Hello all. I am very sorry to all those who've been keeping an eye on this story. the workload at my job unexpectedly increased 10-fold and coupled with annoying writers block exhuastion on my time off, real life stuff, and getting distracted by some other story ideas that I'll eventually post here.
Anyways, the third chapter is finally up but before we get back into the story, here's some trivia I promised before each chapter:
As you have all know if you read the story thus far I have mentioned the words "arm guard" a few times. the arm guard, or "bracer" as they'll now be called since it sounds better, is a piece of armor that covers the fore arm on a persons arm. It's used for defence when a Jikoran soldier decides to get in a persons face with the melee action. since this was a nessesary requirement, as I'm sure most don't want to get hacked to pieces, technology was incorperated into it. the bracer also now acts as a communication device and is the D.E.S's equivilent of the PADD that is commonly used in star trek.
That's it for now. please review as I enjoy reading them. and as always, if you have a question about D.E.S. tech or other things related to the universe then by all mean ask and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll give more info on the Pheonix Clan in the next chapter when she chats with some of our fav. trek heroes. so without further adiou, un with the story.
After the realization of a possible Borg invasion sunk in, Kira and Bashir both started for the door.
"I'm sorry Captain but I'm afraid we're going to have to save these talks of another time. If you'll come with me, I'll escort you back to your ship," Kira said as she waited by the door.
Bashir stood up as well and stopped in the doorway and looked back, "Sorry to run, but I should get back to the infirmary. It was a pleasure to meet you captain," he said shaking Avries hand and nodding towards the Phoenix woman.
"It was a pleasure meeting you too doctor," Avries replied.
Bashir nodded and walked off hurriedly down the corridor. Kira began moving as well leading Avries and his team to a turbo lift.
As they walked Avries turned his head to Kira, "So, what kind of species are the Borg?" he asked.
"From what I've heard, Borg aren't really a singular race but a bunch of different ones forced into submission by using cybernetic technology to erase a persons individuality. A friend I worked with told me stories of how just one ship walked through their fleets and made it all the way to earth," she said grimly as they entered the turbo lift. "Upper-pylon three," she told the computer.
The computer chirped a reply and the turbo lift hummed as it carried them back through the station to Avries' ship.
Kira continued, "This happened twice and both times the Federation got lucky and managed to defeat them with probably seconds to spare."
Avries thought about what Kira said. "Reminds me of how our war went, a lot of luck and desperation more than anything. Looking back, I'm surprised we survived it as well as we did. Being so outnumbered on every front we had to develop both amazing and terrible technologies to escape extinction," Avries said introspectively.
Kira nodded in agreement and remained silent the rest of the ride to the Hathaway.
As Bashir entered the infirmary and was greeted by a nurse who handed him a padd. Reading through it as he walked he asked the status of the survivors.
"They're all in some stated of severe malnutrition. We had to sedate two to calm them down. A few have some bruises; we're not sure how those happened. Aside from those we had to sedate, the rest don't seem to be aware of their surroundings," the nurse said with worry in her eyes.
"Well let's not push them anymore than we have to and let them rest for now. Get them started on an intravenous nutritional supplement to build their strength back up. I also want tissue samples taken from each of them; scan the samples for any virals and nanites. I want all the bases covered and with the possibility of the patients having encountered the Borg, I don't want to take any chances."
"Yes doctor," the nurse said before returning to her assigned tasks.
Bashir sat down at his desk with a sigh reading more of the initial reports. If the mental instability of just two survivors were any indication of the rest then they all will be busy for some time to come.
"Ezri isn't going to like this," he muttered with a sigh. Looking back to his padd he heard a very familiar voice behind him.
"Hello Julian, have I come at a bad time?"
Bashir spun around in his chair and looked up at his friend, "Miles! What the hell are you doing here?" he asked getting up to shake his hand, "I thought you were back on Earth teaching."
