Programmer's Log
Hello again! I told you I would be seeing you again (metaphorically, of course). Look ugh, I knew this would come up if Memory Theta ever did enact protocol 67, and I decided to make a log about it just to keep the record clear. I designed the system to be capable of describing… sexual matters. Now let me be clear, I did not design the system to be a pervert, it will refrain from describing graphic sexual material. The most it will describe in practice is say "Insert name here kissed insert name here passionately slamming insert name here's back on the warp core". Now, as you most likely know, no system is perfect, and there may be exceptions to this part of Memory Theta's programming, if it deems it crucial to the story. However, his directives clearly state to use as little graphic material as possible without compromising the story (whether or not he obeys this is up to him… he is an AI after all). Also, another… thing. The Republic has always been very Liberal in general, especially in the matters of personal rights and liberties, including those who are sexually oriented differently than the majority (which was unanimously accepted). Now I understand if your planet has cultural… objections to this sort of behavior, that you'd want to avoid this story and I am okay with that, but please do not say I did not warn you.
"Captain's log, Stardate 44305.45, we have detected an unknown Starship in the Mazar system following a recent the recent disturbance that was detected by space observatory on Mars, it appears to use the same transponder codes as Republic Starfleet, it is reading as the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D. We are moving in to investigate."
Chapter 1- Another Galaxy Class?
RSS Endurance RSRN-1702-D
Main Bridge
The Main Bridge of the RSS Endurance was typical for a Galaxy Class starship. Circular in shape, replicator on the left right below the ship's plaque and the viewscreen was over 250 inches big as to be expected on such a starship. The Bridge was warmly lit; almost feeling like you were standing outside on a somewhat sunny day without the fear of a sunburn.
As for the crew, they all wore standard Republic Starfleet Standard Issue uniforms that was color coded for their division, gold for the Command Division, red for the Tactical Division, Blue for the Science Divisions, and black for the Operations Division. Rank insignia was displayed on their left breast, while their combadge was placed on the right. Bronze rank 'pips' indicated ranks below 2nd Sub-Lieutenant, silver ones represented ranks between 2nd Sub-Lieutenant and Commander, while gold ones represented ranks between Senior Commander and Supreme Commander.
"Mister Lore, when will we be in sensor range?" Asked the Captain.
"One hundred seconds exactly sir." Replied the Android at operations.
The Endurance's Captain was puzzled, this starship appears out of nowhere, uses the same transponder codes as a Starfleet vessel, yet doesn't use any of the same identification prefixes, and is not even registered at all in the Republic Central Database. Not even the identification tag, USS, has been used in over 300 years. Unless…
"Lieutenant Lore, could this ship be the same ship that the Earth Defense Force encountered at Autobot Outpost Omega-One during the Autobot-Decepticon war?" the Captain asked.
"Accessing… the files on that incident were heavily classified under Temporal Prime Directive, only however they were declassified one hour ago, by the Supreme Commander himself."
"I find it difficult to believe that was a coincidence…" the Captain said with suspicion.
"On the contrary, the Temporal Prime Directive states that on the date that the temporal incursion takes place, the information no longer is classified under the Directive." Lore said.
"Summarize the files." The Captain ordered.
"The files are very vague, sir. It states that the Autobots encountered an anomaly, and when they investigated they found an alien shuttlecraft." He continued "Rafael Esquivel unlocked the airlock door, and the aliens, later to be identified as two humans and one... Android that… looks identical to me."
At that moment all eyes were on the Android, when the Tactical officer asked.
"Another P-4 Type?"
"Other than my brother, Data who is Captain of the Endeavour, I am the only other model P-4 type android in service." Lore replied.
"The technique of building a stable positronic matrix to accommodate the size of an android's head is very difficult, the only person alive who knows the technique is the Supreme Commander, and he as expressed no interest of doing so. The only other person in history who knew how to do it was my creator, Doctor Soong, who passed away three years ago." Lore said.
"We are in visual range" The tactical officer said.
"Onscreen" ordered the Captain.
The viewscreen lit up with something that shocked the crew to their very core. The ship before them, minus the hull identifiers and insignia, was identical to the Endurance
"Another Galaxy Class?" Asked one of the bridge crew.
"Let's find out, open hailing frequencies"
USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Bridge
Captain Picard awoke in his chair to find Data, who was standing and watching the viewscreen as a ship came into view. It was clearly Federation in design but beyond that he simply didn't know at the time.
"Data, where are we?" the Captain asked.
"It appears that my theory about an interdimensional wormhole was accurate, we are in the Mazar system, with another ship on an intercept course, which its transponders identified as the RSS Endurance." Data Replied.
