USS Tirpitz
Sovereign Class Capital Cruiser NCC 84937
Main Bridge
Orbiting Planet designated FGC-18730
Beta Quadrant
─•~:~•─
It took about fourteen hours for the Lonely Queen of The North to reach the unnamed planet from Star's Home, which was the unofficial name of the impossible Iron Star the ship had discovered.
When it was reported by Captain Hathaway, the Astrophysics Department in Starfleet HQ had, in his words, collectively lost their shit in celebration.
Barely a year into her five-year journey through Beta, Tirpitz had already matched Jim Kirk's exploits, at least when it came to scientific discovery.
There were already comparisons being made between Hathaway and Kirk, and The Lonely Queen Of The North was being earmarked for her own place in the fleet museum next to Enterprise -A, a high honour indeed for any ship in the fleet.
But at Ginny's suggestion, the reports had left out the owner of Star's Home.
Until he knew exactly what he was dealing with, Scott didn't want more collective shit lost in HQ over a being that rivalled – or even overpowered – the Q.
Ginny had taken the opportunity to once again "blow off steam" with Dean Bowers in his cabin before she retrieved her MDU.
It was as pleasing as always, and Dean himself felt her scratch marks on his back under the uniform.
It was about the only relaxing thing for the Tac-Officer at the moment.
He tried to get some information about what had happened at Star's Home out of Ginny, but stubbornly she had decided to keep to tradition and leave his cabin without another word after their second tradition of mutual orgasms.
It was frustrating. How was he supposed to get any information for his own bosses this way, let alone Captain Hathaway?
Hathaway rose from his centre seat and looked at the view screen.
Like the Lonely Queen of The North all alone in the cold, this single planet was orbiting a very normal red dwarf, absolutely nothing special at all about it. "Kath, full scan about this planet if you would?" he asked, with confidence and uncertainty in equal measure.
The Klingon science officer hit several buttons on her console.
After a minute, she made her report, "This an M-Class planet, Captain. Oxygen-Nitrogen atmospheric mixture within normal M-class parameters, gravity at 2.0G Earth standard. Uninhabited, only some lower animal life is present on my scanners."
"The star is an M-Type Red Dwarf, surface temperature of 3200° Kelvin, and I note nothing unusual about her stellar output or magnetic fields. I can detect no other ships present in this system, and no indications of non-corporeal entities or space-borne lifeforms. Just us and the planet and the star."
Scott looked at the science console.
Not that he didn't trust his officer, but he always liked to see with his own eyes, "And the ELF signal?"
Kath pointed at the indicated screen, "There, Captain. 12 MHz, on a wavelength 8000 km long. I am unable to extrapolate any course, destination, or source of this signal, only it's presence."
Scott sighed deeply, and turned to look at Ginny, "Just like Tranbir Nine, eh?"
By now, the senior officers had been made aware of sealed mission packet nineteen.
There were no secrets on a starship.
Most of the crew were equally as aghast at the mission as Yue Tanaka had been, but they all trusted Ginny.
She had proven herself on this mission so far.
Even Dean, typically the first to point out the folly of the Marines, had agreed that she had made the right call, given the circumstances.
Ginny half wondered if that was an objective statement, or bias on account of not wanting to lose his sexual partner.
Yue was not on the bridge today. She had been confined to quarters for one week for issuing unlawful orders, which in Federation Space would have given her a twenty-year sentence.
"Just like it, sir. Should we call Star now?" Ginny asked, holding up the mysterious white block.
Every scan had indicated that the block was nothing more than a piece of Iron-56, white in colour as opposed to the usual silver colour of Iron, which was just one element that couldn't be explained.
But Star's caller summoned the aforementioned girl whenever the black button was pushed, so Ginny had taken to calling it Star's Caller.
Scott sat back down in his Captain's Chair, "Kath, if we park ourselves in orbit for the next week, and I devote the entirety of Tirpitz's sensor grids and computer power to your precise control, will you be able to tell us anything else about the ELF signal?"
She shook her Klingon head, "No, sir."
Scott sighed, "Alright. Major, give your friend a call. Everyone else, just man your station and do your jobs, please. I know from experience how weird this is, but let's not tempt fate."
Scott had decided that since the caller had been given to Ginny – and since Ginny seemed to be her friend – the Major would be the one to deal with her.
