Star Trek TNG: Hell Hath No Fury

Chapter 24: Fall-Back Solutions

Commodore's Log, Stardate 45658.7: Earth, at least this universe's Earth, has joined the New Systems Commonwealth, with a little nudging from my XO. She's good at her job, and I don't want to kick her off the ship by promoting her to Captain. We've been contacted by the A, and we're on our way to the Tartarus system to join Andromeda in recovering the High Guard ships, but from what little word we've gotten, there's trouble waiting for us.

The two ships of the Excelsior and Constitution-Classes were ready to jump to slipstream.

"We've mapped about 15% of the stream, Commodore. We're ready to head to the Tartarus system."

Sonic nodded.

"Luna, take us to the slip point. Time to see what Hunt's up to."

The two ships went to the portal and activated their modified deflectors. Both ships entered slipspace and dropped out a few thousand lightyears away.

"Luna, how may jumps until we get to Tartarus?"

"One or two. Why?"

Glorious Heritage-Class CSS Andromeda Ascendant

"Egg Carrier II has hit us. Shields at 72%."

"Lock particle weapons and fire!"

Defiant-Class style pulse cannons fired at the Egg Carrier II, hitting nothing but a bubble that protected it.

"No effect. Dylan, we need to get out of here."

"We've taken out two ships!"

"With the help of the Hawkeye and the other ships. Dylan, against this foe, we are outgunned and outmatched."

Then a K'Vort-Class ship attacked the Andromeda, and got a few hundred missiles in return.

"No effect on her shields."

Then the Hawke fired on it and ripped the ship in two.

"We'll down their shields! You handle the rest!"

Dylan liked that idea.

"Target that Omega-Class ship and blow it out of the water!"

"We'll do what we can, Captain!"

Mobius Squadron

The dance was a killer in every way. Half of the Mobius pilots had to bail out within an hour of the battle beginning.

"Those new fighters are a pain in the ass!"

Heavily modified Starfuries were kicking their asses, but they weren't Mobius Squadron, and that meant they could be killed.

"Zeppelin, this is Mobius 1! Half my pilots are in a vacuum!"

"We're beaming them back, 1! Keep us covered!" The Egg-furies, as they would later be called, seemed to use organic technology for controlling the machine, like the Shadows using humanoids for controlling their ships.

"We need better fighters!"

The Focke-Wulf was fast and powerful, but far too big: Earth Alliance Thunderbolts were 15.8 meters long, and they were still smaller then the Focke-Wulf, with the Starfury being 9.8 meters long. (1)

They needed a proper fighter!

Then a few small 7 meter long Messerschmidt-Class fighters engaged the tiny Egg Furies.

"Something like those!"

The drawback was that the tiny fighters used batteries, rather then antimatter reactors, and all they could do was take on other fighters and maybe a few bombers.

"This is Warwolf 1: Mobius 1, you've got a tail!"

The Focke-Wulf spun and fired her pulse phasers at the Egg Fury, destroying it.

"Warwolf 1, there's an Egg Hawk on your ass!"

Unlike the Focke-Wulf, the Messerschmidt wasn't built to spin on it's axis.

And it didn't have any aft weapons.

"Fuck it! Punch out, Wolf 1!"

Like the old days, the Messerschmidt had an ejection seat, as the pilot wore a spacesuit.

Wolf 1 ejected, and Mobius 1 spun the Focke-Wulf into the Egg Hawk's face.

"Fire, Fox 2!"

Two proton missiles hit the Hawk, destroying it.

"We need something bigger then a Messerschmidt but smaller then a Focke-Wulf."

The fight was still one-sided, the side winning being the Federation fighters. Still, they were losing fighters. Then the huge Siege Perilous-Class Wrath of Achilles entered the fray, PDLs blazing at full speed.

Unlike their motherships, the tiny fighters didn't have shields that blocked laser shots.

The Focke-Wulfs would be safe, being based on the Peregrine shuttle, which had shields that blocked phaser strikes.

The Egg Furies, on the other hand, were screwed.

They started exploding randomly.

"All fighters, fall back! Eggman's forces are falling back, but we have bigger issues!"

Four Nietzschean ships dropped out of transwarp.

As they had black-gray and green armor, they were controlled by the Borg.

Then two more ships entered the system: the Enterprises A and B.

