Chapter 6 – Part Two - End Game

Reports had been coming in to Starfleet Command over the last few days, of hit and run tactics by the aliens all across the galaxy, suns going nova, and uncounted alien deaths. For despite their trail back being somewhat circuitous they were undoubtedly heading back towards Earth. If anything they could not be more than one or two jumps away. From what she was hearing Admiral Janeway did not think it was possible to turn the Aldean repulsor beam into a weapon, at least in the time they had. Inside the Hephaestus class Starbase was a ship capable of mounting the Soliton wave device, and they hoped it would project enough of the fleet far enough away for the defences to destroy the rest.

Deep within the orbit of Jupiter and Saturn space was rent out of shape as a huge boil formed on reality within which shapes could be seen writhing, struggling to reach the surface. It was almost as though it knew what was emerging and it scream in warning. But it was not like the paltry sound made the Shadow ships, this was far, far worse. This was far more ancient, more primal and it screamed -"Abomination!"

Ships three kilometres wide which poured forth like pus, leaving the tunnel in subspace open like a suppurating sore. One thousand enemy ships poured forth, accompanied by ten the larger Capital ships, each over ten miles long. All within the communal hive mind jumped with joy, they would be retaking their home of an aeon ago from when the apes were still barely upright. They had returned to claim their rightful home and their god would stretch forth her mandibles and claim this galaxy. Each separate attack had been a way to test the defences of the usurpers and they had been found…..wanting. Even the feeble First Ones were no match and once they had reclaimed lost territory they would be…..next. Second looked out of the hiveship window, each of the white ape vessels resembled a leukocyte – thinking themselves able to remove what they believe was a Vor'ku'far contagion – it laughed and millions of other voices joined could be heard within their group-mind. They streaked towards the feeble apes waiting for the signal to attack as orange energy erupted from the usurpers vessels but they did not return fire until their god gave them permission to engage. Hundreds of bursts impacted their shields, but they held, each impact shaking the mighty vessel.
"Attack children attack!"
The Old One had spoken. The command was given, and they obeyed. Fighters exited the bellies of Capital ships, streaking across the sky in attack formations. Space was once more silent scream of violence and death.

Lightning filled the very heavens as though the very gods were at war.

The Enterprise shook once more under the impact, "Report" Riker barked.
"First tier shields are down to ninety percent" Jasminder shouted. "There's just too many of them," concerned etched across her youthful features. It was the twentieth hit they had sustained in as many minutes.
"Captain we could barely take on one of their vessels let alone a thousand"
"You think I don't know that Worf!" he groused, "What choice do we have? Fire at will lieutenant!"
"Yes sir"
Crimson energy weapon erupted from the wingtips of an enemy vessel glancing, their shields, alarms bleated warnings all across the ship. One of the fifteen mile ships veered off accelerating to superluminal speeds leaving the battle, for another destination.
"Where is that ship going?" inquired the XO.
"Unknown sir, it is out of sensor range"
"We can't worry about that now, concentrate fire on the remaining ships. There's plenty of choice"
"Yes Captain"

Trailblazer and Dominance hadn't been christened with their names for kicks as Starfleet had designed for one very specific purpose, battle, to lay down heavy fire on command. They did not disappoint. The trouble was even this Taskforce was outnumbered almost ten to one and they were fighting a loosing battle. Even the pulsed phasers of the Dominance could only fire form so long. The trouble was each and every ship had to ensure they did have the planet at their backs, otherwise it meant having to hold their ground and hope they survived, or let millions die – similar to the Griffon. They were fighting a battle they couldn't win, it was obvious with the first engagements, but defending your homeland, the ones you love can do strange things to apes as all of sudden they fought with greater and greater tenacity. Suddenly the universe took a great breath, and it watched intently.

Azuma looked at T'Bon grimly, it was just a look and it said everything – we will not lose and we will die trying if need be to protect Earth, it was one of the few founding original member planets untouched or unspoilt by war, something that was doubtless about to change.
"Byn-Zero have you got my backup plan ready?"
"Yes Captain" the little Bynar responded from the bowels of the great vessel.
"Good, let's get ready as I suspect it is our dead man's option"
"Understood sir" agreed Grax, "All teams fire at will and get ready to send our non-human boarding party across." An evil grin spread across his features. "Open a channel to Admiral Saavik, tell her we need those pulse phaser cannons of hers at the following coordinates" he said sending the data stream across to her console. "Take us in, right into the belly of the beast." The Griffon's impulse engines suddenly burst into life as it headed towards the huge landing bays at the side of one of the capital ships, this fact had been revealed by scans in their previous encounter containing more than enough space for their ship to fit neatly inside. Once they were at the periphery Maban gave the signal.
"Fire" ordered T'Bon.

