STAR TREK/THE REIGN: HIVE MIND

Fan fiction Crossover by Lance Berry

CHAPTER 4: FLIPSIDE

Captain's Log, starda—June 9th, 2190. 0730 hours. Choosing to defy the orders of Earth Force General Hackert, I and my senior staff have chosen to head to the fleet's rendezvous at Jupiter, in order to aid in what may well be humanity's final attempt to keep the Calvorian Alliance from conquering Earth. Although this world is not my own, there are enough similarities within this planet's history, its culture, that I feel compelled to do whatever I can to save it. I don't know whether these feelings are all part of Q's game, or if they come from deeper within me. I choose to believe the latter. In the end, it doesn't matter whether or not this is my universe…Earth is my home, and I'll be damned if any enemy gains a foothold there.

An ovular tear opened in the fabric of reality and rapidly widened, allowing the Horizon to jump out of hyperspace. The Heavy Cruiser came hard to port, only a few hundred thousand kilometers from Jupiter.

On the Horizon's bridge, the overheads had grown slightly dimmer as the flashing lights of Red Alert had come on. Although the alert klaxon had a slightly different sound to it, this was oddly enough the first thing in this new universe that Jean-Luc Picard had found even remotely comforting. The captain had ordered the alarm shut off anyway, but he and his senior staff remained ready for combat. Counselor Troi had turned her head slightly from her position at communications to glance at the spinning giant on the viewscreen. "It's amazing…so much like the one in our own universe," she marveled aloud.

"Sensors show that it is exactly like our own, down to the scar left by the last meteor impact in the early 21st Century," Data replied casually, as he scanned the planet from the helm console.

"Captain," Worf said as he turned partway from the auxiliary tactical console to face his commanding officer. "The UEF fleet has moved into position above Jupiter. I have also detected the approaching Calvorian fleet."

"Let me see the Calvorians, Mr. Worf."

Worf tabbed a panel on his console. On the central viewscreen, the image of Jupiter changed to a massive fleet consisting of dozens of similar-looking large, angular vessels. The vessels were quite imposing in design, especially since the sides of each vessel closest to their bows were painted in a manner resembling sharpened teeth. Ready for the feast, Picard thought grimly. He then noticed there were several much larger ships in the group, and he turned to the Klingon. "What do we have on those larger vessels, Lieutenant?"

Worf had already studied the few files available on Calvorian ships, and pulled up a schematic of one of the larger vessels on the viewscreen to aid in his dissertation. "Calvorian battlecruisers are roughly the same length as Earth Force Heavy Cruisers, but the larger ships are dreadnoughts. Each one is nearly double the size of the standard Calvorian battlecruiser, and carries firepower roughly equivalent to the D'deridex-class Romulan warbirds we are familiar with."

"Off-putting, to say the least," Picard acknowledged with a glance toward Riker. The first officer nodded. "It's like if Kirk's Enterprise came forward in time and had to square off against ours. No wonder these people have had a hard time keeping the Alliance out of their territory."

Picard nodded in agreement and looked back at the main viewscreen. "Worf…how many ships are in the Calvorian fleet, and how many of them are dreadnoughts?"

"There are four hundred and seventy-two Calvorian ships in their fleet…and forty of them are dreadnoughts," Worf said darkly.

An apprehensive look passed in turn among the senior officers and Wesley. Picard considered the situation carefully. "Mr. Data…since we're not technically a part of the Earth Force fleet, we're not privy to their plans. What does the positioning of their ships tell you, though?"

Data calculated all possible options within a split second. "The fleet's current geosynchronous orbit above Jupiter indicates they are allowing the planet's gravity to mask their presence. Their best option is to utilize their ships' null fields to allow near-light travel through normal space and ambush the Calvorians as they begin passing by."

Picard glanced over his shoulder at Riker. "Number One, do you agree?"

"I do, sir. I think that would give them only a 50-50 chance of any real success, though, based on the presence of the dreadnoughts."

"Mr. Worf, your opinion?" Picard asked the tactics officer.

Worf tabbed a panel, switching the image back to that of the planet. Red indicators showed the closing position of the Calvorian fleet, while green marked the Earth Force fleet holding position above Jupiter. "I believe the Earth fleet would have a better chance if the Calvorians were distracted, sir."

"Distracted?"

Worf nodded firmly. "Facing the other way."

Picard smiled slightly, satisfied with his officers' performances. He headed back to the command chair and sat down. "Mr. Data, time until the Calvorian fleet comes within striking range?"

"Three-point-two minutes, sir."

