The Time Lord Empire.
Developments.
1.
80 years after the Progenitor project. 85 since The Displacement.
80 years after the progenitor project, Humanity was rebuilding at a faster pace that it had before the project. After the Minbari war, the birth rate rocketed, encouraged by the government, and everyone had jumped to it, aided by genetic manipulation to make the children smarter and better. With progenitor and progenation machines, humanity took the stress off the children and made everything more manageable, and since the capture of the Minbari and Centauri ships came other raids on their original galaxy for other technological examples. In the case of the Abbai, it was the third example of gravimetric science, but the other leanings the Abbai went towards, including gravimetric shielding. Shield research moved away from gravimetrics and into subspace harmonic shielding. It was analogious to a submarine; a ship is partially submerged in subspace, and the weapons impact on subspace itself. The R&D department had studied the gravimetric shields, and they saw that gravimetrics, whilst sophisticated, wasn't the ideal shield technology because the protection granted wasn't adequate. Subspace technology, communication and faster than light travel, was becoming more and more sophisticated. Scientists learnt something else; there was more to the universe than mere hyperspace. What people in the old galaxy saw hyperspace was merely a surface domain. Subspace was an infinite honeycomb full of domains, and hyperspace was merely one of them. Other domains were found to have many of the properties of hyperspace, but they were not slaved to the gravimetric anomolies of normal space; asteroids, planets, moons, star, black holes, all masses that possessed gravity left a shadow in this particular subspace domain. Modern human starships took advantage of other domains in subspace for faster than light travel.
From the Centauri records, the humans learnt of the existence of the Drakh, and from the records of the Minbari their knowledge of the Drakh pushed them into the knowledge of the Shadows, and through them the First Ones. A Drakh ship was captured and the crew were transported into space, their computer and technology raided. Some may argue that the raids on technology made humanity weak and feeble, but there was a method behind it. The humans were looking into developing their scientific knowledge, and the knowledge of other races gave them the power to further their knowledge of the universe itself, their technologies to help them in their research, but all in all humanity was developing itself. One of the most intriguing, and annoying aspects, of their old galaxy was no one in the other races bothered, and this included the First Ones, to investigate other methods of space travel. It was like the old ones had decided that that singular domain of subspace was adequate, and that was that. Not even the Shadows, the second eldest First Ones, bothered to explore the possibilities of more domains. If they had then they would've been able to create channels through subspace without worrying about gravity.
New starships were being built, enhanced with the various technologies, and shield technology was developed, built on with the existing gravimetric shields, but with human ingenuity it was developed and enhanced beyond gravimetrics. Time drives were installed on board the ships, and were despatched to study the First ones when their homeworlds were discovered. The idea was that the time ships would land on the planets, accelerate through time, soaking up the knowledge both technical and cultural and move onto another world to do it all again before returning home for the data to be analysed. The scientific and cultural crews on the starships were to go over the datas first before handing over their findings to the R&D departments on Earth.
Through the R&D department, shield and cyberorganic technology was developed, cures for diseases were developed, and new engine technology was placed onboard starships. Time travel technology being what it was, and what it had done, was the most studied technology. The method of using the time ships was slow to present progress, but big things happened slowly.
" Madam President, this design shows the temporal observatory. An observational platform that has its instruments outside normal space/time, and study the various worlds." Durrant said.
President Foreman, in her third term of office, stared at the screen showing the plans of the observatory. It was a sphere with a second sphere inside, reminding her of the structure of a planet. All around was a ring, that reminded the President of old school holos of Saturn, only this ring wasn't a ring with dust. This was a functional ring with a purpose " Explain this," she ordered, her mind examining the schematic. It was a hollow sphere, with a power core, or a number of power cores, it was hard to tell. Aside from the core there was no large space inside. Since time travel technology was the primary research, the newest advances theoretical and practical were brought to the president, and even though it was sometimes tedious it was a good way for Foreman to work out what the newest technologies were.