It went against every instinct he had as a Captain, but fate had other plans it seemed.
Ginny stepped to the middle of the bridge, pushed the button, and waited.
A heartbeat later, Star appeared in front of her.
There was never any noise or flash of light with her appearance. One second, she wasn't there, and then another second, she was.
"Hey Star, how's it going?" Ginny said, kneeling to look her friend in her deep, completely black eyes.
The Major decided there was no point in not being friendly to this supposedly god-like entity.
"Hi Ginny. I'm okay. How are you?" Star asked in the same flat tone of hers that was never happy, or sad, or angry.
Ginny smiled back, "I'm okay too, thanks for asking. We're at another planet right now, and we're hearing another song. Can you tell us what it is?" pointing at the view screen.
Star turned to look at the viewer, "Sure, I can do that."
Star then closed her blackened eyes and lowered her head.
"Uh, do you need us to do anything to help you, Star?" Ginny asked.
Star shook her head while keeping her eyes closed, "Nope. Just give me a minute."
After exactly one minute, Star opened her eyes and looked at Ginny with a smile, "That's one of the others. His name in three dimensional spaces is Wanderer. He's too shy to talk to you though."
Ginny nodded and kept her voice even, "That's alright, I guess. Was Wanderer at Tranbir Nine?"
Star shook her head, "No Ginny. He only comes to this galaxy once in…your numbers are too small to say again, but it's not very often. He's never been to Tranbir Nine, and he says he doesn't know what was singing there either."
"Wanderer is only here because he wanted to practice a new note for his song before he leaves for another dimension. Would you like to hear it?"
Knowing that hearing any of these songs could have potentially lethal consequences, Ginny shook her head, "No, I'll pass for now. Umm, why doesn't Wanderer want to talk to us like you are Star? Can he not do the whole outside talking thing like you?"
"No, he can talk outside if he wants, but he's just very shy. I made him promise not to hurt you though, Ginny, and he says that if you're scared, he'll stop singing until you leave," Star replied with a smile.
Ginny looked at Kath, "Did you get that, Kath?"
The Klingon nodded, "The ELF signature is no longer appearing on our scanners, Major. It seems Wanderer has stopped singing."
Unexpectedly, Star turned and pointed to the left of the bridge, "Maybe these new things want to hear our song though?"
Dean spoke up next, "Long-range contacts Skipper, I'm seeing forty Tholian Orbweavers, they're heading towards the planet."
"Our position is well outside Tholian space, Captain. They must have followed us here from our initial engagement," Kath added, not looking up from her console.
Scott turned in his chair and looked at Dean, "Are they running weapons hot, LC?"
Dean shook his head, "Not yet Skipper, but they're moving into perfect positions to catch us in a web."
The Captain quickly hit his command switch, "Red alert, all hands to battle stations!"
Star poked Ginny on her leg before she could open her wrist-comm to inform the MCT to stand-to.
Her touch was surprisingly light but cold to her leg, "Ginny, you seem worried about something? Are these new things scaring you?"
Ginny looked down at her friend, "They're called Tholians, Star. They uh, they don't like us very much, and they might try to hurt us too. That means I'll have to shoot them."
Star frowned, "You can't shoot things, Ginny! I thought we talked about this!"
"I may not have a choice here, Star!" Ginny replied sharply as she opened her wrist-comm, "Tirpitz 1-9 to all call signs, Stand To. Condition one carry, weapons free. RRF standby for tasking."
Before anyone else could continue, Dean spoke again, "We're being hailed by the lead Orbweaver, Skipper."
Scott rose and nodded, "On screen."
Everyone turned, and the image of the planet was replaced by another living crystal.
Ginny thought that this Tholian Captain looked the same as the one they killed earlier, but she chalked it up to the fact that the race was just living crystals and nothing else.
"Tholian vessel, this the Federation starship Tirpitz. State your intent," Scott said with his usual confidence.
The computer synthesized and vaguely female voice of the Tholian Captain replied, "Anomaly has been detected at position . The anomaly will be purged. Federation starship Tirpitz has detected the anomaly and will also be purged."
The channel closed from the Tholian end, and the forty Orbweavers split into two groups.
