Chapter 5 – Part One – Surprises
Captain Bateson continued his discussion with Shi'ar Princess.
"Tell me from one explorer to another. How did your ship breach the galactic barrier? Even with transwarp it proves difficult"
She smiled unnervingly, "It's not too unlike the same barrier at the centre of this galaxy," she leant forward conspiratorially, whispering gently near his ear, "They're not really there"
He tried not to choke, forced to hold a hand over his mouth to avoid expelling water all over the table. Absently he noticed her eyes lit up with mischief, when he was finally under control - "Excuse me?"
"They're not really there Captain, placed there as figments of our imagination by races beyond imagining"
"But our sensors tell us there is something there, not the least of which are the side effects of breaching the external barrier." He was dying to ask if they had encountered the being at the centre of the galaxy.
"Side effects?"
"Never mind," he said waving off her next question. "I would imagine your ship will be habitable in a couple of days. Perhaps we could find quarters here for you?"
"That would be most helpful," she said demurely. "Perhaps we might have dinner together later and that alcoholic beverage you promised?"
"It would be an honour" he said smiling, rising as she did more out of courtesy than anything else. When she had gone, he sat down again, drained, affairs like this were always a complete bore. He'd prefer to fight the Borg, or explore some unknown corner of the galaxy. He tried to repress the cold shiver that went up his spine at the thought of State dinners. "I'll be glad when we're out of here" he muttered to the empty room.
There was something he didn't trust about the Shi'ar. Sitting down he tried to get comfy but whatever was niggling at the back of his mind was preventing him from relaxing, so he stood, staring out at the vastness of space instead. Idly he wondered what lay out beyond this galaxy. He was tired, dog tired. He decided on another tactic, stretching out on the sofa propped several cushions underneath his head.
Unaware that he had slept woke abruptly, unable to shake the one thought in his mind. They'd breached the inner barrier of the galaxy, like Kirk, they must know or have some clue what the being that lay there was. The console beeped warning of a waiting communiqué, pressing the touch panel was disappointed to note that it was his Head Engineer, a female, Denobulan, who sometimes he felt did not want to be here. Perhaps that was his imagination though.
"Trevika, what can I do for you?" Visible in the background were her engineering staff, and numerous other Shi'ar. All seemed excited.
"We've fixed everything they wanted to us too. They're good to go"
"Excellent work"
"Thanks Captain. Permission to come back aboard?"
"Granted, we'll be underway in just under one hour then. Formidable out."
Part wanted the dinner with the princess, and the other, and he had to admit it was the larger part, did not, not anymore. It was the constant game they were playing. Moot point anyway¬ he thought as he walked onto the bridge. Minutes later her call arrived, she had obviously read the signs just as well or better than he had.
"Well Captain does this mean you will be departing so soon? No chance of our dinner?" She smiled seductively.
Deciding whether to lie or not, he relented instead, perhaps it would be good to cement relations between their two species? "Of course Princess, would you prefer to dine here or on your ship?"
"On your ship, if that would not be an imposition?"
"It would be an honour. Will your bodyguard Gladiator accompany you again?"
"Naturally. It is not a problem I hope?"
"Of course not," he replied. "I simply needed to know if my security staff would need to required"
"See you in two hours Captain."
His First Officer was left tending to the bridge while he sat enjoying the ambience, attempting to establish first contact relations and maybe treaty could be difficult. Having done everything possible to add ambience and mood, the lights were slightly dimmed but not low enough to suggest intimacy, several lit candles were on the table, but it was done tastefully. Besides how the hell can you be intimate with her man mountain bodyguard? Larger than any Capellan he had ever seen, his blue Mohican matching the colour of his skin. Their scans had determined some rather off putting things, that his genetic code did not match other Shi'ar, that it had been tampered with and most alarmingly his skin was unnaturally strong and durable, coupled with an innate ability to produce some kind of micro-thin forcefield which according to internal sensors would be able to repel a fair number of hand phasers. In short the situation was of deep concern that any species would tamper so with another's, or that they would manufacture such a weapon. This was why the phrase Shi'ar Empire seemed to keep coming back to haunt him, like some kind of ghost.