Photon and quantum torpedoes and multiple phasers impacted with enemy shields. The Dominance pulled in alongside, firing for all it was worth. Both watched in exultation as the shields fell, if only for a brief second – but it was enough as their impulse engines flashed red again and with a sudden explosion of energy it cannoned within the maw of the unknown, penetrating the outlier shield, and penetrating the second forcefield which protected the landing bays, and all inside from vacuum depressurisation.
Azuma looked at his Captain who nodded his assent. "Do it"
"Yes Commander" responded the huge Capellan. Fingers darted over the controls sending the coordinates to other operations officers. Within moments several quantum torpedoes – each capable of creating gigatons of explosive power were being beamed to strategic locations within the huge vessel.
"Get us out of here!"

Explosions cascaded across the mighty capital ship, rupturing decks and bulkheads exposing whole sections to open space. Thousands of the locust aliens were sucked out into the void, barely having enough time to erect psychokinetic shields. Huge pieces of twisted metal bounced off Griffon's shields, causing it to heave in response.
"Anytime soon ensign" T'Bon groused as it accelerated out of the landing bay.

They had scored their first victory on this battlefield.

Behind them a huge explosion lit the night sky.

Anastasia threw an arm across her face to shield her eyes. She had refused to allow the Discovery to be hobbled by being confined to quarters, selecting to disobey strict orders and return to active duty. "Break hard to starboard, lock phasers on that behemoth tailing the Enterprise"
"Firing phasers" Catharia confirmed. "And a spread of photons," she grinned watching in delight as its wingtip was blown clean off to hurtle through space. Several Federation vessels barely dodged the deadly debris in time.
"Set course, 21, mark 075, one quarter impulse."
The Heavy Cruiser pulled alongside the flagship of the fleet as they both took position ready to begin an attack on the unshielded engines of one of the flying wings. Opening a channel, "Whenever you're ready Riker" she spoke into the comms channel.
Catharia received an acknowledgement and did the Captain but she did not pause or wait. "Firing"
Phasers from both ships fired simultaneously, melting the protective grill spearing the blue coloured ion engines. The vessel itself was blown into multiple fragments that sped at such velocity that half a dozen Reliant classes, and one badly damaged Galaxy class - unable to avoid the debris were smashed to pieces sending their own deadly shrapnel across the battlefield. One nacelle rebounded across the flickering shields of several other ships before finally impacting with the shields of the Whitehall, Shelby's ship, the final explosion collapsing them, leaving a huge gaping crater in the hull.

Kirk sat in the captain's chair once again, in command, the place he needed to be to make a difference. Someone else had his ship name, but it didn't matter, well slightly he admitted silently, but this was where he belonged, knowing that they were now fighting for their very survival.
"Fire"
"Yes Admiral"
"It's the damn Andromedan war all over again" he murmured to no one in particular grabbing the arms to steady himself as the ship shook with the impact.
"Sorry sir" inquired an ensign.
"Hard to port" he shouted, "Fire photons at 010 mark 130"
Orange death screamed in the silent void of space towards it target.
An audio distress signal could heard, "Admiral Kirk…admiral….."
"Spock, Spock!" he screamed. "Get that communication back, now!" he raged.
His best friend appeared on the viewscreen, injured but alive.
"Admiral we are badly damaged and our warp core is about to breach request emergency beam out"
"On our way, Kirk out," he said his eyes full of passion and anger. "Get us within range"
"Admiral Shelby has commanded us…."
"Damn the Admiral, take us to Spock's ship!" There was not even an acknowledgement, she just followed the orders. He knew the tones had been harsh, but he didn't care, his friend came first.
"Within range now"
"Beam the bridge crew directly to sickbay and then beam the rest of the crew onboard"
"Understood," she acknowledged glumly, within a moment she responded once more. "Transport complete"