Picard checked coordinates on the command chair's armrest panel. "Ensign Crusher, come about on course two-two-eight by three-four-one. Mister Data, generate a null field, maximum speed. Place us toward the center of the Calvorian fleet, distance of twenty thousand kilometers." The two officers answered in the affirmative, and the captain pointed a finger forward with assured certainty. "Engage!"

On the bridge of the Heavy Cruiser Tycho Brahe, Captain Deina Hashimi sat as calmly as she could in her command chair, trying her best not to grip its arms as she fought off the anxiety of leading such a massive fleet in battle. She had fought and won against the Calvorians numerous times in the past, but that was usually in quick, decisive skirmishes. She wasn't used to commanding an armada of such massive size, and deep down, part of her wished her ship was just another one of the Cruisers in the fleet.

But David Christenson—the captain of the Horizon, who would have been the leader of this barricading fleet—had disappeared along with his ship, and no one knew to where he had vanished. There were some whispers of desertion, of cowardice, but Captain Hashimi refused to believe it, even though the evidence seemed to indicate otherwise. She had never met David Christenson, but she knew his service record as well as anyone: the man had an unprecedented number of victories against enemy forces under his belt, even more than the legendary Nathaniel Kane—and yellow streaks don't just suddenly appear on the backs of true warriors like that.

As one of the most tenured captains in charge of a Heavy Cruiser near Earth, Deina had been placed in charge of the protective armada near Jupiter, and had formulated a plan which she hoped and prayed might work. Ordinarily the beautiful Middle Eastern woman had little or no use for religion of any kind, even her own…but in a circumstance such as this, she had no problem praying to Allah, the Christian god, or any other deities that might be of a mind to listen.

Her reverie was interrupted by her comm officer, who turned in his chair to face her. "Captain? We have a call from the Watch Station on Pluto. A Lieutenant-Commander Markwood."

Hashimi nodded in reception, and the comm officer tabbed a couple controls on his board without looking, then nodded to her, signaling the channel was open. "This is Captain Hashimi. We're receiving you, Watch Station."

There was a light burst of static, which the comm officer rushed to clear up as best he could. Jupiter's massive gravity was generating a moderate transpace interference net, mucking with communications just slightly. A light haze remained over the line as the young man on the other side spoke. "Captain, I'm sorry we couldn't get through the interference before. Our sensors detected the enemy fleet entering the system a few minutes ago. They've passed Saturn now, and are almost at Jupiter! My god, even at just under light speed, those things are cruising--!"

"Lieutenant," Hashimi said calmly, her own anxiety allayed by having to reach out and comfort another, "I need to know how many ships there are. What make of ships, and their E.T.A."

"Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Captain," Markwood answered, forcing his voice to steady. "Their fleet appears to be just a few less than—" There was an abrupt pause on the line.

"Markwood--?" Deina said, sitting forward just slightly in her chair.

"Captain!" Markwood exclaimed suddenly over the comm-line, and there was an unanticipated burst of joy in his voice, "There's a disturbance at the center of the Calvorian fleet, we're picking up multiple explosions…it's the Horizon, Captain! David Christenson is here!"

Deina tilted her head in surprise. She couldn't help but glance up at the grated ceiling as she thought, I promise if I get out of this, I'll start going to mosque again.

The Horizon had jumped to lightspeed within the confines of three-dimensional space via use of its null-field, which negated the entire weight of the vessel and all within. It appeared abruptly, directly above the center of the Calvorian fleet, giving them no time to prepare or raise their shields. The Heavy Cruiser targeted the nearest dreadnought and opened fire—however, these weren't lasers which struck and broke wide its hull amidships; these were phasers.

"Direct hit!" Worf said proudly at his tactical console aboard the flagship's bridge. The scene on the viewscreen confirmed it as a massive explosion tore wide the dreadnought's hull, exposing its skeletal framework to the cold vastness of space.

"Well done," Picard tossed the compliment to his tactics officer even as he quickly double-checked coordinates on his armrest console. "Mr. Data, come about on course one-five-nine by two-three-six! Prepare rail gun!"

"Aye sir," the android replied calmly as he quickly tabbed in commands to the helm. On the central viewscreen, the wounded dreadnought tipped away, replaced momentarily by the tapestry of stars. Then, a brief glimpse of the alien fleet—some ships were beginning to break formation as anticipated, to engage the Horizon—and then the immense, wounded dreadnought came into view once more.

"Four should suffice, I think, Mr. Worf," Picard said, almost cheerily. The captain didn't exactly relish combat, but it was yet another familiarity he could live with, for the moment. "Fire!"

Worf struck the panel on his console, and watched the targeting indicator in satisfaction as four rail gun projectiles exited the forward tubes on the Horizon and penetrated in succession along the wounded dreadnought's port side, each burying themselves a good halfway inside its hull. Upon Picard's command, the Heavy Cruiser arced up and away from the ship, even as the other vessels that had broken ranks began to come about in pursuit, following the Horizon's path.

