Chapter 2 – Part Two - Admiral Picard
Starfleet had become a fairly diverse entity occupying large portions of both the Alpha and Beta Quadrants of the Milky Way, in times gone by Alpha Centauri was the central hub, run by the Chief of Starfleet Operations who was responsible for the Quadrant Commanders – each holding the rank of Fleet Admiral. It is just such position to which Jean-Luc Picard had found himself – hero of numerous wars, he shook his head sadly. There had been nothing heroic about what he had done. Reporting to him were six Sub-Quadrant Commanders, all held the rank of Vice Admiral - each controlling six task forces that patrolled and kept the peace within Federation space. There were also several other divisions reporting to him Exploration, Tactical, Fleet Intelligence and Support Services – quite frankly he wondered how the hell he had gotten into this mess? All he'd ever wanted to do was explore space.
He stretched languidly after his subspace meeting. The general consensus was that another storm was coming, a colloquialism they use to refer to war – a way to make it sound more acceptable. There had been just so many of late. But then the discussions had got somewhat heated, what they had all managed to agree on, although that might have been too strong a term was that all capable ships would be upgraded with immediate effect – should they need to evacuate. He reflected on recent history, such as it, wondering idly how future generations would view his actions….of how things were so much simpler back during the early days.
The Third World War had cost the lives of over four billion people. After the rebuilding that took place Earth was no longer separated into different nations, they had become a United Earth, and as such any ships had the designation UES. This had been retained until the year 2200 AD when under the auspices of Captain Archer the UES Enterprise had precipitated in the formation of a new entity, the United Federation of Planets, stronger together than alone – the founding races; Vulcans, Tellarites, Humans and Andorians. Paranoia present in the early stages they had agreed on a nearby neutral planet on which to construct this organisation - Starfleet – swiftly followed within a generation by the Academy.
All starships thereafter were rechristened with UFP.
When the Great Experiment of 2282 had been an unprecedented success the Federation had become a transwarp capable fleet. This discovery having been the nail in the coffin of the older and much slower method of travel, hyperspace, and incumbent with too many limiting factors it had rapidly been abolished. After that the Federation became somewhat more aggressive in its search for knowledge, to protect itself and to guard its borders - even visiting some of the advanced civilisations other starship captains like Kirk had found. In some cases they had managed to liberate much needed technology.
Their first real war in hundreds of years began shortly after the explosion of Praxis; the Federation – Klingon War of 2292 - had lasted two whole years consuming untold personnel and resources on both sides. This had left the older more thoughtful Klingons, as those wishing to die in battle having already done so. Realising the only way to survive now was with external aid, most worlds being consumed by sickness and starvation - their losses were simply too huge to manage it alone. Sixth months later during the beginning of 2295 they had offered their unconditional surrender. Their only fear was of being made second class citizen, a fear that only lasted ten years until they were welcomed as full members, many eventually joining Starfleet.
Ten years later Starfleet Medical had managed to use the data from Kirk's second five year mission to uncover the secret of anti-agathics and rejuvenation, virtual immortality was now possible. It was not until the first Galaxy Class vessel was launched, in 2350, re-christened the Enterprise one year later that it actually began its five year mission under his command, the good old days, as Captain. It was during this he had met his first wife, the metamorph Kamala. Closing his eyes could remember the ship like it was yesterday, the smells and sounds of the new bridge. It was not until they encountered the cloaked planet Aldea, the last surviving resident dying of severe radiation poisoning – never to recover, that scientists had literally raped their database looking for any useful technology with a fine tooth comb. Their first encounter with the Borg had happened in 2352 as the omnipotent entity Q who had then tossed them into the M32 galaxy and then back again.
Within two years of Deep Space Nine being manned by the Federation, 2356, a war broke out in with a rival power controlling the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy. Although lasting only a year, a year of hell – creating some of the biggest fleet engagements ever seen in Federation history, at that time anyway, it also claimed the life of his wife, among other things –straining many a friendship to breaking point as colleagues and friends suspected one another of being a Changeling impostor.
