STAR TREK - THE KELVAN CONQUEST
Book Six: "Finale"
Act One: "Crossover"
"What the hell?"
Captain Picard remembered vividly stepping into his Ready Room. But this . . . this was far from his Ready Room. Jean-Luc Picard was now in a busy, smoky bar.
Earth, he thought to himself. I'm on Earth. In the past.
The bar was filled with humans. Humans dressed in clothing in 19th century clothing, at that. Somehow, he had ended up nearly six hundred years in the past. By why? How?
"I know what you're thinking," said a deep voice from behind him. "And you're not time traveling."
Picard spun around and found himself staring at none other than Captain Benjamin Sisko himself. "Captain Sisko?"
Sisko grinned. "That's right."
"Where are we?"
"Outside of time," Sisko returned. "We're existing in a place that reality can not touch us. Where time is like a river and can be entered and exited at any point."
"I see. And why have you brought me here?"
"I'll get to that in a moment. All the other members of our party have yet to arrive."
Picard looked to the door and watched at Admiral Janeway stepped in. "What's going on here?" she stated, shocked. "What am I doing here? Where am I?" She looked over at Picard and Sisko. "Captain Picard? Sisko?"
"Admiral Janeway," Sisko greeted with an extended hand. "I'm sorry we didn't meet before your journey into the Delta Quadrant."
"It's alright."
Picard stepped up, well-aware of what Janeway wanted. "We're outside of time, Admiral."
"I see. And I'm hoping you can return me before the deadline?"
"Of course, Admiral."
"What deadline?" asked Picard.
"We're on a deadline. We must convince the Kelvans that there is a peaceful solution to all of this."
"It's not going very well, is it?" asked Sisko, with a knowing tone in his voice.
Janeway shook her head. "No. No, I'm afraid it's not."
Sisko smiled. Picard looked at him. "What is it?"
"Let's wait for the others to arrive."
"What others?" asked Picard. But his voice drowned out as he saw the next person walk in.
Janeway's mouth fell open. "Jonathan Archer?" she wondered, eyes on the brown haired legend as he strode into the bar.
"Where the hell am I?"
"Captain Archer," Sisko said, standing before him. "My name is Benjamin Sisko."
"Should I ask how you know my name?"
"You're a legend," Sisko told him.
"Am I?"
"Yes," Janeway agreed, walking up next to Sisko. "And bringing him here may shift the timeline, Captain," she said to Sisko.
"No it won't," Sisko countered. "Unlike both you and Picard, Archer won't remember anything when he returns to his present. And neither will he."
The trio looked to see whom Sisko was talking about. Picard's eyes grew wide at the sight. His face flushed. It was like seeing a ghost.
"Where am I?"
Captain James T. Kirk.
He was in his uniform from when he commanded the Enterprise-A and it must have been only fifteen years before he was lost in the Nexus. Picard heard nothing that Sisko said to both Archer and Kirk ("We're outside of regular time . . . We're from your future . . ."), and could only stare at Kirk as he nodded and acknowledged.
"Are you alright, Captain?" whispered Janeway to Picard.
"I'm fine."
Introductions were made, of course, and then all five of them sat down at table within the bar. Sisko ordered a round of Romulan Ale.
"Have you ever had Romulan Ale, Captain Archer?" asked Kirk, pouring himself a glass.
"I've never even heard of Romulans," Archer answered.
"You will," Picard told him, taking a drink.
Janeway, still uncomfortable with the whole situation, grinned a bit. "What's it like? Being there for every new discovery?"
Archer smiled. "Incredible. But quite frankly, I'm a bit uncomfortable with this entire situation. Can you tell me something?"
"Go ahead," Sisko answered.
"Does this have anything to do with the Temporal Cold War?"
Janeway, Kirk, and Picard put down their drinks and stared at Archer. They had no clue as to what he was talking about. Sisko grinned wildly.
"No, Captain Archer. This is something completely different."
"Would someone please explain what is going on?" Kirk wondered, speaking the unspoken question.
Sisko sighed. "I have pulled you all here to gain insight. You see, I was taken in by entities known as the Prophets. They inhabitant a realm that is non-linear. It's beyond the reach of time and space as we know. In the time I've spent with these Prophets, we have learned from each other. Events I once saw as one singular moment are now a complete picture. And when I saw the Kelvans invasion into our galaxy, I saw their past and their future. Their destiny."
"What do you mean?" asked Picard, taking a drink.
"Why is it that Kelvans decided to invade our galaxy? Why now? Why, on the precipice of the discovery than sped the travel between both destinations, do the Kelvans decide to conquer? They have over 10 millenia to colonize, so why flee their galaxy now?" Sisko questioned. "Captain Archer, can you tell me about the probe ship?"
Archer cleared his throat. "Well, we received a distress signal from a vessel . . ."
As he spoke, there was a whisper and flash from the past. From the moment they first heard those fateful words.
