Inside the large, white, virtual meeting room, several seats were organized in a semi-circular, stair-stepped formation, allowing several hundred people to vi in. A large screen floated above the two presenters displaying the Alpha Centauri system as it used to exist; twin suns with seven planets slowly circling it. A third, smaller sun, orbited even further away. Sitting at the bottom, Admiral Greer sat with Director Eladra Khent, Ambassador V'Driss and Rear Admiral Richard Grayson, the commander of Starbase B-42, located in the Beta quadrant. Occupying the various seats are a number of starship captains, department heads, and scientists from various areas of the galaxy. At the center of the presentation stage was the tall and thin Captain Carl Donnelly and his chief science officer.
"We compared the residual energy patterns of Alpha Centauri with the readings we got from Betazed just before we jumped out. It's actually a good thing we were getting ready to leave, anyway, or we would have been caught by the same energy wave." Captain Donnelly stated, looking up at the display over his head.
"Are you referring to the shockwave?" Admiral Greer asked.
"Actually, no, I'm not," Donnelly replied. "From the different sensor scans we got from the surviving ships, we were able to piece together, at least partially, what happened." From a translucent panel floating in front of him, he tapped a button. A slight tear appeared next to the Vegan sun. "A transwarp conduit had an exit point placed near the sun. Judging from the displacement, we believe it had been there for several years."
"Years?" Admiral Grayson exclaimed. "How is that possible? Why didn't we see it?"
Donnelly shrugged. "I really don't know."
Commander Darine Milhouse, Donnelly's science officer, spoke up. Her small size belayed her presence which became evident when she began speaking. "Part of the issue is the conduit's proximity to the sun, which makes distance sensor scans difficult and sometimes misleading. The other issue here is the fact they were in known systems that had been studied for centuries. There just isn't anything left to discover about our own sun."
"There's no sense in trying to place blame here, Carl," Admiral Greer countered soberly. "Let's face it. No one ever expected something like this to happen. I mean, we aren't even at WAR with anyone. The last several years have been some of the most peaceful I can remember."
"Well, we're at war with someone now," Grayson countered quietly, obviously reflecting on recent events.
Greer saw Captain Donnelly was shifting his feet. "We'll get to that shortly, right, Captain?" he said eagerly.
"We're still working on that part, Admiral," Donnelly offered. "Getting back to the conduit," he pressed another button on his panel. A small projectile exited the oblong tear in space. "we're just guessing to the contents, but judging from the way the stars collapsed on themselves, as well as the speed with which the shockwave spread, we believe it was a trilithium derivitive, possibly with protomatter. There was, however, an added property to the sensor readings. We caught it just as we slipstreamed out. There was some kind of subnucleonic pulse that proceded the actual shockwave by several seconds. It would have neutralized any propulsion system it came into contact with."
The small projectile impacted the larger of the two stars. Within moments, the primary sun began to glow brighter. At that time, a thin, blue colored sphere quickly expanded from the main sun. By the time the blue, hollow sphere reached Alpha Centauri III, the primary sun had collasped on itself and began draining matter from the secondary sun. There was a flash of light as the primary sun exploded, destroying the secondary star with it. The shockwave from the explosion created another hollow, yellow-colored sphere that began overtaking the various planets. Captain Donnelly turned off the simulation.
"My god," Greer uttered. The rest of the group gasped as well.
"Most of us never had a chance," Grayson commented.
"This is beyond the scope of civilization," Director Khent commented breathlessly. "Who could have been so monstrous?" She desperately attempted to hold back fresh tears.
"We don't know," Greer answered with frustration. "But the answer is on the other side of that transwarp conduit."
"I beg your pardon, Admiral," Commander Milhouse interrupted, "but that's assuming whoever did this left their conduits intact on the other side. If they disabled the other side, then any ship going in this end would be stuck in a state of transwarp flux indefinately."
"I doubt they disabled them on the far end, Commander," Greer offered. "Whoever did this will want to know if it worked. My guess is, we can expect at least a probe of some kind to come through eventually."