Above Veridian III the Enterprise had been destroyed, replaced by latest incarnation in the Sovereign class. Within another eight months had seen the fall of the Romulan Senate - as a result of Praetor Shinzon, this had long lasting repercussions leaving them with no clear leadership, when Ambassador Spock stepped in and eventually over the following two months persuaded them to join the Federation creating a feeling of elation as all the old enemies were now gone – that they could finally begin to expand - a false feeling in hindsight.
The Kelvin Offensive of 2370 had come as a complete shock, catching the whole of the Federation off-guard as the extra-galactic invaders entered their space first, which bore the full brunt of their ruthless attacks – Andoria had been subject to orbital bombardment and as the ice melted it had turned into raging oceans – many had drowned in such attacks across the whole planet. Similar fates had awaited Qo'noS, Romulus, even Alpha Centauri had been glassed as a result of their vicious attacks – and they were the inner core of the Federation. Outer worlds had suffered far, far worse.
Many ships had been amassed at Sector 001, Earth, virtually blotting out the stars they were that numerous, making the fleets of the Dominion war now insignificant. In the end they had proved triumphant destroying most of the enemy ships, those captured were subject to intense scrutiny and study. There had been little choice of keeping any Kelvin POW's alive – each and every one had been executed for war crimes. So many worlds were left starving, diseased, living in cities that were fast becoming charnel houses, the only way to deliver to aid was by starship, most like the Excelsiors, Galaxy or Sovereign would unfortunately take far too long to build with the limited resources available. So the only compromise had been the older and extremely durable Constitution class vessels, given the latest technology which now numbered in the thousands stretching across the length and breath of Federation space.
It was during this war they he'd been promoted again, and again, the bloodiest campaign in Federation history, handing command of the Enterprise over to Captain Riker. He missed the Enterprise, this sudden burst of emotion caused his eyes to glance out the window at the waiting vessel, his ship, coined the UFP Lost Souls in memory of all those lost friends, an upgraded Galaxy II given a third nacelle, ventral phaser cannons, pulsed phasers – it was truly one of the fastest and most heavily armed ships in the whole Star fleet; but there were only two reserved for each Fleet Admiral.
Thinking about the past was putting off the inevitable though, reading those damnable reports which were piled high on the desk. Picking up the PADD began to read:
Stardate 23720507
Montgomery Scott - Head of Starfleet Engineering Corps – Alpha Quadrant:
It will unfortunately not be possible to refit most vessels with QS drive. Most of the older workhorses of the fleet like the Constitution and Excelsior class are unable to bear the loads and stresses required, therein restricting them to transwarp. I've done all tha' is humanly possible, cut as many corners without there being any large scale loss of life. In short the best possible refit time is 6 months and that's across the whole fleet, an' that's me best miracle yet.
We cannot continue to manufacture the newer, larger classes currently despite what anyone else wi' tell ya; as at this moment in time we quite simply do not have the current resources to plough into lavish projects not when there are planets and colonies that are still starvin' and suffering disease. When we are back on our feet but not till then, the cost in resources is simply too much. The Excalibur will be the Command Centre from which all fleet battles will be run using the state of the art holodeck allowing a three dimensional representation of the battlefield. Due to their size and complexity we have a build time of three years per vessel.
We need to desperately replace the ageing and underpowered Constitution - I do so love this vessel, but it needs to be said that in today's galaxy it cannot compete long-term being rebuilt solely for provision of relief aid throughout the Federation while we recovered from the war. While it would be pointless to mothball or scrap them as it would not be good time management to do so, that they could continue to serve as an internal police force, peacekeepers.
The following classes will take twelve months to build: Discovery, Eximius, Frontier, Galaxy II & and Galaxy X, Ingram, Legacy, and Sovereign, classes. We have decommissioned the awful Intrepid classes replacing it with the more durable, more streamlined, sleeker and altogether faster vessels. The following classes have a four month build time: Cantell, & Katana, Crusader. In short Fleet Admiral the build times are given optimum conditions, which we do not have and therefore we can safely double or triple many of them.
Laying it down absently looked at the stack of other reports across his desk.
Stardate 23690808
Leah Brahms - Head of Starfleet Engineering Corps – Beta Quadrant:.
