A/N Sorry for the delay, but the necessities of life have cut into my writing time. Also needed time to research and think on the plot line for this chapter as there is a lot of discrepancy in the opinions of both universes power and capacities. In addition to the previously mentioned: disclaimer all characters are property of their respective owners, this is an unauthorized derivative work. This chapter makes use of ideas derived from Star Trek: The final frontier (1999-2006) by Chris Adamek . Chapter title taken from Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain. 42 is an inside joke for Douglas Adams fans. I also am including a bit of Kirk verse . Some references from Star Trek: Online and Star Trek: Countdown also appear but this will be a tangent/AU for these. I am also adding a synthesis in the plot from a hybrid of: Millennium (1989 film based on 1977 story by John Varley) copyright 20th century fox, BSG:2003, and Battlefield Earth
Chapter 4
'They're after us'
Jack and Sam's holographic forms appeared on the command deck of Atlantis next to commander Rogers and Lt Col Sheppard. Jack spoke first: I told you it was a mistake to put everything we knew in one place and now look every one is after us.
Sam Spoke next. Sirs the 1st group is what the federation refer to as Species 8472, little is known about their culture, but they are highly developed biologically. Jack broke in: Ah yes, being the one in the ancient database has some advantages. According to the ancient database they are experiment number 42 in the conflict with Wraith. They were intended to be shock troops for the war against the Wraith after the replicators failed to live to expectations. It was thought that a biological form might be easier to adapt to serve as a deterrent, However they were intended to be human like as bait with a nasty surprise that would take over the Wraith from within. It did work but not as intended, the new species that evolved became more of a threat and the Ancients sealed the dimensional pocket that they had been gestating them in. In doing so the calculations were off and a new universe was created full of the amniotic fluid that they were grown in. Sam cuts in: It appears they were trapped until the Borg, the cube ships that are approaching, attempted to to assimilate them and they escaped and declared vengeance vowing extermination until Star Fleet and the Borg developed a weapon against them forcing their retreat. The last contact was approximately 30 years ago when an unofficial armistice was agreed to by then Captain Janeway and a 8472 altered to appear human referred to as Boothbe . No contact has been heard sense. My sensors show that they have be immunized against the weapon. Their openness to diplomacy has been mixed they tend to act, The Borg are on the other hand strictly technological in their approach. Starfleet has had a number of conflicts although limited in scope after the destruction of several of their central hubs. They had thought to have been exterminated. Their base technology appears to be based off of some of the 2nd generation Nantes that the Lucian Alliance stole during the Telford incident. The coding has been corrupted but the root command sequence appears to be intact the shutdown codes may still work. As for Section 31 from Star fleet they are considered a rouge organization by many captains according to the logs I accessed. From sensors their technology appears to be more advanced than Enterprise their threat level depends on how much they were able to extract from the core on earth and what ever remnants of technology survived at area 51 and Wright-Patterson AFB, Cheyenne mountain, and other facilities.
Rodney cut in: this discussion is nice but I am now reading over 100,000 ships from species 8472 closing on our position. We don't have that many rounds of drones, and missiles combined!
Atlantis was never intended to be a combat vessel. They will be in firing range in 90 seconds and have jammed subspace frequencies. They are firing, Shields holding.
Commander Shepard was in the throne chair and returned fire. All drones launched, as 10,000 drones left their silos each one maneuvering and connecting with a separate target exploding with it. Drones depleted.
Rodney initiated transport on the 100 mk IX warheads that were on board into the encroaching hoard with devastating effect. As the massive bursts of radiation killed the organic tissue the assault paused as they surveyed the losses and then more ships began pouring from the singularities. They entered beam weapon range. Atlantis fired its newly installed plasma cannons, but the 8472 ships keep coming until they had been struck for an extend period being able to dissipate much of the vast energy focused on them. Rodney replied we can't keep this up power conducts are starting to suffer radiation effects from the power levels we are sending thru them, spontaneous pair instabilities are starting to occur. Naquida-Naquadria conversion is starting we will go critical in minutes. The explosion could destroy most of the known universe.
Commander Rogers ordered: Get crews to peacekeeper 1&2 and launch using the Merlin cloak.
Rodney dial alpha prime and get the remaining personnel thru. Rodney can you focus the energy of the explosion into their realm?
Rodney responded: I can shunt the power on command but I need to be on top of one of the singularities to focus the explosion otherwise I risk rupturing space time here. If we are going to do this it need to be now as we will explode in minutes at the current rate of conversion. I am not sure what effects all that the singularities are going to have on the wormhole. And you realize this is genocide.
Commander Rogers replied: Do it we don't have a choice at this point, Jack, Sam transfer to alpha prime one the wormhole opens. Also transport a core interface with the plans and backup copies of the databases to Enterprise deactivate fail safes to allow full replication interface they may need it.
Everyone lets do this, I know that it is a loss of history but we are just a big floating target and always have been one, activate the Stargate and get us into position. Move people!