"Admiral," Captain Donnelly began cautiously, "if you're right... and they do send a probe through, they'll see the Glory and the Echelon."
Greer nodded. "I know. If they don't see life, they'll presume the mission was successful and shut down the conduits or shift them to other Federation worlds. If they DO see life, they'll presume the mission was a failure and shut down the conduits or shift them to other Federation worlds. Either way, time is of the essence. We have to go there before they come back." The crowd began to murmur.
Captain Tanaka of the USS Aurora spoke up. "Suppose we can figure out how to open the conduit before something else comes through. What do we do? Are we sending all of Starfleet through?"
Greer shook his head. "No. We can't afford to leave the remnant undefended. I've summoned the Pathfinders. When we open the portal, we'll send them through." There was more murmuring from the crowd.
Ambassador V'Driss spoke up. "Admiral, I realize the potential futility of what I am about to request, is there any way we could send a single ship through to attempt a dialogue with whoever did this?" The grumblings became more incensed. She raised her hands to quiet the group. "With all due respect to the group gathered here, but we need to examine the possibility that we are now facing a superior foe, perhaps even superior to a Pathfinder starship. I believe we need to consider the possibility of negotiations, possibly even surrendering."
"Surrender?" Greer was obviously enraged. "Why would we even entertain the notion of surrendering?" The sounds of rage increased behind them.
V'Driss looked up. "Enterprise, decrease background noise by fifty percent."
"Understood, Ambassador." The crowd noise decreased dramatically, despite the apparent passion in their expressions.
"We need to think logically, Admiral. One hundred-ten worlds were destroyed today. Two hundred-thirty worlds in one hundred, eighty-nine systems are still intact for now. Aggravated violence may trigger even more destruction."
"Preliminary reports from the other systems say there aren't any conduits in those systems." Greer answered quickly.
"I read the reports, Admiral," V'Driss countered, still calm. "The problem remains; we don't know how the conduits were created in the first place. There's no telling when one will appear."
"We're at a state of war now, Ambassador," Greer offered, his temper beginning to flare. "The other worlds are taking steps to protect their suns from an attack like this. The best way to prevent another attack is to remove the attackers."
"Logic would suggest we discover the nature of the threat and their intentions before determining a course of action."
"I think they've made their intentions perfectly clear," Greer countered darkly. Suddenly, Greer turned to face Director Eladra Khent. "You're the closest thing we have to a Federation leader, Eladra. What do you think?"
She gulped hard, clearly still uncomfortable with her position. "I think we need to vote on a new Federation president as quickly as possible," she said weakly.
V'Driss shook her head. Greer exhaled deeply, "That won't help us now, Eladra. You need to make this decision."
"Will all the Pathfinders be going?" She asked, desperately trying to come to a definitive answer.
Greer nodded. "We have eleven of the twelve. We don't know what happened to the Atlantis."
"If it helps," Captain Donnelly offered, "the technology we're talking about is actually pretty old stuff... we've had most of it since the 23rd century. Nothing of what we've seen shows a sophistication more than four hundred years older than anything we have."
Eladra nodded again. "Then we should send the Pathfinders through. They represent our newest technology. We can attempt to talk to them through Enterprise. Hopefully, they'll listen to reason. If not, the Pathfinders can give us an opportunity to prepare ourselves." She looked up towards the ceiling. "I'm sorry to use you like that, Enterprise."
"No need to apologize," Enterprise offered. "My first priority is to protect the citizens of the Federation. My life is quite secondary to that initiative."
"Sending a fleet of starships will appear provocative." V'Driss offered as a last arguement.
"I know," Eladra offered, "but if whoever this is can shut down these conduits that easily, a single ship could find itself cut off from help really quickly. And, I have to agree with Admiral Greer. We weren't at war with anyone until this attack. Whoever this is, they are the aggressors. We need to make sure they can't do this again... one way, or another."