders Riker and Data walked out and moved to take their normal positions on the bridge. Commander Riker missed a step when he caught sight of the colossal alien warship. He caught Picard's eye and gave him a speculative look while raising his eyebrow in question of what he had missed.

"Welcome back, Number One. We're going to try to talk to them," he explained, his opinion of the matter clear in his tone. He doubted that the ship was anything but hostile.

Picard turned back to the view screen and said, "Open hailing frequencies. This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the battleship Enterprise-" he began peacefully.

The alien warship's commander harsh guttural commands cut off Captain Picard. "Surrender, or die Peacekeepers!"

Picard and Riker shared a surprised look. They weren't surprised that the ship had turned out to be hostile; they were surprised that the aliens had called them Peacekeepers. Weren't the Peacekeepers the species that the Scarren Empire was hostile towards? This undoubtedly meant that this gargantuan vessel was operated by the Scarren Empire…but why would they mistake the Enterprise for a Peacekeeper ship?

"Sir they're charging weapons and targeting us and the Enterprise-C…I've got an energy spike!" cried Tasha in alarm.

"Evasive maneuvers Picard-delta one!" Picard cried out in response as he sat down in his seat.

The alien ship opened fire on the two Enterprises with a torrent of plasma and pulse blasts. Each starship was hit with multiple blasts that caused their shields to glow. Both ships shuddered as they were hit before taking evasive maneuvers.

"Damage?" Picard demanded of Tasha.

"Shields down to 90, no other damage…Sir they're launching small fighters of some sort. I've got four squadrons on scanners, half heading for us and the rest are heading for the Enterprise-C."

"Target phasers as they come into range and fire at will. Data Evasive maneuvers Picard-alpha one, move us away from the hostile ship," he commanded.

Tasha targeted the fighters as the come into range. The fighters came screaming after the Enterprise firing continuously as the Enterprise began dodging the second and third salvos fired by the colossal warship. Singularly their blasts had little effect and the pilots were not used to working together to attack a cruiser, usually they were only used against other fighters or freighters.

Though their fire was ineffectual, the Enterprise's wasn't. With each phaser blast, a fighter was wiped from existence. No matter how a fighter dodged or maneuvered the phasers found their target and soon all the fighters were gone.

After all the fighters were destroyed Picard tried to open communications with the hostile alien vessel. "I repeat, this is Jean-Luc Picard of the warship Enterprise. We are not hostile, but we will defend ourselves!"

He didn't have to wait long for the response. "You will surrender your vessels Peacekeeper to this dreadnaught, or I will ensure that your entire crew face the Living Death!" as the alien commander finished his demand, his ship opened fire with yet another salvo, only this time it all went wide because the gunners could not accurately fire on targets moving as fast as the two Enterprises were.

Picard shared a strained look with his First Officer before speaking again, "If you do not stop we will be forced to destroy you."

The dreadnaught continued to fire ignoring Picard's warning.

Now Picard was angry, "Attack pattern omega, phasers only Mr. Yar."

The Enterprise turned in space and headed back towards the dreadnaught, gracefully dodging all plasma and pulse blasts that were fired in its direction. When they were in range it fired multiple blasts that scarred the nose of the dreadnaught but did little else, their shields still were not active.

Picard frowned, "Data do you see any weaknesses we can exploit?"

Data worked quickly at his console scanning the dreadnaught for any weaknesses, "Yes sir, the second sphere at the back of the ship is a reactor. I believe a spread of photon torpedoes should do the trick, Sir."

Picard didn't have to thick about his choices for long. "Mr. Data send the coordinates to tactical and Mr. Yar, target and fire when ready," Picard grimly ordered.

Meanwhile on board the Scarren dreadnaught, the Commander was infuriated and his blood was boiling. These two new peacekeeper ships had annihilated his fighters within several microts and now this Peacekeeper had the audacity to threaten to destroy his dreadnaught with only two small ships, one barely the size of a Leviathan?

Impossible!

"Commander!" cried out his sensor officer cutting into his musing.

"What is it?" the Scarren Commander demanded angrily.

His sensor officer could only point in disbelief at the three glowing orbs that the Peacekeepers had fired at his ship, moving insanely fast. The commander opened his mouth to speak but it was too late, the glowing orbs curved around his ship and stuck the exposed reactor on the underbelly of the dreadnaught milliseconds apart.

The combined might, melted the armor, and overloaded the reactor. The reactor exploded spectacularly, taking the rest of the ship with it. The Scarren Commander only felt a wave of heat pass over him before darkness claimed his mind.

The bridge crew on the Enterprise-C looked on in disbelief and Captain Rachael Garret felt a hollow pit in her stomach trying to consume her. After the away teams had been attacked she had expected trouble but Captain Picard had wiped out seventy thousand people without blinking.