Picard watched the readout on his own armrest display. "Now, Worf—detonate!"

The blackness of space lit up as if a new star had suddenly been born. The dense concentrations of explosives within the rail gun projectiles—always inert unless activated by command from the base ship—ignited, tearing apart the dreadnought in a wondrous conflagration that managed to catch three of the ships that had arced up and over the immense ship as they aped the Horizon's flight path. A few of the ships in front and behind the massive vessel were caught in the blast as well, damaged moreso when the dreadnought's huge engines ignited and added to the fireworks.

"Including the dreadnought, that's five ships destroyed, three crippled, Captain," Ensign Crusher said as he smiled and winked briefly in Data's direction. The android officer didn't exactly get the meaning of Wesley's gesture, but he imitated it perfectly in return.

"One Calvorian battlecruiser still in pursuit, several more breaking ranks," Worf notified the captain. "The battlecruiser in pursuit is firing—"

Worf's words were cut off as the bridge shook violently. "Damage report?" Picard demanded. "Minor damage to aft shields near quantum engine housing one," Riker answered from his position at Ops. "No damage to engines, no casualties. Geordi's improvements of the magnetic repulsion shields are holding up nicely so far."

"Very good. Data, bring us hard about. Worf, return fire on that Calvorian ship. Let's reiterate that we mean business."

The Horizon swung hard about, catching some flak from the enemy battlecruiser's masers in its mid-section, but Geordi's shields held once again. As the Heavy Cruiser came about fully to face its counterpart, the UEF ship fired its forward phasers, cutting straight through the enemy ship's shields, inflicting severe damage on its bow. Large shards and great chunks of metal flew apart, and the ship began to drift.

"Detecting no life signs on the Calvorian ship's bridge," Worf reported, satisfied. A beep from his console drew his attention quickly. "Five more ships, on a direct intercept course with us, Captain! Distance is thirty thousand kilometers and closing fast."

"Prepare a full antimatter torpedo spread—" Another beep, this time from navigation. Picard paused, waiting for Crusher to report. The young man tilted his head around to look at the captain. "Seventeen Heavy Cruisers have just jumped out of hyperspace, sir! They're part of the barricading fleet!"

"On screen!"

Wesley tabbed a panel, and the view changed from the drifting Calvorian vessel to that of a number of UEF Cruisers, their warp exits rapidly closing behind them. The image on the screen flowed smoothly as the ships seemed to pass within a hair's length of the Horizon, and the vessels dove into the heart of the cluster of pursuing enemy battlecruisers, opening fire upon them with lasers and antimatter torpedoes. There was another beep from Worf's console, followed by one from Troi's communication station. "The UEF fleet has moved out from behind Jupiter," Worf reported first. "They are engaging the enemy."

"Status of the enemy fleet though--?" Riker queried.

"As anticipated, our sudden arrival has thrown them into disarray," Worf noted as he checked the tactical intel being fed to him from his console. "The forward half of the fleet has come to full stop, the middle has begun to break ranks, and the aft is also at stop, awaiting orders from the main ship, which UEF files identify as the Calvorian flagship Necrosis." Worf turned fully to face Picard. "The enemy fleet was completely unprepared for this, Captain. The Earth fleet is engaging at full strength, and are easily locking on targets."

"Good," Picard said, then glanced at Troi. "Counselor--?"

"We're receiving a signal from UEF Command, on Earth. General Hackert."

Picard raised an eyebrow and shared a semi-amused look with Riker. "Well, this should be interesting."

"No doubt," the first officer remarked as Picard first ordered Data to move the Horizon to a safe distance away from the fray, then told Deanna to put the signal through to the viewscreen. As each officer replied in the affirmative, Picard stood and noted to himself that on this ship, he could feel the deck plates vibrating as the vessel picked up speed. He had to contain a smile; years ago as a cadet, he had visited the Fleet Museum and had gone aboard a reconstruction of the Constitution-class Enterprise. During the visit, a simulator duplicated a powering up of the ship's decommissioned engines, and what it felt like to go to warp speed. During those days, one with a well-trained sensitivity to the vessel could tell what speed the ship traveled by feeling the vibrations of the deck plates. Here now, aboard the Horizon, the sensation was much the same.

"Mister Data, we're traveling at about point five under lightspeed, aren't we?" Picard queried. Data looked at the captain, and the android made the closest approximation to surprise he had ever seen. "Yes, sir. We are. Should I increase or decrease speed, sir?"

Picard waved him off, still fighting back the smile. "Steady as she goes, Mr. Data."