Elizabeth Shelby stood in the Holographic Command Centre; from here she controlled the fleet's actions. She had just heard that the missing enemy Capital ship had passed Picard's Hephaetus class Starbase. So in all likelihood he would not joining them here, gathering his own fleet just in case it attacked anywhere within his sector.
One ship was out of position, "Computer identify the CO of that ship," she said pointing.
"Admiral Kirk is in command of…"
"Never mind" she said sourly, damn Kirk!
"Use point defence phasers destroy that incoming nacelle" shouted her XO, Mercedes.
Thrown to the floor, her head impacted the carpeted bulkhead with enough force to send vibrations down her spine all the way to her toes. She tried to rise but her arm gave way and she sank to the floor, trying to cradle the injured limb with the other, a scream of pain erupted from her lips.
"Aaah!"
Blinking blood away from her eyes glanced around at her bridge; most of were either killed outright or in similar or worse conditions to hers. It was then she realised it was impossible to stand as another unmerciful spasm of pain ripped through her body like a hot spike.
"Fuck me!"
Unconcerned about how un-admiral like it was she saw her XO lay unmoving, an ever expanding puddle of blood surrounding her. Damn! She thought, got to get out of this somehow, it is unfair- is there no justice! She wanted to shout and scream her defiance to the very heavens and to the non-existent gods of ages gone by. Pure unbridled passion and anger took over, and she rolled despite the pain, and blood, and the sounds of someone screaming – realising absently through the haze that it was her. She looked down at the bottom half of her leg - which was still facing the wrong way and her broken arm hung at the wrong angle another joint in the middle of the forearm. She tapped her combadge.
"All hands abandon ship, all hands abandon ship!" she shouted.
Darkness began to overtake her vision; she opened her eyes once more to find a tunnel of light through which she drifted. Slowly she slumped towards the floor, unconscious and near death.

Its shields collapsed, the Dominance barrel rolled to avoid heavy weapons fire, a slight miscalculation caused enemy weapons to cut a huge gash diagonally across from saucer to stern. Its starboard nacelle was venting plasma and bodies.
She barely managed to remain in her seat.
"What the hell happened?"
Her attempts to shout above the din was futile, successfully diving aside at the last minute as a part of the ceiling fell on her station crushing it and pinning her XO to deck, albeit not fatally – not yet anyway. When the ship blew up they would all die.
"Go Admiral, don't stay on my account"
"We're not evacuating or leaving you behind" she said forcefully to the Klingon observing Garrick out of the corner of her eye, rush over to help Gaila whose body slowly went limp, a nasty gash on her forehead.
"Stay with me" his tones were pleading, "Otherwise I'll never to tell you the story about my mother and the Ferengi," he smiled warmly, cupping her cheek tenderly, trying frantically to dab the blood away while simultaneously trying to staunch the flow.

In his Ready Room Jean-Luc listened to reports coming through of the battle he even watched holographic representations of it taken courtesy of Earth Station McKinley. It did not bode well. He could not stifle a cheer when one of the capital ships exploded, cursing when it sent shards of metal spinning across space. Several huge chunks impacted on the moon, several had to be obliterated by defence platforms – it was a miracle that his home planet had not yet suffered catastrophic strikes – it would be only a matter of time. But Earth was not his destination, yet, Betazed was.

The engines of his mighty Galaxy Dreadnaught glowed through the void as it sped towards its destination. Sitting alongside was Beverley who seemed to be wearing a rather grim expression, features taut, and her mouth pursed, possibly more so than his own. He had accepted that many of those defending the planet he would never see again, but for her it was different. She saw them screaming in pain in sickbay, the aftercare, talking to relatives, she knew a much different side of battle. In an uncharacteristic show of emotion he reached across and squeezed her hand gently, almost lovingly.
"It'll be okay"
"No it won't" her tones were like nails on a blackboard. "Don't be so damn conceited"
She was angry now, he looked into her eyes imploringly before standing abruptly. "No, you're right. What the hell are we doing?" He walked towards the door abruptly angry at himself for being so…maudlin.' "You coming?" he asked before exiting onto the bridge. A moment later the flame haired beauty emerged.
"We're in orbit Fleet Admiral"
"Good, do we have exact coordinates from the stars and skyline?"
He had informed his crew about the recording. After many hours his science officer had managed to confirm that a message had been deleted, there now being an open space where the recording had been, a kind footprint in their system. Whoever had orchestrated it was good enough having left virtually nothing for reconstruction.
"We can pinpoint the city and the general neighbourhood sir…wait" remarked the ensign staring at his console. "In fact we're getting a message and it seems they're expecting you Fleet Admiral, coordinates are contained within the data packet"
"Let's go meet our new friends"
"I hope you're taking a security detail with you?" stated the Brikar Head of Security.
"Actually I wasn't planning on it"
He pointed a rocklike pudgy finger, "That's an order Fleet Admiral"
Knowing well enough not to argue, the Brikar was like a younger, more intimidating, and altogether tenacious Will Riker. "Have a team meet me in Transporter Room One"
She turned towards the man she very much cared for, but part was not quite ready to say the words that really mattered. "Want some company?"
He smiled. "I was hoping you'd ask"
"You're getting awfully sure of yourself, been taking lessons?"
"Not one damn bit" he said casting a dark look at the brikar.