"The ship has entered visual range" Mister Worf informed.
Picard ordered it onscreen. Its hull was grey and was shaped like the Enterprise. Its markings were nearly identical to the Enterprise. The only difference being the Starfleet insignia, which was more angular than the Federation Starfleet's, but, still generally the same.
"A Galaxy Class starship…" muttered the Captain.
"They are hailing us Captain" Worf said.
"Onscreen" Captain Picard ordered.
At that moment, the Endurance's bridge appeared on screen, the bridge was virtually identical, except for the user interface on the bridge computers and that the walls were more grey. The crew wore different uniforms. Unlike the Federation Starfleet, Endurance's crew wore grey uniforms, with their division colors on their shoulders. However, the tactical officer was clad with silvery combat armor, with red markings in the same pattern as the others and a blue visor shaped in a similar way to Alex. The conscious crew couldn't help but notice an Android with a striking resemblance to Data on their bridge.
"I am Captain Theodore Braxton, of the Republic starship Endurance" the Endurance's Captain started as he walked towards his viewscreen.
"I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the Federation starship Enterprise" Captain Picard replied.
The other Captain held up a PADD given to him by Lore just a few seconds before the channel was opened.
"Captain, what was the shuttle's name you crashed on 21st Century Earth?" the Endurance's Captain replied.
Picard was puzzled by this very random question, but he answered, "Justman"
Captain Braxton lowered the PADD, and said, "Captain, I would like to discuss recent events with you in person, would you care to beam aboard my ship, and you may bring whatever security detail you wish."
The Captain gestured for the channel to be put on hold.
"Opinions?" The Captain asked.
"Too much of a risk sir, we do not know who they even are." Worf said.
"Counselor- "the Captain was stopped when he realized that she was still unconscious.
Picard buried his face in his hands as he walked to the tactical console, and found the most annoying alert sound, and broadcasted it to the whole ship… at max volume.
With an unpleasant looking jolt of sound, the bridge staff along with the majority of the ship was rudely awoken. Jean-Luc Picard walked down to his chair and gestured to Worf to reopen the channel.
"We will accept your most gracious offer; we will beam aboard shortly." said Captain Picard before he finally closed the transmission.
"Worf, Data, and Councilor you're with me." The Captain said as he gestured towards them to the turbolift.
The crew in question nodded and left their stations only to be replaced by the junior staff. They strode to the turbolift doors, which whooshed open as they huddled in the small, cylindrical lift. "Transporter Room" Captain Picard ordered the computer.
RSS Endurance RSRN-1702-D
Transporter Room
Captain Braxton, along with the Android Senior Lieutenant entered the transporter room aboard the Endurance. The Captain had to admit, it was a bit unnerving to meet the singularity of a rumor that has been floating around the Republic before its conception. Although officially before now there was no record of a starship named the USS Enterprise with the identifier tag NCC-1701-D, the Supreme Commander did place hints in some low-level, generally unimportant broadcasts during peacetime. Such as Federation in his broadcasts, for no apparent reason. This got the attention of some tin-foiled hats. Some believed this was some indication that Starfleet was about to perform a massive coup on the civilian government (No-one seemed to have remembered what happened when a certain Admiral tried to do that exact thing). When confronted, the Supreme Commander merely said "I cannot talk about this, due to Starfleet Directive Omega-21, subsection 7. Which is the official name for a section in the Temporal Prime Directive, which states, no person shall reveal information about the future from what was shown to them by temporal incursion. The Captain was snapped out of his thoughts when the transporter chief said, "We are ready to beam Captain Picard aboard"
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, the Captain replied "Very good".
The Captain fixed his uniform as he heard the familiar sound of the transporter.
Four forms appeared, two Humans, a Klingon and an Android.
They finished materializing, and Braxton spoke, "Welcome aboard, this is my Chief of Operations, Senior Lieutenant Lore."
Picard visibly stiffened at the mention of that name, but he replied, "Thank you Captain, this is my Chief of Operations, Lieutenant Commander Data, Ship's councilor Dianna Troi, and my Chief of Security, Lieutenant Worf."
Braxton nodded and asked "Shall we take this to the observation lounge?"
"Very well" Picard replied.
The officers left the Transporter Room, and headed for the nearest turbolift.
The turbolift doors opened, and the officers disembarked. They were on deck one, and the observation lounge was dead ahead. Picard saw two officers the hallway. He could have sworn that they were identical. The doors whooshed open as the officers approached the door, and they all sat down.
"The rest of my senior staff will be joining us shortly." Said Braxton.
