I DON'T OWN STAR TREK
Chapter 2
U.S.S. Miligian
The Sun Bringer, Part One
A Few Years Later...
Captain David Sullivan just gazed out the shuttlecraft's "windshield". This ship was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Instead of discernable nacelles or even a saucer section, the entire ship appeared more like an ancient artillery shell. Sharp ridges were scattered randomly on the hull. Something about this ship told him that this ship was very old, but no sign of age could be seen on its hull.
"Over 1.2 kilometers, fifty-seven decks, we don't even know what its top speed is yet." Admiral Ross said to Sullivan. "You can find that out yourself."
"Sir, I've heard a few rumors that my first officer is a Romulan Sub-Commander and my tactical officer is a Klingon officer." Sullivan asked. "Is that true?"
Admiral Ross looked puzzled. The look faded away. "Yes, its true. The Romulans found out about it at around the same time as the Klingons. Neither side was willing to let us have it exclusively so we came to a compromise." He said to the captain. "I hope this won't be a problem."
Sullivan shook his head. "Of course not, sir. I was merely curious. Will you be the one escorting me around my ship?" He asked.
"No." Ross replied. "I have to get back to Starfleet Command for a briefing with the top brass. Your science officer, Ensign Emily Giano will be the one to have that honor. She's quite an expert."
The shuttle entered the shuttlebay of the massive vessel. A brilliant light that seemed almost blinding filled the viewport and the lieutenant piloting stabbed the comm panel.
"Turn down the lights!" He yelled.
The light dimmed and the shuttlebay's interior became visible. Shortly, the shuttle landed and the hatch opened. Ross shook his head.
"I wish I could show you around but I have to get back." Ross said to him.
"Don't worry sir. I'm sure Ensign Giano will be more than able to help me." Sullivan said to him.
The shuttlecraft departed and Sullivan turned and bumped into a blond-haired ensign. She dropped a dozen PADDs and cursed as she tried to pick all of them up. Sullivan crouched down and began to help her pick them up.
"I don't believe this." She began to say on the verge of shedding tears. "Lt. Mitchell was making me take these freaking PADDs to Chief Gomez. Why he couldn't leave it in the computer and have Gomez retrieve it; I don't have a clue. I'm sorry I bumped into you but I'm suppose to show the captain and I barely know my way around here in the first place. Who are you, anyway?"
"Captain David Sullivan, I assume you are Ensign Emily Giano." He replied with a smile on his face.
"Oh, shit. That must have been the worst impression I could have given you." She said with tears in her eyes. "I know that I probably wasn't your first choice as a Chief Science Officer but when I was offered the position, I was stupid enough to accept it."
He grabbed her on an arm. "Calm down, I couldn't think of anyone better. Your work in solar dynamics helped save the Eaglean system from being destroyed by a supernova. It saved millions of lives."
She pushed her long blond hair back. "The evidence was already there. I just was able to piece it together in the right way."
"But you were able to make senior officers see what you saw and you were able to save them all. You received the Eaglean Golden Feather of Honor. That's one of their highest awards. I couldn't have had a better choice for a CSO. Now, chin up." He said raising her chin with her hand. "Calm down. That's an order."
She appeared to compose herself and picked up the PADDs. Chief Gomez walked over to Giano and took the PADDs. She grabbed him by a shoulder.
"Next time you need some information from Mitchell, have it on the computer or your sonic shower might mysteriously malfunction and remove all the hair on your body." Giano said to him.
With a confused look on his face, he asked. "Is that a threat ma'am?"
"You should know that threats against fellow officers are against regulations. That was a merely a promise." She said laughing leading the new captain away.
Their first stop was main engineering. Sullivan was embarrassed at the fact that this room was massive. A gigantic device in the center of the room pulsated with a crimson glow. He saw a Lt. Commander pointing directions to other engineers. Giano seemed to have a smile on her face as she walked over to the railing and peered at the engineer.
"Garcia, how are you coming with the engines?" She asked him.
As if his attention was suddenly caught, Garcia turned around. He was on a lower level so he climbed up a ladder and met them on their level. His uniform was filthy and his hair was a mess.
"Captain, may I introduce you to Lt. Commander Jeremiah Garcia, our chief engineer." She said.
"A pleasure." Sullivan said.
"Same here." Garcia said. "Em, the jump drive is still being realigned since the last time we used it. I think I can get it online in a couple of hours. Nice to meet you, sir, but I have a lot of work to do."
Garcia went back to work and they exited main engineering. As they were walking down the corridor, Sullivan turned to the young ensign.
"Is he always like that?" He asked.