"Captain," T'Pol said simply.
"Yes T'Pol?" he said, stepping towards her.
"We are receiving an emergency distress call some twenty-five light-years from here."
". . . and then we saw it. After we freed the Gallamite ship it had ensnared, the probe turned its attention to Enterprise. We used three Photonic Torpedoes to disable it, then we went aboard . . ."
The Pod moved to a large doorway and attached itself to it. Reed looked over at Tucker. "Hatch is opening."
"It's huge on their side, but we can open it just enough to let us in," Tucker continued.
"Malcolm, you go in first. You're our point man. I'll go in next, followed by Hoshi. Trip, you take up the rear."
"Aye-aye, Cap."
Reed entered first, then shouted back to the others. "There's no gravity!"
As Archer entered, his tricorder found something else. "There's no atmosphere whatsoever."
"I'm not picking up any life-signs," said Hoshi as she floated in next.
"Could maybe our attack destroyed the gravity?"
"I doubt it," replied Reed. "Something doesn't seem right about this, Captain."
" . . . There was no gravity, no atmosphere. As we investigated it further, a security drone came to life and became to attack us. We pulled out from the Probe ship and used an EMP to shut it down. We informed a nearby Vulcan vessel, then continued on course. Soon enough, it was on us again. This time, it captured myself and members of my crew . . ."
The Enterprise came to loud and hard stop. "What's going on?"
"It's the Probe Ship, Captain. It's caught up with us and is using a tractor beam to hold in position."
"Red Alert! Polarize hull plating! Prepare to - "
Suddenly, the ship began to shake. Trip and Phlox had just appeared on the bridge, when it happened. A green wave of light fell upon the ship. Then, in a series of flashes, over half the ship disappeared. Including Captain Archer, T'Pol, Mayweather, Phlox, Sato, and half a dozen others from the bridge.
". . . Luckily, Commander Tucker was able to rescue us. The Probe ship then destroyed itself. All except for its databases. From what I can only assume, they scanned each one of us and downloaded our database. Then, what was left took off from us, avoiding sensors . . ."
Within a few seconds, Tucker arrived on the bridge and watched the sight before him. They both watched in awe as the entire ship dismantled with the exception of a long, rectangular box with a lone nacelle rising out of it.
This box then turned 180 degrees and blasted off into the darkness of space . . . never to be heard of again.
". . . and that was then end of it."
The group took a moment to take it all in. A silence filled the table as the story soaked into their minds. Even the clamoring of people and glass around them seemed to go unheard. Finally, Sisko sighed, and grinned slightly.
"Captain Kirk, can you tell me what happened the first time you met the Kelvans?"
Jim Kirk sat straight and nursed his drink before finally answering. "It was many years after Captain Archer's experience . . ."
Once again, a flash to past events appeared ghost-like before them all.
Captain Kirk, Commander Spock and Dr. McCoy materialized with two other officers - a yeoman and a security officer. They had appeared on a beautiful planet with a large lake behind them and an purple sky above them.
"No life-form readings," Spock reported immediately.
"Well, someone sent a distress call," McCoy returned.
The group was starting to fan out, peering for signs of life. Spock then spoke once more. "I am getting readings on small metallic readings. It's possible that their ship was destroyed in space and the survivors proceeded here in a shuttle craft."
"Where are they?" wondered Kirk, still searching.
"Captain!" exclaimed the yeoman. "I'm getting a reading now. Two human forms . . ."
Archer interrupted Kirk. "Two human forms? But you had said these were Kelvans."
"Their ship had been heavily damaged while passing through the galactic barrier. They were unable to repair their ship and it was ultimately destroyed. The Kelvans took human forms to commandeer the Enterprise so to return to Kelva."
"Why return to Kelva? Why did they come here just to go straight back again?" asked Janeway, posing a question she had never considered.
"They wanted the information their probe had gathered," Sisko answered. "They were working for a larger plan. The Kelvans always see things as larger plots. First a probe, then an expedition team."
"Quite a jump to invasion only 100 years later," Picard figured out.
"Keep telling, Captain."
Kirk nodded and continued on. "The landing party was taken captive on the planet while more of the Kelvans in human bodies took command of the Enterprise. Mr. Spock tried a mind-meld with the Kelvan guard, with unexpected results . . ."
"I was thrown away, Doctor," Spock explained to McCoy.
"What do you mean?" asked Kirk.
"Images . . . bizzare and exotic images . . ." Spock spoke, recalling the contact that was shattered only moments previous. ". . . bursting in my mind. Colors, shapes, mathematical equations . . . fused and blurred."
". . . After the ship was taken, we were brought back aboard the Enterprise. Mr. Scott was interested in destroying the ship, but I ordered him to stop. I would destroy my ship. There had to be another way. We passed through the Galactic Barrier and that was when the remaining crew and myself discovered that the Kelvans were reacting more and more like humans."