"Kieko had a symposium on Bajor to go to and I thought I'd tag along and catch up on old times. You see, the beauty of bein' a teacher of my standing is that you get to make your own curriculum. I told my class to get into groups and design a more efficient warp engine from the ground up. I told them that we'd build the best one and test it, providing it passed all the safety requirements first. I figure they should be done when I got back." He looked at the full beds, "I see that you have your hands busy right now but how about on your brake we run over to the holosuite and defend the Alamo."
Bashir let out a longing sigh, "Miles you have no idea how much I want to join you but I'm swamped. I've got patients that need my help, we've got people from another reality asking to explore the Alpha Quadrant and to top it off we might get invaded from the Borg in the next few days. You just picked one heck of a time to visit."
"What do you mean the Borg? They've always tried to get to Earth, what could they possibly want with Bajor?"
"Look the only hint of this came from a delirious survivor. There's no actual proof so far and..,"
Bashir was cut off by a comm. chime followed by the sound of Kira's voice, "Kira to Bashir!"
"Bashir here," he responded looking up at the ceiling.
"I need you to come up to the ship at upper-pylon three with your surgical kit. One of the survivors is a Vulcan and their staff doesn't have the medical knowledge to help her."
"On my way," Bashir said while grabbing a medical kit.
"Their science officer will meet you at the airlock," Kira added.
"Understood," acknowledged Bashir as he walked out the infirmary, O'Brien falling into step behind him.
As they made their way to the turbolift Bashir turned to his friend, "And just where do you think you're going Miles?" he asked.
"Just out of curiosity," he replied sidestepping the question, "What was the name of the ship the survivors were on?"
"...The Melbourne, why?"
"I used to have a friend back on the Enterprise before I transferred to DS9. After the war ended, he told me he got a posting on the Melbourne. And if we are dealin' with the Borg, I'd like to know firsthand in case in case I need to get my family out of harm's way."
Bashir could hardly fault him for wanting to take care of his family but... "Miles, the ship we're... That I'm about to board isn't a Federation ship," he tried to explain.
"You mean the ship that looked kind of like an exaggerated fly swatter?" O'Brien asked as they entered the turbolift.
"Yes, I just don't think it's the right thing to do," Bashir paused to tell the computer their destination, "And besides I really don't think they're going to let you tag along just because we haven't seen each other for awhile."
O'Brian looked thoughtfully for a moment, "I suppose your right...How's Ezri these days?" he asked changing the subject.
"Well I can't complain we've both been so busy since the war ended for obvious reasons. Come to think of it, we haven't been alone together since after the end of the war celebrations."
"Well that's a bit of a dry spell if I ever heard one," O'Brian said.
Bashir only rolled his eyes at his friend's slanted grin. The turbolift then stopped at their appointed destination and they walked out. As they approached, they saw Matthew Ridge, the ships science officer, standing opposite to the Bajoran engineer beside the doors.
"Hello chief. It's good to see you back," the engineer said to O'Brian as he and Bashir reached the heavy door.
"I'm not back. I'm on vacation," O'Brian said although not completely convinced himself.
"If you say so chief," she replied before looking off.
Matthew turned to Bashir showing him a holo pad with a picture of a Vulcan woman, "This is the one we need your medical assistance for," he said.
Bashir studied the photo for a moment but since it was mostly an upper torso shot all he could see were some bruises, none of which looked life threatening. Still at least he knew which techniques and tools to use. "All right, let's go then shall we?"
Matthew stopped Bashir as he started to walk forward, "Just a moment Dr. Bashir. Is he your assistant?" he asked referring to O'Brian.
"Oh... No he's a friend on a visit. He used to be the stations chief engineer a few months ago."
O'Brian gave a quick wave and a short but cheerful hello, "If it's alright with you, I'd like to come along. Promise I won't touch anything."
The science officer stared at him for a second before replying, "Alright, you can come aboard. However I can't allow you on with your carry on."
"My what? Oh my bag," O'Brian said looking down at his bag still slung over his shoulder. He looked around for a place to leave it before looking at the engineer, "I don't suppose you could hold on to my bag till I get back," he asked her.
"Sure thing chief," she said taking in delight in teasing her old boss.
