Author's Note.
Since you poor people have had to wait months for an update I decided put a couple chapters up this time as thanks for your endless patience and your kind lack of hounding.
The basic outline of the plot for this part of the story is ripped off from a Star Trek game called Hazard Team, but with many alterations in order to make it work as part of Augment Gothic. Unless you've played the game recently I doubt you'd even notice without me mentioning it.
Joe Lawyer's Co-Author's Note.
We're back, my friends! I hope you'll be seeing regular updates from us from now on. Keep those reviews coming, even a short one can make our day and keep us motivated.
Augment Gothic
The Forge
The Flighty Temptress. Inside Slipstream Space.
The quantum slipstream drive operated by routing energy through the vessel's main deflector, which then focused a quantum field like a knife, allowing the vessel to penetrate the quantum barrier and enter a quantum realm which allowed the ship to reach speeds many, many times the top speed of the most advanced Warp drive available. However, in order to keep the ship in the slipstream, the phase variance of the quantum field had to be constantly adjusted, or the slipstream would collapse, violently throwing the ship back into normal space. That violent transition to normal space was dangerous enough, imagine returning to normal space in the gravity well of a star, or a black hole, or seconds from impacting a planet.
After we finished the Temptress' construction, B'Elanna had run simulations while still in the construction dock and these had revealed that the ship's computer was not fast enough to calculate the incredible number of minor phase corrections necessary for safe operation. Thankfully, I had come up with a solution to purchase multiple computer cores from the Federation, which we'd then upgraded, to share the burden with the ship's main computer core. Together the corrections should be possible and slipstream travel safe, and all the simulations had confirmed that.
Simulations were great and all, but a shakedown cruise in real space was desperately needed, hence why we'd just taken a short, one hour, fifty light year trip on the way to Earth, leaving roughly 37 light years left in the journey. Any longer and we'd risk getting thrown out of the slipstream at a time and place we couldn't predict, which was what had destroyed Voyager in the episode "Timeless." Our roundabout course had been carefully chosen to give us a much greater chance of reappearing in empty space should something go wrong.
So far, everything had worked perfectly with no malfunctions. We'd come out of the slipstream jump exactly 50 light years from where we'd started out outside the Bajoran system. Now that the jump had ended B'Elanna and I would be taking some time to carefully study the data we'd collected.
Looking at the data from our short trip, it seems I'd been right to act so cautiously by taking such a small, short jump at the slipstream drive's lowest cruising speed. Had we stayed in Slipstream for much longer there would have been an increasing chance of us getting thrown back into normal space, rather violently too. That's not to say the computer wouldn't have been able to handle it, most likely, but it was an unnecessary risk at this point when we truly had no need to be anywhere that fast. With the additional data taken during a real trip through the quantum slipstream, the computer should be able to more accurately conduct simulations for longer trips at faster speeds and possibly refine the way it made those phase variance calculations in the future.
B'Elanna and I, and more importantly, Scarlett, the Flighty Temptress' VI, would be continuously examining the sensor data taken during our short trip and the ship's processing log while making the phase corrections. I'd even be forwarding the data back to Emma (fuck it, I'm just going to call her Hermione from now on) back on the island via the quantum entanglement based communication system to chew it over with the Island's larger and more powerful main computer core. With all of us studying it and working in conjunction, hopefully we'd be able to come up with a more efficient process that would decrease the chances of something going catastrophically wrong at faster speeds and on longer duration trips. Thankfully, this particular trip was a success and we were all still alive.
"The phase variances in the quantum field do increase over time and they also become more unpredictable," I said to T'Maz, after she had waited patiently for several minutes while I went over the data. "Just as we predicted."
Laren sniggered.
"Something amusing you?" I asked of the Bajoran woman.
"I just think it's silly that you can predict the unpredictable," she said.
I just didn't see the humor in it, especially since it could mean the ship's destruction, but whatever lightened the crew's mood was fine with me.
"We can travel the rest of the way at warp, as planned," I said to everyone on the bridge while getting out of my captain's chair. "Laren, continue on course for Earth, warp 1. Engage," I commanded and seconds later the ship jumped into warp.
"Aye, captain, warp 1 engaged," Laren, the ship's pilot for this mission, responded cheekily.
"Continue at warp 1 for 4 hours, increasing one warp factor every four hours till we reach warp 9.5. Immediately report any problems to B'Elanna and myself, though I really don't anticipate any. Now if you will excuse me I am going to get some sleep."
The maiden voyage of this vessel wasn't finished yet, but the most dangerous part was, and it had been a lot of work to get to this point, so I needed some rest.
(Line Break)
The Flighty Temptress. Outside of Normal Space. Exact Location Unknown.