"How so?" asked Archer.
"They were becoming irrational. Emotional. Just like us," Kirk explained. "We broke the command into groups and each of us went after one. Tomar, the second-in-command, was all Scotty's. He got him very drunk." Kirk then smiled, remembering what he had done during that mission. "I handled the female, Kalinda."
"What do you mean by 'handled?'" Janeway thought aloud. The four men stared at her with unanswering eyes. She sighed and nodded. "Right, right. Go on."
"Anyways, Spock convinced Rojan that he was jealous of the relationship between Kalinda and myself. Rojan confronted me and it got physical. I then pointed out that only a human would react. He was insulted, but then admitted it. We offered him peace, he took it. Then, he and his fellow Kelvans settled on the planet we had found him on. We thought it was the end."
"So," assumed Sisko, "the Kelvans were insulted that they were acting irrational?"
"Yes, very much so."
"Hmmm. Alright, what happened then?"
"Twenty years later, Tomar made break-throughs in galactic travel and communications. Tomar was unhappy with Rojan's search for peace between both galaxies. He and his followers told the Andromeda Kelvans what had happened to the expedition and begged for invasion. The transmission was sent, but we hoped at stopping Tomar and his people."
Crazed and enraged, the smoldering Tomar lunged forward. His tentacles were still flying about, spinning and twisting and turning. Just as the Kelvan was about to jump on Kirk – the Captain used the momentum to send Tomar off the side of the building.
" . . . I didn't mean to kill him, but I suppose I had no other choice."
"Agreed," Picard said. He couldn't help but remember his own past. The Kirk he knew fell to his death as well . . .
"I'm sure there's a point to all of this," Archer seemed to demand.
"Yes," Sisko returned. "The Kelvans set a Probe. It encountered the Enterprise and then headed back to meet with the expedition crew. The expedition crew was part of a calculated project to invade our galaxy. This expedition crew was the same as any other Kelvans - cold, calculating and very rational. When they took human forms to make a calculated moves, they were overtaken by the irrationality. They were insulted. But they were also tainted. Tomar, for all his hatred, was irrational in demanding an invasion. The Kelvans in the Andromeda Galaxy were irrational for agreeing with him. Why?"
That was when Janeway remembered. "They're at war . . ."
"Captain, I'm reading a very large station about 100 kilometers away," Kim reported. "It doesn't match up with anything Kelvan that we've seen."
"Mr. Rojan, if you will please report to the bridge," Janeway ordered.
About ten minutes later, Rojan arrived in his humanoid form. His eyes widened when he saw the station.
"Captain, you must take us away from here!"
"What? Why?" questioned the Admiral.
"Trust me. They call themselves the Musaka. They've already scanned us and know that you have Kelvans on board. They're at war with my people!"
The images whispered away for just a moment before Janeway spoke once more. "And they've been at war for a long time . . ."
Rojan studied the sensor read-outs. "There's a nebula some fifteen light-years from here. We should be safe in there. There are high levels of plasma. The Musaka's ships can't handle it."
"No offense, Mr. Rojan, but that was nearly 300 years ago," Janeway responded.
"No. In my time of communication with the Kelvans after Tomar was able to contact them, I received an up-date on this conflict. It remains the same. I recommend you take us in."
"It's the same reason they decided to head to our galaxy. They could spend the next 10 mellina attempting to remedy the radiation that was ripping their galaxy apart," Picard deduced. "But instead, because they were at war, the Kelvans decided to step-up their invasion plans. They sent a Probe and they sent an expedition team.
"Then," continued Picard, "as the war grew harder against them, they were looking for something to convince the Council that invasion must begin ASAP. When they heard from Tomar, a member of the expedition team, that they should invade, the Council used Tomar irrationality as a tool to push for invasion."
"And that's why they're here now," Sisko told them. "They came in and started manipulating people. It was after the Dominion War and everything was in a state of change. The Kelvans used the Federation Council to create Omega Particles and surrender them to the Kelvans. This placed the Federation into their hands. From there, it was easy to move into the other galactic powers. Even the Borg were there's to work at."
"But they weren't counting on us figuring it all out," Janeway deduced. "They were still thinking like Kelvans. They weren't thinking like humans. They weren't thinking . . . irrationality. And we've put a kink into their plans. That is why they were so eager to hear us. They want to know how we think so they can use our way of thinking against the Rebellion. They want to learn how to be irrational."
"Why can't they just ask Tomar?" thought Archer.
"They need someone with experience," Kirk replied with a smile.
"Admiral, if you present this to the Kelvan High Council, they will have no choice but to delay the invasion," Sisko said.
"But that doesn't solve their problem," pointed out Archer. "The radiation that is killing their galaxy."
Sisko looked at them. "There are something's that should be left to those that aren't here," he said cryptically.
He then raised his glass for a toast.