Star Trek: Absolution
Chapter XVII: Disturbing The Peace
Stardate 55425: 0444 hours Enterprise time…
After grabbing a quick lunch, Malib Covington entered his office on the first floor of the primary command complex in the Breen military base. There were now soldiers stationed next to each office, since it hadn't taken the people on the second planet of the DNX-920 system very long to verify the initial reports that the colonies in the demilitarized zone had been successfully recaptured by the Federation and the Cardassians. If an attack on the Dark Nebula wasn't already underway, Malib had no doubt in his mind that some sort of invasion was imminent.
He and his "wife" Bemuu had been the first two humanoids to undergo the Guardian consciousness transfer. The civilians they had been were long since dead after each of their minds had been replaced with the sentient personalities of two female Guardians. And although gender had long ago ceased to matter for many of his people, their home in the trans-dimensional realm was still inhabited by both males and females. The males, however, were historically part of a lower ranking class and had virtually no personal rights. The females had always been dominant, and everywhere they had expanded their influence this trend remained unchanged.
Bemuu was one of the few whose new persona had decided to remain female and chosen Malib's "wife" for her host body. Early in their experimentation, the reptilians had selected the strongest and fittest human and Cardassian males from their group of prisoners for the first stage of transfers. Most of the earliest conversions had placed female Guardian personalities in the bodies that they had specifically selected as youngest, strongest and most fit.
Deep in thought, Malib sat down in his chair and began reviewing the latest status reports as he/she struggled to decide how best to defend the Nebula entrance against a massive attack. Truthfully the creature inhabiting the humanoid body was still adapting to this new universe. His female consciousness was simply not properly skilled in tactical strategy nor had it expected such a quick response from their enemies. Most civilizations they had attacked in this manner already had enough of their own problems to deal with, and the weakened, post-war state of the beleaguered alpha quadrant had left the Guardians expecting only diplomacy and delay.
The Breen and reptilians had been purposefully secretive during the early stages of their initial contact with the Guardians. They had diligently collaborated via subspace communication back and forth at first, until the Breen recognized the opportunity available to them in the aftermath of the alpha quadrant war. Seizing the leftover Dominion resources had proven an easy task, and – using detailed specifications provided by the Guardians – they had constructed a base within the Dark Nebula designed to generate a much larger portal and allow the alien entities complete access to the alpha quadrant.
It had taken a lot of difficult work, but the base had eventually become fully operational and they had managed to carve a temporary opening through subspace at the very base of the central tower. The energy portal was now large enough to contain more than one person at a time, and those prisoners that the Breen had forced at gunpoint to walk through the opening had come back moments later as an entirely new life form. The procedure had become regular these past few months, and quite a few of the human and Cardassian prisoners had already undergone the transformation. There were still many waiting their turn, but things had proceeded very slowly at first as the Guardians studied each person's background very carefully to determine which of them were most valuable as enemy agents.
With the industrial replicators also in their possession along with a limitless energy supply to power them, it also hadn't taken very long to begin constructing portable versions of the transfer devices that the Guardians had used for some of their conquests on other worlds… and in other dimensions. Their influence had expanded very rapidly, and although some in their home realm were worried that they were spreading themselves too thin Malib had never felt this way. They weren't moving nearly as quickly as they could for a reason – the personalities of his people were perfectly preserved on the portable devices and thus available for use at any time. Keeping their migration out of the Nebula a secret for as long as possible would allow them to seize control of many governments simultaneously. Before anyone even suspected, their plan was to install themselves as a new power to be reckoned with in this galaxy.
Ambition and greed had corrupted them long ago. Malib's female personality was one of the most experienced of the Guardians, and that was why very early on in the first stage of their project he had used the portal and his people coming through to covertly take complete command of the base. Most of the Breen and reptilian-Xindi did not even suspect as of yet, but the entire command staff of both species had already been drugged while they were sleeping and then secretly converted into trans-dimensional Guardians. Each day the soldiers watched their leaders walk around the base speaking and acting normally, and although everything appeared unchanged it most certainly was not. The base command personnel were quite simply no longer Breen or Xindi, but invading Guardians from the other side of the portal who now possessed full decision-making authority over the entire project.
The troop commanders and ship Captains Malib had decided to leave alone for now, since it took some time for the transferred personalities of his people to fully adapt to their new bodies. Integrating with the memories and life experiences stored in each brain took awhile, not to mention a great deal of focus and concentration. That was why he left most of the lower ranking military commanders alone, since the Guardians needed the bulk of their "allies" ready to fight and die – if necessary – to protect their newly "appointed" leaders.
A few of the scientists on the base had immediately suspected this new wrinkle, and two of the Breen had even figured things out for themselves and actually uncovered the true identity of the alien beings that now inhabited their leaders. Those that had made the discovery immediately had pointed accusing fingers at those in charge and tried to warn the others. To counter the charges, the Guardians had simply shaken their heads with disbelief and used the knowledge and experience of the bodies that they inhabited to perfectly mimic the Breen and reptilian commanders. The "over-worked" subordinates were subsequently ordered to undergo medical treatment and then were discreetly converted into Guardians as well. After the public accusations had been verbally revoked by the two scientists – who quietly returned to their old jobs and resumed a normal working routine – things had rapidly quieted back down to normal.