Meanwhile on Enterprise Riker asked B-4 are your sensors recording this? B-4 replied : Yes although the energy levels have exceed our calibration limits, we also have EMP and radiation damage to the shields, forward sensors and the outer hull will need a full decontamination sweep. B-4 Continued. Captain I am picking up a power surge from Atlantis, they are moving into the fleet of 8472 towards one of the singularities, sir computer and main systems are going down. Attempting to compensate. Computer and main systems coming back on line, this is odd... before he could finish Sam appeared on the Enterprise bridge.
Admiral Riker, you need to get out of here now I'll explain later.
Riker quickly ordered B-4 Do it, course 180 mark 3 engage maximum warp.
B-4: propulsion systems are being reconfigured.
Sam: don't worry a little gift, engaging hyper drive.
On Atlantis near pandemonium was ensuing. The crews scrambled to their ships and the gate opened with a flickering event horizon. Rodney replaying we've got some instability but it should be safe, setting automated program. As the last man stepped thru the power systems overloaded the shield and singularity focusing most of the energy into fluidic space, a vortex wake pulling in the surrounding ships. With a flash of light everything in the surrounding space disappeared. A moment later in a far off sector of the galaxy the Enterprise appeared in what seemed to be empty space.
B-4: Admiral, we have exited hyperspace, sensors are not detecting any stars or planets but, according to the curvature of space time something should be here.
A moment later a hail came over subspace: Greeting Enterprise, we've been expecting you for some time. Then a large Dyson sphere appeared below the Enterprise which was flanked by Peacekeeper 1&2 . John and Ronan both replied, what no greeting for us. Jack's voice replied, you were already cloaked in the same dimensional field so you knew where you were I was just trying to see the reaction from Enterprise.
Sam came over the com very funny, what do you mean waiting for us, we all just left?
Jack replied, well there was some instability in the wormhole. It sent us back in time and also cut thru a star in the Hobus system that wiped out the planet of a war loving aliens the Romulans, then tried to destroy the rest of the galaxy but thanks to the sacrifice of a Vulcan named Spock the galaxy was saved. We've been here about 15 years, it took about a year for the star to blow, and we didn't think anything of it as the system was uninhabited but material from one of the planets was drifted to the core of the star and with a bit of the subspace link to the explosion it went out of control. Given the time it took to get everything ready and process our intelligence on the galaxy at large we weren't prepared to offer any help so stayed in the shadows. Docking berths have been prepared. Prepare for transport.
A flash of light and the 3 ships were in the midst of a massive ship yard, with an innumerable number of ships filling the berths. Docking arms were being extended and mooring beams enabled. Jacks last message was welcome aboard. Riker replied: Acknowledged I see you in about 20 minutes. Senior staff to the briefing room.
La Forge spoke; I've disabled audio & visual pickups for this room and erected a damping field.
B-4 Continued: Admiral from my analysis the Enterprise has bee modified as follows: Computer core additional data and interface to a quantum computing core. The root personality of Sam has assumed computer function, computational power has been increased by 200x. Our warp/ slipstream drive systems have been integrated and modified to allow hyper-drive FTL. This has resulted in a 200 fold increase in maximum speed even comparing with Star Fleets fastest slipstream drives. Drive efficiency has increased by over 500%. Effective shield power has increased by 100% but power requirement have decreased by 200%. Sir we also need to ask as I am detecting over 1 trillion humanoid lifeforms on the interior surface.
La Forge, injected: There appears to be no down side to the modification, It would have been nice to have been asked. As to were we are now, we appear to be in a phased pocket of dimensional space that is able to view normal space time but not to be effected by events there similar to the phase cloak that you had worked on as an ensign. From sensor logs it appears 8472 was destroyed. As for the Borg we need to ask our host.
Riker Responded, I agree lets get some answers. I am getting tired of of someone else pulling the strings. We are to meet our hosts at docking port 3. I want tricolors and side arms.
At the air lock they were greeted by General O'Neil, Samantha Carter, Commander Rogers, and John Shepard. General O'Neil spoke up: Greeting to Alpha prime or as we call it Novus domus Taur'i (new home of the first ones). And to answer your 1st question. No we are not holograms, as for the population the Asgard had placed probes throughout the galaxy. They held a sanctity for intelligence. When the probes picked up the destruction on earth and the loss of life to the Borg in other parts of the galaxy, they began to scan and copy the conciseness and physical patterns of those who were being lost. We discovered this about 5 years after we arrived here and transferred them here then used their cloning technology to create new bodies and transfer the consensus into them. We then used a version of the ancient repository transfer device to help synchronize their knowledge of the new technologies that were confronting them and what was happening. Many accepted their rescue and are among us some couldn't handle it and so... But the rest are with us now and we have a vibrant civilization going now. As for your Borg friends, shutting down and reversing the assimilation has proved disastrous, we have contacted the uni-matrix zero drones and transferred their minds to new bodies the others have too much damage to be individuals again. Final solution is launching now: a little idea we got from Voyagers logs. A swarm of self directed munitions is en route now to the remaining Borg. Simultaneous detonation in 5 4 3 2 1. If you would like to meet in the conference room. We will be escorting section 31 to a transport location and bring the commanders here for a little chat. We have a proposal for them based on the observations of the ancients in their time travel experiments we are proposing setting up a time wave zero temporal enforcement organization. We also are launching an expedition to find any survivors of the Icarus-Destiny expiation, as well as inspection of the situation in Pegasus.