A Father Not By Blood Can Still Be A Father
Captain Lochley's Office
Babylon 5 Space Station
May 24, 2271
11am
Derek Wildstar chided himself for fainting and knocking himself out by
hitting his head on the railing. He had been out for several minutes,
and the next thing he remembered was being lifted onto a gurney and
taken to Medlab 1. Soon after, his wife joined him, and when he found
out that she had fainted, along with several others of the crew, when
she saw his image on the video screen on Yamato's bridge, he didn't feel
as embarrassed any longer.
When he woke up from sleeping, his eyes had a hard time focusing on an image of a man that he had thought was dead. "Is this a dream," he asked Captain Avatar.
"No, Derek. It's not. It's the real me. You see, I didn't actually die, but I came close. Strangely enough, the activation of the Cosmo DNA assisted in my recovery, and it took a while to get me back up to speed. Commander Singleton assigned me to a secret project once I was back to my old self again, and that's why we're here."
"The new fleet?"
Avatar nodded. "The Arizona is a very sweet ship. Most of the fleet is made from the old ships that were sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor way back in 1941! Granted, most of it is cosmetic, but the heart and soul of those ships are in my new fleet, and, together with the Yamato, we shall make the Ragendora pay for destroying our Earth!"
Wildstar nodded, then quickly placed a hand to his head. Avatar placed his hand on Wildstar's shoulder, saying, "You rest up and get better. We won't be pulling out for at least a couple more weeks. Once the Legendora are done with my little fleet, we'll really give them a fight!"
Wildstar saluted and Avatar left the room. Avatar felt like Wildstar was his own son, which brought a fresh bout of pain to his heart, as his own son, Adam, had been lost at the Battle of Pluto. He had long since realized that it was not Alex Wildstar's fault for his son's death, but it took a long time to forgive the former captain of the Paladin for taking his son to his grave. The journey to Iscandar had been a long one, and despite his rapidly declining health, he was able to witness the growth of the crew, especially that of Derek Wildstar. He knew that Derek had it in him to be a great captain, but the trick was making sure that Derek knew he had it in him and for him to bring it out of the young combat chief.
Avatar was assisted by a security officer and made his way back to the War Room, located next to the station commander's office. Normally, Avatar would have had his hackles raised at such assistance, but the station was so huge that he was very appreciative of the help. In no time, he made his way into the War Room, where President Sheridan,recently returned from Minbar, and Starfleet Captain Lauren Yamamoto were discussing matters.
"The new Andromeda II will be ready for combat in five days' time, Mr. President. Thanks to Scotty, as well as your own team of techs, we're ahead of schedule. We should be ready to head off and meet the enemy as soon as we are needed."
"Good! Thank you, Captain Yamamoto. I'd like to introduce you to Captain Abraham Avatar, off the Arizona. The EDF Arizona, I should say!"
The two captains exchanged greetings, and while they did that, the others invited to the meeting came into the room. Sheridan took the chair at the head of the table, beside that of the Legendoran Genon. "Ok, if we can go ahead and get started, I'd like to bring you all up to speed on what we know at the moment. As you know, the Ragendora have taken Cardassia and strengthened their hold of it with the help of the Jem'Hadar and the Tholians. It appears that the old Dominion allies, the Breen, have also joined this new alliance. At present, we do have some intelligence gathering operations on going there, but we've not been able to get much information from them yet.
"As for this universe, we are going after the Drakh as we speak, with the help of the newly liberated forces from Centauri Prime. The main focus of this effort is to try and deny the enemy a foothold in this universe. It may very well be a futile effort, as we do not know the full strength of the enemy yet, but all we can do to deny them allies here will go a long way towards victory.
"For the universe of Derek Wildstar and the crew of the Yamato, we are building a base on Mars as well as in the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter. With Earth gone, the Ragendora do not want to tread there because of the gravitational unknowns. However, the Legendorans have been able to stabilize the old Moon's orbit, and we may very soon be able to use it for a base as well."
Genon stood up and gave a short speech. "My friends, I know how hard it must be to lose your Earth, and we, sadly, cannot bring it back. But when we have won this war, we will do what we can to rebuild the world that was taken from you. We cannot bring back the lives lost, but, perhaps, we can make a new world stand as a memorial to them."
Avatar's eyes watered briefly, but he was able to cover it up with a quick wipe of his eyes with his gloved hand. Mark Venture, filling in as the Yamato representative for Wildstar, didn't bother to hide the tear that ran down his cheek.
Avatar stood up and said, "We, the remaining ships of the old Earth Defense Force, pledge ourselves to do whatever we can, at whatever cost, to achieve victory. Our contribution may be little, but with the help of the Legendora, we can make it count!"
Those in the room applauded the impromptu speech, and Avatar sat back down. Then, it was back on with the business of readying themselves for the next phase of the war.
