A Universe of Change: Realized Probability
Disclaimer: see chapter one.
Author's Notes: Hope u enjoy this.
Summary: The Enterprise C and D blunder into the borderland between the Scarren Empire and The Peacekeepers. This fic is a part of AlbertG's Ruinations series and has been written with his express permission.
Chapter Five They're Human
"You're not actually going to go over there unarmed are you?" demanded Captain Picard of Captain Garret as they walked down the hall leading to Enterprise's shuttle bay.
"Of course I am! Hopefully with this gesture, I'll be able to find us some answers," Garret retorted forcefully.
"This human is remarkably hostile and we have done nothing to provoke him! At least take some sort of concealed weapon with you!" Picard argued.
"No. We cannot afford to antagonize him, and if anything happens, I'll just have you beam myself and Commander Sisko out," Garret said pointing out the easy solution to the problem.
Picard looked askance at Garret, but he didn't say anything he didn't need to, she was right about one thing-they needed answers, and fast.
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"Are you sure about this John?" Dargo asked skeptically
"Look D, either this is the stupidest mind frell yet or these guys are for real," John said with a sigh.
"And you're hoping for what?" asked Aeryn.
John took a deep breath and then expelled it rapidly, "I'm not sure actually…at this point it could go either way," he said nonchalantly.
"And if they are who they say they are?" Aeryn asked.
"Well then this day is going to be one fort he record books," John quipped
"And if they aren't?" Dargo said menacingly.
"Then…we whoop some ass then go rescue Scorpy from the Scarrens," John blinked, he turned to Dargo, "That sounds frelled up right, D?"
Dargo nodded sympathetically, "Yeah, pretty much John."
John shook himself and said, "Everyone got their welcome mat ready?" he said as he hefted wynona in his hand.
Dargo pulled out his Quatla blade and nodded.
Aeryn hefted the hand held frag canon she had and indicated her readiness with a nod.
"Then lets go welcome our guests…"
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Commander Sisko sat at the controls of the shuttle as he guided it towards the biomechanical ship.
"She's a beauty isn't she?" commented Captain Garret from where she sat at the navigational console.
Sisko gazed at the alien ship, the lustrous organic curves, that seemed so natural and the shining deep blue colour, "That she is Captain," he replied. He paused a second before saying, "Captain I have to say I don't like this situation ma'am."
"Duly noted commander, but at this junction we don't have a great deal of choice in the matter. This man is the only human we have encountered in this dimension, he is our only link to Earth and anything that resembles home, we're going to have to humor him for now," Garret said grimly, "Just keep your eyes open once we're there Commander."
"Yes, ma'am," Sisko put his misgivings aside and focused on piloting the shuttle.
A few minutes later, Commander Sisko was bringing the shuttle in for landing. As they had entered the biomechanical ship's docking bay they had seen several other vessels there. One of them in particular had sparked Sisko's interest. Off to one side had been a ship almost half again as large shuttle sized, he'd scanned it quickly the sensors had registered quite a bit of power, by Federation standards, for something that small. The other ships had included a couple of blocky transports and a couple of rather unimpressive one-man ships.
Sisko and Garret exited the shuttle and stood in the cavernous bay looking at the inside of the ship. To Sisko the sides actually looked and reminded him of the ribs of some type of large marine animal.
Garret looked around them and didn't see anybody waiting for them, "Hello? Anybody there?" she called out into the supposedly empty bay, her voice echoing.
"Nice and easy!" came the same hostile southern drawl from behind them.
They turned around slowly, "We're unarmed," Garret said and she raised her arms in emphasis of her point.
They came face to face with the human…and he wasn't standing there alone.
The man was standing there along with three others, all of them were armed and pointing their weapons at her and Sisko.
Sisko and Garret froze taking in the hostile and curious looks that were pointed their way.
Sisko took a moment to survey the people in front if him. The most striking one was a tall menacing alien wearing long red robes, who had a scowl on his face with tentacles and red hair draping down his shoulders. He was holding an unwavering strange golden sword-like rifle in his arms. Next to him was an apparently human woman in black leather with a neutral, if cold expression on her face whose whole attitude practically screamed professional soldier; she had a shoulder strap helping her hold up a very large and impressive looking canon of some sort that was also unwavering. There was a shorter gray female also in black leather carrying a black rifle standing next to them scrutinizing Sisko and Garret.