I'd expected something to go wrong with the slipstream drive, no amount of simulations could ensure the safe use of a new technology, well, new to us that is. The Husnock might have been using this technology for a long time, but we had not, and merely watching it being used on the Voyager television show didn't exactly make me an expert by any stretch of the imagination. No, simulations could only point out the flaws a computer could predict, predictions based on its users limited understanding of space time and the technology at hand, and while this was certainly helpful most of the time, the universe was crazier and more chaotic than any computer could understand. Hell, even I had trouble dealing with all the messed up shit in this galaxy and I had a bit of a cheat sheet.
So it was quite a surprise to me when the really strange shit happened only after we left slipstream and began using the regular warp drive, a technology humanity had been using for centuries. Of course it wasn't long after I'd let my guard down and had gone to get some much needed sleep-which coincidentally had involved a rather vivid dream about how I'd spent some of my time during the Occupation-that was when the weird stuff started happening.
While I'd moved quickly to put on my armor and to gather my weapons after the red alert sounded, a probe that my ship had encountered had just attacked my brand spanking new ship. Of course my crew had returned fire and destroyed it just as I'd gotten back to the bridge, which of course led to even more weird crap. Couldn't this shakedown cruise have just gone without any weird shit happening? It felt like every moment of slightly more interesting 'action' in my life had to devolve into a dramatic episode of television.
"I believe that we have been pulled into some sort of dimensional rift," T'Maz calmly reported from her station, having vacated the captain's chair upon my arrival on the bridge.
For a moment I remembered fondly a time in my life when those words would have been limited to the mouths of actors on a TV screen, or otherwise confined to the dialog of science fiction books or video game cut scenes. Then I remembered how utterly fucking boring that life had been, so I decided to suck it up and deal with whatever insanity the universe had thrown at me this time.
"Are we in another reality?" I asked, fearing the answer and hoping we weren't in some dark mirror dimension.
My scientific expertise, which had grown by leaps and bounds since coming to this dimension, didn't exactly cover inter-dimensional rifts, which even the Federation knew very little about. Anomalies like these weren't as common as the Star Trek shows might make you think, it was just that ships called Enterprise were stupid strong magnets for trouble, no matter how rare and improbable, if not impossible it was. As for the alternate reality thing, well, it wouldn't be the first time that I'd entered one of those, my chase after the Collectors into another reality in the old Flighty Temptress coming to mind. Thankfully this new version of my ship was a badass, a warship meant for years of bloody war, a technological marvel capable of cracking a planet in two or traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other.
"Unknown. Sensors, as well as all primary systems, are offline. Until repairs are made, it may be difficult to ascertain exactly where here is," the Vulcan answered. "However, I am detecting several other vessels in close proximity; they also appear to be disabled."
Apparently the best of British understatement was a cultural habit we shared with the Vulcans. I soon discovered that my ship was in fact heavily damaged by the transition and we were only intact and somewhat functional because I was a paranoid bastard who believed in overkill when it came to the ship's thick armor, the stupid amount of inertia dampeners/compensators, the holographic nature of the various consoles, and my decision to disconnect the bridge control systems from the main power grid altogether in order to prevent feedback damage.
If this was a Federation ship, I felt almost certain several of the bridge consoles would have exploded in someone's face already, severely injuring or killing a crew member or two, and the bridge itself would be dark with flickering lights and screens, sparks flying, and lots of debris and smoke. On my bridge, we barely felt a bump, the personal shields surrounding each crew position and the 5 point safety harnesses each crewman were cradled by during emergency situations wouldn't have allowed an injury even if there had been a bump, all of my consoles were fully working and the lights were normal. The Federation could suck it.
Communications, propulsion, weapons, cloaking system, and many other systems were offline though, some due to lack of power, some due to needing repairs. Until power was restored and/or repairs were done, we were utterly helpless, and also stranded.
"I just got this ship working!" I complained to the heavens.
After taking a few deep breaths I regained my calm. It was important for me to control my anger, lest I lose complete control of it. Impulse control and controlling their enhanced aggression was one of the main problems augments faced and could quickly get them in trouble.
"B'Elanna, get damage control online. See if you can get the holo-engineers working and deploy them immediately to begin making critical repairs," I ordered. "T'Maz find out what you can about those other ships. Maybe they can clue us in as to what is going on here. And you should get dressed; I really don't need to be distracted right now. Everyone should grab a sidearm from the armory. In fact, new standing order on this ship, every member of the crew is to have an enhanced omnitool and sidearm on their person at all times while on duty."
"Aye, Captain," the Klingon-human hybrid and my beautiful Bajoran replied in synch.