Completely focused on their latest objective, the invaders had mistakenly assumed that the Federation would continue to drag its feet rather than take action in the demilitarized zone. Malib and Bemuu were hurriedly working on a way to permanently open the doorway between this universe and their other-worldly home. With enough energy from the combined output of the six power plants focused on a single point in subspace at the bottom of the tower, both of them were convinced that they could easily tear a stable opening between their home realm and the Dark Nebula. That was the logical and necessary next step to accelerating their invasion of this galaxy, particularly with the added threat of a military strike.
In the event that the Federation actually set aside its normal route of diplomacy a second time, a direct attack on the base could easily destroy most of their equipment and possibly even the entire planet. Just in case Starfleet demonstrated the same aggressive tactical prowess that they had successfully wielded in the demilitarized zone, Malib was more determined than ever to insure that a permanent passageway was torn between both universes for long-term use by their people – even if it was via space craft. The groundwork had been laid for a full scale invasion, and even if they had to bring their people across to this side stored in the portable containers a ship at a time they were fully prepared to continue spreading their conquering web of treachery across the Milky Way galaxy and its unsuspecting inhabitants.
Frustrated, Malib reviewed the previous day's status reports and noted that they had not heard back from either Ensign Baker or Commander Hazelton on Deep Space Nine. The fact that neither man had checked in with their proper contact person on the faraway station was yet another clear indicator that Starfleet was on to them. If Ensign Baker had been unable to complete his mission he would have let them know. The fact that neither he nor Hazelton had been heard from was an obvious indicator to him that the Ensign had tried to convert his commander to a Guardian as scheduled and that the attempt had been unsuccessful.
Rising to his feet Malib walked across the room and out into the large corridor beyond. He signaled the Breen nearest to him and the officer immediately saluted and then approached. The other three guards continued to stand watch in front of the other offices that also contained busily working scientists. "Please have Bemuu stop by to check in with me as soon as her schedule permits," Malib told the Breen soldier. "Tell her I have new computations that will almost certainly allow us to resolve yesterday's setback." The guard nodded in response as he headed off past his three companions and out toward the wide, open area of the base and into the bright afternoon sunlight.
Stardate 55425: 0501 hours Enterprise time…
According to their preset plan, promptly the next morning both Picard and Janeway stepped out of the bridge turbolift and joined the on duty shift. The Admiral moved immediately to stand next to Worf at tactical, watching the Captain walk to the center of the starship's command center and calmly sit down in the center seat. Everyone was back at their normal stations – both Data and Riker were present, and even Geordi had transferred main engineering functions to the bridge so that he could monitor the ship's status readouts throughout their impending attack.
"Status report Mr. Worf," the Captain requested briskly.
"The Enterprise fleet is continuing on course toward the Dark Nebula at warp seven," replied the Klingon. "Our expected arrival time is six minutes, and all ships have signaled that they are ready. Sensors have detected fifty enemy starships comprising a blockade around the Nebula. Sixteen of the enemy vessels are the smaller reptilian class and the remaining thirty-four are larger Breen battle cruisers. Their tachyon detection grid is active and functioning."
Riker thoughtfully stroked his clean-shaven chin. "We have twenty-three Federation vessels including the Defiant. Our Xindi allies, along with the aquatic cruiser, add nineteen more to our attacking fleet for a total of forty-two coalition ships."
"Mr. LaForge?" Picard prompted.
"The modified photons are ready and standing by. They can be loaded into the forward tubes as soon as we are in range of the planet's atmosphere. I also double-checked the shield grid enhancements completed by the engineering staff during my absence – everything is online and my console reads green across the board. We're ready when you are Captain."
"Bring the fleet to red alert Mr. Worf," ordered Picard. As Worf complied the bridge lights around them dimmed and all consoles began flashing the familiar red warning lights normally active during a battle alert. The Captain activated a temporary work station attached to the right arm of his seat and a duplicate of Worf's tactical display appeared on its screen.
Janeway handed Worf one of the transporter signal-enhancing armbands that he had used the last time he was in the Dark Nebula and tossed two more of the devices to Commander Riker and Data. "You three are leading the planet-side strike team," she decided firmly. "Word has it that the reptilians have greater than average strength, so we need all the big strong men we can find. Be certain that no one loses their pattern enhancer, since the armbands will be serving a dual purpose on this mission. We plan to disable the transporter inhibitors on the planet's surface from orbit, but if they should somehow be reactivated then these devices will be our only way of pulling our people out of there. We also plan to have allies on the ground and each of the armbands has been programmed to emit a unique signal that will identify you to them as friendly. It is imperative that you keep these with you, since many of the other humanoids on the surface will quite probably be Guardians."
