9
CHAPTER 1: PREMONITIONS
STARFLEET DATABASE
ENTRY: "BARISA SECTOR"
DESCRIPTION:
Location of large-scale Federation mining operations from 2289 until 2373, when the outpost was destroyed by a Dominion fleet. Sector is rich in raw material, but contains many navigational hazards including an asteroid belt, and several nebulae that can damage a starship's systems. Sub-warp travel is recommended.
Captain's Log, Stardate 54550.8
With the Dominion War over, and matters stabilizing in the Alpha Quadrant, the ENTERPRISE is helping to re-establish an outpost in the Barisa Sector. Though we are not expecting any conflicts, there have been rumors of renegade Dominion ships in the area who have refused to accept the Dominion-Federation treaty. The ENTERPRISE is being sent to protect the outpost, should any hostilities arise.
Picard woke up to the chirping of his combadge: "Captain, we have arrived in the Barisa Sector." It was the voice of Commander Will Riker, the ship's First Officer.
"I'll be there in a minute, Number One," Picard yawned as he sat up. He was about to reach for his uniform when he froze. Many voices in his head were mumbling faster than Picard could process, but he heard a few key phrases from their utterances. The Borg were up to something.
Five minutes later, Picard walked through the doors of the turbolift onto the bridge of the Starship ENTERPRISE. "Mr. Data, report," he said out of habit.
The android turned around in his seat at the helm and cocked his head to the left. "Sir, I believe Ensign Lucetti is the Ops Officer at this time."
Picard hesitated before answering, not quite realizing his mistake. "Thank you, Data. Ensign, report."
"Sensors are picking up Dominion attack ships heading this way."
"All hands to battle stations," Picard replied. "In the meantime, hail the HANCOCK and inform her crew that they may begin construction as soon as possible."
"Aye, sir." Lucetti pressed several "buttons" on her touch-screen interface and sent Picard's instructions to the other ships. On the viewscreen, the construction ship USS HANCOCK moved toward the moon orbiting Barisa Prime, and its squadron of worker bees was soon at work, building a mining platform with the material carried in the mother ship's cargo hold. Much of it was pre-fabricated, meaning the parts of the station were already there; they just needed to be unfolded "snapped" together.
The ENTERPRISE and the HANCOCK were escorted by two AKIRA-class cruisers, the USS JUPITER and the USS TEMPLAR. After this mission, the JUPITER was scheduled to be upgraded at Utopia Planitia Shipyards with an experimental weapon, while the TEMPLAR would stay in the Barisa Sector until another ship came to relieve it two months hence. The ENTERPRISE was there simply to transport the personnel necessary for staffing the new outpost.
"Captain!" Lucetti cried, "Sensors are detecting several Dominion attack ships heading towards us!"
"Go to yellow alert," Picard said calmly. On the viewscreen, the HANCOCK was just finishing the mining platform and was beginning construction of a new Starbase. "Mr. Data, dock with the mining station so we can offload our passengers. Ensign Lucetti, inform our guests that they should prepare to disembark in the next five minutes."
Lucetti activated the ship-wide PX and announced that the miners and starbase personnel should prepare to leave the ship. At the same time, she also switch the viewscreen to show the Dominion ships. A lone attack ship appeared in the center of the screen, with three other ships in the background. The lack of formation was unusual by Dominion standards, but then again so was military defeat.
"Captain, the Dominion ships are powering their weapons!" called Lieutenant Commander Thomas McClure from the back of the bridge.
"Go to Red Alert!" No sooner had the words left Picard's mouth than the bridge lighting turned crimson, and wall panels throughout the ship blinked a similar color, while a siren whooped, calling the crew to arms. "Are the miners off the ship yet?"
"Almost, sir," responded McClure. "Security reports they'll be gone in a minute."
"We may not have a minute," Riker muttered. He tapped his combadge and said, "Riker to Engineering. Geordi, beam the rest of our passengers onto the mining station. Now."
"I'm already on it, Will," came Geordi's familiar voice through the communicator. A moment later, "They're gone."
"Disengage the airlock," Picard ordered. "Data, keep us between the enemy and the HANCOCK." The ENTERPRISE undocked smoothly from the station and slowly maneuvered away.
"Helm, go to one-half impulse. Inform the JUPITER and the TEMPLAR, and have them stand by."
"On it, sir." Lucetti opened a channel to the other escorts, and said "TEMPLAR, JUPITER, stand by for combat. We are engaging the Dominion."
"Tell the JUPITER and TEMPLAR to engage the lead ship. ENTERPRISE can handle the other two attack ships." Picard did not wait for his order to be carried out before he continued, "Mr. Data engage the stragglers. Mr. McClure, you may fire when ready."
The ENTERPRISE shook as its torpedo bays fired, sending powerful blasts of energy into the hulls the opposition. A quantum torpedo creates a "null" zone in its target's shield as it passes through and impacts, and its upgraded warhead causes even more damage than the earlier photon torpedoes. The first wave of Dominion attack ships were dispatched in short order.
"Mr. Data, locate the remaining targets and lay in an intercept course," Picard ordered. "Ensign Lucetti, open a channel to the JUPITER and the TEMPLAR."
"Channel open, sir."
"JUPITER and TEMPLAR, we are going to engage the remaining enemy forces before they can regroup. Follow my lead."
"Lead on, Jean-Luc!" Captain Picard was classmates with Captain Rodham from the JUPITER at Starfleet Academy, so they addressed each other on a first-name basis much of the time.
