Sparhawk and Nycz rose from their seats and stood next to their captain. They all shared the same look on their faces. Zofchak walked through the turbolift doors to head to the engineering station on the main bridge. He was barely out of the turbolift when he noticed the activity on the main view screen.
"This is like the Borg's version of Wolf Three Five Nine." Moran said.
Her analogy was not far off. Even though thirty nine starships were lost against the Borg, it looked as if the Borg fared worse in this battle. Due to all of the debris Allensworth couldn't decipher how many cubes were actually here. The debris field was dense like an asteroid field and that piloting the mighty Sovereign class starship would be no easy task.
"What could've done this?" Nycz asked.
"Could it be Species 8472?" Sparhawk asked.
"Merriell, are you picking up any biological material amongst the debris?" Allensworth asked.
After a few seconds of pressing a few commands into his console, he responded. "Negative, sir. I am, however, picking up traces of antiprotons."
"Antiprotons?"
"Mulitple items these days use antiprotons, sir." Merriell said. "Such as Romulan disruptors leave a residual trace of antiprotons, Jem'Hadar ships use antiproton beams to detect cloaked ships and even our main deflector dish is charged with antiprotons."
Something didn't sit right with Allensworth. He felt the answer to this mystery was so incredibly easy to figure out but he could put his finger on it. Nycz noticed his discomfort.
"I highly doubt Romulans could've done this to an entire fleet of Borg cubes." Allensworth said.
"Weren't the Borg cubes in orbit around a planet?" Sparhawk asked.
"Yes, sir. However, I'm not finding any traces of the planet at all."
"Are we in the right area?"
"Yes, sir but no planet. In fact there are no planets in this solar system. It would seem that the planets were completely destroyed."
It was on the tip of Allensworth's tongue. He knew the answer to this but it wasn't coming to him. Something that destroys planets and gave the Borg a pasting. Sparhawk turned to Allensworth.
"Borg cubes destroyed, a planet gone. It sounds like 8472's handy work." He said with a lowered voice.
"That's true, but 8472 doesn't use antiprotons. It's something else. I can feel it."
"Helm, lay in a course to Starbase 135 and we'll continue with our investigation there." Allensworth ordered.
"Aye, sir." Moran said as she punched in the coordinates and sent the Alexandria into warp.
A short time later, the Alexandria came out of warp in the Compdi system. Sensors beeped at the ops station. Merriell pressed a few buttons to figure out what the sensors were picking up.
"Sir, Starbase 135 is no longer in orbit."
"No longer in orbit?"
"Yes, sir."
"Scan the planet's surface."
"I'm picking up approximately eighty four thousand life signs on the planet's surface but for some reason sensors can't tell what they are. It would appear that something on the planet is blocking the ship's sensors."
"This planet is supposed to be uninhabited." Sparhawk said.
"Go into high orbit around the planet. Sparhawk, lead an away team down to the planet and see if you can figure out what is going on."
"Aye, sir." Sparhawk said walking past the captain towards the turbolift. Merriell, Fulks. You're with me."
The two bridge officers left their stations to accompany Sparhawk in the turbolift. Lieutenant Kell Perim took over at ops while the long, blonde haired Ensign Olivia James took over at Tactical.
The three Alexandria officers materialized in a grassy clearing. The sky was overcast and the wind slightly blew against them. Fulks slightly closed his eyes not expecting to be greeted by the wind. Merriell pulled out his tricorder and the instrument immediately came to life. Sparhawk turned to him in a semi non-patient wait of his report.
"Sir, I'm picking up multiple life signs over in the direction."
The three of them began to walk in the direction of the life signs.
"Is the crew of the starbase?" Sparhawk asked.
"Yes and no, sir."
Sparhawk gave him a confused look.
"Everyone down there is all Borg."
A second later, they reached the top of the hill and they could make out the definite remains of a spacedock style starbase. The circular shape, the multiple piles of debris with starfleet markings on them. They found Starbase 135 and it had been assimilated by the Borg.
In orbit around the planet, the Alexandria glided through the dark, cold vastness of space. Captain Allensworth sat in his ready room, trying to figure out what could be responsible for the destruction of the planets and the Borg fleet. At that moment, the door chimed.
"Come in." He said.
The doors slide away from each other revealing Counselor Nycz to be on the other side.
"What can I do for you, Counselor?"
"You seemed to be troubled, sir."
"Just slightly. I feel as if someone else has encountered this problem before."
Nycz thought for a moment.
"I don't recall any starship ever encountering wreckage a Borg fleet." Nycz said.
"I do. When Voyager first encountered Species 8472, they had destroyed fifteen Borg cubes with ease. It would seem that they are back but we're not picking up any residual evidence that would lead us to believe that it was them." Allensworth leaned forward and pressed a button on his LCARS display. "I think it has something to do with the Enterprise. Maybe not the Enterprise-E but maybe with an Enterprise from the past. Say like Captain Kirk's time."
But before he could do anything on the LCARS screen, the intercom chirped on.
"Captain," It was Lieutenant Perim. "Sensors have picked up that one of the planets in this system is breaking up."
"Breaking up?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'm on my way."
The ready room doors opened and Allensworth, followed by Nycz, walked onto the bridge. Allensworth stood in between Moran and Perim, facing the view screen.
"Sir, sensors are detecting an object of unknown origin in the planet's place and is moving towards the planet closest to its position. Which is this planet, sir."
"On screen." Allensworth said.
The object appeared on the screen and Allensworth eyes widened. There was no mistaking it now. This object looked like a tornado turned sideways with a blueish-gray color to it and a large opening on one end. Only one other has been ever encountered and it battled two Constitution class starships, destroying one of them. Some referred to this object as a planet killer but Allensworth liked to call it a Doomsday Machine.