"An ally? Who?" Worf looked at her with extreme curiosity and a bit of admiration.
"Need to know basis Commander," the Admiral told him curtly as she dismissed the Ensign standing next to him. The woman nodded and quietly moved to the second tactical station on the other side of the bridge. "Speaking of which, I need access to the ship's long range subspace transmitter again so that I can let our friends know we're in position." She stepped in beside him and began tapping commands into the tactical command center.
"We did not know until all ships completed an internal scan whether or not additional undercover Guardians were aboard our fleet," Picard informed them. "Therefore the Admiral and I are making last minute changes in our orders to both you and the Enterprise security complement. When we reach the planet your teams are to beam to the surface and engage the Breen and the reptilians. You may also attack any humanoid or Cardassian civilians that your tricorders positively identify as Guardians. Ignore anyone else you encounter, regardless of how strangely they may appear to you. What you see will be somewhat unsettling, but as long as all our security forces wear the modified pattern enhancers they will not be harmed."
"Are you certain that you can spare most of your senior officers?" Riker asked with interest as he attached the armband to his right shoulder and activated it. "The reptilian vessels may be smaller and less powerful than their Breen counterparts, but they're still a threat and together with their Breen friends that enemy fleet outnumbers us."
"We're not as outnumbered as it appears we are," said Janeway simply. "We'll be fine Commander… follow your orders." She activated the subspace communicator and nodded at Worf. "You concentrate on tactical strategy and weapons during the attack. I'll monitor fleet communications – those that are possible, that is, with all the radiation in there."
"Aye Admiral," he replied with a confident grin.
The bridge was silent for a few minutes longer as everyone focused on the specific tasks of the moment. Picard closely watched the enemy ships on his tactical console, observing them to determine whether they would choose to reposition themselves or stand firm and maintain their detection network. "So far they're waiting to see what we will do," he noted, glancing back at Janeway. "The Federation traditionally hails its enemies first during a confrontation and will fire on them only after all other alternatives have been exhausted."
"Not this time," the Admiral decided firmly. "Their history of obeying instructions and treaty promises is not a positive one." The console in front of her flashed in warning. "Mr. LaForge, please amplify our subspace emitter to match the configuration I'm uploading to your station." She watched him raise an eyebrow in surprise at the new information as he reviewed it.
"You're digging pretty deeply into subspace there, Admiral."
"I realize that," she said confidently. This is a very special message… I want to make certain our friends know that it's time for them to proceed. We also need to provide them with a beacon so that they can follow it here to our position."
"The fleet has reached the Dark Nebula," announced Worf suddenly. "All ships are dropping out of warp and moving into our pre-planned attack formation. So far the enemy vessels are holding position – they are maintaining their blockade around the nebula's entrance."
"That tachyon network of theirs is a nice piece of work," Geordi commented, watching his own sensor display. "Anyone who tries to go around it has no choice but to try and move through the Nebula's most severely disrupted areas in order to successfully approach DNX-920. It wouldn't be an easy trip through all that invisible matter and gravity, even with a fully shielded starship around you."
As LaForge spoke the Xindi ships in the coalition fleet began dropping back to let the Federation starships take the lead. Moving smoothly into their predetermined attack posture, all forty-two vessels rocketed toward the perimeter of the Dark Nebula at high impulse. Riker and Data were both carefully observing the dark, starless patch of the approaching void grow rapidly larger on the forward viewscreen. Behind them, the Captain noted their position and smiled.
"Admiral Janeway," Picard said with total confidence. "Let's see how much of that network we can disable. Contact all Federation starships and have them begin firing their antimatter spread."
Stardate 55425: 0508 hours Enterprise time…
Malib and Bemuu were busily discussing the new computations for creating a rupture between their home realm and the alpha quadrant when every alarm klaxon in the base camp went off simultaneously. Both of them glanced out through his office window and noticed a squadron of burly reptilian soldiers rushing out of the nearest barracks with weapons drawn. Gritting his teeth with anger, Malib hastily moved out into the corridor and down to the office where the main computer for the planet-based sensor array was located. Bemuu shook her own head with frustration and closely followed him.
"What's going on?" he asked the Breen soldiers in the room. One of them stood up and saluted him proudly.
"The Federation is here. We have detected a total of forty-two starships dropping out of warp. Our equipment continues to generate massive clouds of disruptive radiation that drift randomly throughout the Nebula. They used one of the larger clouds along the outer perimeter to hide their approach from our blockade until moments ago."
"Your inept colleagues out there never should have let that shuttle get away," Malib said as he scowled at the soldier. "They have a complete sensor record of the Nebula, this system and our entire base camp." A thought occurred to him. "Have they presented any demands yet?"
"No," the Breen replied, obviously quite intimidated by the Guardian's criticism. "The Starfleet vessels have spread out around the central area of the tachyon network and are firing some sort of antimatter particle spread into it. The combined random detonation of all those tiny bits of antimatter has completely disrupted at least 70 percent of the network."