"Oh stop it," O'Brian said while handing over his bag and stepped in behind Bashir following the Science officer into his ship
As they walked through the ship O'Brian took note of the corridor design. The flooring consisted of thick panel grating probably for easy maintenance, his guess was confirmed when they passed a hallway and a group of engineers were working on a conduit in the exposed floor. On turning a corner, it was as if the corridor opened up. On the upper sections of either side were windows showing the arms of DS9 around him and Bajor's sun to his left. O'Brian moved closer to the window able to peer down at the stations rings below and stepped back after feeling a sense of vertigo.
"Is there something wrong Mr...?"
It took O'Brian a moment to realize the officer was asking him a question and a moment longer to realize he hadn't given his name at the docking port. "Oh, my name's Miles O'Brian. I was looking out the window and got a little dizzy that's all."
"These aren't windows, they're holographic panels designed to emulate windows as well as regular data terminals," he said quickly before stopping abruptly in front of a set of sliding doors. A sign above the door read "Compartment Five" a smaller display underneath it read "Medical Ward".
"We're here," Ridge said as the doors slid open and they passed through an airlock-type system and finally entered the medical ward where a man was waiting for them.
"Well, it's about time you got here," the man said looking at them.
"Dr. Bashir this is Dr. Liense, our ships chief medical officer," Ridge said introducing them.
They exchanged pleasantries and carried on following Dr. Liense to a series of beds.
"Your people have certainly been through a lot," Liense said then gestured to the patients, "These four were wearing EVA suits and were entering the beginning stages of hypoxia. They should be fine and ready to return to your station in an hour or so. These eight nearly died from hypothermia and more than a few of them had frostbite... They all have deep physiological trauma ranging from hysterics to completely shutting down. I can release sixteen into your care in the next hour, the rest I'd like to keep overnight for observation," Liense said taking a breath.
Bashir looked over the survivors nodding in approval of the doctor's care and assessment.
"If the patients are in this great care, then what need do you have of my skills?" Bashir asked.
Liense started to lead them to a separate section of the room at the far corner, "Well, I was only this successful because most of the patients are human. A few alien strands in some of their blood but still human," he said as they entered the room.
When Bashir looked at the bed he saw a Vulcan woman in restraints and immediately opened his med kit pulling out his tricorder. Even though his tricorder would tell him soon enough he asked anyways, "What are her injuries?"
"A heavy concussion, a crack elbow along with five ribs, two of which had broken and punctured the intestinal track and what I can only assume to be the liver. I was able to reset the broken ribs but the resulting punctures caused an infection." Liense said grimly.
"Why haven't you given her any medication for the infection?" Bashir asked as he pulled out a hypo spray and loaded it with a clear blue liquid before injecting it into her neck.
"She's the first of her species I've ever seen. Without the proper information I wouldn't know what would actually work or what would kill her. And I won't risk a patient's life unless absolutely necessary, and even then it'd have to be a damn good reason," Liense said. "She was one of the last two we got off the ship before it went."
Bashir paused, "Where's the other one?"
Liense gave a deep sigh, a grim look on his face, "Follow me," he said and lead them out of the Vulcan's room to another labeled "Intensive Care". As they entered they saw a large clear tube big enough to hold a person in it and sure enough there was. However the person inside was a grotesque mess of one. The entire front half of the person looked like a freshly cured raison, red instead being the dominate colour, there were a few slivers or streaks of the persons face left untouched suggesting an attempt to use his arms to shield himself against harm. The man was naked save for a black strip that ran across the midsection of the tube to preserve whatever was left for modesty. Bashir frozed as soon as he laid eyes on the body. "No, not a body, a patient," he forced himself to think.
O'Brian had a bit of a delayed reaction from walking behind Bashir but frozed as well. When he saw the man lying in the tube only able to utter an, "Oh my god."
Liense checked the readouts on the life support systems before turning back to his two guests."Over ninety-seven percent of his front has suffered from deep plasma burns. The extent of which suggests he may have been standing in front of a plasma conduit when it blew up on him. He may have stood at the initial point that ultimately destroyed the ship."
Bashir finally took a step forward, "How is he still alive?"
