Star Trek:

Maximillian

BEYOND THE FINAL

FRONTIER

Chapter Eight

A T T A C K

Written by Chris Stephenson

 

Editors Note:  This story is a serial novel, taking place about 3 years ago, using characters that served on the Maximillian at that point in time. New chapters can be found monthly in "The Mighty Max" and online at Maximillian.org Past chapters can also be found at Maximillian.org.  

What has come before…

An Observatory has been destroyed by an object yet unknown to the Federation, and it has began a long journey to the heart of the Alpha Quadrant. The U.S.S. Maximillian, weary from a trying mission in the Menkare Expanse, and with an untested Captain, is the sole survivor of a small task force organized to halt the invasion, and has been charged with accompanying the ship to it's final destination, which now appears to be deep in Gorn space, following a small probe launched shortly before it's owner was destroyed…

But Lieutenant Commander Critch Starblade has a plan, but one that he must be a part of, for reasons only he knows. He has disguised himself and snuck aboard a complicated away mission to the craft, and only the young chief engineer knows of this.

The attack, is about to begin…

Lieutenant Amy Armstrong Thomas burst onto the bridge, forgetting decorum and protocol for a moment. "Captain!"

Startled for a beat, Captain Septaric looked up at the young chief engineer, frowning. "Lieutenant?"

"It's Critch! He went with the away team!"

Septaric frowned, and Admiral Lyon ran his hand down his face. He knew he should have expected something like this, knew that Starblade wouldn't let it go. He expected no less of him. Before he could react, Septaric had already begun barking orders. "Communications, contact the away team and inform them. Lieutenant…"

"Belay that!" Admiral Lyon could wait no longer. "Return to your post, Lieutenant. We cannot contact the away team. We can't risk alerting the enemy to our plans."

"Admiral…"

"I know, Captain…but we..." They were interrupted by a flash of green light from the view screen. Surprisingly, the firing didn't begin with the object.

A entire armada of Gorn warships had advanced on the object, already aware of it's apparent intentions. They knew that it had destroyed the ships, knew that it had destroyed everything, everything except for the one Federation ship that followed it's every move. Despite the recorded messages broadcasting from the Maximillian, they were not convinced that the Federation was innocent in this, indeed they would deal with them in due time, as soon as the interloper was disposed of. Their ships had simultaneously fired their versions of torpedoes at the vessel. Not too suprisingly, the torpedoes had went straight through the vessel, not impacting on anything, exploding harmlessly behind it, as the Maximillian had quickly moved out of their way.

Nonplussed, another volley of torpedoes were fired from the ships. But this time, they were detonated early. The shockwave from the explosions seemed to affect the ship, as it drifted backwards a bit, seemingly shaken. The crews of the armada seemed to take this as a moral victory, and the fleet advanced on the ship. Eighty-seven Gorn ships of varying size and power moved towards the apparently weakened Crystal-shaped vessel. It seemed to be a masterful tactical move.

Instead, it proved to be a costly mistake.

The Crystal opened up, firing it's white light beams with deadly precision, slicing through Gorn ships like a knife through butter. Shielding seemed to be non-existent. Their well constructed hulls were vaporized instantly. Over a course of less than a Earth-standard minute every ship in the sizable armada was reduced to nothing but dust and memory. And the crystal vessel was still visibly unscarred.

Inside the "Mighty Max", a stunned look came over the bridge crew. Captain Septaric was giving orders to the crew to prepare should it turn it's aggression upon them. Lyon shook his head. Critch was on his own now. He stared at the viewscreen, at the shining crystal that now advanced past the ring of moons and towards the planet, and whispered solemnly to himself.

"What have I done?"



The away team appeared in a blaze of blue and stars inside a small alcove. Korjak, leader of the rapid response team, could not see outside of it, but assumed that due to the size of the ship, it would be very cramped. The other members of the team, began to pull out their tricorders, scanning for other signs of life, and the power source of the ship. They began to leave the alcove, moving out into a hallway, walking slowly. The interior of the vessel was an unexpected, mainly brown connection of grated railways and wall plating. A very low-tech look for such a powerful ship.

Korjak was scanning the hallway when he noticed a peculiar reading. One of his men wasn't reading correctly. Instead of coming up as a human, the lone figure silently following his group matched the physiology of…

"Commander Starblade." Korjak said silently. "I was under the impression you would not be joining us."