"If they have a cloaked fleet with them, they can send it through and we'll never detect them," Bemuu pointed out to him with growing apprehension. "Without the tachyon network they can use their ships to move soldiers into position and then beam them to the surface."
Malib thought things over for a moment. "Not with our planetary deflector shield in place they can't. So… they don't want to talk this time," he mused thoughtfully. "Have the fleet commander dissolve the network and attack the enemy ships. Tell him to target them one on one – the extra ships in our fleet are to stand by and assist as needed, making certain they're ready to fire on any additional ships that decloak."
"Not all of the enemy ships are Starfleet," the Breen pointed out. "Some of them appear to be Xindi – specifically the races known to be allied with the Federation."
"Then they will die today too," Bemuu said furiously. "Target the Starfleet ships first – they'll have the most firepower and..."
Her statement was interrupted by the sound of disruptor fire from right outside the building. Both Malib and Bemuu looked at each other, both wondering just how the Federation had managed to land soldiers on the surface of the planet so quickly. A moment later, additional loud shouts and the sounds of fighting could be heard breaking out all throughout the camp.
"Come with me," Malib said, grabbing Bemuu's arm and pulling her with him toward the door. Glancing back over his shoulder he gave the Breen sensor officer a cold stare. "Tell the fleet commander that their soldiers are ordered to fight to the death – he is to destroy all enemy starships or the people on your home world will suffer the consequences."
"Yes sir," the Breen replied, his raging fear not completely obvious through the lighted helmet he wore. He turned his attention back to his work, but not before saying something electronically garbled to his two companions. Both of them nodded in complete agreement.
Malib opened the outer door to the office building and glanced quickly outside. Since he and Bemuu worked in a camp full of soldiers he was unarmed and would not have known how to work one of the Breen rifles if he had one. Anxiously he glanced to the left first and then right. Both he and Bemuu were both astonished to see dozens of the sturdy reptilians and Breen soldiers already lying on the ground either injured or unconscious. The sound of friendly weapons fire continued to add to the sounds of yelling and fighting throughout the camp. Using his new human mind, Malib tried very hard for a moment to imagine what kind of force could disable so many of their soldiers so quickly. Thus far he had not heard anything that even remotely sounded like enemy weapons fire.
One of the reptilians stationed on the roof literally dropped out of the sky and fell to the ground several dozen meters in front of the building. From the top of the office complex a huge gray creature jumped to the ground below and landed easily in the soft dirt, its powerful body well over two meters tall. It had mottled skin, two thin arms, two thin legs, and a wide forehead that rolled up over the top of its skull and then backward into an expanding protective shield. As Malib felt a burst of terror surge through his human body the creature turned and studied him carefully. Its nose and mouth were in the normal position on a very thin face below two glowering green eyes, but that was where its similarity to humanoids ended. To date, it was undeniably the most alien thing he had observed while in the alpha quadrant.
Another reptilian moved in behind the beast and fired several energy blasts directly into its torso. The creature completely shrugged off the attack, then whirled about and charged the reptilian before he could react. With ease it backhanded the soldier and sent him flying one way, his rifle another. As Malib and Bemuu watched carefully they could see more of the creatures running wild throughout the base. Some of them were on top of the troop barracks while others charged boldly across the open areas between buildings, ignoring the weapons fire that struck their dense, tough-skinned hides. The human Guardians even observed some of the invaders easily climbing along the surface of the six domed structures, trying to move into higher positions so that they could observe the action unfolding on the ground more clearly.
As the two Guardians continued to stand by helplessly watching the melee unfolding before them, dozens of additional Breen, reptilians, humans, and Cardassians began streaming out of one of the buildings across from them. In hot pursuit, more of the creatures quickly followed while a few of them simply jumped through the concrete walls or shattered heavy duty windows in a spray of broken glass. Malib and Bemuu watched with complete shock as the aliens quickly attacked and disarmed all of the soldiers, then began smashing their bodies together or tossing them against the side of the building. The shouts and disruptor fire that had signaled the start of the chaos on the ground were swiftly transitioning into groaning and cries of pain.
"Did you notice?" Bemuu whispered softly to Malib, pointing toward the semi-conscious soldiers scattered in front of the other building. Within the short span of two minutes all of them had been disarmed and disabled, at which point the group of aliens immediately took off toward another building in search of additional troops to attack. Left standing were the civilians, all looking extremely puzzled and more than a little bit shocked at the hectic scene that continued to unfold rapidly in front of them.
"Whatever they are, they're obviously intelligent beings. None of those things is attacking the humans or the Cardassians," Malib guessed, catching on to what his companion was hinting at. "They're obviously smart enough to distinguish between the various species on this planet, but they can't detect which of the humans and Cardassians have been converted to Guardians and which of them remain our prisoners."
