Chapter 20
Earthdome, February 7, 2048 1610 Local Time
"…we are scheduled to stress test the fully operational planetary defense shield tomorrow at 0001 at both the time and place of your International Date Line."
"That's wonderful news, Captain Tynen! Please give my thanks to your Commander Rex and her team, although I'd like to show my appreciation for their efforts to them personally in the near future," Elizabeth Levy said.
"I will pass that on to them on your behalf, Madame President."
She smiled brightly. "I'll have my assistant Martin arrange a convenient time with you for a visit to your ship for a meeting with Commander Rex and her team members. In the meantime, I'm certain that the EarthForce and Senate observers are looking forward to your demonstration." Then she leaned forward in her chair at the head of the small conference table in her office and gazed at the director of the Earth Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Dr. Hershovitz, I'm told that you'd like to present something to this particular group for its consideration."
"That's right, Madame President, the fairly tall, thin man who wore old-fashioned horned-rim glasses said before he glanced around the table at Secretary Hannah, General Hague, General Koloth then Tynen before turning his attention back to address Levy once more. "I must inform you about a technological breakthrough we've recently rediscovered that I believe will change the course of our history."
Levy leaned back in her chair, her gaze upon him laser focused. "Rediscovered, did you say? Doctor, you have definitely piqued my interest. Please continue with your report."
"Madame President, North American Aerotech approached my administration yesterday seeking a permit to test a prototype craft that has incorporated two space propulsion systems that had been invented almost two centuries ago. There is a valid licensing agreement between the inventor's sole surviving heir and Aerotech. Aerotech has licensed the technology and taken delivery of the rediscovered prototype from the inventor's heir to conduct an operational test."
"Brendan," Hannah asked, "why is this matter so important that we need to address it while we're so focused on trying to survive the war against Minbar?"
"I'll let Captain Tynen answer that, Jo."
Jason cleared his throat and said, "The two inventions that Director Hershovitz has described are prototypes of a warp drive propulsion system and an impulse drive propulsion system. Both of these prototypes are identical in principle to the propulsion systems used by both Starfleet and the Klingon Empire and were built in 2063 on your world by a man named Zephram Cochrane. The Cochrane here was essentially the twin of the Cochrane on Federation Earth, the man who is seen by my people as the one who led us to boldly go to the stars. However, before your Cochrane could fly his prototype, both he and the entire city of Bozeman, Montana were destroyed. We believe an alien race from your quadrant of the galaxy launched a devastating strike on Bozeman to keep your people from using this technology."
A deeply shaken Levy whispered hoarsely, "Which race do you suspect tried to suppress this technology?"
"Before I tell you that, Madame President, I must caution you that this conversation must remain in this room."
"We understand, Captain. This briefing is now classified Top Secret Ultra under my authority as the President of the Alliance. Please continue, Captain."
"Thank you, Madame President. We believe it was the Vorlons. Intelligence gathered from Minbari warships captured by Commodore Acaltha at Jericho support the sensor readings we've taken at Bozeman showing quantum gravitic heavy weapons had been used there. The only race known to use these kind of weapons in your quadrant of the galaxy is the Vorlons. Additionally, the man who attacked my officers at the Bozeman site had a portion of an alien life-form inside his body. Although we were unable to identify the life form, its presence leads to the conclusion that an alien race has interfered in your affairs sometime in the past before you were given jump gate technology."
General Hague, the concern plain on his face, shook his head. "Captain, why would the Vorlons have done this?"
Tynen shrugged in response. "Sir, your guess is as good as mine. Considering the fact that jump gate technology seems to be the only faster than light game in town among all the known races on this side of the galaxy, maybe the Vorlons and the other elder races associated with them had wanted to keep it that way as a means of limiting the types of stellar systems the younger races could explore. For instance, one problem the technology has for you and even the Minbari is that it's useless in any system that possesses a hypergravity object, like a black hole or a dwarf star. However, warp drive does not suffer from such constraints because our vessels travel within a pocket of subspace and are unaffected by gravitational fields while at warp."