"Aye, Captain," T'Maz replied.
My rank was actually General, but I suppose naval tradition typically changed the officer's rank to captain when they were captaining a starship.
"Intruder alert!" Scarlett, my ship's VI announced, now displaying a holo image of my ship with red dots indicating where they were in real-time. Internal sensors were still mostly working, thank the Prophets, unfortunately internal force fields and defenses weren't.
Well, at least I now had someone to take out my increasing frustration on.
(Line Break)
The Flighty Temptress. Outside of Normal Space. Exact Location Unknown.
I'd left the bridge quickly in order to repel the boarding parties Scarlett had detected, only it didn't look as if the enemy was actually trying to take control of the ship; they were just grabbing stuff before beaming out, and as far as I could tell there was no discernible pattern to what they were taking.
"Laren!" I shouted over the comm, the person I'd left in charge on the bridge while B'Elanna and T'Maz went to try to fix my ship. "What the hell is going on?!"
Before she could reply I quickly grabbed my anti-proton pistol from the quick draw magnetic holster on my right hip, a weapon I had designed myself based on Collector technology and fired a few times in quick succession. Two of the raiders died instantly as the supremely deadly energy hit them center mass, boring right through their armor like it wasn't there, one shot one kill, but the third shot wasn't lethal for some reason, despite it being perfectly well aimed, which shocked the hell out of me. The alien only died moments later after I fired a few more times, the corpse collapsing bonelessly on top of some boxes that were full of self sealing stem bolts, whatever those were. Obviously they were useful on a starship, otherwise B'Elanna wouldn't have kept them on hand, but I had no idea why.
Before I could even think about what was wrong with my pistol an alien jumped out at me from where he had been hiding, and I dodged a bayonet of all fucking things. The alien had attached a bayonet to his rifle, which for Star Trek was a really odd sight, so I didn't think I was dealing with any of the species I was familiar with, the raider's armor concealing their form. However, I had no time to 'guess the species' as I was too busy trying to overpower the life form desperately trying to kill me. It was much stronger than most humanoids and it actually had some decent close quarter fighting skills.
Since my usually superior strength wasn't going to ensure me a quick victory in this fight, I used my better technique, speed, as well as my superior reflexes to great effect, putting some distance between myself and the alien who wore a set of exotic looking dark armor. When the alien tried to quickly close the distance and impale me with its bayonet I sidestepped and spun quickly so that the pointy thing went past me at the very last moment.
Now I was more or less turning on the spot, and with a smooth motion I gripped the handle of my anti-proton sword resting on my back and poking over my right shoulder. This badass sword was pretty much the closest thing the Star Trek universe had to the light saber of Star Wars fame and was another of my inventions, it's anti-proton edge allowing it to cut damn near anything. The science and technology behind this weapon actually came from the Hur'q/Collectors, but they never would have imagined using it the way I had.
Since the blade edge was made of energized anti-protons, no physical matter could withstand it. Given enough time and effort I could even cut through the thick hull of a starship, as I had done once before when I stole two Collector power cores, so the armor worn by the alien stood no chance of withstanding my attack. In the silence of the corridor, my enemy's head slowly falling off his neck and striking the deck plate echoed loudly. Thankfully, the anti-proton edge cauterized as it cut so there was minimal blood dirtying my brand new fucking carpet. Fucking alien bastards messing up my new ride.
"We're being invaded by some kind of pirates; they seem to be after our supplies," the Bajoran replied just as I finished my foe. "You have to stop them."
While this ship did contain valuable and incredibly advanced technology, our emergency supplies were really nothing special. We had a large supply of rations in the form of food and water, medical stuff, as well as spare parts, in case the replicators all failed during an emergency situation, but most of it had little actual value in trade. Everything we had on hand at the moment was only the stuff my replicators could produce. Part of the mission on Earth was to allow B'Elanna the chance to purchase those emergency supplies for the ship that couldn't be replicated but could easily be sourced from the Federation. So why was this stuff being taken?
I had little time to think more on this behavior that made no sense to me as two more of the armored aliens were now charging up the corridor. For some reason they didn't try to shoot me, they again tried to stab with their bayonets, which was odd because they could just use knives if their rifles weren't working. Maybe the extra reach the rifle gave them outweighed how awkward it was to wield in these corridors?
Moving with reflexes no baseline human could ever hope to match I let the faster of the two aliens move past me as I avoided getting stabbed, and I lashed out, removing his head from his shoulders like the one before.
