Star Trek: Babylon
Andrew J. Talon
"Okay; How is it the plasma injectors are constricted for the second time today?" Marla sighed, looking down at the main floor of engineering. The tall warp core dominated the center of the cavernous room, its soft blue glow gently washing over everything as the matter/anti-matter swirls mixed together.
"Sorry sir. Looks like the Borg modifications are still pushing some systems too hard," Chief Barn apologized loudly, his voice echoing eerily. Marla grimaced, before waving a tricorder in front of her, muttering under her breath.
"God damned… If we don't get the slipstream drive up and running in the next hour, we're gonna have to call Voyager to give us a tow to the rendezvous point," the blonde called out with a touch of anger to her voice. The engineering crew quickened their pace, knowing that this tone promised unpleasant things to any slackers. All the while, Seven of Nine worked diligently at the control console adjacent the warp core itself, not taking note of anything around her.
"I'm sorry sir. The system's getting close to another crash. Seven's doing all she can… Seven! Estimates!" Marla cried out while the commbadge was still on. A shout of indignation came over the small device on her breast, making Marla wince.
"Er, sorry sir."
"Just keep the volume down, please?" Captain Lee asked with an ironic drawl. "I rather like my ears. I really don't want to get replacements."
"Aye sir…"
"Lieutenant. The plasma injectors are now fully operational," reported Seven from down below. Marla looked down over the railing and nodded in a slightly exaggerated fashion so that the blonde ex-drone would see.
"Roger that. Are we ready for slipstream?"
"Affirmative. A thirty point seven five three-minute transit will put us precisely within ten thousand kilometers of Task Force Pi," Seven replied evenly. Marla nodded with a smile.
"Very good then. Captain?"
"I heard. Good job, everyone. Seven, begin-"
"I am transferring the navigational information to the helm now, Captain," Seven cut him off, her fingers flying over the control surface. "Initiate slipstream in fifty seconds. Raise metaphasic shields and prepare for jump."
There was silence for a moment.
"Right, thank you Seven. Bridge out."
"Okay… When was she made captain?" Wyn turned at her station, to raise an eyebrow at the annoyed looking Haro leaning in the Ops kiosk.
"Lieutenant Haro. Such comments are unbecoming of an officer," the Angosian commented briskly. Haro stuck out her tongue.
"So is pretending to be an officer," the Bolian harrumphed. Lee shook his head and sighed.
"Haro, Wyn: Relax. She's being pushy, big deal. Once we get to the task force, we can ship her over to Voyager, let them handle her," the captain surmised, checking the readings on his armrest screens. "Mitena, raise the metaphasic shields. Wyn? Secure all non-essential systems, and set the ship for jump." A computer notification sounded over the ship's communications grid, announcing the impending slipstream and advising the crew to their emergency stations.
Off-duty engineers went to main engineering to serve as back-up crew. At the same time, security personnel (wearing the same gold collars as their siblings in engineering) went to the armory and brig. The blue-collared science specialists reported to sickbay and strategically placed triage units, along with red-collared field medics and regular medical crewmembers. Emergency force fields went up around critical areas to protect them from hull breaches, while the Sojourner herself acquired a glowing, green-tinged shield outlining her silhouette perfectly.
On the bridge, Captain Lee stood up, pulled down his uniform top slightly, and nodded to a grinning Twee. Well, Twee was always grinning, since he was a dolphin, but he was grinning more than usual.
"Excited, Number One?"
"Very," Twee confirmed. Lee smiled back.
"Ready to go?"
"Just drop the tuna, and we're off!" The dolphin commander squeaked gleefully. He was whistling and singing in his native tongue, letting out a particularly loud whistle that made Noah Lessing at the science station jump in surprise. He looked around, eyes wide for a moment.
"Relax, Mr. Lessing," soothed Twee. The science officer nodded marginally.
"Right, sorry sir… Just, well… Was surprised, that's all."
"You'll get used to it," Lee grinned encouragingly at the taller ensign, who nodded sheepishly before turning back to his readings. Lee turned at the sound of the turbolift doors opening, and his grin softened.
"Ms. Seven."
"Captain," the ex-drone returned, nodding to him, before taking the mission ops console. She either didn't see, or ignored, Haro making goofy faces at her.
"Slipstream in twenty seconds, Captain," Seven reported. Lee nodded.
"You may wish to sit down, sir," Seven advised. Lee shrugged.
"I'm good."
"As you wish," the blonde said in an almost exasperated fashion. Lee raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else, as Seven began the countdown.
"Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two—"
"One!" Twee screeched, hitting the button. The starfield in the viewscreen was swallowed up by a pool of green that flashed brightly, before the rays of that flash bent and began moving around the ship itself. And in that new swirling green vortex, just barely in sight, was a speck of black.
"Night at the end of the tunnel," Lessing murmured softly. Lee smiled.
"Status?"
"Slipstream's stable, captain. Exit in thirty-seven minutes," Haro reported with a bright smile. Lee returned it, feeling jovial despite the mood-killing former drone now observing him like she might a coffee stain.
"Good work, Ms. Seven."
"… Thank you," she said uncertainly, her expression of disdain changing to one of soft embarrassment. She then quickly turned away and walked to the turbolift, its doors sliding shut with a soft hiss. Lee frowned, and then sat down, looking thoughtfully out at the subspace tunnel they were sliding through.
"Man… She's like, all moody," Haro observed with her usual level of tact.
"She was assimilated by the Borg at the age of eight," Lessing reminded her, glaring up at the goofy Bolian. "Let's see you walk away from that with your head completely in order."
"Nah, I'd never be assimilated," Haro grinned. "Captain says I'd crash the Collective faster than those old computers, what were they called?"
