Chapter Eleven: A Dark Message
Note: From now on, … will represent a scene change. Now on to the story.
Thirty Years in the future:
A Borg Tactical Cube exploded under a rain of fire from the advancing Kreedak fleet. More Borg vessels move forward, this time joined by defense batteries from the Unicomplex as the Kreedak entered range. The space for light years around was littered with debris from Borg and Kreedak ships. It had been six months since the Kreedak had begun their final offensive against the Borg. The Alpha Quadrant Alliance had already fallen, as had the Dominion. The Borg Collective was the last obstacle standing in the way of the Kreedak's dream of galactic Domination.
On board the Collective's flagship, the Demon's Tooth class battle cruiser Bastion, Queen Sinal directed the defense of the Borg's last remaining stronghold.
"Defense position 13 has been overrun," Commander Ger Dah, one of the last Borg Commanders, reported. "Reserve fleet 237 moving to retake."
"Status on the rift?" Sinal demanded. She sagged in her command throne as the Kreedak poison once again attacked her brain. Her Nano Probes had held it off for weeks, but the virus from a Kreedak assassin's blade was steadily winning out. All Sinal's efforts to find a cure had failed. She knew she was dying, but she was determined not to pass on until her project, the last hope for the Collective and ultimately the galaxy, succeeded.
"The Tachyon matrix is still charging. Another two minutes," Commander Frell, a former Mintal Admiral replied. "The main Disruptor weapon is recharged."
"Target the Kreedak battleship bearing 250 by 137," Sinal ordered. The Bastion shuddered as its main weapon, a disruptor beam capable of blowing apart any planetary installation, lanced out and cored through a Kreedak battleship that was angling for a volley at the Unicomplex. The vessel exploded, the shockwave destroying a dozen flanking Kreedak cruisers and destroyers. The line faltered for a moment, then reformed as the hive mind of the Kreedak reasserted its control. Dozens of Borg vessels fell as they fought to delay the Kreedak for just a moment longer.
"My Queen, the rift is ready. Moving to entry point," Captain Corten, Sinal's second, called out. The Bastion quickly moved away from the fighting, heading to the forming temporal rift. The Kreedak, seeing what the Borg were doing, redoubled their attack. Hundreds of Cubes and Spheres exploded as the Kreedak brought their full might to bear. Reserve vessels emerged from their subspace tunnels and joined the battle. The Borg's defenses were being overrun.
"Move us faster!" Sinal ordered, fear creeping up her spine. If she failed now everything was over. She cried out as the Kreedak poison attacked her again
"We are already at full speed," Corten replied. Sinal angled the view screen and saw the Kreedak ships bearing down on them. Then suddenly Commander Ger Dah's Carrier Cube moved into the path of the Kreedak fleet.
"Go Queen Sinal. My vessel will delay them. Get into the rift," Ger Dah said as his vessel as savaged by Kreedak batteries.
"Thank you Ger Dah, I won't forget you," Sinal replied before Ger Dah's image vanished as his ship exploded. The rift grew lager in the view screen. The Bastion reoriented its long diamond shape to fit through the rift. Long range Kreedak guns pounded Sinal's ship. The shields failed and the hull was perforated by acid and torpedoes. Then it was through. Sinal's last image of the Unicomplex was of it exploding under the guns of ten thousand Kreedak ships. Then everything went black.
…
Present Day:
Alissa and Sinal were on the bridge of Alissa's flagship, observing the Borg defense grid for the Senrti system being brought online. With the war against the Resalians progressing well, and the main invasion about to begin, the main potion of the Sinai fleet would be far away, and Alissa was making sure that the border worlds remained safe.
"In just a few months Sinal, the Resalians will be destroyed and your father's empire will be safe."
"Yes," Sinal replied. "I hope that after he war Father will let me go with you. My older sister is the Crown Princess and will inherit the throne when my Mother dies. All I would ever be is another face in the Royal Court."
"If your father agrees, you could become one of my Commanders," Alissa said. "Then we could-" suddenly the ship went to alert status. Alissa focused and determined the cause. Long range sensors had detected subspace tunnels approaching, the same tunnels the Borg had encountered at the alien colony. Alissa had adapted the Borg shields to be partially effective against the enemy's acid weapons, but from the number of tunnels, the enemy far outnumbered the six Cubes and twenty Spheres the Borg had at the colony. Alissa sent out a call for all Borg vessels in the area, but the closest fleet was an hour away a transwarp. "We have an enemy fleet approaching Sinal."
"We can't abandon the colony! There the thirteen million people down there."
"I know. All vessels are moving into a defensive formation." In space the Borg fleet closed into a sphere formation with Alissa's Diamond at the center. The few defense station that could be brought online readied their batteries.
Seven minutes later the alien fleet merged into real space. Fifty small ships and ten destroyers surrounded three 4 kilometer long battleships.