The second alien's weapon did fire, though, as I sliced him in half from left shoulder to right hip, so I figured that they were just low on energy and were very reluctant to waste it when a blade would work just fine to kill me. If, for some reason, they were running low on even the most basic of supplies like their rifle's energy cell, it would explain this piracy act. Power generation in an era of space travel was stupidly easy, though, so this raised even more questions in my mind and I was starting to get an inkling as to why my third shot from my earlier encounter with the aliens wasn't as deadly as it was supposed to be, as if some of the energy had been leached out prior to my pistol firing and the power cell's recharge rate couldn't keep up it's normal rate of regeneration and storage.
It was rather dark in the corridor, but I could see just fine with my enhanced eyes so I checked out one of the more intact aliens, pulling off its head piece. At first I didn't believe what I saw, but I recognized this species. It was a Reman, who like their Romulan cousins were descended from the Vulcans who'd fled their home world many millennia ago.
They were the slave labor caste of the Romulan people since at least the 22nd century, and no doubt had been for even longer than that. They were forced to work in the extremely hazardous dilithium mines of their world. I didn't know how this group had gotten off their piss poor excuse for a planet, but it hardly mattered right now.
As Remus was a tidally locked planet, the Remans lived on its dark side, in near total darkness for virtually their entire lives, and thus were extremely sensitive to light. Some Remans, if not all, possessed telepathic abilities similar to those shown by Vulcans and Betazoids. How strong those abilities were was a matter of conjecture, but most believed it varied widely.
I recalled from watching Enterprise that the Romulan Senator Vrax employed two Reman bodyguards, and Remans were used by the Romulan Empire as cannon fodder during the Dominion War, often being deployed in the fiercest of engagements where casualties were expected to be high. So perhaps some Romulan ship was using them as cannon fodder in raids, although that didn't explain why they were raiding my ship. Again, this was something thing I could figure out later, once my ship was secure.
Right now I needed to repel these boarders and remembering some of the limited information I had on this species gave me an idea. Right now the inside of the ship, apart from the bridge and engineering, was lit up only with emergency lighting in an effort to conserve power. However the level of light could be easily adjusted by the captain.
"Scarlett, bring light levels up to 150 percent of normal," I ordered. "On every part of the ship."
The sudden change hurt my eyes, and my eyes were far less sensitive to high illumination. The remaining Remans were used to near total darkness, though, and they did not like the change one bit judging by the screams of agony I could now hear.
"Next time bring goggles, you morons!" I shouted out, taking off down the corridor towards the screams with my pistol in one hand and energized sword in the other.
(Line Break)
Once the boarders had been dealt with with extreme prejudice, their weapons and equipment collected and sorted away, their bodies dumped into space, and what supplies they'd not been able to steal had been secured again, we all returned to the bridge in order to share what limited information we had about what was going on around here.
"The Flighty Temptress has been transported to a region of space we are not familiar with," T'Maz reported. "It seems that many other disabled vessels are present here as well. We have detected an energy dampening field surrounding the area that is affecting the powers systems of this ship, and even our weapons, though it doesn't appear to be as effective as it should be because all of our power is being generated via harnessed singularities, which seemingly cannot be fully dampened. The Romulan ship carrying the Remans you encountered seem to be benefitting from this as well, as they also use harnessed singularities for power."
Well, that explained why the Remans hadn't just blasted the ship apart and picked over the wreckage when we were disabled upon arrival, and why their boarding parties had been using bayonets for the most part. The power sources for their weapons weren't working right. They only used harnessed singularities for their ship's main power core; the Collector technology was actually far more advanced as it allowed micro-singularities to be used for power in hand-held weapons. Interestingly, the Collector power cells weren't affected, or were affected, but not to the extent that they would have been using traditional Federation style power cells, for instance. I actually doubt Federation weapons would have been able to fire at all. Those were batteries, merely storing already generated energy in their cells, not generating it anew. Our power cells were actually generating power every second from the leashed micro-singularity at its heart.
My ship's main power core was still working, albeit at a reduced rate, but with the damage to the ship incurred upon the transition to this realm, it wasn't yet possible to tell if the power core was truly being affected by the field to this extent or if there was another problem with the power distribution systems, or some combination of the two. Thankfully, overpowering the ship as I had was coming in handy.
"For the moment, we are trapped like the other ships and cannot escape," the Vulcan reported. "This anomaly is similar to the Tarkanous Gravity Well. 247 ships have been lost there since it was discovered."
Well, that was encouraging.
"The energy drain can't be too bad if the Remans can still use their transporters, unless they've come up with some kind of workaround," I mused.
Which meant that we should still have power for stuff like life support for the foreseeable future. Which was something at least. And we could hopefully figure out whatever workaround they'd come up with.
"We still need to find out as much as we can about our surroundings while we affect repairs," I continued. "And find a way to stop anyone else from stealing our stuff."