Durrant nodded, and he tapped in a sequence, and a part of the ring magnified and showed a tiny object, a hexagonal sphere. Foreman studied it, and was reminded of a diamond with faceted faces.
" This is pocket universe scanner, and on the outside it's the same size as a basketball, but its interior size is the same size as a solar system. The scanner's faceted faces are in fact tiny wormhole generators built on a subatomic level with a gravimetric manipulator in each cell. The wormholes generated pinpoint worlds with highly advanced technologies, but also those that don't develop space travel of anykind to show variety and to expand their knowledge. The wormholes, tiny as they are, generate a space/time field and store information inside a library of memory acids. This knowledge will be available at anytime."
Foreman nodded, " Why build it?"
" I'm sorry?"
" What's the point of building it?"
Durrant now understood the question, knowing Foreman was now giving him the chance to explain to present his case. " Our present method of landing on planets is too slow, but the Time observatory will be linked to observatories on Earth, giving us the chance to properly study worlds without wasting the time needed to study them with starships. Our starships can still be used for exploration, that can't be taken away, but this observatory can take the strain off that mission."
Foreman nodded. The mission of exploration was the most important one because it allowed humans to do things that no one could've imagined. Space exploration had been the dream for centuries, but the time exploration was a costly one since it cut down the amount of time ships could journey to new worlds, and carry on with their mission. Many in Earthforce wanted to stop the time exploration missions because they believed space was more important, and Foreman could understand that. The idea of creating the Time Observatory was more and more promising and desired.
" Can we create time observatories without the need for that structure?" Foreman asked.
" We could, but the Time World would be a vital component for us because it would cover many times more ground for study, and the Observatories on Earth will be small laboratories." Durrant replied.
The decision was made, and the Time Observatories were commissioned.
2.
100 years after arriving in the Andromeda galaxy and the establishment of the Time Observatory, research turned to the development of space travel technology, but the best way was seen when one of the scientists walked through a doorway.
Wormhole technology had given rise to revolutionary means of travelling; the wormhole drives allowed starships to cross distances that would've kept people in suspended animation for aeons without faster than light technology, or jump engines. Wormholes were also used with temporal fields to allow time travelling, but the development of the Stargate network was seen as the step forward. Another propulsion technology was being prepared and researched in the labs on Earth and the colonies, a propulsion drive that was more sophisticated than any other, but warp drives and wormholes were still the preferred norm.
The first stargates connected the Earth, the Moon, and Mars to the first colony worlds, or Phase one space. Planets deemed fit for colonisation were seeded with three stargates each, and each one of them were powered and controlled separately. It took Humanity over three years to establish the network into Phase four space. The Humans deemed the Stargate network to help explore the universe.
It was during this period they encountered the Hegemony.
Seeding ship Alpha 13 was a long ship, a more advanced varient of the old Explorer class. That class of ship was sent out to establish jump gates in the old galaxy and time, and this model had a similar design and construction. There were differences between them but the missions were similar. Instead of jump gates, the Seed ships were sent out via wormhole drive to planets for survey via the exploration division which contacted the ship's computer, uploaded the new co-ordinates and the ship travelled there automatically.
The ship contained a permanent wormhole teleport gate for resupplying and crew transfers, but the Seed ships were supposed to spend time in space permanently, but that didn't mean the crew weren't left there to rot. The crews of the ships spent three year tour duties each before they were replaced. The Seed ships mission was peaceful, but they were heavily armed, shielded and powered.
Captain Rochelle of Alpha 13 was sitting in her command chair, reviewing the latest developments on the screen. 3D holographics showed a sphere of human influence. Like an onion, it was separated by layers with the stargate network resembling lines joining dots. Phase five space was still being charted and explored, but Rochelle did not particularly care about that. Points on the starmap showed the locations of seventeen various subspace telescopes, charting new solar systems and portions of other galaxies for colonisation. Rochelle was aware that new colonies and homeworlds established in distant galaxies were establishing their own stargate networks, each one of the homeworlds and centres of those portions of the Empire were joined to Earth's stargates.