Had Starfleet captains become that callus in the future? If they had this did bode well for the future of the Federation if they somehow managed to defeat the Klingons. They'd only been in this dimension for a few days and already they had been responsible for the deaths of seventy thousand sentients. Seventy thousand that would still be alive if they had stayed in their own dimension. She knew that they had now made an enemy of the Scarren Empire.

She found her voice quickly, "Mr. Castillo find us an isolated location away form here then contact the Enterprise and tell them to join us here. The entire system just witnessed this battle and I'm guessing that reinforcements will be on their way here in a few moments. We do not want to be here when they arrive," she commanded.

"Yes, Ma'am."

Mr. Castillo quickly checked the areas that they had scanned previously and found a suitable spot before relaying the coordinates to their sister ship and then leaving.

Giving all the other ships in the area to watch in disbelief as the two ships disappeared one after the other from their sensors with a flash.

Two hours later they were in an isolated system the members of the away team were gathered in the Enterprise-D's conference room along with Captain Garret to discuss how matters had gotten so out of control in such a short time.

"I did warn you about this universe's penchant for chaos," said Guinan dryly. "Though I think I may have understated it."

Picard listened to Guinan before turning to Riker and demanding irritably, "Number one what the devil happened on the planet?"

"I don't know Sir. One minute we were walking through the market place peacefully and then these white faced canines ambushed us, they didn't even ask for our surrender before opening fire," Riker explained.

Picard didn't like his answer and it showed on his face in a sour grimace. He turned to Sisko, "Did the same happen to you?"

"Yes sir, except we were in a bar," Sisko added.

"A bar?" asked Garret pointedly, "What were you doing in a bar?"

Sisko turned to her and said, "Some of the best information brokers can usually be found in bars," he explained simply.

Garrett subsided and Picard turned to Data. "What about you, Commander? You weren't attacked but you did find something," the last part a statement, not a question. They had too many, much too many question and Picard would settle for Data to answer one.

"Yes, Sir. I believe I know the reason for the attacks. We were mistaken for Peacekeeper spies trying to enter the Scarren Empire," Data explained emotionlessly.

"We know that Commander, but why did they mistake us for them in the first place?" Garret questioned.

"Apparently, ma'am, in this area of space most species can be visually differentiated therefore they saw the members of our away team and mistook them for Peacekeepers. Myself and Lt. Theeka look sufficiently different not to be mistaken as such."

Groans came form all across the conference room as they realized how simple a mistake had been made by the Scarrens. It was so innocent and silly and yet seventy thousand people had died because of it.

Picard felt his headache get worse, this was an unexpected complication. "Did you find out anything else?" he had hoped for an answer and he had gotten one, just not one he liked or wanted.

"Yes Sir, I did manage to get a relatively accurate map for this area of space."

"And?"

"I believe with a little work I will be able to pin-point our location in this galaxy and eventually Earth's as well," said Data optimistically.

The people in the room cheered up considerably at Data's last proclamation.

"That's good to know mister Data. I'll expect progress reports form you as soon as possible," commanded Picard.

"Captain to the bridge!" came over Picard's combadge.

"Picard here. What's the problem?"

"Sir, we've detected a transwarp conduit opening off our starboard bow…there's a ship coming through!"

I'll be there monetarily, Picard said as he rose from his chair. "Captain Garret, if you'll join me on the bridge."

She nodded and they quickly made their way to the bridge.

"Status report, Mr. Yar," commanded Picard as he walked onto the bridge form the turbolift.

Tasha Yar turned to the Captain with an incredulous look on her face, "The ship, Captain…it's registering as one massive lifeform. It's alive!" she said breathlessly.

Picard and Garret were taken aback by Tasha's report; this was unexpected to say the least.

"Organic?" asked Garret in curiosity and wonder.

"Biomechanical, Ma'am."

"Is it hostile?" demanded Picard irritably; he didn't want any more surprises to bother them.

"The creature's unarmed Sir, no weapons of any kind though it does have shields," answered Tasha quickly.

Picard visibly relaxed, he had did not want to kill any more people today.

Data, who had taken over the science station after Tasha had relayed to them the nature of the ship, spoke up. "Sir I'm also able to discern eight life forms inside the ship and Sir, one of who is human."

Silence descended on the bridge, you could have heard a pin needle drop, slowly Picard asked, "Are you sure, Commander?"

"One hundred percent, Sir," replied Data.

Picard shared a hopeful glance with Garret and then said, "Open a channel. Contact that vessel or creature, whatever it is."

They didn't have to wait long for an answer, but it wasn't what they expected…and it was in a sarcastic southern drawl, "Hey Pilot have you sent the 'don't shoot we're pathetic' message yet?"

Author's Notes: He he, yet another nice little cliffhanger for all my readers, as always, Read, Enjoy and Review!