Unknown planet
May 28, 2271
4am
Lyta Alexander woke up to the chime on her watch, and gently shook her lover Byron awake beside her. They were still fully clothed and, thus, made haste to get to the bridge of the ship. In her mind, she could feel those on the planet below her. Having been there before, and seen what she'd seen, she already had a strong sense of what was on the planet. What she didn't tell anybody else at that moment was that there were far fewer voices there now.
Having made their way onto the bridge, Dan Tanner got up from the command chair and walked up to them. "I've held the ship in orbit until now, because I wanted try and see if you can contact Vacit. Let him know that we want to come down there and speak with him."
Lyta nodded and walked to the window at the end of the room. She looked out at the planet and, in her mind, sought out the signs for Vacit. It wasn't long that she found them.
Ah, there you are! I've been waiting for you! You remind me so much of Natasha and the other ancestors of yours I knew.
Yes, I'm here. We'd like to come down and discuss a few things with you, face to face.
Of course. You are more than welcome. Things have changed here since we last saw one another. I want to discuss that with you as well.
I would like that. We'll be down shortly in the area where we landed last time.
Good, Lyta. I'll be there to watch you land!
She ended the connection and nodded to Tanner. Tanner ordered the pilot to enter orbit then descend down to the planet's surface. Within the hour, the ship was making a perfect landing on the plains in front of where Kevin Vacit lived. The former director of the Psi Corps still looked incredibly ancient, but Lyta found that he looked healthier than the last time she saw him.
Vacit noticed Tanner and enquired with Lyta. It's ok. He's a friend of ours.
A friend? He's not even Human! He's a robot!
An android, to be precise. Trust me, he's someone we need on our side.
Ok. Does he know of all of my abilities?
Yes, I fully briefed him. He still chose to come along on the mission. He volunteered.
Vacit nodded and spoke aloud. "Welcome to all of you! Please, come this way!"
Vacit's quarters had improved since the last time that they had been there. They entered a sitting room and sat in some chairs, or at least what looked like chairs. Dan Tanner paused briefly to look over the chair, then proceeded to sit down in it.
"It's good that you are here. If you are asking me to be a part in this war that's underway, I must say that someone has beaten you to the punch."
Lyta and Byron both looked perplexed, while Dan Tanner sat there impassive. He did ask, "Has someone been here before us?"
"Yes, and I think you, Data, know who they are."
A link beeped in Dan Tanner's pocket. It was Nerval, the Whitestar's captain. "Sir, Borg ships have appeared in the system!"
"How many," he asked impassively.
In a shocked tone, he said, "Lots!"
Three life forms beamed into the room, and Lyta, Dan Tanner, and Byron jumped up from their seats. When one of them materialized into the form of Captain Picard, Tanner relaxed a bit.
"Data, it's good to see you again," said the former captain of the Enterprise-E.
"Good to see you again too, sir. Might I ask, why are you here?"
Picard looked at Vacit and then back at Data. "The Borg are evolving, Data. Some of them are telepaths, and their abilities have been ingrained into the old collective as a whole."
With him were Seven of Nine and the technomage Galen, who no longer wore the black cloak of a mage. Instead, he wore a simple outfit of a gray shirt, black jacket, and black pants. He raised his hand and said, "We found this place ages ago on our journeys, and normally we would have stayed away. But when we found that some of the Borg were telepaths, it was decided that we needed to find a way to help them."
Vacit approached Lyta and Byron, "You see, my friends, Galen and the others have discovered something wonderful! The Vorlons and the Shadows...are related!"
"WHAT," said Byron and Lyta at the same time.
"It's true.," said Picard. "It's difficult to explain, but when we were investigating the Borg implants, we found the code that the Vorlons used to create telepaths. So, we came here in search of help to bring this talent out of the millions of Borg with us."
"Millions? Where," asked Dan Tanner.
Galen held out his hand in front of him, and a three-dimensional projection came to life. It was of the space around the planet, and the image swung away from the Whitestar to the countless Borg cubes in orbit around the planet.
A voice came out from the doorway to what probably was Vacit's bedroom. It was another Legendoran. "My name is Allondra. I am here to assist the Borg and the technomages in their new evolution."
"Evolution? Into what," asked Byron.
Allondra said, with a smile on her gold-skinned face, "We're not sure exactly, but what we hope it to be is the fusion of telepathy and Borg technology. In layman's terms, it's the birth of a new species."
Byron then felt a small tingle in his brain and was amazed to find that it was coming from Galen, of all people.
"If you and your followers join us in this fight, Byron, you all will have the choice to become what we are evolving into. We won't force this upon you, but, if you will come aboard our cube, you can find out what we are all about."
Byron looked at Lyta, who smiled at him. He paused briefly to think it over, but his sense of curiosity got the best of him. "Yes, I'll come aboard. Lyta?"
Lyta nodded, and Picard tapped a comm badge on his outfit. "Picard to Penelope. Eight to beam up!"
The eight were beamed off the planet, and onto the Borg cube.