He'd ordered the marines to stay and wait for his signal; the squad leader had looked extremely uncomfortable at being given no choice but to disobey the brikar, but being Fleet Admiral granted more than a few privileges. As they materialised on Betzaed, it was dark and night time revellers were out, some wandering the streets in various drunken states. Most ignored the two Fleet Officers, others stopped to stare wide eyed, so rarely accustomed to seeing Admirals, let alone Fleet Admirals that commanded literally one half of the Star Fleet.
"Should be down here" she stated, according to the tricorder anyway. A man stood just outside the house, his black uniform, tanned skin, and dark hair visible under the artificial light outside the house. "I think we've found him"
"I would be inclined to agree."
They walked down the street towards the lone figure.
"I'm Captain Jack Harkness" he said extending a hand in greeting, both had strong firm grips. "Come with me," he beckoned them towards the back of the house.
As they followed a very beautiful dark haired woman stuck her head out of the door, "Marcus who are these people?" She stopped to stare goggle-eyed, "Are you the Jean-Luc Picard I've seen on the news?"
"Yes I am, and you are?"
"Arayata Pierce, my daughter is in Starfleet" she stated matter-of-factly, "Marcus what is a Fleet Admiral doing here?"
"It's nothing" he soothed, "I have to talk to them alone"
"Is that the secret work you never tell me about? I knew it, no wonder I can't read you. You're Starfleet Intelligence aren't you?" She never paused for breath once she simply had to know what is going on.
"No I'm not," his tones re-assuring. "Now please just give us some time, alone, for a little while and I'll tell you later – I promise," turning his back on his wife and led his two guests to the back entrance to the house.
"You are not coming in until you tell me!" she shrieked slamming the door shut and locking it in a fit of childish rage.
"Fine suit yourself" he tapped some numbers into a device on his wrist as white light enveloped all three of them.

They materialised once more, but this was clearly inside a building of some description. The room was thirty feet by fifteen feet, and the ceiling about seven feet high. By 24th Century standards it would be cosy. Around the room were various bits of equipment and machines, all unknown, most were interconnected by some type of cabling stretched across the floor. At the back was one multipurpose console.
"Where are we?" Beverly inquired pulling out her tricorder.
"We're inside the house, in my little part where she rarely visits"
"Won't she guess where we are?"
"In fact she's on her way down now" he walked towards some obvious controls. Quickly keying in some buttons, "We're temporarily out of phase"
"Beverly?" he asked his tones sharp.
"He's telling the truth Jean-Luc, look" she said pointing at the information on tricorder. "How is this possible on one room?"
"I don't know but I suspect Captain Harkness has a lot of explaining to do"
His fingers played over the console once more, as a red portal appeared, "In there" he urged, "quickly, it can only stay out of phase for a limited amount of time"
"Where the hell does this lead to?"
"Jean-Luc it's an opening through hyperspace leading to some kind of alternate universe"
"Correct, long dead planet and galaxy for that matter – let's go" he said stepping through the opening. He didn't wait for any chance that they could protest. They would either follow or not.

Uatu watched the battle of two armadas, hoping that they succeed in their grand task. In many ways, although the humans here had yet to understand that they were the descendents of all the other ancient humanoids over a billion times removed. His psychic abilities and his internal sensors picked up an energy ripple. The signature was familiar so Uatu did not react, other than to speak.
"Hello Old Friend"
A figure materialised wearing a red one piece uniform, his blue skin and white hair and diminutive stature formed a stark contrast, granting an overall understated appearance – one easily overlooked. He did not reply - a curt nod was the only acknowledgement the Watcher received. To the left appeared being that to all intents and purposes seemed human, his black uniform and bald pate sported black tattoos that writhed as though alive under ebony coloured skin creating a rather sinister appearance which was instantly quashed as he smiled, Nix's eyes almost brimming with tears.
"It has been too long since last time we met" he said.
"I agree" boomed another, his tanned skin and hulking frame were concealed beneath a green uniform, on either wrist were gold bracers, his similarly coloured boots and staff granted a regal, almost kinglike appearance. "That is all of us" he declared.
"Almost" stated Ganthet. "What about the Time Lord?"
"No, he is busy…" replied Uatu vaguely.
"Then I would suggest we all relocate all our forces to Otherworld – it should be safer than out here, alone" he said, "considering," he stared blatantly in the direction of the conflicts.
"I agree" said Izaya, the last living Old God.
All heads turned towards the Watcher.
"I doubt the Elders will come to collects us, they rarely leave the safety of their home nowadays so that leaves one of three, Galan, Roma or Meerlyn"
As if anticipating their conversation another figure appeared - she was female and possessed a beauty beyond mortal comprehension. "When you boys have finally finished" Roma mocked, "We have a lot to discuss," she stood there hands on hips, a playful smile alighting her beautiful features, the last faction, a Preserver.