Quantum Slipstream (which we have dubbed QSD) we have established is able to propel a vessel far deeper into subspace then previously recognised or understood. In many ways it uses the theoretical principles of what we believe will ultimately become ultrawarp, the next stage in engine design, as far beyond transwarp as that was beyond warp. On a bright note however we believe this may well lead to nearby extragalactic travel in merely months, not years or centuries allowing the Federation to spread its wings instead of being confined to the Milky Way galaxy.
While QSD is possible using the normal Constitution type nacelle configuration we have found that it undergoes rapid destabilisation within seconds, hurling the vessel uncontrollably into normal space – no unmanned tests have yet successfully maintained control. The result is haphazard descent into either deep space or a large object. Such a catastrophic release of energy would decimate a planet killing all life. The few computer controlled shuttle collisions with asteroids were bad enough. There is no known way to make it work it would be better to spend time upgrading those vessels that are capable of generating the correct subspace field allowing a much deeper penetration into subspace
They'd only just recently finished upgrading the Constitutions and Excelsiors with collimated phaser arrays. The smaller banked phasers were added to the rest of the fleet as point defence. Reading through the next report was somewhat depressing:
Stardate 23691003
Commander Geordie La Forge – Enterprise:
For the past part of four weeks I have been compiling a list for Fleet Admiral Picard who is quite insistent, and rightly so, of counting our losses from the Andromedan War – it does not look good. I can only say that the butcher's bill is staggering, to say the least and even with all out ship production it will likely be years, maybe even a decade before we are back up to full strength – amazing as that may sound.
While Lea Brahms has been refining QSD we have the problem of power sources, normal M/ARC is not powerful enough to allow a sustained and controllable reaction to maintain those speeds for any length of time – to date anyway. So experimentation has begun on zero-point energy, something we have limited success with on quantum torpedoes. It is our hope that within a decade we will have a fully functioning reactor for installation and test on a starship of choice. Simulations have revealed that starships will be able to manufacture over ten times the power generation they currently do. We are certain that it will be small enough to be used by most ships for another five years after that, pending the test period.
Picard sighed again throwing the PADD in frustration watching as it skipped off several others hitting the floor. This was not the good news he expected from any of Starfleet's most prized miracle workers. "Computer tea, earl grey, hot," he walked over to the replicator to collect his drink – must be over four years now constantly waking to nightmares and screams.
The door chimed breaking him from his reverie…"Come," noticing that Captain Riker came strolling in, head held high, defiant of the odds, determined.
"Admiral, it's good to see you again"
"You too Will. How's Deanna?" He gestured for his friend to sit who despite his personal romantic re-involvement, maintained his professionalism.
"Still critical sir, Doctor Ree is hopeful she will make a full recovery. It's just a matter of time"
"That's good Will. I'm sorry about loss of the baby"
"So am I Admiral,"
The tones, the eyes, both held unrestrained anger. "I know how much both of you wanted a family"
"Thank you"
"Please call me Jean-Luc, it's one of the reasons I asked you to come"
A smile returned albeit a bit forced. "How can I help you Jean-Luc?"
"How are things, out there?"
His smile disappeared immediately, causing the young Captain to grimace. "Whatever the reports are telling you Admiral, its worse. Far worse"
"I suspected as much"
"What do we know about the enemy?"
"Not much"
"Our scans are confirmed by the Griffon's that they have some kind of space folding technology"
Picard's face grew dire, "That is the more serious problem 'Number One'"
"It's a long time since you called me that"
"Too long Will, far too long," placing the cup down on the table he looked the Enterprise Captain directly in the eye. "I don't need to tell you what that means?"
"They can invade at any point of their choosing"
He nodded, "Even if they come through with only one ship we are in serious trouble"
"What are we going to do?"
"We need fully operational vessels and crews out there patrolling Federation space"
"Speaking of crews how is Voyager?"
"Chakotay is dead," he stated passing the PADD over. Flicking through a list of dead, of those not expected to survive and any who were in recovery, the names brought a feeling of deep regret that they had managed to cross a large part of the galaxy, albeit at transwarp.
"What about that huge explosion on Vulcan? Scans measured the output at over one teraton. What caused it?"
"We're still working on that one"