"So their job is obviously to disarm our ground forces and soften us up for the Federation's attack," Bemuu said with triumph. "However those aliens traveled here, the Starfleet ships are still busy fighting our fleet at the entrance to the Dark Nebula. If we hurry, we may still have the time we need to carve that permanent doorway into subspace and connect our realm to this one. If our new set of calculations is correct, the Federation cannot possibly fight their way through our defenses and reach us in time. Despite the probable success of their attack on this base we can still make certain that they fail to stop our invasion of their galaxy." Cautiously at first and then more confidently, the two of them stepped out into the open and began running toward the central tower. As expected, the creatures left them alone.
Both Guardians paused at the base of the huge spire and took a moment to stare in awe at what was left of their armed forces. Most of the soldiers were either nursing broken limbs or motionless, and their weapons were also missing – obviously confiscated. Malib and Bemuu quickly exchanged a fierce look of determination and entered the huge circular control center upon which the upper tower rested. There were still Breen scientists working at some of the computer stations and Bemuu quickly ordered them to leave. Up until now the creatures had left the tower alone and she didn't want to risk them coming in after the Breen and damaging any of the equipment before she and her husband could complete their latest task.
In the center of the chamber was a massive, raised pedestal encircled by a vast array of force field generators and subspace emitters. Output from all six Dominion power plants was regularly transferred to the force field generators to keep them active and the energy barriers they created fully encompassing the excess radiation from the subspace reaction trapped inside. At the top of the pedestal was a fluctuating, multi-colored spherical portal reaching directly into trans-dimensional space. Periodically some of the force fields would sweep through the subspace rupture from its bottom all the way to the top, effectively pushing the bursts of brilliant, excess red radiation within it into a containment chamber above. Once enough of the toxic waste accumulated, the build up in tower radioactivity automatically triggered the venting process that followed a particle beam up through the planet's atmosphere and out into space.
Malib admired the portal each time he saw it. Although it was only a temporary doorway to the trans-dimensional realm it was an extremely sophisticated creation. Most of the time the equipment was working steadily to keep the portal open and stable, but for short periods they could shut down the subspace generators along with several of the force fields and simply walk inside. The phenomenon was large enough to hold half a dozen adults at a time and that was how a great many of the personality transfers on the planet had taken place. Prisoners were forced to walk inside at gunpoint where the Guardians could meet them and take control of their bodies, effectively ending their lives in a matter of seconds. The portable transfer devices were a bonus created from other-realm technology and would allow them to easily spread their influence here in the alpha quadrant much more rapidly.
Every fifteen minutes or so, the stability of the portal would begin to decay and everyone would fall back to a safer position. The force fields would reactivate as the subspace emitters powered up again to effectively begin reshaping and stabilizing the opening for another use. Each time this process took place it created additional waste radiation that was immediately swept via force field higher into the tower where it was continually routed up and out of the planet's atmosphere. By environmental standards, the procedure was a travesty but for the purpose of conquest it was serving quite well thus far. More Guardians stood safely in the alpha quadrant and were able to tolerate the virtually radiation free environment than ever before.
Malib and Bemuu took control of the main computer and both sat down at work stations, inputting commands as quickly as their human fingers were capable of. Both of them knew that they didn't have much time, and each was convinced that they could tear a stable doorway between universes with their newest calculations. Everything had to be perfect, though, because when they were finished both sides of the tunnel between realms would have to end at the same locations the temporary one had. Otherwise it would be virtually impossible to locate in the vastness of empty outer space that dominated both universes.
"How long?" Bemuu asked him as Malib furiously continued working.
"Relax. There's no way that Starfleet can get here in time," he replied confidently.
Stardate 55425: 0517 hours Enterprise time…
The Enterprise lurched to starboard as a near torpedo miss caused their hull to rumble. Picard watched the bridge crew expertly hold on to their seats and continued to periodically check his tactical display. All of the enemy ships had abandoned their previous positions and were now taking up a defensive posture in front of the Nebula entrance. Anyone from the coalition who got too close was fired upon – the Breen were laying down the gauntlet and daring Starfleet to try and make it through their concentrated weapons fire. It was quite probable that some of the starships would survive a combined charge on the entrance, but the enemy was fully prepared to make the Federation pay a heavy price for getting inside.
"The tachyon network has collapsed," Worf reported with satisfaction. "And the massive amounts of radioactive disruption circling the nebula entrance combined with the after effects of our antimatter spread have rendered all long range sensors temporarily useless. Short range scans are still available at your command."
"Mr. LaForge, what is the status of our shield grid enhancements?"
"We're ready when you are, Captain."
Picard's eyes found the viewscreen. "Then let's make the Enterprise their primary target and take some heat off the rest of the fleet. Deploy armor."