"My initial assessment when I saw him was that he was deceased but... Then he... Looked at me," Liense said painfully, pausing a moment to collect himself, I can only guess that he has an incredibly strong will to live. I had him placed in the chamber to prevent any infections and placed him in a medically induced coma..."
"Why do that?" O'Brian asked suddenly.
"At this level of injury the nerves he had left would be constantly inflamed and with his system swimming in adrenaline that if I applied to much sedative he would die. I was going to put him on a stem cell regeneration therapy," he turned to Bashir, "Unless you have a better treatment to repair the damage?"
Bashir thought a moment, "How long will he have to be on your treatment?"
"With this level of damage I would say approximately a full month. I'll keep him in a coma for at least a week but if we start now then I insist he remain on the ship for twenty-four hours," He said.
"I'll leave him in your care for now but I will expect progress reports and the right to include any treatments of my own to accelerate his recovery."
"Fair enough," Liense said as he turned back to the tube to begin treatment.
"So now what?" O'Brian asked. "If this was caused by the Borg than it's probably safe to assume they're on their way here."
"And with the survivors all catatonic or worse, we won't know what to expect when they come through the wormhole," Bashir finished.
Liense looked up from the display, "...Before I put this one under he was trying to tell me something but because of his injuries he only managed a few gurgles."
"Well what good does that do us?" O'Brian asked more than a little angry.
"We have a way of communicating without interfering with his recovery," Liense lead on and brought up a holographic display from his bracer. "Svetlana, are you working on anything important right now?"
A few moments later a stand offish feminine voice responded, "Oh, you know, just straightening out the warp engine coils nothing important. Why?"
Ignoring the sarcasm, Liense continued. "I have an injured patient with possible vital information so I need access to combat-type Artform in diagnostic mode."
There was another long pause indicating her thinking it over, "Alright, the engines are okay for now, I just don't like leaving something broke half-fixed. I'll be there in a few minutes."
Liense acknowledged and let go of the "display" which faded from existence. He then turned to the display over the tube and tapped in several commands. A scanner bar slid from the edge and rest above the man's forehead and activated, a beam of light began sweeping across his head.
"What does that device do?" Bashir asked.
"To put it in simple terms, I'm taking a photograph of his personality," Lienes said. Seeing that Bashir and O'Brian didn't seem to get it he continued, "Basically, I'm copying his surface memories and will load them into an Artform. The new "him" will have a sense of who he is but won't be able to recall any specific details of his life unless he was thinking about it during the scan."
"So you are hoping that he will remember details about what happened to the crew in the Gamma Quadrant," Bashir finished.
"That's the hope," Liense confirmed with a sigh as he looked over the comatose patient.
"I don't like it," O'Brian said with a clear hint of anger, "You just can't take someone's memories and stick them in another body and expect everything to be rosy afterwards." He remembered when he was kidnapped to make a duplicate to assassinate key dignitaries. The plot failed but he still felt violated by the act.
Just then the door behind them slid open to let through a small woman pushing a table in. On it looked to be a helmet of a futuristic knight. "So Dr, who are your new friends?" she asked Liense.
"This is Dr. Bashir, the chief medical officer of the station. And this is... I'm sorry, I don't think we were introduced ourselves," Liense said looking at O'Brian.
"The name's Miles O'Brian. I used to be the stations chief engineer," he said shaking Liense hand and Svetlana's.
"Well I never figured you were a stowaway, at least not a good one. My Name's Cassandra Svetlana but you can call me Cassi. And it so happens that I am the ships chief engineer. Not to brag but I'm probably on a more intimate level with the Hathaway's systems than you are with your spouse," she said coyly.
"She's one heck of a fire cracker," O'Brian thought.
"So!" Cassi said while clapping her hands, "Are we going to put the poor guy in or was this just an excuse to try and set me up?"
"I was just waiting on you," Liense replied.
They both went to work connecting relatively thick cables from the patient's tube to the Artforms head.
"Remember to keep the visual parameters at the standard setting," Liense cautioned Cassi.