They both sat in the executive lounge which quite frankly hardly ever saw any use at all, more on account that it was reserved for this type of occasion, which happened very rarely nowadays. A very attractive female crewmember, an ensign, popped the cork on the champagne. He tried to covertly hide the smile behind his hand as Gladiator flinched.
"You'll excuse my bodyguard?" she inquired, "He can be a little over wrought sometimes"
"All bodyguards are, it's been a while since I had one," like ever he thought, although technically speaking he had a whole ship full. "Which galaxy are you located in?"
"One of the local group," she answered coyly. "But we do occasionally have to travel to other nearby galaxies where we have bases…"
He noticed that she let the comment hang, not sure if the slip had been deliberate or accidental. There were lots of questions he could ask here, but all had the potential to go drastically wrong. "How many galaxies do you have bases in?"
"Five or six," she smiled. "But I suspect like your United Federation of Planets we found that just the one can be a little crowded don't you think?"
"Sometimes it can feel claustrophobic" he admitted, "Skirmishes with other local powers can be a little trying to say the least," he took a sip of the champagne, savouring the taste. "Usually it is customary for the female to taste the wine first I thought it prudent so your bodyguard doesn't rush over"
"Scared Captain?"
"Hell yeah, have you seen the size of him?"
She laughed, "Why do you think we chose him?"
"Winning personality?"
"Not exactly" Her laugh echoed around the room like the morning sunshine.
He noticed a male ensign walk into the room, whisper something to the female, watching as she departed. He scowled in annoyance.
"A problem Captain?"
"I don't think so" he replied, although the bodyguard seemed to spot the same thing he did, something felt wrong, perhaps it was nothing? "Shall we eat?"
"That would be nice. What choice have I got?" Watching as he indicated the menu in front of them, "Aaaaah, interesting I thought there would only be one choice. Very kind of you"
"I had my doctor speak with yours about whether anything we could be serving might cause problems, he said not. So feel free to ask for what you like"
"Thank you."
She ran her eyes over the menu trying to feign slight ignorance.
The last time a Shi'ar had been to the ape's home planet was over four hundred years ago when several operatives had been captured unexpectedly by Torchwood that had in turn warned other agencies. It had been Stormwatch and Delta Green that had been less subtle, summarily shooting them on the spot for 'treasons against humanity,' or that was what she remembered from the intelligence reports. They had intended to return and decimate the planet having then been warned off by a being that resided in the moon. When they had argued the point their entire crew and ship had been instantly returned home. Nothing subtle there and having very little choice they had removed most of their assets from the Milky Way, leaving a few behind to discreetly keep an eye on things.
Although events had conspired against them as any remaining vessels had encountered a sinister dark spider shaped vessel made of some kind of organic material several kilometres across. It had defied all scanning attempts and when they had even got close a purple beam had obliterated all but one of the fleet, deliberately letting it escape to tell tall tales of what had happened. Upon returning one year later both craft and base had vanished. Left with more mysteries they had continued with business as usual. To a great extent the Shi'ar had reached a peak in their technological ability and sought that rare or mysterious item that would give them the break or leg up they needed, nothing had as yet been found.
Both were interrupted from their personal thoughts as the young male ensign, barely twenty came across. His slim hips and slight build showed that he had yet to fill out.
"Can I take your orders, Your Highness?"
Barely looking she hardly even registered the human. "Mmmmmm…I will have."
She never finished the sentence as the human was on her instantly throwing her across the room with strength no ape should rightly possess; falling into her protector's arms as he caught her effortlessly, impacting his heavily muscled frame. Not that he had a second as the attacker's human hand transformed into a huge rocky fist.
Gladiator spun her away from the attack so fast it made her giddy – shielding her with his own body as he was forced to withstand the strike, watching as it staggered the powerful strontian – briefly. Pushing her aside towards the Federation Captain, screamed his defiance at the Skrull, firing twin beams of pure red energy from either eye at the reptilian shape changer causing orange flecks of rock to slough off during the attack. Ducking just in time as a blow ripped apart the internal wall like paper causing the floor to shake with the violence of it. He then landed several blows of his own, each fist was packing around ten tons of force but the assassin was a blur as he dodged with lightning speed. Despite the power of his attacks the Skrull remained standing, but it did sway unsteadily, unwilling to admit defeat.