Both fleets opened fire at the same time. Chronoton torpedoes and Borg disruptor beams lashed out at the enemy fleet, which responded with acid projectiles, torpedoes and phasers. Vessels from both sides crumpled and exploded. Alissa's flagship targeted one of the alien flagships, destroying its shield generators and then targeting its reactor. The flagship's own weapons tore at the Diamond's shields. As the weapons, continued firing all the alien vessels launched boarding pods. Mosts were aimed at Alissa's flagship.
"Weapons target and destroy those pods," Alissa ordered, but the pods were extremely maneuverable and avoided most of the defensive fire. When the pods made contact with Borg shields, the first wave was destroyed, but the rest adjusted their shields and passed through. Out of the pods massive nine foot insectoid warriors emerged and began tearing through Borg drones. They moved like lightning and disruptor fire merely seared their armored shells. Force fields trapped some for a time, until they ripped their way through the walls. Transporters look time to lock on, but when they did the insect warriors was beamed into space. Still, the warriors were steadily overrunning the Borg defenders.
"I think the battle is turning against us," Sinal said.
"I know," Alissa replied. She was considering ordering a retreat when the guns of the now dying enemy flagship scored a lucky hit and disabled the main Transwarp drive. "And now we're stuck here. Sinal, beam over to one of the Spheres and get out of here. I'll join you once the Transwarp drive for my ship regenerates."
"No, I'm staying with you," Sinal replied.
"Your father would never forgive me if something happened to you, now-" suddenly the Diamond's sensors picked up a wormhole forming. It flashed into existence, its aperture destroying three alien vessels. From the wormhole emerged a Borg vessel, but like none Alissa had ever seen before. The vessel was shaped like two narrow pyramids joined at the base. Scans indicated the ship was the height of four Cubes, as wide as 2 and was powered by an Omega molecule reactor. As Alissa let out a breath of disbelief, the vessel fired a massive disruptor beam which blew apart one of the enemy flagships. Its secondary weapons began picking off the smaller vessels, and on board the other Borg vessels small anti-gravity propelled robots appeared and fired anti-matter bullets into the insect warriors, blowing them to pieces.
"I've never seen a Borg ship like that before," Sinal said.
"Neither have I," Alissa replied. She shock off her confusion and ordered her fleet to join the battle. Between her fleet and the unknown vessel the enemy was completely destroyed. Several attempted to escape but were shot down before they could enter their subspace tunnels. The unknown vessels moved into high orbit and began regenerating. When she took the time to look Alissa could see the vessel had taken heavy damage. Its hull was covered in acid craters and there were dozens of torpedo impacts as well. Alissa sent a hail which was soon answered.
"Greetings," a voice said. "I regret we cannot see each other, but my vessel's communication system is damaged. Please, come to my vessel. I must speak with you."
"What are you going to do?" Sinal asked.
"That vessel is powered by an Omega Particle reactor. If nothing else, I have to find out where it came from."
"Please, let me come with you," Sinal pleaded. She gave Alissa the watery eyed stare that most of the time worked on her father.
"Oh all right," Alissa said. "But stay close to me, and don't touch anything without asking me." Sinal nodded, and a moment later both vanished in a transporter beam.
…
Sinal and Alissa found themselves in a corpse chocked passageway. They had been unable to beam directly to the command deck but gotten within a hundred meters.
"What happened here?" Sinal asked.
"A battle," Alissa replied. The same insect soldiers from before littered the floor, along with drones which appeared to be wearing exo suits of some kind. After nearly ten minute of picking their way through debris, bodies and two blocked access doors Alissa and Sinal made it to the vessel's control chamber near the Central Plexus. Three more insect warriors lay dead near the doors, still locked together with one of the exo suit wearing drones. Alissa extended her tubules and accessed the door controls. The doors swished open, revealing a half destroyed bridge. The drones in the room were all dead. All but one, who was face down on the floor, a support beam across its back. Alissa hurried over. She used a nearby length of piping and a piece of the wall to lift the beam off the drone's back. "Sinal, pull her out."
Sinal grabbed one of the drone's arms and pulled, but she was only a child, and the done was heavy.
"I can't," Sinal said. Alissa, seeing that Sinal was too small to move the drone, managed to wedge the pipe into the floor. It wouldn't hold for long, so Alissa grabbed the drone and pulled with all her Borg enhanced strength. The Drone budged, then slid out as the support beam crashed back down.
Once Alissa turned the drone over it was revealed to be a woman, a Sinai. She had long auburn hair and a scar down one cheek. She was breathing shallowly, but Alissa saw her nano probes were repairing her. A few moments later her eyes opened and she groaned.
"Are you all right?" Alissa asked. The woman turned her head and glanced at Alissa. As she did her eyes seemed to light up. She sat up and enveloped Alissa in a crushing embrace.
"Alissa, you're alive! That means I made it! I'm so happy to see you again!"
"Who are you?" Alissa managed to gasp out. The drone released her.