"Yeah, yeah. Just let me do a check on the eyes first before you wake him up okay?" she replied. She then stuck a probe around the base of the head. Bashir and O'Brian saw its eyes light up. Each 'eye' had five thin rows of dotted lights. They started as white in colour then blue, green, red, then back to white before shutting off. "Checks are good," Cassi said.
"Remove the HUD as well," Liense told her. Cassi nodded and stuck the probe seemingly in the same place and nodded. Liense tapped some more commands into the nearby panel then looked to Bashir and O'Brian, "All right, he should be coming around in just a minute. Try not to inform him about his predicament. All we need is to get the information of what happened to his ship."
Bashir nodded in agreement immediatly while O'Brian just stood there for a moment before giving a hesitant nod. Just the robotic head showed signs of life. Its eyes slowly lit up until they were just as bright as when Cassi did her checks.
"Wha-Where am I?" it said in a sleepy voice as it tried to look around.
Bashir was surprised that its eyes seem to 'blink' periodically as if they were human. O'Brien was more shocked to recognize the voice of his old friend he had mentioned to Bashir earlier.
"Jimmy South is that you?" O'Brian asked him
"... Who's that?" he asked trying to look around with limited success.
"It's Miles remember? We used to run a transporter room back on the Enterprise," he told Jimmy.
Jimmy closed his "eyes", "It sounds so familiar but I can't remember," His "eyes" widen, "Why can't I remember?" he asked obviously scared.
Dr. Liense put his hand down by the robotic head as if to reassure a non-existent shoulder, "It's all right, you were pretty injured when we brought you aboard. You're currently in the medical ward on the Hathaway. We had some reluctance waking you because of your injuries but another survivor mentioned the Borg and figured we had to risk it."
Jimmy's eyes light up with hope, "I'm back? I made it back to..."
"To DS9, yes," Bashir finished for him.
Jimmy seemed elated to hear it and "closed" his eyes again.
"We're sorry to ask you this but what can you tell us about the attack?" Bashir asked.
Jimmy looked to the ceiling trying to remember, "... We were studying a species that had just entered the computer age when our escorts detected and engaged a hostile ship at the edge of the system. As we were breaking orbit, our comm. systems were overwritten and the Borg hailed us. Before we could get clear they destroyed one of our ships and put a tractor beam on us. If it wasn't for the other escort sacrificing themselves, we probably would've been assimilated."
He continued, "The captain ordered me to get the ship back to Federation space to warn everyone before the bridge was destroyed. I pushed the engines well past their limits and somehow the command pathways frozed."
"How'd you stop the ship before you reached the wormhole?" O'Brian asked.
"I took my chances and decreased power to the deflector dish. I hoped that enough space dust would disable the nacelles enough to take us out of warp, hopefully not too far from the wormhole; I guess it worked too well. What was left of the engineering crew and I had to manually regulate the main plasma flow. I-I can't remember anything after that," he said obviously trying to remember more.
"It's alright," Bashir reassured him, "Do you remember what the Borg ship looked like?"
"...All too well. I lost a lot of good friends to that ship," he spat the last word venomously.
Bashir nodded, "Thank you Jimmy," he told him then moved to dr. Liense and motioning to speak more privately with him. Once they were in a more secluded corner of the room he carried on, "I don't think we'll get any more out of him but I do have an idea. Can we use the memories recovered to show us an image of what he saw?"
"Of course, retrieving visual images from ArtForms was common practice during the war. However we never did this with natural memories, only those recorded while in the ArtForm. Natural memories aren't reliable since the perception of those change too often"
"Still, it would give us a reference to go on."
"Alright, after I retrieve the information should I reintegrate the memories back into the patient?"
"If it won't cause any adverse reactions then I don't see any reason why not."
They both nodded in agreement and returned to the others. Bashir stood by the ArtForm head while Liense went to the panel attached to Jimmy's containment tube.
Bashir looked down at the robotic head and gave it a reassuring look, "Thanks Jimmy, we'll put the information to good use." He then nodded to Liense.
"Wait!" Jimmy shouted, "Just how bad am I?"
Bashir gave a sorrow look to his real body then to Liense who began working on the panel before returning to the head, "Don't worry about it Jimmy. We'll get you back on your feet in no time."