Geordi nodded and quickly routed most of the output from the ship's warp core into the recently installed industrial replicators that were now on board. The output of each was linked directly to a series of emitter ports along the entire surface of the starship's outer hull. As the warp power surged into the new system the emitters immediately began replicating row after row of protective ablative hull plating in a perfectly pre-designed sequence. Even the glow from the vessel's warp nacelles was completely enclosed within the protective dark gray armor. Within ten seconds later the Enterprise was a dark, fully shielded dreadnought plowing relentlessly forward and directly into the heaviest concentration of enemy fire.
"It will take a second or two longer each time we fire our weapons with the enhanced shielding in place," Riker pointed out. "The main computer pinpoints where our shots will emerge and dissolves a temporary gap in the armor to let the phasers and torpedoes out. Worf and the rest of his team have practiced on the simulators and they're already quite good at this form of combat."
"My compliments to you, Number One, for organizing the project and making sure that Geordi's engineering team had everything they needed before leaving on your shuttle mission," Picard told him. He watched the tactical display as he spoke and his expression suddenly hardened. "Transfer command of the fleet to the aquatic vessel," the Captain ordered. "Mr. Data, please take the Enterprise as quickly as possible to the DNX-920 system."
"Aye sir," acknowledged Data.
"The aquatics have command of the fleet," Janeway reported, continuing to monitor the local subspace communications. She reviewed the latest batch of intra-fleet messages and then did a hasty double-check of the short range sensor readout. Worf noticed the data on the approaching newcomers at the same time she did.
"Ten Breen starships that were blockading the Nebula entrance have broken off their attack on the fleet and are pursuing us," he noted. As he spoke the ship rumbled from multiple torpedo impacts. "So far our ablative armor is holding at 98 percent. Their weapons fire is ineffective."
"Fire as targets bear Commander," Picard ordered. "Shoot to disable only."
The Klingon nodded as Data unexpectedly spun the Enterprise completely around 180 degrees. The starship fired four quantum torpedoes into the closest Breen vessel, causing it to waver unsteadily from the all-out attack. The Enterprise's phasers blazed forth an instant later, lancing directly through the enemy ship's weakened shielding and piercing its hull. A large internal explosion rocked the starship and it had no choice but to fall back and let the other nine attackers take its place.
Completely ignoring the intense incoming weapons fire from the enemy vessels, Worf continued targeting the ships in the smaller Breen fleet one at a time. For a few moments longer, quantum torpedoes repeatedly flashed onto the viewscreen as fast as the Enterprise crew could load them. All of the forward phaser banks continued spraying hot beams of directed energy into the weakening shields of their unprepared enemy.
"Armor integrity is at 87 percent," Worf confirmed. "Their weapons are still ineffective, but the remaining five Breen vessels are now concentrating their attack on our nacelles and the struts connecting them to the secondary hull. If they damage any of these targets we may lose warp power and much of our defensive capability."
Picard raised a hand in warning. "Let them close in on us a little longer," he suggested with his eyes on the tactical monitor. "We want their shields to take the full impact of our next exchange." He continued to watch the five ships close to point blank range on his tactical display. As they continued to move in and coordinate their attack on the Enterprise's nacelles Picard brought his hand down. "Now!" he said suddenly.
"Signaling our backup," Janeway replied efficiently as she continued to assist Worf at tactical. It was almost an impossible job trying to monitor all of the distorted and unreliable local communications between ships while in the Nebula. Therefore the Admiral continued to focus her attention primarily on the subspace traffic so that Worf could concentrate fully on the enemy targets around them.
Hastily she transmitted the emergency signal, and almost immediately the Defiant dropped out of cloak directly behind the Breen and promptly began a phaser and quantum torpedo attack of its own. Two more of the enemy starships had no choice but to fall out of the battle and the Enterprise promptly disposed of two more. The remaining Breen vessel hesitated while its Captain made up his mind. Suddenly the remaining enemy ship turned around and rocketed back out of the Nebula toward the other ships in its fleet.
"Now is our chance Jean Luc," the Admiral told him. "There's so much radiation in here that their friends out there would never receive a call for help during battle conditions. They're leaving to go and get more ships."
"Mr. Data, resume course for the second planet of the DNX-920 system. Use the preset trajectory through the gravity wells that Geordi planned out using the shuttle telemetry."
"Acknowledged," the android confirmed.
"Mr. LaForge, please drop our armored shielding and redeploy it." The Captain watched carefully as Geordi quickly complied with the order – using the replicators to convert the ablative hull plating back into energy and then powering up the warp drive to reassemble it completely intact just as quickly.
"Armor integrity has been restored to 100 percent," the engineer reported.
As he spoke Janeway smiled with confidence. "I have just received confirmation from our Species 8472 friends. They're on the ground and have already disarmed most of the enemy soldiers," she said with delight. "Most of the base camp is unguarded and they're awaiting our arrival. Since they're already here, I'm also going to request that they help us put a stop to the fighting back at the entrance to the Nebula."
Again she activated the subspace radio and almost immediately two bio-ships from fluidic space flashed into view in front of them. The newcomers had a slender but odd triangular look to them and each also boasted three large tail fins. Moving at high speed, they flashed past the Enterprise and headed toward the nebula perimeter in search of the enemy targets Janeway had given them.