Twenty surrounded the Lonely Queen of The North and began deploying a web from each diamond shape vessel, while twenty more deployed around the planet and deployed their own web.
"Twenty Orbweavers are going to be a tall order, Skipper, and that web is forming up fast," Dean said with shakiness.
Hathaway wouldn't let his confidence be shaken, "I'm aware of that, LC. Standby all weapons, punch a hole at our bow. Helm, prepare evasive maneuvers, pattern Sulu 14. Kath, divert every scrap of power we have into weapons and shields, take it from life support if you have to."
A thought suddenly entered Ginny's mind, and before she could receive orders from her Captain, she kneeled and put her hand on Star's shoulder, again noting that the girl was cold as ice but otherwise felt normal, "Star, I know you don't want me to shoot things, but we don't have any other options now. Can you help us?"
Scott shouted at Ginny, "Major, what the hell are you doing?!"
Ginny quickly looked back at her Captain, "Like you and Bowers both said, we've got a tall order here. I figured it was worth a shot."
Star frowned again, "I don't like to hurt things, Ginny, even if these Tholian things aren't very nice."
Ginny put both of her hands on her cold shoulders, "You don't have to hurt them Star! But is there anything you can do to stop them from hurting us?"
Star nodded, "If you want, I'll make them go away. But I'm not hurting them. Do you want just one of them or all of them to go away?"
Ginny quickly looked at her Captain again, "Sir?"
"All. All would be nice," Scott replied quickly.
Ginny quickly looked back at Star, "Okay, make all the Tholians go away, Star, and hurry so I don't have to shoot them."
Star blinked her black eyes once, and then smiled at Ginny, "Okay. They're gone now"
The bridge crew looked at the view screen, and where a moment ago twenty Tholian Orbweavers had been closing the dreaded Tholian Web around Tirpitz, they had instead all disappeared, as though they were never there to begin with.
All that was visible was the planet and the one lonely red dwarf star.
"Where did they go?" Dean asked, speaking the question that was on everyone's minds at that moment.
Kath quickly performed several quick scans, "I don't know, they aren't registering on any sensors out to one hundred light-years. And to my best knowledge, the Tholians do not possess cloak-"
Dean cut her off, "Urgent flash from stellar monitoring, Skipper…. oh my sweet Jesus."
Ginny and Hathaway both looked at Dean, and at the same time asked "What?!"
Dean looked up, with a grave look on his face, "The entire Tholian Assembly, stars, planets, ships…it's gone. It was there a moment ago and now…it's just not."
Ginny was on her knees again, all but screaming at Star, "I thought you said you wouldn't hurt them!"
"I didn't hurt them, Ginny. You said to make them all go away, and I did. Besides, I investigated their own songs before I sent them away, the Tholians don't like when other things come to their home very much.
"So I made sure to send them somewhere where there was no one else around, they'll be much happier there," Star replied, still smiling.
"Where?!" Ginny asked in shock.
Star walked up to the science console and placed her hand on top of it.
Seconds later, an image appeared on the screen showing an overlay of the local galactic group, at a resolution and speed much higher than what the computer was normally capable of.
Star walked up to the viewer and pointed at a galaxy, "They are over here now. And they are already much happier."
"Kath, where is it that Star is pointing to?" Scott asked, also in shock
"The Pegasus Galaxy, Captain. It's only been observed by long-range probes, but there were never indications of space-faring life detected," Kath replied, not daring to look up from their console.
Scott stared at Ginny for a long moment before making a throat-cutting motion, indicating to the Marine that he wanted Star gone for the moment.
Ginny nodded and turned to look at her, "Hey Star, uh, thanks for helping with the song and the Tholians, that's…. that's all we really need right now."
Star turned to look at Ginny, "Do you want me to put them back? They might be angry if I do that, they really are much happier in their new home."
"That's alright Star, I trust you. I'll uh…I'll see you later," Ginny said, waving as she usually did.
"If you say so. Bye Ginny" Star waved back.
And a heartbeat later, she was gone, as though she had never been there to begin with.
After a long moment, The Captain rose and dragged Ginny into his office, with Dean Bowers following close behind.
The door shut, and Scott spun Ginny into his couch.
He was hardly strong enough to threaten her, but she knew he could do much worse damage to her than just physically.