Jimmy "blinked" as if he were feeling tired, "Okay," he said sleepily before "closing" his eyes. And then he was gone.
O'Brian stood by the head that held his friend not really sure what to feel as Bashir walked over to Liense. Cassi began packing the ArtForm's head up stooping long enough to let O'Brian sort himself out the silently left.
"His memories have been successfully reintegrated," Liense told Bashir.
He nodded, "Good, what about the memories concerning the Borg?" Bashir asked.
Liense pulled out a thumb-sized stick and handed it to Bashir, "It's all right here; I've copied whatever he could remember of his last mission onto the storage unit. Just to remind you, this is how he perceived things to happened and with the trauma he's been through I can't tell you how much of it will be truly accurate," Liense cautioned.
"It's still better than nothing at all. If you'll excuse us, I need to get this to the colonel," Bashir said as he grabbed the thumb drive. Getting O'Brian's attention they walked out of the medical ward where Matthew Ridge escorted them off the ship.
As Kira got off the turbolift at Ops she was greeted by the same timid ensign from earlier. Still unable to recall her name, and was too embarrassed to just ask the ensign her name, she called her by her rank, "What is it ensign?"
"Um, your guest, Miss Yates has left and returned to her ship. She said she'll try and visit again when things weren't so busy."
Kira shook her head reprimanding herself for forgetting all about her after the strange ship came through the wormhole. "Thank you ensign, is that all?" she asked.
"No, um, A Klingon task force arrived just before you came to ops. A general Dorn wants to speak with you after they receive clearance to dock,"
Kira groaned inwardly wishing the day was over, "Grant the generals ship clearance to dock away from the new ship. I'll be in my office."
"Yes maam," the ensign said before returning to her station.
Kira walked on to her office, as the doors closed behind her she let out another long-winded sigh. Rounding the desk and sat down in her chair pausing briefly to look at the lonely baseball on her desk before getting started on a mountain of padds that seemed to have magically appeared during the short meeting with captain Avries. Looking through, the padds contained general things like analytical data, engineering reports, and supply request. Kira sighed yet again and shoved the padd she was looking at back onto the pile before leaning back; sitting upright again she turned on her computer and sent a comm. request to Admiral Ross. While she waited, she got a raktajino from the replicator and sat down just as a tall Klingon entered her office.
After taking a sip of her drink she greeted the Klingon, "Welcome to Deep Space Nine, I thought Chancellor Martok was supposed to be coming."
"His presence was required to remain at the council. With the war over he is now free to root out the remaining allies of the now defunct Durras house," he said with a note of amusement.
"I thought I met all of Martoks' generals," Kira said waiting for her request to go through,
"I was honored soon after the final offensive on Cardasia. I'm known to my brothers as the Jem-hadar reaper."
"There's an interesting title," Kira said not really interested at all,
Dorn continued seemingly oblivious to Kira's sarcasm, "I was fighting on a now unimportant planet. After a glorious battle, a Starfleet lieutenant happened to say that I had taken as many lives as the grim reaper himself. Other of my Klingon Brethren happened to overhear his comment and have since taking to bestowing the title upon me to which Martok had taken notice and saw fit to honor me with a fleet to command," he said with a mark of pride in his voice.
"Uh huh," Kira replied taking a sip of her coffee.
Just then, the doors to her office slid opened to admit a shakened Bashir who handed Kira the memory unit.
"This is confirmed proof from one of the survivors that it was a Borg ship that attacked them. With the help of our guest, we were able to copy the survivor's memories of the event. With any luck, it will help us come up with a suitable defense."
"Thank you doctor," Kira said taking the unit and plugging it into her computer on her desk so she could watch it. As Bashir passed the Klingon general to leave, he suddenly grabbed the doctor's arm.
"Just what direction are these Borg heading in doctor?"
Bashir shook his arm loose, "I don't know. But if recent history has shown, they're probably coming in our direction."