Finally Sisko's gaze came to the human man that was so hostile. He was tall with a muscular build and dirty blonde hair. He was also wearing a black leather duster and black leather pants and a black t-shirt. Sisko was sensing a theme here. He was pointing a black pistol at Sisko. But most startling of all were the man's cold pale blue eyes that shone with a light Sisko had seen before…Insanity.
Garret considered her words before introducing herself, there was no reason to go into the vulgarities of temporal mechanics and explain why there were two enterprises, yet, "I am Captain Racheal Garret of the Federation starship Ambassador." "We're come unarmed as you requested," Garret said clearly to the man, who shifted his aim to point at her with his pistol.
Sisko braced himself; he hoped that captain Garret had noticed the unstable glint in the man's eyes.
"Nice to meet you captain, what about your friend?" he added gesturing at Sisko with his pistol.
"This is Commander Benjamin Sisko…he is also unarmed as requested. We are here alone," she clarified.
"Yeah well you'll forgive us if we have to check for ourselves," the man said sarcastically, "1812!" the man called out suddenly.
Garret frowned, 1812?
A soft whirring noise heralded the arrival of a small round robot of some type the Starfleeters had never seen.
"1812, check 'em," the man said gruffly.
The little robot moved towards the Starfleet officers and extended a small hand. It moved the hand a couple of times over them before twitting at the man.
"Okay, so you're clean. That's one point in your favor," the man said in surprise. Neither he nor his companions relaxed an inch in spite of the confirmation.
"Well then I don't suppose you could introduce yourself now?" Garret asked simply, hoping for the best.
The man began shaking his pistol, "Nope, it doesn't work like that sister. That's just one point; you've got a few thousand against you so far…now we go to-Grandma! Not now!"
The sudden entrance of an old three-eyed woman interrupted the man's words. The woman proceeded to walk towards Garret and smile. She opened her mouth and an unintelligent group of sounds came out of her voice. She waited expectantly in front of Garret.
"I'm sorry I didn't understand a word you said," started Garret calmly.
The three-eyed woman frowned at her and looked at her and then said something else.
"I'm sorry I still don't understand," Garret said helplessly.
The woman frowned again and turned to look at Sisko. She opened her mouth to say something then froze. Her two of her eyes went wide with apparent surprise and the third one in her forehead glowed bright blue. She closed her mouth then stepped back from Sisko as if afraid. She then bolted out of the docking bay and was out of sight remarkably fast for a woman her apparent age.
They all looked in the direction she had disappeared before glanced amongst themselves.
The human man shared a look with the human woman and said, "Okay, that was crazy even for grandma…"
The woman just shrugged helplessly in response. The tall menacing one muttered something in another language and the woman nodded.
"Well, okay now, back to our regularly scheduled program, let's get down to the medical bay," the man said
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The walk to the medical bay was short and quiet. No matter how many times Captain Garret attempted to open a dialogue with the human would rebuff her attempts and the language barrier prevented her from talking to any of the others.
Though, Sisko mused, I doubt they will be any more forthcoming. They looked just as hostile as the human.
They were met in the medical by another alien; this one was a female with long red hair…who spoke English and the hostile man called her Sputnik. Why would someone call her after an ancient Russian space probe?
The female then proceeded to insult them, the hostile human, and the other aliens before taking DNA samples.
They were waiting now for the results and Sisko could have cut the tension with a knife. The aliens were all gathered at one side weapons still pointed at the Federation officers.
"They're human…" the alien 'Sputnik' said in disbelief.
"What!" shouted the hostile man, "That's impossible they can't be humans!"
The dark haired human female said something in her language to Sputnik.
"I have checked my results-I've checked them three times! The scanner says these two are what they say they are!" Sputnik shouted back while pointing at Sisko and Garret.
A strange expression came onto the hostile man's face and he turned to face Garret, who was smiling in a soothing manner, "You see we are human."
The gray female said something to Sputnik.
"Fine then! You come do my work!" Sputnik said in a huff before storming off in a huff.
The man just continued to stare at her as if she was some sort of strange creature standing before him and speaking a foreign language.