"Most of the time. I'll let you know though. He is one of the best. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here. Captain Scott personally recommended him. Said something about he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty a wee bit." Giano told him. "Before this, he was the chief engineer onboard the S.C.E vessel, the Wright. During the war, the Wright was beaten to a bloody pulp by five Jem Hadar fighters. They barely managed to escape. With major systems damage, he kept that ship together and away from those fighters till they got back to Starbase 619. It caused him a lot of pain when they had to scrap her, but the cost wasn't worth it."
They continued on and entered a turbolift. After taking it down a few decks, they exited and continued their walk.
"I thought you should meet the CMO, Doctor Draco Ling. A lot of the other officers find his appearance a little startling at first. Personally, I don't see why." She said as they were entering the sickbay.
Sullivan was surprised to see who the chief medical officer was. It was a massive Gorn. Standing a little over three meters tall, he had the frame that any football player would have killed for. The medical blue uniform seemed nearly stretched to its limits. He was barefoot as regulation boots wouldn't have fit him. His deep ruby colored eyes seemed very attentive to his work. It seemed like whatever Dr. Ling was working on. It had his whole attention. Only when Ensign Giano tapped him twice on the shoulder did he notice them.
"Oh, hello. You must be Captain Sullivan. I'm afraid I have to postpone your physical till a later date. I'm still fighting with Supply attempting to get my non-replicatable medical supplies. They are being quite stubborn." Dr. Ling said.
"Not a problem, Dr. Ling. I must say that you'll be the first Gorn I'll have the pleasure of serving with." Sullivan replied. "On that supply issue, anything I can do to help."
With what appeared to be a grin on his face, Dr. Ling said. "Nothing legal I'm afraid. Don't worry, I'll have the supplies before we ship out. Now, if you'll excuse me."
They left sickbay and proceeded to enter a turbolift. Giano smiled as they exited it. The captain knew that this was the bridge. The helm station as well as the view screen was in front of the chamber. The center chair held a female Romulan officer who was attentive to her duties. Sullivan noticed that her uniform wasn't as militaristic as he had known. In fact, he wasn't sure that it was a uniform. A closer inspection showed him that it was actually a T-shirt and a pair of Levi's. Her hair also appeared to have been dyed red. She noticed him quickly.
"Captain Sullivan, welcome aboard. I'm sorry you haven't been able to me Kremor, Son of Gremar, but he is personally inspecting the weapon systems of the Miligian." She said. "It is his duty as weapons officer to familiarize himself with the weapons."
"No problem, I'm sure I'll eventually meet him." Sullivan replied. "Nice impression of him."
Giano gestured to the captain and they continued the tour going through another door. It was an office like room.
"This must be my ready room." Sullivan said walking around the room. He turned to face Giano and saw she didn't dare enter. Her head was lowered and she seemed to be trying to suppress her tears. "Come in, ensign. What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She said walking in. She walked over to the desktop terminal and pressed a key. A large group of data appeared. "I had been reading the translated logs of this vessel's late captain and I feel like I've known him all my life. I've brought the logs up because I thought they might be helpful to you."
She left him alone and he sat down and a message appeared. He was puzzled.
"Open bottom left-hand drawer." He read following the instructions. Sullivan pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels as well as two intricately etched bourbon glasses. With a smile on his face, he read on. "Welcome aboard. From Ensign Giano."
Two Weeks Later...
BUUURR-BUP
"Enter." Sullivan said.
Lenar entered the ready room. It had been two weeks since they left Utopia Planetia and he still couldn't get her out of the outfit.
"What are you reading, sir?" She asked.
"Captain Glgra's logs. He's had a very sad life." Sullivan said. "Apparently, this ship's creators, the Miligians, were involved in a war with a race called Wizarans. Even after the Wizarans destroyed the Miligian's homeworld, this war continued for years until the Wizarans infected them with a bio-weapon that painfully ate away at themselves. Finally, he gave the order to vent the atmosphere of the ship to spare his crew any further pain. He had an argument with another officer named Imaladin about this but she capitulated."
"That must have been a hard decision." She said. "Oh yeah, Admiral Glasgow is hailing you."
"Thanks." He said shoeing her away. He tapped his console. "Admiral, a pleasure to see you again."
"Let's skip the pleasantries, Sullivan. The fleet has been put under high alert because of this." Glasgow said switching to a binary star system.
"That isn't the Amardin System, is it?" Sullivan asked.
"Yes, it is. We don't know what exactly happened." Glasgow said a little displeased. "I'd like for the Miligian to investigate this matter. If it's the result of something artificial, it would be in everyone's best interest to deal with it quickly."
"Understood. Miligian out." He said closing the channel.
He got out of his chair and walked out onto the bridge. Sullivan walked out onto the bridge with a swift stride. He turned toward the helmsman.
"Helm, set course for the Amardin System. Maximum warp." He ordered.
"Bridge, this is Engineering. There's something I've been wanting to try and it could get us there quicker than the warp drive." Garcia chimed in from Engineering.