"It's still somewhat difficult for me to believe they're here and willing to help us," Picard decided, watching the image of the two ships move quickly away from them on the forward viewscreen. "Your initial encounter with them was far from a friendly one."
"Ah, but we ran into them again and reached a tentative truce before Voyager left the delta quadrant," noted Janeway. "And when I spoke to them last night, I gave them a status report as to just how badly we've crippled the Borg's ability to attack anyone in the future. After hearing that, they jumped at the chance to render assistance to us and I personally think the idea of them helping is quite logical. If the Breen and the reptilians can call on allies from other dimensional realms, then it's only fair that we do also." She smiled as the early reports flowing across her screen indicated overwhelming success. "Against the kind of firepower those bio-ships have at their disposal, the enemy fleet will have no choice but to stand down."
"Two minutes to target," Worf stated. "So far, I am not detecting any additional ships pursuing us. The Defiant has recloaked and will lie in wait in case they are needed again."
No longer forced to fight a major battle with so many enemy ships at once, the Enterprise steered directly toward the growing star in front of them at rapid impulse speed. Their velocity was a heady and rapid .9c, just short of warp one.
"The special photons have been armed and loaded into the forward torpedo tubes," reported LaForge. "The neutralization reaction they create should follow the radiation back to its strongest point, hopefully directly down to the tower where it will force an overload. The people running those systems will have no choice but to shut them down – if they don't, the damage to all that sensitive equipment they're using will be enormous."
"Stand by," the Captain said patiently as they all watched the forward viewscreen. The twisting scarlet ribbons of radiation scattered throughout the region continued to cast a very sinister appearance across the darker background of the void, an obvious testament to the danger within. The closer they traveled to the DNX-920 star the brighter the visible radiation became. As he personally observed the odd patterns of gravitationally disrupted energy spiraling outward from the planet in all directions, Picard simply shook his head in complete disbelief. "My what a friendly place this is," he said with true dismay. "I guess this proves the old adage that idle hands are the devil's playground after all."
They patiently waited as the Enterprise continued to close in on its target. Geordi was watching the radiation streams carefully and he pointed toward the origin point on the planet's surface. "Obviously the waste energy is strongest at the source," he informed them. "If our torpedoes hit the waste stream anywhere inside the atmosphere we should achieve the desired result. Since we're simply neutralizing the radioactivity and converting it into harmless energy, the impact on the planet's environment itself will be minimal."
The Captain turned to watch Worf with a look of complete mischief in his eye. "Let's put a damper on this little secret project of theirs. Commander, you may fire when ready."
"Photons away," the Klingon tactical officer reported with a satisfied look of his own.
"Target hit…" Geordi watched the short range scan carefully. "Captain, the neutralization sequence has begun and is following the radiation stream back down toward the central tower."
Picard rose from his seat as Counselor Troi stepped out of the turbolift behind Worf with a replacement shift of personnel standing right behind her. "I think it's time we paid those people down there a visit."
"We?" Riker said with some surprise.
"That's right," Janeway told him as she handed Picard an electronic armband and clipped one to her own shoulder. "Jean Luc and I are joining your ground team."
"You have the bridge Commander Troi," the Captain told her right before he, Janeway, Data, Riker and Worf stepped into the turbolift. "Your orders are to take out this planet's defensive systems. Begin with continuous phaser barrages on their shielding. Make them choose whether they want to keep that radiation contained or prevent us from beaming in. Once their shields are down and we've determined that it is safe to proceed, our strike teams will transport directly into the base. I want you to completely destroy five of those six power plants. That will insure that they have only enough energy to keep their tower protected."
"Be careful Captain," warned Deanna as she took over Worf's position at tactical. "I sense nothing but rage and hatred from the Guardians down there… I don't believe there's much humanity left in them." The turbolift doors behind her snapped closed as the replacement crew members moved to their assigned stations and began attending to their duties.
Stardate 55425: 0535 hours Enterprise time…
Malib continued working furiously at one of the computer work stations in the control center at the bottom of the huge tower. He was driven by pure fear now, since the entire base had fallen suddenly silent. Even the alarm klaxons had shut off, since everyone by now had obviously been alerted to the fact that a major attack was underway. Across from him, he could see that Bemuu was also busy at another work station next to one of the outer windows. "What's going on out there?" he asked her with extreme curiosity.
Glaring at him she paused long enough to peek out the window. "Those things are still out there, gathered together in small groups." A look of amazement crossed her face. "It looks like they're talking to each other… discussing what to do next!"
"I'm almost done here," Malib said fervently, continuing to work with their new set of computations stored in their central computer. "The first two simulations average a 98.73 percent probability of success. I'm willing to risk it if you are."
Again she cast an angry glance his way. "We don't have a choice and you know it," she said acidly. "If those things out there also have spacecraft with them then I think we're in imminent danger of getting shut down for good."