Admiral Elizabeth Shelby sat behind her desk waiting for Captain Valentine and his XO. Idly she wondered about Calhoun and where he had been stationed, she could find out easily enough. But it was just like the million times she had wanted to send a message and a million and one times she had stopped herself at the last minute. Unsure of whether she actually truly missed the rouge Captain or not, if the desire to follow her career had been the best move. It had been nearly two years and there had simply not been time for anyone, let alone one night stands. Reaching for the touch panel pulled her hand back at the last minute as though she had been electrified – don't call you fool!
Tapping her fingers impatiently upon the desk just made it worse. In fact her ship didn't help, an Excalibur (II) class, UFP Whitehall, was one of the first with a Holographic Command Centre, the ideal place for commanding battles, able to see each and every aspect. Thankfully her duties helped take her mind off things, the hurt a little but not a whole lot but she was Admiral now and had to be made of sterner and much tougher stuff.
If only she felt like it. Some days she could almost cry, of the desolation across the Federation, something which if she was truthful they were unlikely to ever recover from. This new enemy made dissolution all the more likely. Many times she had wanted to speak to Admiral Kirk, who now ran Starfleet Academy, about how to best handle things. Perhaps it was he who had been the original rogue Captain, the template from which many others had fallen, then she dismissed such thoughts, Calhoun was his own man and certainly not a copy of Kirk – although there were many similarities. She saw a reflection of herself in the window, a rueful smile stretched across her beautiful features. Bashfully she pulled blonde hair from her eyes.
The door chimed, which she ignored briefly trying to gather some self control.
"Come!" Turning abruptly watched as Captain Valentine and his First Officer entered entranced by her piercing sea green eyes. "Aaaah good of you both to join me," she said jovially, gesturing for both to take a seat. Without preamble she began, never having been one to mince her words. "Perhaps you could tell me Commander Peters of the events on the planet?"
"Of course Admiral," she replied, "Shortly after we beamed down I ordered the marines to hold fire until we knew more. Sergeant Meresin countermanded my orders and started a fire fight. I was hoping we could…." She said pausing, casting her mind back, "Well anything perhaps find a way in which we could peacefully coexist, preferably without trying to kill one another"
"Don't you think we are kind of past that now?"
"Not really. Comon sense tells me that we, the Federation cannot survive another war. We're already reeling from the last. Finding something in common would be better than…." She gestured out at the stars, "What happened to Vulcan. God knows it must have happened elsewhere"
Shelby nodded almost imperceptibly, "Very good I believe your report also mentioned that their armour could not withstand the assault of both energy and kinetic fire?"
"That's correct. It seemed okay at first then it seemed to struggle whether it was down to the continuous pounding or that it was not designed to handle both"
"A sound assessment one which is shared by sensor readings we gained during your encounter"
She looked briefly at Captain Valentine for confirmation, watching as he nodded, "Permission to speak freely Admiral?"
"Captain is there something, anything you want to add?" she did not mean to be dismissive, it just sort of happened.
"Let her speak freely Admiral, you'll want to hear what she has to say instead of dismissing it"
"Okay Commander, spill it"
"During the confrontation one of them brushed my mind, but it seemed to recognise something familiar about the night sky. I am not certain which planet but it was definitely in this solar system"
Suddenly bolt upright for second, she couldn't believe it this may be the break they needed. "Are you certain Commander? I mean are you totally certain?"
Karen pondered the question for a moment, "Certain no. Admiral," she paused trying to verbalise what she had felt, and experienced during that brief joining. "I was being touched by a mind whose value system and beliefs felt totally alien to me. So I am not one hundred percent in this, but fairly confident the answers lie somewhere in this solar system"
Shelby nodded, "We've gathered intelligence from various sources and what we are finding is really quite intriguing. The ship they used to attack Vulcan is organic in nature, like their armour. But what is confusing is that their larger Capital ship is not."