One of the bridge crew reported that the seeding of the newest solar system was finished, but just as Rochelle was about to order the ship to prepare to leave orbit of seventh planet, the tactical officer Randles reported, " A ship has just appeared captain, the spatial and subspace sensors detected a spike just as it appeared."
Rochelle got out of her chair, putting down the reports and went to the tactical station. " What kind of ship?"
The officer shook his head, " I'm sorry, captain. It's not on our records-wait, I just examined the uploaded temporal database, and I've found a match. It's a hegemony war cruiser."
Rochelle frowned harder. The hegemony existed on the other side of the galaxy, and the humans hadn't ventured that far yet, but they had taken observations of the Hegemony.
The Hegemony were a brutal empire of aliens, using their advanced technology into slavery, destroying and absorbing the technologies of the conquered races, and either destroy or enslave the unfortunates in turn. Humanity had heard about the Hegemony from the advanced races as they sent expeditions deeper and deeper into the galaxy, and a century of keeping out of their way had done wonders. The Hegemony ruled with an iron fist, using advanced faster than light drives to conquer and carve out a massive empire.
The present Human policy of staying away from the more advanced aliens had worked wonders, the memory of the brutality behind the Earth-Minbari conflict was still there in the memories of the people, stories and records both visual and written were recorded. The Hegemony however were unlike the Minbari, they possessed technologies the Minbari had never imagined, faster than light technology, shields, teleporters, weapons of mass destruction more powerful than the puny fusion and neutron guns. The Minbari would've been wiped out, their precious warfleets decimated, and their planets turned to cinders.
There had never been a First contact mission with the Hegemony, and considering what Earth had heard about them they didn't want one, but the tactical analysers were delighted that there had been no contact with the Hegemony after the blighted Humans had arrived in the Andromeda galaxy, humanity had lost too many people in one war, they didn't want another so quickly.
Humanity had not fought another war since for a century, and many had been preparing for this moment. The Hegemony were not a pleasant bunch, they would've made short work of the human survivors from the Minbari war, and even the Minbari, who preached they were the most advanced race in their old galaxy, would never have been able to win. Stories of the horrors the Hegemony were common, but even stories, though exaggerated, had a basis in truth. The problem was, what was the truth. The Hegemony was top of the list for alien races to watch in this galaxy, and humanity weren't going to start another war.
Some may have called humans cowardly for not confronting them head on, but humans had learnt many painful lessons.
Rochelle swallowed the lump in her throat, " Send a priority message to all starships closest to us, their to come here fast at maximum speed, we have a Hegemony warship in our sector. Send our position. Open a channel to the Hegemony ship."
The screen changed from the vista of stars to show the silhouette of a humanoid, or something like that. The background was superimposed in black, with a white outline showing the alien. The alien was silent, but Rochelle took the initaitive. " My name is Captain Hannah Rochelle, of the starship Alpha 13 on an exploratory expedition. Can we help you?"
The alien spoke, its voice a growl. " You are in restricted space. You will surrender your ship and you will be enslaved."
Typical, how typical. The Hegemony believed in a shoot first, ask questions later policy, but in the present instance, it was not a good thing. Human technology was becoming more and more advanced, and whilst they shared faster than light technology, theirs was superior to that used by the Hegemony, not to mention of their Stargate technology. For security reasons they didn't keep their knowledge of time travel in their databanks.
Rochelle knew what would happen if the Hegemony got their hands on human technology; they would learn of their achievements, their ships engineering would rewrite their own technology.
" Why would you do that? We're just explorers, we don't mean any race or people any harm. We're just trying to expand our understanding of the cosmos," Rochelle tried.
There was sheer arrogance in the alien's voice, " Your race is inferior to ours. You will be destroyed. Under Hegemony law, you are to be enslaved." The Hegemony shut down the screen.