"My'rosoff," Lee supplied. "The first commercial computer company in Bolian history. Made billions by ripping off the good people of Bolarus with sub-standard components wrapped up in a fancy shell. One of the most infamous financial scandals in the history of the Alpha Quadrant." Lessing blinked and stared at his captain.
"How is it you know that, but she doesn't?" The young black man asked in astonishment. Haro shrugged with her usual devil-may-care grin.
"I slept through all my history classes. The captain's an anthropologist!"
"Well, I minored in it," Lee corrected. "Didn't get my doctorate in it."
"Might as well have," Haro gushed. "He helped me write my first holonovel: 'Sheng-Hai: A Chinese-Dominated Earth leading the Federation'. I would have gotten all the cultural references I needed eventually with my ready sources-"
"You were using fortune cookies," Lee deadpanned. Lessing cracked up, while Twee whistled in good humor and Wyn fought back a smile. Haro blushed dark blue.
"… Er… They were expensive fortune cookies?" She offered weakly.
Here… I am here… This is the present.
The past is not here. The future is not here. This is the now. The now is my sanctuary. The now is my peace. There is no fear in the now. There is no anxiety. There is only me—
The door chimed. Mizuho opened a single eye.
"Enter." The doors opened, and the familiar tall shape of Commodore Koroshiya came into the dark quarters, the light from the corridor outside casting a long square on the carpet. The commodore turned and looked at Mizuho, sitting on an ornate pillow in the middle of several dozen candles.
"Is this a bad time?" He asked. Mizuho shook her head.
"No. Please, sit, Commodore." Koroshiya held a moment longer, before carefully walking over to her, the door closing silently behind him. He sat on the pillow Mizuho indicated with her eyes, and arranged his legs in a semi-lotus position. Even while sitting, he seemed to loom over her, she contemplated. The dark skinned man could dominate an entire room with but one deliberate movement.
"You have questions." It was a statement she uttered without the slightest hint of a question. Koroshiya nodded.
"You know, as well as I do what the MIDAS array picked up from Sector 5336A. Some of these readings are similar to the drive readings we got off your ship." The pink haired woman nodded slightly.
"Yes. They are. Mother and Maho have also confirmed it." Koroshiya frowned.
"You warned of an invasion attempt by your people when you first came here. We were able to stop it in time, seal the rift, and make sure they could not target our galaxy again."
"Yes. And no, we did not miscalculate. Our methods ensured that all their test data, all their navigational information was gone. They did not even know which galaxy we were in… Only able to open a rift to where our ship was." Koroshiya shifted.
"And yet…"
"I know what it looks like," Mizuho confessed quietly. "But the scans… They are… Wrong. Somehow, they are not… Right."
At the commodore's silence, she hurried on.
"My race is telepathic only with the right type of technology. The kind of technology we use to pilot and control our ships. And yes… The sensors, myself and my sister and mother, we all feel something similar to it at work in that sector—But it is not my people. It feels wrong, for lack of a better comparison." Koroshiya nodded and sighed deeply, the weight he felt on his shoulders not abating. Mizuho felt an instinct to try and touch him, comfort him, but she caught herself. Even though she herself was half-human, and had lived in the Federation for so long, she still had these instincts. These were the instincts of her mother's race.
The same race that had been determined to find the species that had "defiled" one of their daughters: A daughter that happened to be a member of one of the most powerful ruling families in the empire. She was, in fact, the one who had done the defiling.
"The Onegai dissolved the Galactic Federation of their galaxy and assumed total control," Mizuho whispered. "They formed an empire, declared martial law, and plunged nearly every race into war… All because of me. All because I wanted to find my father on Earth." The alien hybrid stared into a candle, eyes downcast. Koroshiya stayed silent, and the two sat in the stillness for a time. Mizuho was unsure exactly how long.
"… It may be worse than my people coming here," she said at last. "It may be some new enemy. One I have no knowledge of. One I cannot help against."
"Mizuho… You always help. You're a part of my crew, after all." The pink-haired woman looked up, blinking owlishly at the commodore. "Whatever we meet out there, we'll meet it as we always have. One hand open and out…"
"With our other holding a phaser behind our back," Mizuho finished. Koroshiya grinned toothily.
"Exactly. I'll expect your in-depth analysis of the anomaly in the morning."
"Aye sir."
"Now, get some sleep. Don't spend all your time… Doing whatever it is you're doing," Koroshiya frowned at the candles floating everywhere. "Is this some kind of…?"
"No, it's not a ritual. The candles just relax me," Mizuho answered matter-of-factly. Koroshiya nodded, before slowly, gracefully standing up, nodding once again, and heading out the door. Mizuho sighed, and closed her eyes once again.
"You know, he's quite a looker." Mizuho grimaced.
"Mother, please…"
"Forget about Kei. The commodore's… What's that Earth candy called?"
"Mother…" Mizuho admonished gently. Matsuo emerged from behind a curtain, smiling naughtily.
"Oh, that's right… Dark chocolate. Mmm…"
"Out, please," Mizuho said flatly. The assistant engineering officer (and general ship floozy) shook her head with a gay smile.
"You should really lighten up, dear. No man wants to sleep with some girl with a knot in her curls."
"Mother, please…"
"Oh fine. Hmph." The shapely woman walked out in a huff, leaving Mizuho to resume her meditation.
To be continued...
A/N: Yes, Mizuho, Matsuo, Maho, Kei, and Koishi are all borrowed from Please, Teacher! The Onegai is a gag on the Japanese title of the anime, Onegai Sensei! Next time, we get to look in on the Starship Voyager, and maybe get a look at what really is on the other side of that anomaly. Until then, read and review.