"Garcia, you aren't thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?" Giano asked him. "If you are though, let's do it."
Sullivan held his hands up. "Okay. Should someone tell the captain what the hell you are thinking about? Oh, wait. I'm the captain. So, what the hell do you think you are going to do now?" He asked.
"Sir, the Miligians had developed a form of propulsion that roughly translated is called a Jump Drive. It would probably take five days, seventeen hours, forty-seven minutes, and fifty-nine seconds to reach the Amardin system. The jump drive would cut that time to about forty-seven minutes." Giano said.
With a look of surprise, he nodded and sat down in the center captain's chair. Giano turned around in her chair at the main science station located at the port side of the bridge. Rapidly, she began to type commands into the console. In Engineering, Garcia was having his fellow engineers almost flying around the bay. Sullivan saw the surrounding space seem to crackle with energy and suddenly, he felt a shift in space. The viewscreen now shown a bright fuschia.
"We will be arriving in the Amardin System in forty-seven minutes." Giano reported.
"What if we needed to change course. Let's say Romulus." Lenar asked.
"Forty-seven minutes." Giano told her.
"Why does it take forty-seven minutes?" Sullivan asked.
"I don't know." She said shrugging her shoulders. "It just does."
Lenar turned toward Sullivan. "Why are we headed to the Amardin System anyway?" She asked.
Sullivan laid back in his chair with his hands on the back of his head. "Starfleet lost contact with the Amardin Three colony. We're going to investigate." He said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have lunch."
She laid back in her chair after closing the channel. Cathey was standing in front of her desk. The young commander didn't seem pleased. Glasgow, however, seemed to have quite the opposite attitude.
"If they find out that we were the ones responsible for what happened, it could be disastrous." Cathey said. "Admiral, why send that ship?"
"Because, we lost control of the Sun Bringer. I still think we should have used it upon the Founders' Homeworld when we had the chance but Sloan thought his damn virus was going to work. My solution would have been quicker and the Romulans wouldn't have become 'allies' of the Federation." Glasgow stated to her. "The Miligian seems like it would have the best chance of destroying it. So, on to other matters. What is the situation with Necheyev?"
"Everything is in place, Admiral. Soon, you will have greater control over the fleet." She said to her.
Glasgow smiled. "And the blame for this one goes to?" She asked.
"Militant members of Ambassador Spock's Vulcan-Romulan Unification movement. This will also take care of the risk of Spock being tortured for Federation secrets." She said with a grin. "Do you approve?"
"I'm quite delighted." Glasgow said turning her chair towards the large bay window behind her. "You may go."
When they emerged from jump space as it began to be called, everyone had a look of shock on their faces. Where Amardin Three had been, a brilliant sun shone in its place. Sullivan had to push himself out of his chair to stand up from the shock of it.
"That can't be Amardin Three." Sullivan said. "How could it happen like that?"
Kremor looked up from his console. He was clad in Klingon armor like any of his kind would be.
"Receiving a signal from a navigational buoy. That is Amardin Three." He said with a little shock.
Sullivan walked over to Giano who was already busy working on the question at hand. He rested a hand on the side of the alcove where the science station was at.
"I think that this was caused by a super-heated proto-matter stream. The signature of the wave resonance I'm detecting is familiar." She stated rapidly pressing in commands. Suddenly, she placed her hands on her forehead and mumbled something to herself. "I can't believe I didn't realize it."
"What?" He asked.
"The Enterprise, at the time of Admiral's Kirk's command of its second five-year mission, encountered a similar wave. A group led by Khan stole the device and it was detonated." She said to him.
"The Genesis Device, but how could you superheat the proto-matter and utilize it as a stream?" Sullivan asked her.
"Maybe if you used trilithium. At the right frequency, proto-matter could travel on a stream projected by the trilithium. The stream would then heat up the proto-matter and execute the pre-programmed parameters could cause this." Giano told him.
He shook his head. "But what would be the delivery system?" He asked.
"How about something 470 meters long?" Lenar asked.
This comment snapped the two of them out of their scientific debate and they looked at the viewscreen. The device they saw looks like an abnormally large probe. It didn't seem like any danger.
"There appears to be proto-matter contained within it." Giano told Sullivan.
"Sir, it has detected us." Kremor told them. "It is moving to intercept and is charging weapons."
"Raise shields. Helm, take evasive action. If that thing can turn a planet into a star, I don't want to even think about what it could do to us." Sullivan ordered.
The Miligian barely managed to get out of the way as the first stream was fired from the probe. Everyone could see the chain reaction beginning to take place as the stream impacted with Amardin Three's only moon. Quickly, the stream transformed the moon's properties from a solid to a gas. The stream generated solar fusion and with a brilliant flash of light, the moon was now a star. It was shocking, to say the least. However, the shock wore off as the probe fired a second stream upon them.
TO BE CONTINUED...