The human continued to stare and stare at Garret until she started to shift nervously under his relentless stare.
Garret cleared her throat and said, "As I said before I am Captain Rachael Garret. We mean you no harm. We are lost and trying to find a way back to our home."
"Yeah and what's that got to do with us?" the man demanded irritably.
"We have been in this dimension and time frame for several weeks now and in all that time we have found nothing familiar in this universe…except you," replied Garret seriously.
The man just looked at her skeptically before snorting in disgust, "Well Johnny boy you're still the man everyone wants," he said to himself.
Garret ignored the remark and said, "Will you help us?"
The man holstered his pistol before answering, in an insolent tone, "Love to doll face, but I got to go stop my knowledge from coming out of grasshopper's mouth."
He had to do what! Stop what from coming out of who's mouth?
As far as Sisko was concerned this just reinforced his previous assessment of the man. The man was truly insane; though why these aliens didn't see it he didn't know.
"Do you realize how insane that sounds?" Sisko said.
The man, Johnny by his own admission, turned to stare at Sisko, "So it talks huh? I thought doll face over here just brought you along to look all intimidating, heh," Johnny quipped sarcastically.
Garret just couldn't believe what she was hearing; didn't this human hear what he was saying?
Sisko narrowed his eyes in disbelief and annoyance, "We have introduced ourselves and been remarkably cordial in spite of your hostility, and you have yet to introduce yourself."
Johnny stared at for a few moments before answering, "I'm Fate's whipping boy and pincushion of Scarren-Sebacean hybrids; Commander John Crichton of IASA." The man pointed with his thumb at the tentacled alien, "the tall dark and intimidating Luxan over there is Ka Dargo, the gray Nebari girl next to him is Chiana" flicked his thumb at the apparently human female, "and the gal with the hand held pulse cannon is my girl, Officer Aeryn Sun, formerly of the Peacekeepers-or as I like to call them your friendly neighborhood Space Nazis."
The man's sarcastic tirade of an introduction raised so many questions that neither Sisko nor Garret knew where to begin, though or rather especially his last comment about Space Nazis. That had stated some rather disturbing suspicions and thoughts churning through Garret's mind. If Commander Crichton's words were accurate and the Peacekeepers were 'Space Nazis' as he put it did that mean that the Scarrens were simply put, the 'good guys'?
Apparently Sisko had had the same thought, "What about the Scarrens? How would you describe them?"
The change of topic didn't disturb Crichton; he shrugged nonchalantly, "Them? They're worse." He frowned, "Why are you asking?"
Garret exchanged a glance with Sisko before answering; "Well you see we had a run in with one of their warships a short while ago-"
Crichton cut in, "And barely got away, yeah I get the ide-"
"No! We did not just get away. Captain Picard destroyed the warship," corrected Sisko coldly.
"What!" shouted Crichton in surprise. The Ka Dargo and Officer Sun also expressed their disbelief in their own languages.
Officer Sun then insistently demanded something of them, but they couldn't understand her.
Garret shook her head, "I'm sorry. I don't know your language."
Officer Sun looked irritated and said something aloud.
Crichton looked at her and said, "Sunshine I don't think that's such a good idea-you know how we humans get when aliens want to poke holes in us."
Poke holes in us? Thought Garret in alarm.
Officer Sun just barked something incomprehensible at Crichton and he just shrugged, "Fine have it your way."
Sisko and Garret exchanged alarmed glances. Garret opened her mouth to say something but a sharp pain in her foot stooped. She jumped back to find another of the small robots similar to the one called 1812 holding a needle that had had been inserted into her foot looking up at her. The little robot wheeled away from her and quickly injected Sisko before he could react.
Garret whirled around to face Crichton and Officer Sun, "what have you done!" she demanded angrily. She could put up with extreme rudeness but not someone injecting her with some unknown substance!
Crichton smirked at Officer Sun and said, "This is ones all yours," he took a step away from her.
Garret looked at Officer Sun, "Well? What have you done?" she demanded even though she knew she wouldn't understand the answer.
"Dhjsdjksdk-drds inject you with translator microbes," was Officer Sun's succinct answer.
Garret's eyes widened with surprise, "Translator microbes?" she managed to say.