While Hague appeared to be pondering the information that had just been provided to him, Hershovitz exclaimed, "Although the exploration opportunities that can be opened to us by warp drive technology are impressive, its day-to-day applications are truly the game changer for Earth Alliance! Both warp and impulse drives allow us to go much faster in normal space than any race we've encountered, except for, of course, our visitors. Instead of taking days to transit from a jump gate to the inner or outer planets of a system, now we can do it in a matter of hours! Also spacecraft can now be built smaller since the nacelles that generate the subspace field can be attached to the vessel rather than carried inside the ship's primary hull. Finally, we can still use jump space technology for long range interstellar transits and military vessels but for interplanetary travel or use on fighters and gunboats in system, impulse and warp drive would give EarthForce an immense tactical capability no other race in our quadrant of the galaxy possesses!"
Hague stroked his beard for a moment then said, "All of that is definitely worth consideration, Brendan. However, what if Tynen's hypothesis about the Vorlons is right? What would stop them from stepping in to keep us from using the technology now?"
A deep chuckle rumbled from General Koloth's chest. "We Klingons have an old saying, my dear General Hague. Only a fool stands fast against a tidal wave. When we arrived here, bringing warp technology to your doorstep, the cat, as you humans might say, was out of the bag."
"My dear General Koloth is right," Tynen added with a sly smile to his friend. "The genie is out of a bottle and cannot be stopped. We're meeting with the Abbai, the Narns and the Centauri, as well as Earth Alliance. Your people and theirs will travel to the Federation or the Empire and find a plethora of material on warp drive mechanics. Why, even on your own world, several physicists have already developed valid theoretical models on how warp drive propulsion works. Finally, one of your own people actually built a working prototype. So, in the Federation's and the Empire's view, for the last two hundred years, the technology was yours but wrongfully kept from you. Now, you can take it back."
Hannah squirmed a bit in her seat before she spoke up. "Although I admire the zeal that Captain Tynen has brought to the table about the rediscovery of this technology, I do believe that General Hague has a valid concern. Is this the right time to draw the attention of our quadrant, particularly the Vorlons, to us? We know for a fact that the Vorlons, with their bioships, are far more advanced than even the Minbari. What if they don't react the way we believe a rational race would and decide to squash us all like bugs?"
Levy steepled her fingers in front of her face for several moments while she considered both sides of the argument. Then she sighed deeply. "Jo, we've had their attention for at least two centuries, possibly more. And instead of supporting us or choosing to let us find our own way, they killed thousands of innocent people and attempted to destroy one man's dream. If we, as a people, are willing to stand up to the Minbari, I'll be damned if we don't stand up to this other bully, too!" She then smiled at the EASA director. "Brendan, don't you have a permit to approve?"
Hershovitz grinned. "Indeed I do, Madame President!"
"If you'd like, Director," Tynen said, "the Klingon Defense Force and Starfleet can monitor the test flight. We'll even provide a chase vehicle to shadow the prototype."
"Captain Tynen, General Koloth," Levy said, "thank you both. We accept and appreciate your assistance and support. Please know that the people of the Earth Alliance shall never forget you for standing with us against the twilight of humanity in our quadrant of the galaxy."
Koloth surprisingly graced her with a gentle smile. "Madame President, allow me to say that the Federation and the Empire shall never forget the courage and fortitude of the people of Earth Alliance and its current president. Even with the enemy's knife at your throat, you refuse to allow your adversaries to destroy your spirit. You are worthy allies and, we hope, unshakable friends."
She closed her eyes for a brief moment, savoring his kind words. Then she opened her eyes and nodded to him. "Thank you, General." Now turning to her Secretary of Defense and Hague, she snapped, "We need to use all of our intelligence resources to find out as much as we can about the Vorlons. I want to know all we know about them yesterday, do you understand?"
"Absolutely, Madame President," Hannah responded.
"Good. Are we done here?"
After everyone simply sat there and said nothing, she nodded. "Thank you for coming and have a nice day."
When they all stood up to end the meeting, she called out to Tynen. "Oh, Captain! May I have a moment of your time?"
