Epilogue

Procyon V

Somewhen

The battle was not going well.

The defenders had fought with strength, skill and raw determination as always, but the enemies who faced them kept coming. The Temporal Liberation Front were wackos of the worst kind. Fanatics were always a problem, but when they commanded starships and gathered allies form many disparate sections of the timeline, things got rough. The Sphere Builders were nothing if not tenacious, always trying to recreate the Expanse and spread their influence into other timelines. They had been thwarted over and over, but the very nature of time meant that they kept coming back. Destroy a ship, kill a crew and they came back. The Annorex was not as powerful as it had been under Noye's command, barely a shadow of its former horror but it was still dangerous. It wasn't here, but it didn't really matter. Lots of other enemies were still coming.

"They got the Poh!" Came from the tactical officer as she fought her controls.

"Helm! Evasive course three alpha! Tactical! Get more fighters up." Grimix Xadas, the captain of the Federation timeship USS Juliet was not a happy Bolian. He was a scientist by trade, not a warrior although he had learned hard lessons in the worst school possible. Temporal combat was no joke at all. Eternal class ships were fast and well armed, but were not the dedicated warships that the Chronus class and Ouroboros class were. They made up for that in some ways, but they were not as durable or sneaky. "Any word from the Pastak?"

"No, sir." The second officer kept her tone calm, but one look at her eyes said the truth. She knew the odds were not good. The USS Enterprise-J had been forced to retreat by the latest incarnation of the Annorex and without her, this battle was much harder. Any temporal ship would and did withdraw on taking catastrophic damage, but the enemy always had more ships than Starfleet did. The defenders were being whittled own by sheer weight of numbers and the temporal portals just kept appearing.

Then their day got worse.

"Sphere!" Came from the tactical officer and the captain's gut clenched. Without the Enterprise to cut off the Sphere Builder's reinforcements, this would not end well. A quick glance at the display showed four remaining defenders, each beset by a horde of smaller ships. The Poh had been the only ship with a cloaking device and the raider had worked to close the temporal portals. Captain S'eeris was good, incredibly good but no matter his skill and cunning, the enemy had numbers on their side. With him gone for now, they were losing. Only one sphere so far, but they would make more and if they managed to make an Expanse? This would get very bad, very fast. The newest Enterprise was the only ship capable of destroying the spheres and even it wasn't invincible as had been shown.

"We have to hold them off until the Enterprise gets back." The captain said quietly and the second officer nodded. "Status?"

"Shields at sixty four percent." The tactical officer called. "Beams and torpedoes ready. Fighters away. Engineering reports ready, sir." Temporal ships were very durable and temporal operatives knew the risks, knew the dangers. They were the best of the best, often gathered from places in the timeline where they would not be missed to assume duties that no one else could handle. "Incoming warp signatures." The tactical officer called. Then she paused and frowned at her displays. "Not… clear?"

"Friend or foe?" The second officer snapped. The captain was busy, his mind whirling as he planned approaches, patterns. They could not attack a sphere alone and hope to win, but, they had to!

"I can't tell." The tactical officer said weakly. "I can't tell if it is jamming or what, but they are not clear." Then she blanched. "Portal! New portal, range six! Enemy ships appearing! Range three!"

"Gravity Well, point blank!" The captain snarled and the ship lurched as space warped in front of the ship and the enemies who had been trying for a sneak attack were pulled into a sudden warp in space-time that mimicked a black hole in many ways. It wouldn't destroy the ships, but it would distract them, damage them and hopefully disable key systems. He was about to order weapons fire when the ships in front of his took multiple hits from another direction.

"What the-" Came from several people as half a dozen different types of weapons hit the helpless enemy forces in front of them. Disruptors, phasers and other more exotic weapons hit the TLF ships and wrought havoc across the fleet. But then one of them managed to get a salvo of torpedoes off, torpedoes that spun towards the Juliet.

They didn't arrive.

Instead, a massive white thing eclipsed the Juliet's view of the aggressor and everyone gasped as the Iconian dreadnought took the blasts that would have damaged the timeship, possibly quite badly. The Iconian ship shrugged off the titanic explosions as inconsequential. A battered D7 class cruiser and a Romulan T'Liss class warbird joined on its flank along with a Voth science ship and an Undine cruiser. And then, the flagship of the incredibly powerful force moved to stand with them, between the Juliet and her foes. Her escorts were up and every enemy in the area was suddenly retreating for all the good that would do them. Old the Jupiter class might be compared to the timeships that fought here, but no one with any brains took this one lightly. Even without her allies, that ship was a legend among the temporal warriors as was her captain.

"We are being hailed." The tactical officer said into sudden silence. "By the USS Denali."

Sudden relief had the Bolian captain slumping a little, but he nodded. "On screen." He straightened his tunic carefully as the screen went live and showed a face that few had seen recently, but it hadn't changed at all. The face, the hair, the meridian, all the same. "Captain Pangolin."

"Captain Grimix Xadas." The most famous (or infamous) Iconian by adoption nodded, her face serene as always. "The Enterprise was delayed. We were in the area. We don't always agree with the Federation, but this, my family can all agree on. These scum need to go. If you don't mind the help." Was that a smile that quirked her lips for a moment?

"I think there are enough enemies to go around, Captain Pangolin." The Bolian felt his own face starting to to curve and fought it. Decorum and all that. "And, Captain?" He continued when Mary Owlna Pangolin would have turned away. "It is an honor to meet you."

"You say that now." Mary smiled but it was melancholy. "We do not and will not see eye to eye on a lot, but none of us want an Expanse growing here."

That was the simple truth. The Iconians had been rebuilding their world for centuries with help from many displaced beings. Mary and her fleet were the Iconian's chief defense against temporal incursions, since the Iconians had no way to defend against such themselves. The Federation and Iconians had butted heads many times over the centuries but it had never gone beyond diplomacy. Mary had worked hard with her family to make that so and Starfleet understood that all to well. Respect where it was due.

"Then what say we do something about that?" The captain of the Juliet said with smile that was more feral than friendly. Mary's smile matched his and she nodded.

The screen clicked off, but now, the motley flotilla was surrounding the Juliet as the enemy forces regrouped. It didn't matter. Starfleet had a job to do and allies to do it with. Even if they had to do it over and over with no chance of ever changing anything, they did as they always had and would. Defended.

It was a good day for the Temporal Liberation Front to die!