"Transmission coming in now, sir," Troi announced.

The stars changed from a view of their eternal serenity to that of a flustered General Hackert, shaking his head in amazement. "Picard, you must be a handful where you come from! Unless I'm suddenly going senile, I could have sworn I told you to hold position and wait for those escort ships!"

"I'm noting a lot of recommendations in my log today, General. I'll be sure to put yours on the list." And now Picard couldn't help it; the smile broke through.

General Hackert huffed angrily, but it was somewhat half-hearted. He picked up a dsp from the desk he was sitting behind and pressed a couple panels on it. "The Joint Chiefs have been monitoring your appearance closely since you popped in on the party and yelled 'surprise' early. What was that weapon you fired initially? It didn't quite register as a laser…"

"They're called phasers, General. A minor modification my chief engineer made to the Horizon's systems, along with an improvement to the magnetic repulsion forcefields you employ. Surprisingly, your technology isn't that far behind what we're used to working with. Unfortunately the Horizon doesn't quite carry the energy capacity necessary to upgrade her lasers to Galaxy-class standards, but we did the best we could."

"Did the best you could," Hackert repeated, rubbing his thumb across his lower lip thoughtfully. He leaned forward in his chair. "Picard, why do I get the feeling I owe you money for this?"

"Not at all, General," Picard said modestly. "We're simply looking for a way back to our own time, our own universe. If helping to keep your Earth free entices Q to give up on this little game of his, I'm all for it."

"Worf," Riker said softly so as not to intrude on the captain's conversation, the first officer standing and heading over to the Klingon officer's console, "How's the fleet doing?"

Worf quickly checked the UEF fleet's status and nodded at Will. "They're acquitting themselves well." The Klingon paused, uncertain if he should say anything further. When Riker shrugged his shoulders quizzically, he exhaled and continued, "I don't know why, but…I get the sense…that we've made a difference here. I don't know how."

Riker nodded slowly, feeling a chill briefly run down his spine. "I thought Deanna was supposed to be the empath, but…I feel it too."

"You still think this was all the work of your other-dimensional imp, Captain?" Hackert was saying, when an alert signal sounded at the tactical console. Worf and Riker both checked it, their eyes going wide simultaneously. "Captain!" the Klingon said first, breaking into Picard's conversation with Hackert. The captain turned to face him.

"Sir…there is a massive gravimetric disturbance opening up in the space near us. Forty-five thousand kilometers, port side!"

"Divide the screen," Picard ordered.

Worf worked his console swiftly. On the viewscreen, Hackert's image was moved to one side, as on the other, an image of what looked like a large, swirling pool of darkness opened up, blocking the stars behind it. The rift opened wider, wider…then finally halted in its expanse and maintained something resembling a standard size as its outer edges swirled around and around, like the outer edge of water draining down a sink.

"What is it…?" Deanna said, asking anyone within earshot as much as simply wondering aloud.

"It is not like any temporal or interdimensional rift we have encountered before," Data replied from helm as he attempted to scan the opening, where incredibly enough, stars were forming inside, but as seen from a great distance, like looking through a window on a cloudy night. "Sensors cannot read it…exactly," Data offered tentatively.

"What can they tell us?" Riker said somewhat impatiently as he moved to stand beside Picard between the command chair and the forward consoles. Data checked and re-checked his information as he reported, "The aperture appears to be some sixty-five thousand kilometers in width. There is no true density to it, as it seems to be not truly a part of the space that is visible. It is neither a black hole nor a wormhole. It does not emit radiation of any kind, nor are any types of quantifiable energies escaping from it. The stars we see forming are not the ones which should be visible behind the opening. Captain…" Data paused, rechecking his intel one last time, "Those are the stars of our solar system."

Picard's eyes widened as he and Riker took another step forward together. "You're certain--?" the captain said, not daring to get his or his crew's hopes up.

Data nodded and turned partway in his chair to look at Picard. "The Horizon's sensors are able to peer directly through the aperture. The stars visible through that opening give off the exact harmonal frequency micro-pulsations native to our own universe, matching that of our own bodies. The variances between our universe's micro-pulsations and this one are different to within zero-point-two meters-per-second squared, but they are different. That is our universe we are seeing."

"Captain…!" Wesley gasped at navigation, his voice almost choking in his throat as he pointed at the viewscreen. Picard squinted but couldn't quite make out what he was seeing. "Data, magnify!"

The android tabbed a couple of panels at helm, and Hackert's face shrunk significantly as the image on the right side of the split screen widened and closed in. Picard could swear he felt his heart skip a beat as fear clutched at it, trying to gain a firm hold.

Just visible inside the aperture, hanging suspended, was a Borg cube.