" So much for diplomacy." Rochelle ground out, turning to her crew. " Power all weapons, raise shields. Harlan," she turned to the communications officer. " Any response from home?"
Harlan nodded, " A battle group's on its way, they'll be here shortly."
" They better not be too long," Randles said, stabbing his console pessimistically. " That ship's deploying the sections." He pointed at the screen.
The Hegemony ship was looming on the screen, massive, and brutal. It was like a bird of prey, in the hideous sense. Its hull was sharp, rough like rock, and it was splitting into sections. The Hegemony believed in superior force, the more the better. If you had 3 ships, you had 3, but if you split them into 2 sections, then you had 6 ships. It was a tactic of intimidation for the Hegemony, and one that had served them well and advancing their empire for countless centuries.
Rochelle swallowed, considering her options. " Can we activate the hyperdrive?"
The helm officer checked the computer, " We can."
" Set a course, take us 80 light years away from here, unless of course anyone has any protests?" Rochelle ordered, looking wryly around the bridge. None of the bridge crew had any protests. " Helm, set course. Prepare to engage-"
" Captain," the tactical officer interrupted her. " The battle group is here."
Rochelle turned to the screen. The battle group, eight starships swarming out of the wormhole. " They're sending a transmission." Harlan reported.
" Put it up,"
The screen changed once more, showing the visage of a human wearing the newest tunic of a Starfleet officer. Starfleet was the newest evolution of Earthforce, and was more than a perfect organisation than that bunch.
" This is Captain Maxwell, we've monitored the situation, and we're preparing to attack. Get away." The man on the other ship ordered.
Rochelle smiled, " Gladly. You heard him, get us out of here."
Maxwell watched as the seed ship engaged the wormhole drive and left, then he turned his attention to the tactical screen. " Okay, they've gone. Arm all weapons. Lock on to the engine section of that ship, and fire."
" Aye, sir."
The ships quantum beams targeted onto the engine section's thruster rockets, and they penetrated the weak shielding on that section, blowing the engines to pieces. Maxwell had always been surprised the Hegemony would be so conceited to believe their shields and armour would be able to hold on the engineering section without upgrading them.
He pushed the thought out of his head, and gave new orders, " Rotate shield harmonics when they fire their next salvo," his ordered empathised by the return and heavy fire his ships sustained. The Hegemony were trying to get revenge for the destruction of part of their cruiser.
" Match their shield modulation and fire the energy dissipators," he came to a decion.
The tactical officer did as he was told and the ship fired a blue glowing ball of energy, and it impacted on the section of the split ship that contained and centred their pulse cannons and missile gantries. The ball impacted on their shields, and bolts of energy flashed over it, reminding Maxwell of that St. Elmo's fire phenomenon on Earth, but this was a technological rather than natural phenomenon, and it was a weapon.
The Hegemony cruiser hit by the dissipator became sluggish until it started drifting in space. Two of the other battle group starships fired their own dissipators at the remaining, and still functioning section of the ship still fighting.
" Fire all weapons," Maxwell ordered, then he added. " Transport an antimatter bomb on both of those sections. Set for a 3 second detonation after materialisation."
" Aye, sir."
The order was carried out a few seconds later, and both pieces of the Hegemony warship were turned into burnt cinders, their massive antimatter reactors exploding when the anti particles were exposed to normal matter. Their missiles and fuel bays also added to the power of the explosion. None of the crews of the starships in the Battle group celebrated because they knew what they had done. For the last century, humanity had remained hidden and unobserved with no alliances, no trades, nothing. The best place to hide was in plain sight, and aside from agents offworld, the humans didn't allow much contact with other races, preferring to remain hidden behind the Dark matter nebula that had been a big feature in the remote sector of their new galaxy.
Now they had destroyed a Hegemony warship, and the covers were off. Humanity was exposed to the galaxy.