That second part shouldn't be too hard as I'd encountered plenty of stuff that would interfere with transporters , and B'Elanna soon told the room that she should be able to rig up a transport jammer of some sort to prevent the Remans trying again. How they were getting through the armored hull which should have refracted sensor scans was another issue, but if they were desperate enough they could have just decided to blind transport into likely open spaces, based on their observation of the ship's shape. That was a dangerous proposition, but if you were desperate enough…
"With only short-range sensors currently operational, we have been unable to locate the Reman vessel," Laren reported. "But I did get a good scan of it when they were boarding us. It's not much better off than we are, low energy levels, signs of long-term unrepaired damage, and only a small crew."
Smaller now that I'd killed quite a few of them, at least the ones that were near me when I'd raised the light levels, but that was what you got for stealing my shit. The rest had cut their losses and transported away with their stolen supplies once they realized that they were fucked and were being systematically executed by a monster with a glowing sword and an energy pistol that still worked. If the ship was operating normally, and somehow they'd gotten onboard through our shields and advanced hull armor, I'd have increased gravity and released my predator aliens, space marines, and xenomorph holograms to kill them all in exceedingly gruesome fashions.
"I have detected a vessel nearby," T'Maz reported, who was now dressed in a tight fitting bodysuit. "While sensors indicate no life signs aboard, I have detected a functioning power source. It is my hope that some of the computer systems on that ship are still operational and will contain information about this area of space and its inhabitants. Gothic, I suggest that you and I transport onto this vessel and retrieve any information that they have."
That would only leave B'Elanna, Laren, and Neela to handle the ship, but since it wasn't going anywhere there wasn't much to handle aside from ongoing repair work. We should have ample warning with short range sensors working if someone else tried to take a shot at us again.
"The mission should be a milk walk as you humans say," said the Vulcan.
I had to sigh.
"That's 'milk run,' not 'milk walk' and you've totally jinxed us now," I complained. Didn't the Vulcans know about Murphy and his capricious sense of humor when you made statements like that?
(Line Break)
With main power limited to a fraction of its normal output, the transporters were relying on backup power and thus had limited functionality. Thankfully, it was enough for T'Maz and I to be able to beam over to the alien vessel. My ship had long range transporters, reaching as far as 5 light years, but they were only working at very close range at the moment, so my ship had needed to get within a few hundred meters of this vessel.
Life support here was barely functioning so I was glad that my Iron Man-like armor had so many features, including the ability to survive in hard vacuum, so the thin atmosphere and cold here were no challenge to me. I had considered activating my armor's cloaking but doing that with an ally nearby was just begging for a friendly fire accident.
My fellow Section 31 agent didn't seem to mind the conditions all that much, but she was Vulcan, a very hardy race, and therefore better suited for dealing with extreme environments. Still, it would be best not to linger here too long as even T'Maz had her limits and Vulcan was a desert planet after all.
"Alright, let's see if any of these consoles are working," I ordered.
I'd never seen this kind of ship before, however I figured that it was Breen, due to the dead Breen in full environmental suit lying on the deck.
"Gothic, I have found the data terminal," T'Maz reported. "Just give me a moment to start the download of this ship's database."
While she worked on that I tried to see what was under a Breen's helmet, and I soon wished I hadn't, as they were not an attractive species under there. When T'Maz looked over at what I was doing she wrinkled her nose, suggesting that there was an incredibly bad smell in the air for her to react. As I had my helmet deployed and was operating with a scrubbed air supply my armor was supplying me, I couldn't tell.
Wisely, I put the helmet back on after taking several holo-pictures of the face and corpse, including some medical scans, while feeling more than a little disappointed. As a long time Trek fan I'd longed to know why the Breen wore their environmental suits. As it turned out keeping their bodies covered and cool just hid the fact that they smelt really, really bad to most humanoids and were ugly motherfuckers. The smell wasn't even from decomposition as this was a sterile environment. Still, I had some serious bragging rights here and the holo pics to prove that I'd seen the true face of a Breen and lived to tell the tale.
"I've tapped into a data terminal here and begun the download," the Vulcan reported.
That was when an alarm went off throughout the ship. Someone must have rigged the computer so that they'd be alerted should anyone tamper with it. Either as part of some sort of trap, highly likely in this situation, or as some hard copied response to someone copying their secret database, also not out of the realm of possibility with a species as secretive as the Breen.
"I have gotten all that I can from this data terminal, we should leave immediately," said T'Maz.
Alas we couldn't simply leave.
"There's a slight problem there. When that alarm went off it set up a jamming field. We can't contact the Temptress and we can't beam out," I explained calmly. Even my synaptic transceiver linkup to the Temptress wasn't working since we went through the rift. Being in a different quantum realm or reality or the dampening field itself had obviously had an effect on the quantum entanglement based communication system.