Moments later, she asked him to sit with her on the antique settee located in front of a window that looked over the grounds of the Presidential Estate to discuss how Commander Rex and her party had rediscovered the technology that was her people's heritage.
#
USS Echo en route to Beta Durani
Captain's Log - supplemental
The Echo will shortly reach Beta Durani's Oort cloud where the ship will drop out of warp and scan the system to determine the approach we must take to reach the EarthForce listening post and avoid detection by the Minbari.
"Captain!"
Lieutenant Commander Niznik Vox switched off the log-recorder on his conn and swiveled the chair to face his communications officer. Unlike the state-of-the-art bridge of the Constellation-class starship which assigned the Tactical Officer to handle communications, the Echo was equipped with a modified version of the Constitution-class bridge module as it had been before the Enterprise refit where a dedicated officer was assigned to the communications station. "What is it, Lt. Carter?" the Trill officer asked.
The willowy blonde from Alpha Centauri glanced over her shoulder at her commanding officer. "Sir, I'm picking up a weak radio signal that is transmitting a repeating message in English."
Vox then faced forward and snapped, "T'pal! Take us out of warp!"
"Aye, sir," the Vulcan helmsman answered. "Entering normal space."
"All stop!"
"Aye, sir, all stop!"
Vox now turned to his comms officer. "Carter, let's hear that message."
She jabbed at a button on her panel and a moment later, the bridge crew heard a computer-generated voice through the speakers. "This is the Copernicus. We come in peace. This is the Copernicus. We come in peace."
"That's enough, Carter," Vox said. After she shut the message off, he said, "Please have EarthForce Colonel Utron report to the bridge on the double."
"Aye, sir," she responded. Then she activated the ship's intercom and said, "Colonel Utron, please report to the Bridge immediately. Colonel Utron, please report to the Bridge immediately."
"Bridge, Utron here. I'm on my way. Utron out."
"Captain," Lieutenant Krilka, his Klingon executive officer announced. "I have a fix on the vessel that is transmitting the message."
"Activate the main viewscreen, Krilka. Let's take a look at this ship we've found."
"Aye, Captain," she answered and pressed a button on her console.
Shortly thereafter Vox spied a small blip amongst the sea of stars. "Magnify," he ordered.
The blip transformed into a fairly large spacecraft comprised of several orange and black cylinders attached to a pair of girders. While the bridge crew studied the image on the screen, Utron, an Israeli man of medium height with closely cut indigo hair sprinkled with specks of gray, strode out of the turbolift.
Vox turned toward him and asked, "Colonel, have you ever seen the likes of that ship before?"
The other man stared at the screen for a few moments before he answered Vox. "She looks like an early deep-range explorer from back in the day before the Centauri had given us jump gate technology. Captain, I'd say that ship is more than a hundred years old."
"Captain," Krilka reported, "I see some anglicized script on the hull identifying the ship as the USS Copernicus."
Utron nodded. "That fits, Captain Vox. We used the term 'United Space Ship' for vessels constructed by the United States of America before Earth Alliance had been formed."
"Colonel, what is she doing out here?"
"Well, she looks to be adrift. Maybe she missed a thruster firing or had navigational problems."
"Sir," Krilka noted while she stared into her science console hood. "I am detecting life signs aboard that vessel."
Vox blinked twice. Life signs on an Alliance Earth ship adrift outside of a system overrun by the Minbari. That did not paint a pretty picture. "Very well. Hobson," he snapped at the young lieutenant manning the security console, "Colonel, you're both with me. Krilka, lock a tractor beam onto that ship and bring her alongside."
While the Klingon was working on establishing the tractor connection, Utron observed, "I think I know why that vessel is out here. I'd bet my last credit she's a sleeper ship. Back then people volunteered to enter cryogenic stasis in an attempt to reach other star systems. If I remember my history correctly, we sent fifteen of those ships into deep space a decade or so before we'd acquired jump gate technology. Once we had interstellar capability, we searched for any signs of the sleeper ships but we'd never been able to find one until now."