"Very well, but I must know, what is the United Republic of Planets." Asked Picard.
The Endurance's captain fixed his uniform and spoke "The United Republic of Planets was founded on August 12, 2161. Republic Starfleet is the successor to the UEG's Earth Defense Force, which was founded in 2017 with what was at the time the UN, Director, now Supreme Commander Daniel Flynn.
At that moment, the rest of Captain Braxton's senior staff entered the observation lounge. The tactical officer had his helmet hooked to his belt.
"Our files on the United Federation of Planets are very vague, in fact the only mention of your government is in a report that was declassified just over an hour ago" Lore continued "written by the Earth Defense Force."
"That is impossible, I met Daniel at the Autobot base over 300 years ago, and no one could live that long" Picard said.
"Captain, I do not believe the Republic Starfleet's Supreme Commander's medical history is relevant. What is relevant are the changes that have happened to the Universe since you left." The Captain replied.
"Captain Picard, are your people aware of the alterations the Universe is experienced after you left?" Asked Lore.
"Alterations?" Replied Captain Picard dumbfounded.
"Since you left Autobot Outpost Omega-One, the universe changed, Galaxies appearing out of nowhere, we have studied this phenomenon and came up with some very disturbing results." Lore informed.
"What results?" Worf asked.
"In order for you to understand, you need a basic model of not the universe, but the multiverse" Braxton continued "Imagine a cube made of spherical bubbles, of infinite size, now the bubbles aren't perfectly aligned with each other, due to the nature of the spherical shape. This area is known as the void, a place where there is nothing, no space, no structure, no up or down, and it is infinite. Now in another nearby universe, something happened… someone or something released a massive amount of energy in the form of Z-Neutrino energy, but curiously it was compressed into a single string, canceling out the electrical charge that holds atoms together. Essentially canceling out all of creation. Somehow it was stopped, and the walls of their universe resealed themselves. However, the walls between four universes were broken, and like bubbles the universes combined. Our universes were two of the several that combined, explaining why you are here. The reason why you originally came to the 21st century, was due to the tachyons in the breach."
"That is the reason we had no records of the Autobots, the EDF-" Data said.
"Because they never existed in your timeline" Lore finished.
Data was still curious about Lore, now that he fully understood the situation, he couldn't help but wonder if there was another Data in this Galaxy. However, if Lore was the Android to succeed instead of Data, wouldn't that erase him from the picture entirely? Dr. Soong would have no reason to create him. As Data pondered this very question, Braxton suggested, "Captain Picard, I would suggest that that the Enterprise follow us back to the Sol system, where we can analyze the situation further."
"Very good, we will return to our ship and follow you, we can follow your transponder signal." Picard said
Theodore was a bit unnerved to know that they could read their transponder signals, just like they could read the Enterprise's.
"Lieutenant Green, please escort our guests to Transporter Room One" Braxton said to the Tactical officer.
"Yes Sir" Soren replied.
With that, Jean-Luc Picard's crew was escorted from the observation lounge. Picard noticed the sheer size of the tactical officer named Soren, he was at least a foot taller than Worf. The councilor also felt something about this Soren, the amount of pain that she felt from him was dull as in he has felt it for a long time. Something happened during his early childhood, and he felt hatred and anger towards a group. Not the Republic, nor the Federation, because when Braxton spoke of it his hatred seemed to die down a bit. Perhaps this Republic saved him from these people. All evidence was pointing to that conclusion. As much as the Councilor wanted to help him, she knew she couldn't just yet. Not until the Federation and the Republic were on less shaky ground.
The turbolift doors opened, and the Enterprise's away team entered.
Worf however saw a different part of the security officer. A warrior, a lonely warrior who has been in constant battle… with himself. Before anything else could be thought, the turbolift doors opened, and its occupants vacated the lift.
Picard and the away team entered one of the Endurance's Transporter Rooms, and stood on the transporter pad.
The Republic transporter chief spoke "Energizing in 3, 2… 1".
USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D
The away team exited the bridge turbolift of the Enterprise and took their stations. A feeling of general unease could be felt by the entirety of the crew. There were families aboard, children! How would they get home?
"What is the status of the Endurance?" Picard asked.
"They are powering their warp drive, Sir." Data replied.
Seconds later the other ship jumped to warp, leaving a small trail of blue particles in its wake.
"Follow them." Ordered Picard.
"Matching course and speed of the Endurance, Sir." Replied Wesley.
The Enterprise suddenly jumped to warp.
"Captain, the Endurance has informed us that it will take approximately three days to arrive at the Sol System at Warp 7." Worf said.
"Very good, I will be in my ready room."