"Eggman's engaging the Borg. Let's take advantage of this and get those ships out of here!" (AN: Keep Alive from ACAH can be played here)

The Borg and Eggman forces decided to beat the shit out of one another, as the Borg were more of a threat then the Starfleet ships were any day, as the Borg had a friend: a cube.

Every ship in Eggman's fleet attacked the cube, allowing the Federation and Commonwealth ships to escape the system. All 51 Commonwealth ships entered slipstream, followed by the 8 Federation ones.

Earth: 51 hours later

"We have good news, Admiral."

The look on the Admiral's face told Sonic that he wasn't in a good mood.

"Sonic, I spent 48 hours with Rear Admiral Gendo Ikari. He's a good man, but grating at all times. My tolerance is at it's limit. What is it?"

"The Borg and Eggman are trying to kill one another. Hopefully, Eggman gets killed or assimilated."

"The former rather then the latter. No one deserves assimilation. Even Eggman."

"I can think of a few people, sir."

The hologram of the Admiral sighed.

"Get back here, Sonic. Your job is done for now. If Eggman survives the Borg, which he will, I'll need your help dealing with him on here."

"Then there's our new allies on this end."

"Right, the Systems Commonwealth. If Hunt even tries to ask us to join-" Sonic stopped him.

"I already told him that your family would have my hide, sir. Besides, with the Borg invading a third of the Milky Way over here, I doubt that Dylan will have the time to ask us. He'll be flooded with requests to join the Systems Commonwealth."

"They can't stop the Borg. Typical."

Sonic rolled his eyes.

"He's requested that the Federation become an ally of the Commonwealth, though."

"I'm on my way. I need to deliver the Pax Magellanic to them, anyways. They have an odd FTL drive, but it does work. And the data we're getting from it is a bonus. At any rate, I need you back here in a few days. The Bajorans want a Federation presence in their system."

"Bajor? That's Cardassian territory."

The Admiral shook his head.

"Not anymore. Seems that they finally left the planet. And I know the Bajoran people. They used that as excuse to get the Cardassians the hell of their planet."

"And it worked?"

"While I haven't faced the Cardassians in combat, they know I am not to be fucked with."

"Amen to that, Admiral. Sonic out."

Glorious Heritage-Class CSS Pax Magellanic

The Admiral stood on the bridge of the refit heavy cruiser.

She was a big ship, but only a match for an Ambassador-Class starship.

Against Nebulas or Galaxies, though, it would get badly damaged or destroyed.

"Pax Magellanic to Ra-Cailum: take us in."

The first Galaxy Battleship towed the Pax Magellanic through the rift, and ended up near the destroyed planet.

"This sucks. I'm the only living thing on this ship. Not counting the androids, of course."

The only android that was actually online was the ship's avatar, Jill Pierce.

"Thanks to the Enterprise-A, Lieutenant, you can fly through the slipstream to Earth. Take us there."

The android activated the drive and dragged the ship through the stream.

If it weren't for the fact that the Admiral had taken out an F-15 Eagle and flown it for practice, he would've lost the few things he had eaten that day.

"Dropping out of slipstream." The ship reentered normal space near Earth.

"Pinkerton to Ra-Cailum. I want off this ship."

"Transporting you back, sir."

Glorious Heritage-Class CSS Andromeda Ascendant

"Have you noticed that most of the Admiral's crew are women?"

Sonic chuckled.

"He doesn't care about gender or race. If they can do their jobs, that's fine by him."

Then Kate and the Admiral walked onto command.

"I hope you people understand this: I hate your sense of design."

"Oh?"

"I like small bridges. It allows me to look at every post and see what my people are doing. This? It's huge: a waste of space that could've gone to more weapons or an extra launcher. The bridge of the Enterprise-D is smaller then this!"

Sonic shrugged. "The man's got a point. The Galaxy-Class is one of the largest ships in the fleet, and while it's almost the same size, it's a ship of exploration, not warfare."

"Well, the ship was designed for Vedrans, who are like centaurs in a way."

"Hence the huge bridge. Still, it's too big for my taste. I've flown on Constitutions, Excelsiors, Ambassadors and Galaxies. All of them had smaller bridges. Guess I'm just used to them."

Then Harper walked in with one of the Ra-Cailum's engineers, both of whom were clearly drunk.