Critch stopped, having known that his ruse would not succeed long once they reached their destination, and removed the helmet of his protective suit. "I'm sorry for the deception, Commander."

"Return to the Maximillian."

The attack had begun. Very faint noises, obviously explosions of Gorn ships, could be heard. Also a faint rustling, which was ignored.

"I can't do that, Commander. It's a miracle we haven't been detected already. A beam-out would be like sounding the alarm!"

Korjak prepared his answer as one of his Majors stepped out of the hallway. It was a moment before the Major could say anything, then she finally spoke. "Not to interrupt anything, but…" Korjak looked up, and walked out of the hallway. The rest of the team followed.

What they saw was surprising, and humbled all of them. The ship, at least on the inside, seemed to go on forever! The hallway had opened up to a impossibly large room, extending for miles upon miles. Brown piping, grating, and a coating of dust made up the ship, along with infrequent panels, with unintelligible writing. Even Critch, approaching one, could not make anything out, despite attempting to match up the symbols, which appeared more like scratch marks than anything else, with every known language in his database.

"How…how is this possible?" Korjak, forgetting his normal Klingon persona, showed his awe at the sight.

The Major was far in front of them now, scanning the room. Looking up, she, and then the rest of the team, saw that there seemed to be no ceiling, and they could see everything happening on the exterior. They saw Gorn ships blasting at the ship, and were startled when a series of photon torpedoes seemed to come into the ship itself. They passed through, one right in between Critch and Korjak, and harmlessly through the floor, and presumably through the other side of the ship. The Major, shaking, tried to explain it.

"This ship…everything here has to be in some kind of pocket universe…or it could be just based on a different set of physics than the exterior…someone found a way to change something…Or with the different frequencies…" She stopped, and tapped her tricorder. "I'm getting a lot of interference. Something isn't meshing well with the instruments."

"There's nothing here!" Korjak was itching for a fight, or at least an explanation. "Can you detect any signs of life, Major?"

"No…nothing." She was proved incorrect an instant later as something came out of a dark corridor to her left, grabbing her, and disappearing again behind a panel as her screams echoed for a moment, then stopped suddenly, with only a strained gargle.

"Major!" The team rushed forward, drawing their rifles, and turned the corner, preparing to fire, aiming at…

Nothing. No sign of the creature. Only the broken body of the Major, lying bleeding on the grating. Korjak growled loudly, and raised his rifle. "Find it. Kill it."

The Crystal had advanced, mopping up the last pockets of resistance from the Gorn. On the bridge of the Maximillian, a small war of their own was brewing.

"The Gorn seemed to have small success with their timed torpedo trick. Our torpedoes are more powerful then theirs." Admiral Lyon approached Captain Septaric in her ready room, as the rest of the bridge crew watched the battle silently.

"We have not yet been directly attacked, and they could destroy us as simply as they destroyed the other ships." Captain Septaric countered.

"Our allies have been attacked, which is as good as if we had been fired upon ourselves. Captain, we must make some show of force."

"What about our away team, Admiral? What about our plan?"

"We're out of time, Captain. They had their chance. The Gorn Homeworld is being attacked. We cannot guess the scale of the destruction the vessel will cause, how many lives will be taken. The Gorn already blame us, as do other races, Captain. They think we are in league with the vessel. If we do not take drastic measures…"

"I am aware of the consequences, Admiral. But I have to do what I think is right. I am still the Captain of this ship…"

The Admiral sighed. How had it come to this…anything but this. But it had to be done, for the future of the quadrant…indeed, for possibly the future of the universe. "Then I cannot allow you to be Captain any more."

"What?"

"For the good of the fleet, Captain Septaric. My years of experience with the Maximillian, with unknowns such as this one…"

"…Then what happens next, Admiral…is on you." She fought her Klingon instinct to strike him, and instead left her…no, his ready room.

As the phaser fire and the torpedoes rushed by, mostly around but sometimes inside the vessel, the Rapid Response team plus one moved cautiously through the vessel, searching for the one that had killed their teammate. Critch moved as one of them, scanning, even as he tried to shake the feeling that there was something very familiar about the figure that had killed the Major. He tried to shake it off, tried to think. There was something he was missing…something he should know.

BEYOND THE FINAL FRONTIER

CONTINUED NEXT MONTH

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