The concentrated firepower of three Starfleet warships is unmatched by anything less than a Dominion heavy cruiser, and even a Dominion ship's shields must give way in the face of such a relentless barrage. The remaining enemy ships did not last long enough to return fire twice.
"The area is secure from Dominion ships," reported Ensign Lucetti, "But I am reading some strange temporal distortions in the area."
"On screen," said Picard.
A spiraling wormhole opened in the middle of space, and a starship exited it. By the nacelles and saucer configuration, it was obviously a Starfleet vessel, but the strange device attached to the saucer made it otherwise unfamiliar, although it somewhat resembled a SOVEREIGNÂ-class starship. The ship was heavily damaged, as evidenced by the severe scars along its hull, with warp plasma leaking from one nacelle.
"That ship," whispered Captain Picard to himself, "I've seen it before." Suddenly two Borg spheres appeared from the strange wormhole and fired at the first ship.
"We are receiving a Priority One distress call!" called Lucetti from her station. Without waiting for further orders, she put it on the viewscreen. The face of someone Picard did not recognize appeared on the screen, against a background of smoke and flame, illuminated by the ship's own red-alert lights.
"This is Captain Thaddeus Deming of the USS PREMONITION! We are under attack by the Borg! To any ship this sector! This is the USS PREMONITION!--" He was about to say something else, but then the message suddenly terminated, and the viewscreen returned to the Borg ships.
"Sir," reported the Ensign Lucetti, "We've lost the transmission."
"Data," Captain Picard said, "Locate the source of the transmission and lay in a course."
"Yes, sir," replied the android as his hands danced across the interface.
"Ensign Lucetti," Picard said, turning to face her, "Tell the other ships to engage the Borg."
"Aye, sir."
"And while you're at it," said Riker, "Search the Starfleet database for this 'USS PREMONITION'. I've certainly never heard of it."
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir," said Lucetti. But after several moments, her brow darkened in frustration. She looked up at Riker apologetically. "Commander, there is no record of the PREMONITION in the Starfleet database."
"Odd," Riker said.
At that moment, the ENTERPRISE shuddered under the barrage of the Borg disruptors. "Shields holding at 87!" Called Lieutenant Commander Thomas McClure from his station at the Tactical interface. "Returning fire!"
But Picard did not hear him, because he could hear the Collective. Picard tapped a command into the arm of his chair and said, "All ships concentrate fire at coordinates 43.7 by 51.0 on the nearer sphere. Fire at will!"
Phaser fire rushed through a gap in the sphere's shields, burning a hole in its hull, obliterating a weapons port and frying the sphere's transwarp drive. The Borg ship exploded instantly.
Three Borg drones appeared on the bridge of the USS JUPITER, attempting to escape the destruction of their ship by assimilating an assailant. But they picked the wrong ship to assimilate: the tactical/security officer of the JUPITER was fond of old-fashioned projectile weapons, and all three drones went down with two holes in each of their heads, while Lieutenant Commander Joshua Grissom blew the smoke away from the barrel of his replicated Smith & Wesson .38 Police Special, grinning cockily behind the Tactical station.
"Captain," McClure said, on the bridge of the ENTERPRISE,"I am detecting a power surge from the PREMONITION." Suddenly the PREMONITION's weapons came online and the second sphere exploded under the barrage of the advanced ship's awesome firepower.
"Captain, we are receiving a hail from the PREMONITION," reported Ensign Lucetti from the Ops station.
"On screen," said Picard, for he was eager to get some information from the as-yet unknown new-comer. A man with pale skin and short auburn hair appeared on the screen. He had four gold pips on his collar, denoting his position as the captain of the other ship.
"The legendary Captain Picard!" he said, "It is an honor to meet you, sir."
"Captain Deming, you and your ship do not appear in the Starfleet database," Picard said firmly, almost accusingly, "Do you have an explanation for this?"
"That is because it does not yet exist," replied the other captain. "I come from the future to warn the Federation of an impending Borg invasion. We must act quickly if we are to stop them—"
"Captain Deming," Picard interrupted, "Starfleet has strict regulations about tampering with current the timeline. I have no intention—"
"CAPTAIN!" Deming shouted, interrupting Picard, "In an hour, the Borg will attack and assimilate Starbase 612. It's destruction marked the first step in the Borg invasion that eventually took over the Alpha Quadrant!"" Deming paused to take a breath. "Picard, where I come from Federation barely exists! Vulcan? Bajor? Qo'nos? EARTH? They're all assimilated planets! This our last hour hope, captain. If you don't help us, the Federation will fall to the Borg."
"Very well, captain," Captain Picard conceded after a moment, "I will pursue this matter." Turning to his security chief, he said, "Lieutenant, send a message to Starfleet Command informing them of our situation." Then he said to Lucetti, "Ensign Lucetti, set a course for Starbase 612. Engage."
Picard rose from his seat on the bridge and beckoned Data, Riker, and Counselor Troi to follow him into his Ready Room.
-----
A/N: I don't know why Lucetti replaces Data at the helm at the end of this chapter, but that's exactly how it goes in the associated audio file. So, I'm going to haul Data into a Senior Staff meeting to make up for the game's inconsistency.
For those who wonder about the absence of Lieutenant Vale (Security Chief), she is not mentioned in the game at all, and a male voice reports the incoming Dominion attack ships in this chapter's corresponding mission. Therefore, I am including Lieutenant Commander Thomas McClure, who is first seen in "STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT" as Security Chief in Worf's absence.
NOTE TO "ARMADA" PLAYERS:
Once the USS PREMONITION arrives, save the game, and then load the saved game! Once you reload it, the PREMONITION will have its weapons and engines online! That's why I let it happen in my storyline.