"They're microbes that colonize the base of the brain stem and allow you to understand most of the languages in Peacekeeper space," Officer Sun explained offhandedly.
They what! Garret instinctively reached back and felt the back of her neck; she exchanged a glance with Sisko who was also rubbing the back of his neck. She turned back to Officer Sun and said, "I presume that there are no ill effects to this?"
Officer Sun shook her head in the negative.
Garret's anger dissipated in light of the fact of the barriers that had been removed by this action, "Well…next time I would appreciate it if you warn me first before doing something like this again." She could see the others watching this interaction with a hint of amusement in their eyes.
"Okay then. What kind of warship was it?" Officer Sun demanded.
"I don't know," answered Garret truthfully, "but it was big-almost four klicks in length."
Four klicks? Thought Aeryn, if she remembered right that was almost four thousand metras long-she froze, "You took out a Scarren Dreadnaught!" she demanded in disbelief and shock.
The other inhabitants of the biomechanical ship stared at the Federation officers in disbelief and shock.
Garret paused, "I'm not sure, as you can guess we're not familiar with the different classes of Scarren warships," was her simple answer.
They all stood there in varying degrees of shock and awe.
Garret took the initiative and asked, "Could you now answer some of my questions?"
Crichton nodded in shock, still trying to imagine how two ships as miniscule as the Ambassador and Enterprise could take out a behemoth as a Scarren Dreadnaught.
"What year is it now?" she asked.
"Uh, its 2003 almost 2004-I think, I lost count after we left Earth," answered Crichton nonchalantly.
Garret's jaw dropped in surprise, 2003? They'd gone back in time over four centauries? Wait a sec what the hell is a twenty first-centuary man doing this far from Earth! Earth should still be recovering from the Eugenics War and World War Three!
Sisko hid his surprise better though he was just as flabbergasted as Garret. Neither one of them had imagined that they'd gone that far back in time.
Garret managed to find her voice, "Wh-Where's Earth?"
Crichton's head snapped towards her so fast she thought that they might have to name a new warp speed factor after him.
"No way doll face, I don't give out earth's location out to anybody I've just met," he said, "No way no how, not going to happen."
Garret opened her mouth to speak again but Crichton stopped her, "Look this all very nice and all that but we're on a limited schedule here. Time is not on our side now-"
"Since when has it been on our side?" Chiana quipped sarcastically.
Crichton glared at her and continued on, "We've got a date on Katratzi that we can't keep waiting, so how about we show you to your shuttle and you go home so we can leave and get to our date?"
Garret looked at them alarmed, "You can't leave we have so many more questions-you're the only familiar thing we've encountered in this dimension."
"Well doll face that's tough we have to go, the more we stay and talk to you the more time the Scarrens have to torture the my knowledge out of Scorpy! And trust me you so do not want that to happen!" retorted Crichton, "You can talk to us when-"
"If," cut in Dargo.
Crichton turned to glare at him, "When. When we get back."
Garret felt a coldness spread across her stomach and reached up and clenched her heart, she understood now why they were in such a hurry and so hostile. She was keeping them from going to rescue their friend from the Scarrens.
"Wait perhaps we could aid you in the rescue? We do have three thousand Starfleet Marines available to us," she said enthusiastically.
Crichton blinked, did she say what he thought he she just said? He shared a glance with Aeryn, a frontal attack on Katratzi would be suicide even for them and with that many troops, "Doll face let me explain something to you, Katratzi is the single most heavily defended fortress in the Scarren Empire-it is know as the Scarren seat of Power. A frontal attack would be outright suicide!"
"Not to mention farbot!" added Chiana sarcastically.
A stray thought struck Crichton, he ignored her and said to Garret, "You want to prove you're trustworthy, fine. Three thousand are too many, but Mr. Intimidation over there and a couple of others to help us would be fine and dandy."
Garret looked Sisko, who reluctantly nodded okay to her unasked question, "Done, give us few minutes and I'll have it all set up."
"You've got one hundred microts doll face," countered Crichton.
Garret looked at him in confusion and Crichton realized his mistake, "Uh…that's five minutes," he explained sheepishly to her.
Author's Notes: Hope you like this chapter, Sorry for the delay and as always Read, Enjoy and Review!