"Do you have, in the slightest, any absolute fucking clue what it is that you've just done, Major?" Scott asked with cold fury.
Ginny returned a look of anger, "I didn't do anything wrong, Captain. Star did exactly what you and I both asked her to do. Make all the Tholians go away!"
Scott walked inches from her face, "Do not start using a smart attitude with me, Guinevere. I don't care how much weaponry you have down in your hole on deck seven, I will find a way to throw every one of you off the ship if you take that tone with me again!"
"For what, god dammit?! She did it, not me! And they are happier as it is. So as far as I see it, all's well that ended well, Scott!" Ginny replied, standing up to her full height and towering inches above Hathaway.
By instinct, her hand had found its way to her assault phaser, and she suddenly realized how intensely she was gripping the weapon.
"Skipper, I'm the last person that would ever side with the Major, but she happens to be right," Bowers said, trying to place himself between the two.
It was a risky place to be.
He knew from experience that the tempers of both Ginny and Scott were ferocious. He was outnumbered, and Ginny was the only armed individual in the room.
Dean pressed on, trying to hide his own fear, "The Tholians were hardly cuddly critters, to begin with. I'm pretty sure if they had the same level of resources, they would have fought right alongside the Dominion during the war, and that's something you know for a fact. Remember Proxima Alpha? You know these bastards don't like to play nice on a good day."
"And, if I can take one from the Major's own playbook, this may end up being the tactical and strategic advantage of the century. If Star can brush aside the Tholians that easy, imagine what she can do if the Dominion or the Borg come to play again," Dean added, surprising Ginny with sound military logic for once.
Scott went to his desk and sat down, "There's something that both of you seem to be forgetting right now. We're not out here to play God. And what's to stop Star from deciding that we need to be moved next time?"
"I will," Ginny replied with confidence, "She listens to me, Scott. I'll be more careful in the future, but Dean is right. This is a resource that can be invaluable to the Federation. I'm not a scientist or a scholar, but just think about what she can teach us. Using your own words, this is a big fucking deal."
A long moment of silence passed between the three officers.
Each one of them had points that made sense to the other.
Star, and whatever her people were, had just demonstrated a level of power that was completely beyond anything the Federation had ever encountered before.
The few tidbits of universal knowledge she had shared would take decades for scientists to even begin to understand.
And she could build Iron Stars.
But it was a tool that they would need to use very, very carefully.
Star had just displaced an entire civilization from known space with seemingly zero effort on her part.
And as she constantly reminded Tirpitz in every encounter, she was easily capable of doing far worse, if only for the fact that she didn't enjoy doing it.
Keeping all these thoughts in mind, Scott Hathaway opted for a measured response.
"This is what's going to happen. We'll continue on course. There's a lot more Beta Quadrant that needs to be studied. And if we can unravel the mystery of these songs, we'll do that as well, with Star's help."
"And, starting tomorrow, I'd like you to take an hour out of every day, Ginny, to sit down with your friend and learn everything that you can from her. If you need help coming up with topics for discussion, Kath and Cyron will be made fully available to you," Scott said.
He continued, looking firmly at Ginny, "But I want fully detailed reports of everything the two of you discuss, no exceptions. And you do not do anything, and I mean absolutely anything at all Major, beyond talking to her without my explicit approval first."
"And if either of you decides to take your own course on this, I'll throw both of you out of an airlock and find some way to destroy that caller. Is that understood, Major and Lieutenant Commander?"
"Yes Sir!" both replied simultaneously, a moment that surprised Ginny and Dean.
Scott sighed, "Alright. Get back to your stations, both of you. I need to figure out exactly how to make this into a readable report."
After both of his officers had left his office, Scott started typing out a report for Starfleet Command.
But after only a few moments, he stopped.
Instead, he closed his reporting system and brought up a picture of his widow, Clarice Hathaway.
She looked as beautiful as the day he met her. Brown hair, brown eyes, and a small black mole under her right eye.
She wore blue-framed glasses, despite Retlax-5 making glasses a thing of the past for nearly two centuries.
Clarice was always inquisitive, always trying to learn more about the world around her.
Even on their honeymoon in Springfield on Sigma Iota II, she had spent as much time with her husband as she had running tests on Iotian plasma manifolds, just because she could.
Scott looked at the picture for a long time, and asked, "What would you do?"