This was turning out to be a real bad day for me. First my brand new ship takes all kinds of damage, powerful dampening fields, and now a jamming field was getting in my way.
"We need another way off this ship," I said.
T'Maz came up with an idea before I could.
"This vessel may have a shuttlebay or escape pods," she said while checking her tricorder. "If we can get beyond the range of the jamming field our crewmates can beam us back onto the Temptress."
Since that was as good a plan as any, we were soon heading to the section of the ship that was the Breen equivalent of a shuttlebay. Getting my hands on some Breen technology also appealed to me considering that there was still a good chance they'd join with the Dominion again in a few years time. Would that energy dampening weapon they'd used during the War work on my ship?
"I've got point," I said as we reached a large corridor, pistol in hand.
Before long I discovered just who it was that had set up this trap, it was the Vidiians.
They were a race which was afflicted by a horrific degenerative disease, approximately 2,000 years ago, known as the phage. Now their entire technological base, culture, resources and government, the Vidiian Sodality, was centered around medicine and the prolonging of their lives and the survival of their race, oftentimes through any means necessary. As their bodies were continually ravaged by this disease and failed, new transplants and procedures were required to keep them alive and ahead of its adaptations. Usually organs were harvested from the recently dead of other races, but hostile portions of the Vidiian culture became aggressive and willing to do any manner of evils, despite being opposed to violence, in the pursuit of new ways to stave off the phage, often harvesting organs from unwilling donors and performing horrific medical experiments on any outsiders that they encountered.
This was a race based in the delta quadrant and possessed no FTL technology advanced enough to get them so close to Earth in a reasonable time, where we had been before coming here, assuming we were even near Earth. That they were here at all meant the range of whatever force it was that had brought us here extended well beyond the alpha quadrant. These organ thieves were from an area of space that was tens of thousands of light years beyond the furthest borders of Federation space. The only reason I even knew about them at all was because Voyager would soon be stranded in the delta quadrant and had encountered them during the show.
I gunned one of them down in moments as they fired one of their weapons at us, which was a combination of medical scanning device and transporter, which they used to disable aliens and harvest their organs from what I could recall from the show. My Collector weapon was thankfully firing just fine and that allowed me a much higher rate of fire when compared to these aliens who were hardly in the best physical condition, nor the best soldiers, and who were not trying to directly kill me with that tool.
Given how physically weak they were it seemed rather odd that they would leave this ship in such a poor state, which was clearly for a trap for others they'd set up, where the air was too thin and it was too cold for most humanoids to survive in the long term. Maybe they didn't have the energy reserves to make it more attractive or maybe making it too easy would seem too good to be true and their prey would be too suspicious to risk it.
As for them, I realized that they could just be wearing some sort of thermal insulated clothing with a breathing apparatus if they needed to come onboard this craft for any real length of time to collect their prey. The cold here might actually help to preserve the bodies, including the organs.
As I passed by one of the organ harvesting aliens I'd killed, I quickly moved to pick up his device/weapon. The Vidiians' medical science and technology was decades ahead of the Federation, making it both incredibly valuable to me and something my sexy EMH's could study. There was also a device attached to the alien's armband which I didn't recognize, but grabbed anyway. T'Maz quickly studied the armband device, and soon came to a conclusion.
"I believe that this is some sort of homing beacon as well as transport enhancer," she surmised. "It would explain how they were able to beam on board this vessel through the jamming field."
Thinking fast I came up with an idea.
"If it's a beacon that can work through the jamming field, can you modify it so that we can use it to signal the Temptressand use it help them get a lock on us?" I wondered.
Escaping that way would make far more sense than running around in a hostile, unfamiliar environment and having to fight an unknown number of aliens who wanted to harvest our organs.
"It is possible," T'Maz told me after a moment's thought, seeming surprised for a moment. "We will need to find a workspace to attempt the modifications, and you will need to protect me while I work."
(Line Break)
Once my fellow Section 31 agent and I had returned to the ship the whole crew, all five of us, gathered on the bridge so that we could have another meeting and determine what our next steps would be.
"With the information that we have been able to retrieve from the ship and the aliens who attacked us, we've been able to learn a few things about our situation," T'Maz explained to everyone.
She brought up a 3D image of an odd looking structure. It was a huge space station, but unlike any that I had ever seen before, including anything I'd seen on the shows. It kind of looked like a globe on a stand with some odd bits of an outer shell around it.
"This is called the Forge," we were told. "It is what is responsible for generating the dampening field that is keeping the Temptress and the other ships disabled, and it is why we are trapped here."