Vox stared incredulously at the man. How could the Alliance Earth humans have been so callous, he mused, to have allowed those people to be dispatched into deep space using such primitive technology in such a quixotic quest? Well, he wasn't about to abandon anyone on that ship if he could help it! "We're not going to leave these people to die out here in deep space," he said. Then he punched a button on his conn to activate the intercom connected to sick bay. "Captain Vox to Doctor Grey."
"Grey here."
"Doctor, meet the away team in transporter room two and bring your full medical kit with you. We may have some patients for you who are in cryogenic stasis aboard a derelict vessel we've stumbled across."
"Acknowledged, Captain."
"Good. See you shortly, Meredith. Vox out." Then he turned to his security officer and the Earth Force colonel. "Gentlemen, let's go. Krilka, you have the conn."
"Aye, Captain," the Klingon woman answered smoothly right before she approached the big chair while he led his small party toward the turbolift.
#
Once the transporter effect had been completed, the away team found itself inside a cramped compartment stuffed full of electronic consoles and a pair of transparent capsules that disturbingly reminded Vox of Terran coffins.
Lt. Commander Meredith Grey, a thin woman with medium brown hair, stepped toward the capsules and activated her medical tricorder while Vox leaned toward them to take a close look inside. Contained within the one closest to the captain appeared to be an adult human male of European descent. Vox then examined the other capsule and found an adult human female who appeared to be of African descent. She was quite lovely, her skin almost the same attractive hue as the complexion of his friend, Lanei Rager.
"Captain," Grey said, "the computer identifies them as William and Mariah Cirrus. The computer also has taken it upon itself to bring them out of cryogenic stasis."
"Maybe our presence activated the process to awaken them," Utron speculated.
Now, Grey swept her tricorder over both of the sleepers once more before she drew her hypo from her kit and inserted a vial of medicine into the device. "I'm giving them each 50 ccs of Delvalera," she announced then injected the medicine into both of their necks.
Moments later, the beautiful woman began to return to the land of the living while the man appeared to be still a bit out of it.
Then Grey said to the other woman, "Mariah—welcome back. Just relax for a bit and don't try to move all right? You're safe now."
Mariah blinked her bleary eyes several times before she seemed to be able to focus on the doctor's face. Then, in a raspy voice, she muttered, "You're—you're…human?"
"That's right," Meridith confirmed. "We're human."
"I-I don't understand. D-did something go wrong? W-we haven't left the solar system?"
"Nothing's wrong, Mariah. We found your ship in deep space and we're here to take you home."
Mariah seemed to accept what Grey had told her for a moment. Then her eyes shot open wide in fright. "W-Will…my husband…"
"He's fine, He's just a little harder to roll out of bed than you, young lady!" Grey joked.
"Good. That's good," Mariah said as she relaxed.
"Captain," Grey said softly to Vox. "I'd like to transport them both directly to sick bay."
The Trill nodded. "Understood. Why don't you go ahead…we'll stay here and recover the information from the ship's data banks."
"All right, Niznik," she said. "However, after you return to the Echo, I want you all to report to sick bay so I can examine you to make sure it's all right to release you back to duty."
"Okay, Meredith. We won't be long. We need to get back underway to Beta Durani and rescue Utron's men. I'll have the transporter chief beam a sub space homing beacon aboard the Cirrus's ship so we can find it again once it's safe to do so. I think Alliance Earth would want to recover this ship for its space museum."
"Let's just hope they don't want to relegate my patients to be exhibits in that same museum, Niznik," she groused. Apparently, she was as bothered by the callousness of the people who'd sent the Cirruses into the depths of space trapped inside ice-lined coffins as he'd been. Then she flipped open her communicator and ordered the transporter chief to beam her patients and her aboard the Echo.
#
USS Valkyrie – Captain's Ready Room
Local time 1822 hours
"Lt. Mazan to Captain Tynen."
Tynen glanced up from the report he was reviewing at his desk and switched on his intercom. "Tynen here."
"Sir, I have General Koloth on the line for you."
