Discontinuity: Indefatigable
by chaos_eternus

Two

Ewing glanced away from Picard, slightly annoyed as the bleeping of a priority message reached his ears. He tapped at the computer buried in his desk, quickly pulling up the internal IM window.

*Analysis Complete, one week to bubble collapse. Hailey*

Ewing grimaced, "well it's confirmed, we have one week and then we lose about 35% of our combat effectiveness. We need to move now before we lose the advantage over Osiris, the 'universal bubble' I'm told would have collapsed over her ships by now."

Picard raised a slightly surprised eyebrow, catching the odd tone in Ewing's voice, "You don't understand the Universal Bubble concept?"

Ewing shrugged, "Hailey's a good kid, knows what she is doing but she has not figured out how to explain advanced scientific concepts to those with minimal knowledge of the sciences. In fact, she tends to get borderline insubordinate if she tries."

Ewing candidly had to admit to himself that borderline didn't really apply, but for those who truly knew their jobs, you had to put up with a quirk or two.

Picard sighed, sipping at his Earl Grey tea; he wasn't letting it go cold. Not when it had been made from the leaves for him, instead of replicated like he was used too. The difference in taste was subtle, but it was there.

"It is a relatively simple concept. You cross universes; you bring a 'bubble' of your original universe with you. It acts as a cushion, protecting you from differences in universal constants and the like for a time but is constantly eroded by the host universe as, to the host universe, it is unnatural, a thing that should not exist. As soon as the bubble is overwhelmed by the host universe you have to rely solely on the rules governing the host universe."

Ewing rolled his eyes exasperated, "Now that I understood, why couldn't she have just said that instead of using five and six syllable words that go straight over my head?"

Picard snorted, unsuccessfully hiding it behind his cup of tea.

Ewing just shook his head, "right, so that explains why Enterprise was able to function in our universe despite the fact that many of her systems, according to our knowledge, albeit limited, of the universe around us suggests they shouldn't work. You're Phasers for one, though they didn't give to good a showing against the Goa'uld"

Ewing smiled sympathetically at Picard as he winced, but continued, "Replicators being the next obvious example, though they could in theory be reworked."

Picard grimaced, "If we had stayed much longer, we would have lost efficiency across the Board too, all our systems are designed with one set of physical constants in mind, as soon as the bubble vanished and they vanished, even those systems that still worked would have felt the effect."

Ewing placed his cup down on his desk, looking seriously at Picard, "Which is why we need to move now, whilst we still have the bubble to keep us fully operational. Osiris no longer has that benefit so we would have the advantage, you need to persuade Command to get off their arses and take that advantage, while its there!"

Picard paused, then, a sad look in his face, placed his Cup back down on Ewings desk.

"Command is trying their best but we have been losing ships left right and centre. We never got the chance to rebuild the fleet after the Dominion war before the Virogen crisis hit, not to mention all the ships and personnel we lost to Mirror Universe Infiltration before the we managed, mainly thanks to Preserver manipulation, to destroy the link that was holding the universes so close together" Picard grimaced, "And then theirs the Borg."

Ewing nodded what he had heard of this universe bogeymen had kept him from sleep for several nights. He had, up till then, doubted he could find anything worse then the Goa'uld but the Borg had managed to claim that pedestal.

It wasn't a comforting thought.

Picard glanced back at Ewing, " Enterprise will take the lead of the Federation contingent when its starts to arrive tomorrow. The Klingons will start to arrive the day after along with small contingents from the Romulans and the Cardasians"

Ewing shot Picard a startled look, "I thought you didn't trust the Romulans?"

Picard nodded, "We don't really, but we have to get over that. We need them as allies; we want them as friends so we do need to get over our prejudices. Still, they still have a Secret Police force, the Tal'shar and that doesn't sit well with Federation sensibilities. At least the Cardassians ended theirs once they realised how much they were manipulated and controlled by them."

Picard sighed, his thoughts dark, troubled, "It took a war for them to realise that though."

Ewing nodded soberly, "Some lessons can not be learnt by being told them, some you have to learn only by experience."

"True," Picard nodded, his thoughts dark for a moment as he considered their own Section 31 and then rose, "I must return to my ship, Good Day Commander."

CT-895-XC: Osiris Controlled System

Osiris was pleased.

Her slaves had so far managed to add two Ha'taks to her fleet with another two almost complete. More ships to add her in her quest for domination over this pathetic universe, to help her to her rightful place as God over all the lesser beings that infested this space.

Of course, the new vessels were not up to the standards of her Anubis enhanced ships, frankly she might use the technology but it was way beyond her and if she couldn't understand it, the so called 'scientists' from her slave population wouldn't have a chance.

The lack of certain minerals didn't help either, as yet she had found no Naquadah and trinium was very scarce. It meant using less resilient local materials and technologies, meaning less powerful ships.

It also meant she lost some of her 'toys', they just didn't want to operate in this universe which was a pity but she had managed to affect repairs to her ships that brought their effectiveness back to a somewhat normal level.

That was an unexpected consequence of being in a different universe, one she hadn't anticipated, though she would never let that be known, Gods knew everything after all. Different universe, subtly different rules.

Still, she had one advantage and one she would have to use if Anubis or Maktenos ever managed to seize the Intergate and come after her. She had some of this universes technology and she would soon move to acquire more.

She would have to be more careful this time though, her heavy handedness had lost her her first prize, the Hermes had automatically destroyed itself because she had tried too hard, too often to breech its encryptions and get at all the secured data within.

Still, she had walked away with transporters that, whilst a little slow, actually worked in this universe. Those were already integrated into all her ships and she knew her 'scientists' would come up with more tricks from the little data transferred from the Hermes first. They knew what would happen if they didn't after all.

Osiris grimaced inwardly, not allowing any sign of her inner thoughts to show where the Jaffa might see and wonder. She still had a problem, the number of Jaffa she had was dropping slowly, thanks to rebellions, riots and just plain disappearances. But with the increasing size of her fleet she needed more Jaffa not less, she couldn't afford to lose them like this and she certainly didn't like having slaves appearing as part of her ships crews. Not only was it repellent, slaves were not worthy of serving as crew, and could not be trusted that far, but it was also a sign of weakness.

Osiris straightened, her mind made up. She would seize another world, now. There was a world of primitives nearby that would see she was a true God, not blasphemously call her technologically advanced and inherently evil, she was a God! Gods by their very nature could not be evil.

Still, these primitives would make more pliant slaves and she would move those who had proven their loyalty to this new world. Then she would make an example of the old.

"Kree Jaffa!"