"Then the Klingon Empire will have a chance to prove its mettle yet," seeing a look in the doctors eyes Dorn pulled him closer, "Do not mistake me for a fool doctor. I am well aware that a good deal of us won't survive the battle, but we will give those that will take our place a chance to finish what we started. That alone will insure our rightful place in Stovokor."
Bashir looked hard at the Klingon seeing only determination in his eyes, "I hope you're right," he told him before leaving.
Dorn began to laugh, "Your doctor is quite the pessimist. An annoying trait for a warrior but it suits him greatly. Before we leave I will share a bottle of my best blood wine with him."
Kira was about to say something but was interrupted by a chime on her computer letting her know her comm. request was put through. The image of Admiral Ross winked on," Colonel, what can I do for you?"
"I'm sorry to say this admiral, but we have a problem..."
Captain Avries was sitting in his office going over the information colonel Kira passed to him about the surrounding political landscape of the surrounding area. He was astonished of how many different species there were, even more so that they had all become a space faring culture at some level. Back in his own universe the only space faring species had been Humanity, Jikoran, Phoenix Clan, Archaic, and the most recently discovered Devoidians whose space travel was comparable to the Apollo rockets of Earth's history. Avries already had the comm. officer send the information to Zero-space command and decided to skim it before letting them know of a possible threat to the mission and the locals.
Commander Noel entered.
"It's amazing Noel, dozens of space faring species thriving in the immediate area alone. If we were to scan this area in our universe we'd be lucky to find one or two still living in caves. But here, well it makes you wonder..." Avries said leaving his thought unfinished.
Noel cleared his throat, "On a different note, repairs have been completed to two of the four compartments and I'm told the turrets in those areas will be in perfect working order in the hour."
Avries nodded, "Have the communications officer set up a private channel to admiral Zroback at Zero-Space command in my office. It's time I updated him on our situation."
Noel nodded and left the captains office. Two minutes later the holo-window across from Avries desk blinked indicating an incoming call.
Turning toward the "window" Avries nodded and the image of the admiral sitting in his own desk appeared. "Captain! I was beginning to think I'd never get your report, I must say, I was quite surprised that so many species have FTL capabilities. I assume that you've established a dialogue with the locals and we can send our ships through to begin exploration?" he asked.
Avries looked down at his desk before answering the admiral, "Well yes and no admiral sir. We have established a somewhat friendly relation with the local species however they seem to be part of a larger... confederation."
The admiral cocked his head to the side, "In what way Avries?"
"I'm not too sure but I would say it's an equivalent to the U.N. structure of old Earth. The place we ended up at seems to be a transit hub."
"Is the region of space you're in under a territorial dispute?" he asked eyes narrowed.
"Not from what I've witnessed, however during the talks, a ship of theirs arrived delivering a message of immanent attack from a hostile force."
"Could it be their version of the Jikoran?" he asked dead serious.
"No, according to those I talked to. There's no indication whatsoever that they exist. But, from what I've been told these "Borg" as they call them, are incredibly powerful and I'd like to offer our assistance. It could give us a bargaining chip that would allow us to stay in this universe or help us later on if we need."
"Or it could open us up to invasion both in that universe and possibly our own." The admiral paused for a moment to think, "Exactly what were you hoping to bring to the fight?"
"A full tactical fleet geared for offensive combat would be preferable but I can make do with two Ascendant-class worships, six Fortress-class carriers and a defensive fleet of twenty Attack-class frigates."
"You don't ask for much do you Avries?" he asked sarcastically with no hint of amusement shown in his voice or on his face.
"I know it's a lot to ask for in a situation like this but from what they told me just one of these ships walked through their fleets to Earth."
"And yet they were able to stop them correct?"
"By a sheer miracle admiral sir."
"That's beside the case. And what if they or some other unknown force captures one of our ships and uses the zero-space drive from those ships and uses them to invade us directly! We were VERY fortunate to come out as well as we did from facing the Jikoran. Do you really want to put us back into that so soon?" he prodded.
Avries clenched his teeth and forced his hands to remain open on his desk, "Of course not admiral sir!" he said struggling to keep his voice calm.