As she spoke the tower around them trembled slightly. Above them they could hear a faint rumble, distant at first but growing louder and sounding more severe with each passing second. Within the space of thirty seconds the sound became loud enough to interfere with normal conversation. The neutralization process initiated by the photon torpedo bursts roared down toward them at high speed.
"What the hell is going on now?" Malib asked with frustration, glancing up at the skeletal metallic super-structure above him. As he finished his sentence a fierce downdraft of hot air blew into the bottom of the tower and all of the computer work stations seemed to explode at once. Bemuu screamed in agony and fell to the floor as a burst of orange flame flickered briefly across the monitor she had been standing in front of. Around them, hot white electrical smoke poured into the air and Malib felt a stab of terror in his chest as the distinctive sound of the subspace emitters shutting down filled the room.
"No!" he screamed, smashing his fists down on the darkened work station in front of him. "We're so close – they simply can't stop us now!"
With renewed determination, he whirled and ran down the line of work stations until he found one that still retained power. He coughed from the heavy smoke filling the air, then snarled with rage and began pounding commands insistently into the console until it responded and came back on-line. On the other side of the huge dome-like room Bemuu struggled to stand, then lost her balance and fell back to the cold metal floor. Malib didn't even bother to look up so he didn't see the dark burn marks on her face and arms, nor did he see her go suddenly still. Instead he focused on their primary objective and began calling up the programming and subroutines needed to complete the final stage of their project and tear a permanent rupture between the trans-dimensional realm and the alpha quadrant.
He was still reviewing the data and trying to find a way to restart the system when the sounds of orbital phaser fire reached his ears. How long would the deflector shields hold? Malib's female personality was not a military one and thus he did not know for certain. What he did notice with a sudden eerie realization was that their powerful ground-based anti-aircraft batteries weren't even firing back. He couldn't hear the familiar sound of a single disruptor blast, a noise that was etched in his memory since the day the Federation officers and their shuttle had successfully escaped.
In front of him the force fields surrounding the pedestal continued to hum and he could see the fluctuating resonance of the portal through the drifting smoke. What if the force fields were to suddenly fail while there was still radiation contained within? The thought continued to haunt him as he desperately worked to restart the subspace emitters. He glanced briefly at Bemuu's unmoving body as the orbital phaser bombardment continued and the possibility grew steadily more likely. He remembered the Breen in the central command office that he had left behind and wondered if any of them were still watching the computer safeguards. There's still enough radiation in that portal to kill a human being, he realized as he studied the readouts in front of him. Whatever had struck the top of the tower had reverberated all the way down to the bottom and completely destabilized the artificial doorway between universes.
A tremendous explosion on the perimeter of the camp suddenly resounded throughout the entire base. Even this far away from the domed power plants Malib could feel the heat from the outer edge of the shock wave. He knew instantly that one of the mighty Dominon power plants was no longer functioning. Before he could even cuss properly two more of the huge explosions rattled the ground and the tower's reinforced structure. Realizing that half of their total power supply was gone within the space of sixty seconds, Malib glanced warily at the force fields surrounding the portal.
A huge, fourth explosion boomed through the base and he saw some of the energy barriers flicker for a brief instant. New waves of anxiety crept through him as he could only stand helplessly by and wait to see just how foolish the Federation military was. What if they're stupid enough to destroy all six? The thought of the tower radiation uncontained and draining into the planet's atmosphere suddenly made his skin crawl with terror. He noticeably twitched at the fifth explosion, realizing that one power plant was all that separated him from a painfully slow death.
Seconds seemed to pass ever so slowly but the expected sixth explosion never came. Malib practically cackled with glee as the restart sequence on the console in front of him initiated and the subspace emitters came back on-line. Hurriedly he activated the new program and prepared to initiate it, noticing that the distinctive sound of high-powered Federation phaser fire from outside had ceased. Suddenly there was an awful silence running throughout the entire base camp – the sound of the force fields in front of him and the emitters powering up was all that he could hear. If he listened closely enough he could hear the sound of flames burning outdoors and every time his gaze found a window the thick black smoke outside was also quite noticeable.
Malib continued to work as fast as the computer would allow and noticed that the portal at the top of the pedestal was fluctuating much more rhythmically now as it continued to stabilize. The radiation levels around the doorway itself had dropped to an acceptable level and he shut off one of the smaller force fields keeping it shielded. Grinning he set a time delayed routine to initiate the actual subspace tear and laughed out loud as he proudly remembered the simulation results.
Probability of success? 98.73 percent! All he had to do was code a one minute delay, then walk through the portal and return to his realm. If a new body capable of surviving in the alternate universe was not immediately available, his consciousness would be stored on one of the portable devices for later use. And once he was gone the computer would automatically initiate the subspace rupture, guaranteeing that he could return one day and exact revenge. He was still making the necessary last minute changes to the computer programs to give him the time he needed when he heard a voice from behind him.
"Step away from that work station and put your hands in the air… now!"