"Hey, Dylan! You tried this stuff yet? It's, uh..."

He looked at it.

"It's blue!" (2)

Then the Admiral's eyebrow twitched.

"Son of a whore broke into my Ale!"

Harper noticed him and ran off.

"Lieutenant, I will talk with you later! Commander Ray!"

Kate tossed him an M4 phaser Carbine.

"Do I want to know where she was hiding that?"

"That's why we like the older uniforms: we can hide shit in them."

"GET BACK HERE, YOU FUCKER!"

Kate walked over to the piloting seat.

"I was wondering, could you help us with a problem?"

"Sure."

"We need a new fighter. The Messerschmidt is underarmed, while the Focke-Wulf is too big. The fighter pilots won't use Starfuries, as they can't eject the pilot out of the fighter. I'd like your help with this."

"Well, if Harper survives your CO, he can help you."

"He won't kill him. I disabled the bullet function, and the highest that thing can go is maximum stun." "I just hope he realizes that."

"FUCK!"

Kate smirked.

"He knows."

"THIS WON'T STOP ME FROM CLUBING YOU TO DEATH!"

Kate chuckled.

"Forgot about that. Hopefully Harper will still be alive after he's done with him. All is right with the world."

Tau Ceti VI

"At least we have new allies, right?"

The Eggman Fleet and the Dark Legion barely survived the Battle of Tartarus.

They had made contact with two small Nietzschean Prides and allowed them to join the alliance.

Another one, Orca, joined them a few days later.

"Three Prides, Lien-Da, are not enough to cover our losses at Tartarus. It's a start."

The fleet coming from the that universe was banged up pretty bad, but they would recover within a year.

"Take us through the rift! And set course for home base!"

Earth

The Enterprise-A was escorting a pair Eternal Vigilance-Class scout ships to the slippoint while negotiations between the Federation and the newly-reformed Systems Commonwealth were held on the Andromeda.

Representing the UFP was Lacus Cline, one of the Admiral's many, many nieces.

Dylan represented the Commonwealth, while a number of semi-independent planets had chosen Beka as their rep.

Don't ask me why.

"The non-alined worlds will join the Commonwealth within a few months if they get help dealing with the Borg. That's their only issue."

"Task Force 108 can handle the Borg. Admiral?"

The Admiral had been happy enough to stay out of the spotlight, and now he was thrown into it.

"I will assign a number of ships to delay the Borg in this universe under the command of Captain Vakarian. Task Force Palaven will make sure they won't get any farther then the Delta Quadrant of this galaxy."

"Then there's the tricky part: the refits to the Commonwealth fleet."

Dylan didn't want to touch that one yet.

"The Kyoto Yards will handle it. Should the Commonwealth wish to build any more vessels, they can subcontract it to the UFP."

"Thank you."

"And then there's the AI issue."

Harper, sporting a number of broken bones, two black eyes and a bruise shaped like the Admiral's fist-his left fist, to be exact-chuckled at that.

"Saw that coming!"

The Admiral threw a knife at his head.

Unfortunately for the Admiral, it was sheathed.

"Yet another attempt to kill him thwarted."

It did, however, knock him out.

"If the Commonwealth doesn't give full rights to their AIs, we will have to pull out of this alliance." "You treat your AIs like crap compared to us!"

"Our AIs don't have sentience. Yours do. Hell, our AIs can barely be called AIs!"

The sound a a gun being fired brought them back.

"We're off topic, people!"

"The Admiral is right! We'll do it. Besides, I think Andromeda would like to command herself."

Rommie, who was standing beside the Admiral, smirked at the complement.

"Thank you, Dylan, but I prefer you in command."

The avatar for the Achilles nodded.

"Thank you, Captain Hunt. At least we have the option of command for ourselves."

"And with the Enterprise-A mapping the slipstream, you don't even need an organic pilot anymore!"

"We would still like to have a pilot at the helm. AIs are fallible, after all."

"At least we don't have to worry about being replaced."

"And if they so wish, they can join the UFP Starfleet, along with their ships. It's a matter of choice."

Dylan didn't like that, but Lacus did have a point.

"Alright, agreed."

The Admiral walked toward them.

"Since we're helping you, and I mean a lot, as the Borg are not an easy foe, if a war starts on our end, you will help us."