Something about this seemed awfully familiar to me, but I had no time to use the Vulcan memory enhancing meditation techniques in order to find out what part of my mind held relevant information about this situation, assuming I was even being reminded of a Trek episode.
"Do we have any idea what or who is running that thing? Or why it's here?" asked Ro Laren.
"No. The database had no detailed information about it. For all we know it could be an automated machine of some sort, or an artifact from an advanced, but long extinct civilization," T'Maz replied. "We do know that this phenomenon has been going on for quite some time due to the age of some of the ships we can detect."
The holo image was zoomed out in order to see the area covered by the dampening field, or at least as much of it as we could see within our impaired sensors' limited range. There was a lot of debris scattered about, the scans we'd taken didn't give much detail though, a possible side effect of the dampening field or something that was part of its design, but we did know that these bits of scrap were what was left of many, many starships.
"Even if most of the ships that fall into this place are immediately destroyed," B'Elanna offered, "there should still be more debris out there for us to see."
That was a sound observation and required more thought.
"It's safe to assume that this Forge has a powerful energy source, one with longevity too, given all that it seems capable of doing and for how long," I summarized. "And assuming 'The Forge' is an accurate translation of the name of this station or an understanding of its true function, it's possible that the missing materials are being used to build something."
I could tell that everyone was deep in thought.
"A forge can be used to make tools or weapons," I offered to the group. "And since someone with this level of technology could get raw materials far more easily from many different places, I'm thinking that there is another reason for bringing starships here, something that involves more than simply gathering raw resources, though they may be doing that too."
The Forge didn't strike me as a research base, so I didn't think it was just about the technology being brought in, if that was the case they'd be much more careful about capturing ships intact.
"Perhaps we will have the chance to discover more," T'Maz said, before she changed the hologram again to an image of an atomic structure. "This substance is called Isodesium, a rare chemical element which appears to not be affected by this dampening field."
I assume she had gotten this information from the database we had just raided or from the Vidiians technology.
"Normally we could just replicate the material, however the replicators are not functioning under the effect of the dampening field. Therefore we must acquire enough of the material from local sources to shield one of our replicators from the effects of the dampening field, then we can simply replicate as much as required to shield our main systems."
Simply shielding the power core itself wouldn't solve our problems, as aside from the damage done to the ship, which we still hadn't fully addressed with only the five of us capable of working on the problem, the power disruption network would also need to be fully shielded.
If we could get the Temptress' systems powered up enough then we could destroy the Forge, that would destroy the source of the dampening field, but even that was impossible before we determined what God-forsaken button on that station opened up the dimensional rift in reverse and sent us home. My augmented mind was already planning how to use timed explosives to allow my ship to escape and to prevent more vessels from succumbing to this trap, though I might need to bring out Shiva, the destroyer, given the size of this station.
This was assuming, of course, that we were even in another reality. If we somehow managed to get the warp drive operational we could simply escape the range of the dampening field and then if we were in the right universe, as well as the right galaxy, we could use the slipstream drive to get home. Assuming we could fix all that. And if all those other 'ifs' worked out in our favor.
"Why didn't we have something in place to protect us against dampening fields?" Laren wondered aloud.
That may have been an oversight on my part, but a reasonable one.
"To be fair, an omnidirectional dampening field of this strength and range are beyond the capabilities of any known technology of the alpha quadrant," I said. "And augmented or not, even I can't think of everything. You should be impressed that this ship works as well as it did before we were attacked, considering I designed it practically by myself from the ground up."
The holo image changed again to a strange looking structure. It looked like an old federation ship, an old Klingon D-7, and a few more vessel types I couldn't even identify, had been welded together in some kind of mish mash.
"What is that?" asked B'Elanna.
I resisted the urge to make a joke about modern art and then I stopped being in a joking mood altogether, with a powerful chill going through me, when I recognized the importance of the Federation ship in this amalgamation having the name 'I.S.S. Hood' emblazoned on its hull, rather than 'U.S.S.,' like I was used to.
The Constitution-class was a heavy cruiser starship in the service of the Terran Empire in the 22nd and 23rd century. The design was originally obtained by the Imperial Starfleet when the USS Defiant was transported to the mirror universe through a dimensional and temporal rift.
Given how old this class of vessel was I doubted that any of the original crew were still a threat, it being far more likely that others had since moved into the wreckage, or it might be possible that the ship was now crewed by the descendants of the original crew.