"However, I will send the escort vessels through and have the other Discovery-class re-outfitted for carrier duties. Is that satisfactory captain?" the admiral asked.
Avries already knew the admiral wasn't asking, "What will the fighter complement be?" Avries asked although he had a feeling he already knew the answer."
"N-class fighter/bombers," he said flatly. Another hint this wasn't negotiable.
"I do have one request though admiral sir..." Avries asked knowing full well he was pushing his luck as it is. The admiral nodded. "I would also like the use of an orbital defense platform."
"Absolutely not! The weapons technology from.." he was cut off from someone getting his attention off screen. For three minutes he nodded and shook his head in the affirmative and negative. The few times he tried to speak he was immediately cut off. Avries only sat in his chair in confusion. If it were any other time he would have found the sight quite funny had it not been for the situation at hand. The admiral nodded for the last time before turning back to Avries with a sigh, "You can have the defense platform captain. But, we'll only send it on confirmation of the target. Not before. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal, admiral sir. There is one thing though."
The admiral shifted in his seat, "What is it captain?" His patience was evidently wearing thin.
"I recommend you bring the ships here through standard zero-space transit. We incurred some damage when we arrived and some of our systems are still under repair."
"Thank you for the advisement captain. Before I forget, there is a last minute addition to the roster of the ships we'll send over. I'll have the list sent to you. Admiral Zroback, out!"
And with that the holo-window changed back to a view of the alien station. Avries leaned back in his chair pinching the bridge of his nose.
A minute later commander Noel entered "holding" a holographic display projected from his bracer and handed it to Avries. Taking it, the display flickered as it righted itself so Avries could read it. I took the liberty of looking over the list the admiral sent us and I'm sure two of the ships listed you'll find interesting."
"Oh really?" Avries said looking over the list. Some of the ships he recognized from previous battles during the war until... "The Ajax?"
"I thought you might perk up on that but the last two names raise some questions some concerns."
Avries read the next name, "The Absolon," Avries furrowed his brow, "The Absolon is one of the new Tracker-class ships. Why would the admiral send a ship powered by a zero-space drive? The admiral made it clear he didn't want to risk the chance of zero-space technology falling into the wrong hands."
Noel gave a quizzical shrug; "Well the ship does have warp engines but..." he trailed off not sure where he was going.
Avries gave a dismissive look before reading the last name, "The admiral must be joking. He can't seriously consider sending the Marigold on this kind of mission!"
The ship, another Attack-class frigate was built at the colony where it got its namesake. Its maiden voyage was a baptism of fire when the Jikoran invaded, swatting the colony defenses aside. Command considered the colony a loss shortly after two-thirds of the ground war was lost behind enemy lines. The plan was for reinforcements and the remnants of the colonies defensive fleet to rally in deep space between the next colony and the Jikorans to provide time for evacuation. However, the captain of the Marigold defied orders and urged the remnant forces to fight on. By the time reinforcements arrived, the only ship left in the colony fleet was the Marigold. Ground forces were barely holding on although without help, they were sure to lose. The battle to retake the colony lasted a grueling five eight days. Only just over six thousand civilians were rescued at the cost of the majority of the fleet of only eleven surviving ships that were in no ships that were in no shape for combat if the Jikoran decided to send more ships.
Command twisted the bitter win into an inspiring victory as being the first colony retaken and the Jikoran repelled. It inspired the other colonies to redouble efforts into the war effort and was arguably the turning point that ultimately saved the human race.
"Hmm... I hope this won't bite us in the ass," Avries said worriedly. The Marigolds gamble paid off despite the losses at the Marigold colony. Avries hoped her captain didn't decide to gamble in the upcoming battle.
I hope you all thought it was worth the wait. Again, I'm sorry for taking so long. the next chapter will actually have adventure and action, finally. I do have a "small" request though. I am awful at coming up with alien names. So here's a chance for anyone who would like to put in an OC then I'll see about working them in. I need Bajoran, Klingon, and some Federation characters. I'm reasonably ok with the vulcan names for some reason but I'll accept those too. So if you have an OC you'd like to see in the story then PM me. remember to give me a description of the character so I can do them justice