"Isn't that what allies do?"

"FULL military support, Hunt. And we've got something for you."

One of the monitors showed an image of a giant ship that looked like 20 planets all connected with a miniature sun in the center.

"The probes launched by the Enterprise-A picked up that thing in your Delta Quadrant. And the Borg are fighting it with everything they've got."

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Lifesigns were all Magog. It's a 'worldship' of some kind, armed with a Point Singularity Projector. One of those will blow a Borg ship in half."

"At least my people are being useful."

The Admiral looked at Rev Bem.

"A good line of thinking. Problem is, the Borg have spent more time around black holes then any other race in the galaxy. So, it's useless against them now unless we give them a subspace cannon. The Borg can't adapt to that, and the Magog would be too stupid to use one."

He looked at Rev.

"No offense."

"None taken."

"Still, with the Magog and the Borg duking it out, it'll give us time to build up our forces and kick them out of our galaxy."

"Like that'll happen."

Federation territory: Earth: 4 days later

"Move it, people! These ships won't rebuild themselves!"

Gendo was in a better mood then he had been in five years.

Using a pin-point transporter, the tumor was beaming out of his wife's head. The standard drugs kept the tumor from growing back, and Gendo owed the Vice-Admiral now.

'Just do your job, and don't do anything stupid!'

That he could do.

"Sir, the refit to the Million Voices will take a few days, and them there's the Eternal Vigilance-Class scout/AWACS ships-"

"One class at a time! Where are those reports on the Galaxy Battleship-Class ships that are supposed to leave the dock?"

"The Prince of Wales is ready to leave the yard, along with the Tirpitz. The Arizona and Iowa will be ready in a few days. The ten normal Galaxy-Class ships we have under construction are 95% complete."

The seven pulsars in the UFP produced enough energy to make millions of ships, but the replication technology couldn't make the ships themselves. (3)

Hence, the huge number of shipyards throughout the Federation.

Still, with the boundaries between the universes going to hell, the explorer arm would be giddy as all hell.

The military branch, now called Task Force 108, would be doing their damnest to make sure that the explorers didn't screw over the defense of their nation.

And the explorers were getting a new ship, too: the USS Nova NCC-72048, which was a slower, but more advanced, ship then the nearly two century old Oberth-Class.

But with all the new technology they were getting, the Nova-Class could eventually outrun the Enterprise-B.

Then Gendo remembered that the Enterprise-B was Kyoto's baby, and if any ship in the fleet got faster, the B would get faster.

And Gendo wasn't a Pinkerton.

Asuka, his son's girlfriend, was, but she wasn't a main branch Pinkerton.

She was EVIL.

Ambassador-Class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C

Captain's Log: Stardate 46379.1: We're approaching the Bajorian Sector, with the acting commandant for the Nor-Class station near Bajor. The Enterprises A and B are with us, along with the Ra-Cailum.

While the commandant was with his son, three other people were walking onto the bridge, fighting. "We're staying on the Enterprise-A! The only reason we're on the C is because Captain Lamperouge ordered us to pick up something from Captain Yamato!"

Kira tossed something, a bottle, to the tall redhead.

"Ensign, go back to your ship."

Asuka saluted the brunette Captain, dragging her boyfriend and his sister back into the lift.

Kira sighed.

"So, what's this place called?"

Athrun looked at his old friend.

"Terok Nor. Starfleet and the Bajorians, on the other hand have a better name. Deep Space 9."

And that's the end of this story, but not the end of everything!

(1) Thanks to a number of comparison charts, I now know the size of 90% of most of the major sci-fi ships ever made. That includes the Starfury, Thunderbolt and the Peregrine-Class shuttle.

(2) I took the famous Scotty line and twisted it.

(3) Me and my brother had a nice, long talk as to how the Federation could have so many ships, and he pointed out that pulsars put out a lot of energy. So my answer is simple: they have energy collectors near those pulsars, and they make tritanium and duranium. The Earth Starfleet didn't have them because they didn't have a huge territory, and had to find tritanium and duranium.

Now, as this will be crossing into every Star Trek, from the last seasons of TNG to a good percentage of DS9 and Voyager, I'll be putting this in the Star Trek: Other crossover section.

We will be seeing the Mirror Universe a lot, even in Voyager.

I'll see you next time!

Ja Ne!