"I'm not surprised you don't recognize me, considering I'm from thirty years in the future."
"Thirty years?" Alissa asked.
"It's me, Sinal." Alissa froze for a moment.
"Sinal?"
"Yes. Listen to me Alissa. I don't have much time left, but you need to know something."
"Not much time? What are you talking about? Your nano probes are repairing the damage to you body right now."
"Yes, but I am also infected with a Kreedak poison. Every time my nano probes attack it a few cells adapt and reproduce. At best, I have a few hours. Nevertheless, listen, in five days the Borg Janeway freed during the Unimatrix Zero incident will travel to Earth. They will help them develop a protective measure against your 8472 nano probes."
"Then we must find them and stop them!" Alissa said.
"No! They will be important. You see, the alien race that just attacked you, the Kreedak, will prove the most formidable enemy the Borg have ever faced. You see, in my future, you were killed in that last battle. A torpedo struck the Command deck and you were vaporized. With you gone, the old Queen resumed control of the Collective. Then the rouge Borg made their way to Earth and told the Federation about the Kreedak. You see, they managed to capture a Kreedak scout ship and learned that the Kreedak had existed for tens of thousands of years in the Galactic Core, steadily conquering everything. Then they decided to take on the rest of the galaxy."
"And the Federation was able to stop them?" Alissa asked.
"They were able to stop the Kreedak's scout fleet, but it was costly. The attack managed to persuade the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians and Species 8472 to join Starfleet and the Rouge Borg in an alliance. The Dominion was also integrated into the Alliance a few weeks later after the Alliance helped them destroy a Kreedak fleet. United, they used a small Transwarp Hub the Rouge Borg constructed and came to the Unicomlex to ask the Borg to join the Alliance."
"But we declined?" Alissa asked. Sinal nodded.
"The Queen was still angry at you death and launched an attack on the Alliance. The ensuing war ultimately resulted in the destruction of the Alliance's fleets and a weakening of the Collective. The Kreedak chose that time to strike. They had used the time during the Borg/Alliance War to double the size of their fleet, and with the Collective weakened they were able conquer huge swaths of the galaxy, draining entire worlds to fuel their war machine. Races like the Voth were able to resist for a time, but eventually they were overwhelmed. The Kreedak used information on our Transwarp Hubs to create their own versions, which allow them to strike deep into the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. The Federation Alliance and the Dominion both fell after years of hard fighting. Then they turned their attention to the Collective. Hundreds of systems were overrun within a matter of months. We deployed our newest weapon, the Demon's Tooth class destroyer, of which my vessel is the last, but we were too late. We resisted for decades, but untimely we could not win. Before the last Unicomplex was overrun, I used a supply of Tempium Ore the Collective had been lucky enough to find to open a temporal conduit to this time."
"What do you want me to do?" Alissa asked, horrified at the future Sinal had described.
"If the Collective fights alongside the Alliance, you will have a chance against the Kreedak." Sinal suddenly broke off and clutched her head.
"Are you all right?" The younger Sinal asked her future self.
"Yes, for the moment. The Kreedak poison is accelerating. Please, listen closely. Take a fleet to Earth in eighteen days and help the Federation destroy the Kreedak scout fleet. Then join forces with the Alliance. Together you can launch a preemptive strike against the Kreedak. You can also use my vessel to create more Demon's Tooth class ships. They will serve you well." Suddenly Sinal began convulsing. "It seems my time is up," she said calmly.
"No! We just met. I have so many questions." Alissa said. Sinal smiled.
"It will be all right. Remember, if you didn't die here then the future has already been changed. Someday you'll see me again." She turned to her younger self. "Be brave Sinal. In the days ahead you will become very important. Just remember one thing: No matter how dark things may become, a way always exists back to the light." Sinal's implants began shutting down, and her organic eye closed forever. Sinal and Alissa cried for a long time. Finally Alissa got back to her feet.
"Come on Sinal. She wouldn't want us to cry. She would want us to do as he said and destroy the Kreedak. Now come on. Let's get this vessel to a shipyard and start analyzing it. The Kreedak won't wait." Seeing Sinal slowly getting up, Alissa put a hand on her shoulder. "Remember, if we can change the future, we'll see her again. In you." Sinal smiled.
"Thank you Alissa. You're right, let's get moving. If what my future self said is true then my people are in danger too."
…
Three days after heir encounter with Future Sinal, the Demon's Tooth vessel was fully operational. Its data banks had yielded the Collective a number of sources of the rare ore needed to synthesize Omega, as well as data on how to stabilize it. Within weeks more Demon's Tooth vessels would enter service, and the greatest war in the Collective's history would begin.
What did you think? Well now you know what would have happened, but what will happen now? Will Alissa be able to stop the Kreedak and ally with the Federation? Will Species 8472 even allow it? And what of Commander Ger Dah and his new vessel? Find out in the next exciting chapter. Well, see ya then, and don't forget to review!
ENTILZA