"There are several active groups in this area of space according to my scans and observations," T'Maz explained. "They are all raiders of sorts, fighting over resources, but this particular group is made up of members from many different species who have banded together in order to better survive. The database refers to them as 'scavengers,' rather than pirates, suggesting that they don't steal from the living, but instead invite crews that make it alive through the rift to join them. Only when they are refused do they employ violence. The vast majority of ships don't survive the transition, which speaks well of how soundly you designed and built this vessel, Captain."
That would make them the closest thing to civilization around here.
"They also possess a large amount of Isodesium," T'Maz said next.
"They have a transporter inhibitor field, similar to the one Torres set up," I realized, having now gone over much of the data we had on this group. "So I'll have to fly over there in my armor, cut my way inside, grab as much of this Isodesium as I can, lower the field, and then get beamed back."
I made it sound so simple, but of course I knew it wouldn't be. At least the equipment I had that was powered by Collector power cells weren't fully affected by the dampening field, either by purposeful design to resist such a thing, its exotic and rare method of power generation, or just sheer dumb luck, I stood the best chance of performing this mission.
"Hold on, if they have this Isodesium then why aren't their ships fully operational?" asked Ro.
That was actually a good question.
"It's likely that they lack replicator technology, given the age of the ships we can identify visually, or possibly do not have replicator technology advanced enough to manufacture the substance, or perhaps do not have the power needed to replicate it successfully," T'Maz speculated. "With the dampening field affecting their systems, even partially, they would be unable to manufacture a large amount of the needed material through other conventional methods."
And what little they had in manufacturing capabilities they would also have to devote to the production of everything that they couldn't scavenge to keep their ship running and their crew fed. Plus they wouldn't be able to repair all of the original damage done to their ships when they were brought through the rift in the first place. My vessel was likely going to need a shipyard before it could be fully repaired, which made it even more vital that we reach Earth. There was no chance in hell, though, that I was going to put in for repairs on Earth and risk the Federation or a slew of other enemies learning my ship's capabilities. My mobile repair and construction yard back at my palace fortress on Bajor was the only option I'd consider at this point, but hopefully Earth would be able to supply enough of our needs to get the holo-engineers up and running again. B'Elanna could hopefully get us most of the way back with their help and the replicators fully working again. With her skills, she might be able to get us all the way back.
"Excuse me, I need to prepare for the mission," I told the ladies.
I wished the replicators were still working because if they had been I could have replicated some guns from my time, guns which didn't require power cells since they used chemical energy to propel bullets at supersonic velocities to kill, which obviously wouldn't be effected by the dampening field. If the dampening field was that comprehensive then we'd all be dead by now as humanoid bodies depended on a series of chemical reactions in our bodies in order to keep going.
"Scarlett, please remind me when we leave this place and the replicators are once again running to add several 20th century projectile weapons and a supply of ammunition to the ship's armory," I requested aloud, my dutiful VI, the computer on this ship, acknowledging my order.
It was a shame my armor didn't have any built in blades. Sure, I had my combat knife and sword, but wielding them in the vacuum of space was just asking for them to go floating away should something happen. They also weren't exactly super precision tools for a stealth mission when operating in vacuum and no gravity. Thinking that made me wish that my Iron Man-esque suit of armor could change form and function on a whim, to adapt to my needs as needed, like producing a built-in precision cutting laser/phaser on command, or repairing damage instantly.
Perhaps using nanotech of some kind was the key? What race had I seen use nanotechnology to such devastating effect, taking the ability to near instantly adapt to a horrific, but awe inspiring art form? The Borg, in another reality, had shown me just how powerful nanotechnology could be if used to its maximum potential. That technology was fundamentally what let them successfully assimilate thousands of different species and a huge swath of the galaxy. That was a powerful lesson that Tony Stark could have benefitted from.
With that thought a deluge of scenes were shown to me from a movie that I knew I had never seen before I was put on this wild ride into the Star Trek universe. Tony Stark was a fucking genius of geniuses, my fucking hero. The latest Iron Man armor I saw in those images was awe inspiring in the adaptability his nanotech gave him. He had obviously felt like I often had and worried about being caught naked and vulnerable without his armor at some critical juncture and had built-in the ability to instantly deploy his armor from inside his own body.
I had no idea who that huge purple alien with a ball sack for a chin was, but Tony's new armor was giving that fucker a run for his money. Was this my patron giving me some ideas for their own amusement? Was it Q? Who cares?! This vision didn't exactly give me the design schematics involved, but I felt inspired. Once out of this hellhole I was going to spend some time coming up with a new Iron Man armor design based on nanotechnology.
Unfortunately, that was something I could only think about later. Right now I needed to get ready for the next life threatening mission in a long series of them that my life had turned into, and not let myself be distracted by plans for a future that I seriously might not live to see if I didn't remain fully focused on my objectives.
God, I loved my life!