9: Last Call


Romulus System

EAS Magellan

Bridge

"So, would someone care to explain to me why the alien ship is now parked directly in-front of my ship?" Terry stormed towards his chair, knowing exactly who was to blame, but not a why. "Commander?"

Smith pulled himself back up. He wasn't going to let this alien lover blame him for the aliens' dangerous behaviour. "An unknown fighter flew across our bow and docked with the alien vessel. They then moved directly into our path."

"And we did nothing to cause them to do such a thing?"

"No sir. The only thing we were trying to do was carry out a detailed scan of their vessel."

Terry settled into his chair, wondering how his XO had managed to potentially incite another first contact into a war.

"Captain, we're receiving a signal from the alien ship!"

"On speakers."

"This is the Federation starship Vanguard to the Earth Alliance ship Magellan. Could you kindly tell us why your weapons array was powering up and targeting us a few minutes ago?"

Terry turned and tried not to growl as he spoke to his XO. "Commander, you have one minute to explain before I have you relieved of duty and escorted to your quarters!"


Captain's log: Stardate 56480.9: Captain Joseph Willard commanding

Additional date: 16:00 August 10th 2258 Local Time

This will be my final log before I officially turn over command to Commander MacLeod.

I have been awake now for thirty eight hours and I can feel things starting to slip away from me. Doctor Judal has told me that in the next two to three hours I will have to return to sickbay so I wish to file one last update in-case the ship and crew are able to return home.

While the commander's choice of an XO is strange, it is one I agree with given to the situation and the level of comfort that seems to exist between the commander and Sub-Commander D'Mora.

D'Mora and her fellow Romulans have settled in well to the ship's day-to-day running, but I am sure that because of the uniqueness of the situation and the amount of intel that they will be able to take back to the Imperial Command if the ship can return to our universe.

The ship still has whole sections sealed off due to damage from various problems relating to the battle with the Borg and the dimension jump.

Starfleet has records of many ships jumping or detecting alternate universes but normally they are close to ours. This one is different.

According to the Captain Terry of the Earth ship Magellan the Earth date is August tenth twenty-two fifty-eight meaning we've not only travelled to another dimension but back to the time of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. I wonder if they, or at least Kirk and McCoy, exist in this universe. We now know that this portion of the galaxy is divided up into four or five major powers and a large number of smaller races, with the smaller races having formed a loose alliance and all these races have embassies on a station called Babylon Five.

I have decided that it would be best if we established an embassy there, if the ship is to be stuck here for any significant length of time that the Bolians and Andorians will act as the Federation and establish a small presence on this station.

The Magellan is currently deploying a jump-gate – funny that it's really called a jump-gate – and they have traded us maps and beacon frequencies for the civilian jump gates to get to Babylon Five and move around within the Earth Alliance.

They seemed shocked that we have no concept of hyperspace, but we managed to convince them we had the ability to travel at a very high percentage of light speed and accepting the effects of time-dilation.

Shockingly, it seems that ships can travel in hyperspace at speeds equivalent to warp nine-point-five, and that the other races can go even faster. I suspect that with our higher sub-light acceleration and speeds and our vastly improved sensors, that once we have scanned hyperspace that we will be able to travel at an even greater speed.

I have promoted Ensign Colin Drake to Lieutenant and named him as chief of the science department, unfortunately the Vanguard didn't carry a large number of science staff even before the battle of Romulus.

Drake has a plan in place to scan and map hyperspace for the surrounding ten light years with modified probes. And he hopes we can develop our own hyperspace to real-space travelling system so we can move without having to run across alien ships or being tracked back to this system.

Addendum:

The more I view this spider ship, the more it worries me.

There is something about it which is malevolent almost evil but as a Starfleet officer I shouldn't judge an alien by how it looks.

The captain of the Magellan send us images of the main warships of the major and minor powers but none even look remotely like the spider. I suspect that the race it represents is either a very new, or given to the fact it is organic and what our scans suggested, it's very, very old.

For now, I have recommended that it; and ships like it are to be avoided at all costs. Better safe than sorry.

It has been an honour to command the Vanguard for the last three years, and serve on her for the last six. I know that Commander MacLeod will look after the crew and protect them with his life, he just has to accept who and what he is and represents and use it talents fully.

I know that he will be a good captain, but I don't know if he's fully ready right now. He is only twenty-nine, and while not the most experienced officer left, he is the senior officer so he is the best choice. Lieutenant Varik is not suitable to command, nor is any other senior or deputy officer who is left.

I feel that this new universe seems poised on the precipice of something, and if the Vanguard is stranded here long term, then I know they will do as this ship is meant to do, and follow the basic tenant of Starfleet and the Federation: to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no-one has gone before.

Oh god, I can't believe I just said that.

Anyway, if Starfleet command ever reads this log then know that I support any decision made by Command… Captain MacLeod and I know that the ship and crew will uphold the guiding principles of Starfleet and bring honour to this ship and her history.


A/N: Sorry for the delay, just having lots of personal/professional problems/issues to deal with right now. I'll try and update as I can for both current stories and have no plans to abandon them so fingers crossed once the issues are out of the way I can get back to more consistent writing.