"Acknowledged, Lieutenant. Put him through to my monitor."
"Right away, sir. Mazan out."
Moments later, Koloth's image snapped into view on Tynen's monitor. "Tynen," the other man sneered. "I can't believe that you people call me the 'Schemer' after what you'd just pulled down there with Levy and her minions."
"What exactly is bothering you, Koloth?" the captain groused. "I'm giving your friends and you exactly what you wanted as quickly as possible."
Koloth snorted. "That may be true, Jason, however, you'll not get off so easily, my friend."
The captain sighed resignedly. "Fine."
"You wouldn't have decided to lead those people to put their necks in the guillotine on your own. You're too calculating to actually be that reckless."
Tynen simply glared at the man and said nothing.
"Ah ha! Now the communication with the Chief of Starfleet Operations makes sense!" Koloth observed with glee. "Cartwright approved of what you're doing, didn't he? That's the only reason you'd ever give that man the time of day! Our intelligence agency has known for quite some time what he'd done to your colleague and you on T'Vam. If it had been me that had been betrayed and left to die in madness and I had somehow miraculously survived, I would've gutted that petaQ the first time I'd laid eyes on him. But that is not how you work, is it, Jason? You always play the long game, don't you?"
Tynen remained silent.
"Of course, Tapin knows; he basically gave you carte blanche to act as you see fit. And if Cartwright approved of your plan then Bennett knows, as well. Acaltha, well…this whole situation simply stinks of the old Andorian. The game within the game within the game; that is his way, too. You haven't told Sulu, though. No…he's too noble to be involved in the likes of this. But Kirk and Spock? Oh," the general laughed heartily, "the Adversary and his Second? Your plan is as truly inspired as anything they would unleash upon their enemies!"
"Are you still upset at them about the tribbles, Koloth?" Tynen didn't even bother to try and cloak the smirk on his face.
The Klingon simply shook his head and laughed. "No, my friend. I'd come to terms with that a long time ago. However, what still troubles me, though, is I know Lady V'Lar must be aware of what you are doing. She is your bonded mate, after all. How can she, a Vulcan untainted by an association with the Adversary, unlike her cousin, abide such a bloody scheme as yours?"
"Because it serves the greater good."
"I see. Of course, that is after the long game has resolved itself the way you planned it would."
"Of course."
The elder man simply nodded and sat quietly for several moments. Then he sighed. "Well…I must thank you for discussing this matter with me. Of course, you are correct; your plan will give my people exactly what we've wanted, no, needed. And, of course, this conversation will go no further than us. Jason, you are an excellent teacher; I appreciate the lessons you've taught me about humanity, particularly that you people are far more dangerous than we'd ever believed possible."
"Yes…and that is what the Minbari and the Vorlons will learn—unfortunately, for them, the hard way."
#
USS Echo en route to Beta Durani – Sick Bay
"Doctor Grey?"
She glanced away from her computer monitor to find her med tech calling out to her from the door leading into her office. "Yes?"
"Mister Cirrus is fully awake now. They're both asking for you."
"Thank you, Amanda. I'll be right with them." Grey then pressed the ship-wide intercom button on the top surface of her desk and said, "Sick bay to Colonel Utron."
"Utron here."
"Please report to sick bay immediately."
"Acknowledged. Utron out."
She closed the file on her computer, stood up and strode out of her office into the sick bay ward. On two of the ward's biobeds laid the people they'd rescued from the Copernicus. "Well, you both are looking much better," she observed.
"We're feeling a lot better, thanks to you, Doctor…?" There was a question in the tone of his voice.
"Grey," she answered. "Merideth. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you some questions. Can you tell me why you were on that ship?"
"My husband and I," Mariah said, "are volunteers for a long-term deep space mission. Our ship was programmed to home in on any signal we might come across and wake us up, or to do so if a life form had boarded the ship."
"Doctor…Grey… I'm still a bit confused," Will Cirrus said. "I never in my wildest dreams thought our wake-up call would be of human origin. How long were we in stasis?"