Valentine interrupted, "How much bigger is their main ship?"
"Over ten miles long Captain. The Griffon barely survived the encounter luckily their upgraded shields protected them. Without them well they'd be space dust now"
"We barely fought off their first ship let alone…..this" she stated.
"Correct, but this second ship is unlike the first. Judging by recent reports we believe this may be either an earlier model, or more likely one stolen from another race. One they had conquered"
He looked into her eyes as a terrible thought entered his mind. "Admiral," pausing to lick his lips which had suddenly gone terribly dry he was unsure whether to voice the thought or not. "What if the race whose ship it was, are still out there?"
"We had thought about that but do not consider it a clear and present danger right now," she then told them about the other attacks, and about some, mostly humans becoming susceptible to spontaneous development of psychic ability and the easy way to spot someone under the influence.
"How do we fight that?" asked Valentine worriedly. "They could take over planets"
"It appears that dozens of Minbari Sharlins have been taken over in just that manner those able minded crews destroyed their own ships rather than allow it to spread. Bajor is now under their influence and we are unsure of how or what to do"
"Are any of our ships affected?"
"Two, the Discovery and Griffon – both ships are quarantined. Nothing on, nothing off"
Captain Dronid sat alone in her quarters two security officers were stationed outside, a prisoner on her own ship; of all things. In a way they all were. Fear was now overtaking the Federation, No ship was allowed within one light year of Bajor, any that left were summarily destroyed – given only one warning. She wondered how much farther it was likely to go, how many more lives would be lost, would more worlds end up being turned to slag?Pacing past her table for what must have been the hundredth time, now she knew what a caged animal felt like, impotent, unable to fulfil her true function, a Captain of the Star Fleet.
In special quarters next to hers was Dukhat, the leader of the Minbari. Not even he was allowed out or to be the same room with anyone, their only contact with others was through subspace. They spent many hours talking, or she would be annoying the bridge staff by asking for regular updates. But it was her ship and she was determined to get back onto the bridge. She heard the door next to hers chime followed by Dukhat's basso tones as he allowed whoever it was to enter. Listening carefully she tried to identify the voice. Aaaaaah it was the doctor, likely there to run DNA tests to confirm the Leader of the Grey Council was fit and well, and not going to become some black eyed monster – which is what nearly happened to her. One of the first things waiting had been a communiqué from the Griffon explaining their situation.
She'd met T'Bon at the Academy, although she had only been a cadet at the time as an unknown Vulcan had walked by talking to a living legend, Ambassador Spock no less. What had struck her was the keenness of their debate, although the details were now lost to memory. Serving with him had been one of her first commands, staying on board until her eventual promotion to lieutenant at which time she had transferred to the Churchill which was basically a more heavily armoured Constitution. There she had served under Captain Sheridan with until gaining her rank of Captain, which had been a hard, but enjoyable six years.
It was then her doors opened abruptly, as both her XO, and the CMO walked in.
"Captain you need to hear what the doctor has to say, we feel it may be vital to situation although we are unsure…." She left her comments unsaid, for now.
"Go on Doctor Tokur, spit it out"
The doctor was one of the few surviving El Aurians, other than Guinan that had integrated into Starfleet, she stood there trying to stop the cascading thoughts get out of control. Her flawless dark skin gave her the appearance of some African Queen from out of long gone Earth history. "You'll find this hard to believe but Dukhat has human DNA mixed in with his Minbari genetic code"
She flippantly waved off the comments, "That's just down to our innate similarities courtesy of the mysterious alien benefactors Picard discovered"
Knowing she had misinterpreted, same as the First Officer, "No Captain, actual human DNA that must've been in his family line at least five hundred years – I'd be inclined to guesstimate at over a thousand years"
"That's impossible! We've only encountered them within the last five years"
It was then Leanne took over, "Didn't Dukhat mention about their current caste culture arising about a thousand years ago – it can't be coincidence." All were startled as he walked in, his face as equally sombre as everyone else in the room.