Merideth pursed her lips, not wanting to go too deep so shortly after they'd recovered from the effects of long-term stasis. "We probably should take this one step at a time," she recommended.
Mariah shook her head. "Doctor…that doesn't sound very promising. How. Long?"
"You've both been asleep for almost a hundred years, Mrs. Cirrus," a man's voice sounded from the hallway entrance into the sick bay.
Meredith turned to glare at Colonel Utron for a moment before she whipped her head back around to study the displays above her patients' biobeds. Then she growled, "Colonel, your bedside manner stinks. And so far, you're damned lucky that your lack of discretion hasn't appeared to have seriously harmed my patients!"
"W-what did he say?" Will stammered.
The colonel came to a halt beside Dr. Grey and the expression on his face plainly showed he'd realized the harm that he could have done and felt remorseful about it. "I apologize for shooting my mouth of like that, Mr. and Mrs. Cirrus. Let me introduce myself. My name is Benjamin Utron. I'm a colonel in EarthForce's Marine Corps. You've been away from Earth for quite some time. You left the solar system in the year 2149. We found your ship as she was approaching the Beta Durani system. Today's date is February 7th, 2248."
"B-but," Mariah whispered, "Will and I just said good night to each other!" Then an alarmed look crossed her face. "I-I can't cry!"
"Hey now," Grey cooed to the distraught woman. "It's okay…you're all right. Long-term stasis dries the tear ducts."
"Colonel," a stunned Will observed. "You said something about an…EarthForce? What in the hell is that?"
"Today, the entire planet and her colonies are under one government. All of Earth's armed forces from the time when you left the solar system were combined under a single overarching military organization called EarthForce."
"My God," Mariah muttered. "We've missed so much."
Utron snorted. "That may be the case but some of what you've missed wasn't good. A few years after you'd left, we were contacted by an alien species called the Centauri. They'd begun to trade with us and had given us jump gate technology which opens a window into hyperspace, allowing us faster-than-light space travel. After that, we were out among the stars. At first, we leased time on alien jump gates. Then we started to build our own."
Now a sullen Will Cirrus glared dejectedly at both Utron and Grey. "So…the cryogenic suspension, the farewells, the belief we were intrepid explorers daring to reach out and make contact with new life, new civilizations…it was all for nothing. If we'd just waited a few more years—"
"Look," Meredith stopped the man dead in his tracks. "You couldn't have known all of that at the time. What you both did…that took vision and remarkable courage."
The man smiled at her then. "Thank you for your kind words, Dr. Grey."
She simply smiled and nodded in response.
However, his wife appeared to be unwilling to drop the matter. "What else have we missed?"
While the doctor continued to monitor their status displays looking for any indication they were feeling overwhelmed, Utron said, "Well, we colonized several star systems, including Beta Durani. We got involved in a war to help protect many alien species who were in danger of being eradicated by an aggressive alien race called the Dilgar. We defeated the Dilgar and had become a major star-faring nation. Then three years ago, we had a first contact with a more technologically advanced alien race that went horribly wrong. This race, the Minbari, has threatened humanity with extinction. The situation appeared to be hopeless until some of our colonists who'd fled from two Minbari warships stumbled upon a sort of hyperspace highway that swept them and their pursuers to the other side of the galaxy. The pursuing ships were then defeated by warships from two of the major powers on that side of the galaxy. One of those powers happens to have humans as a large portion of its citizenry. However, these humans are more technologically advanced than we are by a substantial margin."
"In response to their defeat at the hands of the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets, the power consisting of both humans and aliens, the Minbari attacked a Federation colony world and some Klingon warships, killing millions of people. In response, both governments have declared war against Minbar."
"Now, both powers have traveled to our side of the galaxy to help us defeat the Minbari. This ship that rescued you is a Federation starship which uses a propulsion system that allows her to travel faster-than-light in normal space."
Mariah blinked four times before she could find her voice. "Why…why that's…that's…incredible!'
In response, Dr. Grey smiled at her patients and announced, "Nah, it's just a typical day in Starfleet for us! Will, Mariah, welcome aboard the Federation starship USS Echo."
#
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