"We were just talking about …"
"I can guess," he interrupted. Like many great leaders, where he walked heads turned, beings stopped whatever they were doing and paid attention. His actions, even the very, very small carried such gravitas that you were drawn in, compelled to wait until there was some non-verbal cue allowing you to continue. "Among my people there is a legend just over one thousand of our years ago about a Minbari not born of Minbar"
"My god, you cannot possibly be suggesting?"
"In Valen's name," he uttered reverently, placing a hand on his chest and extending his right out, palm open. He then explained, in great details, the legend of Valen.
He had been ordered to perform this assignment by masters, the Anansi, for both the Skrulls and their older cousins the Chitauri served them by bringing chaos through destruction and conflict - augmented genetically to better fulfil their missions, and mentally to ensure obedience. It had been this way for millions of years, slavery and death. Each acted as cosmic gardeners, weeding out unworthy races in their respective galaxies. Most thought their masters were restricted to only one galaxy, it was not true – they were guardians of whole Virgo supercluster – dispensing their rules across a hundred million light years. Red energy flashed from the Shi'ar lapdog, caught off guard he used his own protective field to ward off the attacks that would likely follow.
Morgan had had enough, having immediately called for security as soon as the attempt had begun – fairly confident that her bodyguard could handle the situation in the interim. Ordering the computer to amplify his voice, "Cease and desist immediately" he ordered. Two security officers stationed outside the door rushed in only to meet incoming balls of flame, courtesy of the skrull. One rolled aside at the correct moment the right side of his body badly burnt, screeching in pain but alive. The other was atomised by the sheer heat and power of the flames.
He guessed that internal fire suppression had been tampered with, not that it would have made much difference he thought sourly. Each punch or kick was more than capable of tearing down internal bulkheads, as a precaution the captain ordered a shield preventing the combatants from escaping while he and the princess beat a hasty retreat just as one of the standby teams, a group of four, came storming through the door in full armour, not taking any chances. Twin beams of crimson energy impacted the Shi'ar and the reptilian alien, both carried on heedless to the weapons fire directed at them.
"Full power" ordered the marine angrily. Two more beams hit both aliens although neither seemed to be overly affected even under continuous fire. Shaking his head, "holster hand phaser and use heavy weapons" he ordered pulling the phaser rifle off his shoulder and his faceplate down. "Full power and fuck the consequences!"
The combination of phaser rifles and isomagnetic disintegrators slowed both opponents down noticeably unfortunately it meant the skrull was forced to halt combat temporarily to remove the weaker threat – the security team. Balls of fire streaked from the assassin's hands across the room at the strontian and the security team, both of whom were forced to dodge out of the way. A jet of flame hit the armour of one marine, even though it was designed to withstand high power phaser blasts parts of it were still melted leaving the human writhing on the floor in agony.
"Cover me!" screamed another marine returning to cover his fallen comrade, firing aggressively.
Gladiator knew that should three or four of their heavy phaser rifles be fired continuously his forcefield would die, and he shortly thereafter. As it was this skrull was proving incredibly troublesome, more so than usual. He tried to grab hold of him, but the rock-like body became soft, pliable, and bendy, wrapping around his waist, stretching towards his throat like a sinewy snake. Firing crimson beams again cursed as it slipped aside as he burnt a hole straight through the deck striking the one below which he could see glowing ominously. Pulling sharply unwound and threw the skrull across the other side of the room. Taking the chance to use the distraction to his advantage, diving at the assassin whose skin suddenly turned reflective, shiny and cold – his eyes opened wide in surprise as his momentum caused him to slide headfirst into a level ten containment field to lay on the deck – stunned.
His arms stretched twenty feet in the blink of an eye as he grabbed one marine and crushing the armour and the contents within like tinfoil. Crimson beams and balls of energy hit the skrull's protective cocoon which seemed to weaken, beginning to buckle slightly under the strain. It reached the more secure doors through which the captain and Lilandra had fled. Realising that he would be unable to penetrate the forcefield had only one option left – flee! He seemed to ripple out of existence just as a huge dark spider like craft shimmered into existence outside the window – then both were gone.