" UNACCEPTABLE!" Foreman screamed at the top of her voice when she heard what had happened, losing her control in front of her senators, but they did not blame her for losing her temper. Each of them were angry as well, but none of them were angry with the battle group or the seed ship for this incident. It had been only 2 hours since the attack, and the first thing Seeding ship Alpha 13 had done when they had left was send a message to Starfleet and all the patrol ships on the borderlines of the empire. All Phases of the empire which determined the size and scope of the empire and the colony worlds were protected by mines kept inside subspace pockets. Any enemy ship passing through the region would travel over the mines, and the humans on the colonies would simply turn them on and they would merely obey their programming and explode, taking the ship with it, but the mines were more powerful. They had the powerful Omega bombs, whose secrets were still kept away from the president, but she was more than aware of the dangers they posed.
Omega was in fact a molecule, some believed it was the substance which helped create the cosmos in the first place, and it was incredibly dangerous to subspace, destroying subspace whenever it was exposed. There were ways of stabilising it with pocket dimensions and using the harmonic frequency against the molecule to stabilise it. Omega was so powerful that it could be used to power a civilisation, but humanity didn't use it. They used and preferred black holes. They were safer some how.
Foreman's anger was understandable. 100 years of isolation had given humanity time and patience to rebuild and develop themselves into not just a technologically advanced species, but also to become what humans had been before they had met the Centauri, explorers who used their own instincts. With the skirmish, it was considered too minor to be a battle, with the Hegemony humanity was in danger.
Foreman managed to calm down, " What can we do about this?"
One of senators sighed, " We either launch a war, or we prepare for a war. We knew this would happen, sooner or later. The Hegemony have feelers all over the galaxy, I'm surprised it took them this long to find us."
" But how did they? Our exploration and science missions are kept away from Hegemony space." Another senator protested.
The first senator had once been a soldier in the Earth-Minbari war, and was still alive thanks to the new and revolutionary rejuventation process. Foreman was still amazed by the new genetic process which now enhanced human lifespans, which had been made longer by sustained genetic treatments. Humans could now live as long as they wanted thanks to both processes, and it made more sense to enhance the body through genetics than through drugs.
Foreman had heard about immortality serums, but she didn't believe they were viable. Genetic and temporal engineering were more realisatic and more appropriate for humans. Serums were too messy, they had all kinds of side effects, some of them undesirable. They could wear off. Genetics did not.
Rejuvenation worked by manipulating the stem cells of the body, and returning the body to a younger appearance. Humans could rejuvenate as many times as they wanted. Foreman herself had rejuvenated 4 times already, and she had learnt how precious life was, and so she took chances she had never done before. Rejuvenation lasted for years, with the body aging slowly. Some of the senators in the room were a century old, but they had the potential to become even older as time passed by.
Rejuvenation had many advantages, family and progenation amongst them, with new marriages formed and new bloodlines to promote growth and evolution. Progenation machines allowed this, with families between progens to be produced and new families promoting the gene pool of humanity. Foreman and the others were aware of the other progenitor devices that had been ignited over countless worlds, and it was the hope that one day they would all unite under one banner, but not just yet.
The president dragged her wandering mind back to the discussion. The first senator that had spoken was saying clearly, " The Hegemony may've been attracted by the wormholes and warp fields generated by our ships. We already know the Hegemony use fold warp travel, warp fields that fold more space. We use more or less the same technology in our ships. It wouldn't take them long to detect our own ships."
Foreman interrupted, " Okay, say you're right, which I don't doubt you are because it makes sense, what do we do now?"
The first senator had the answer, " We stop expanding, right now. Colonise the remaining planets in the new phase, and fortify them outside the solar systems. We use our exploratory division to watch out for Hegemony battle fleets, and wait."
One senator was more hopeful, " For how long, another hundred years? Suppose this ship that attacked Alpha 13 was simply a scout ship sent out to locate new worlds to conquer and not necessarily looking for us?"
Foreman nodded, " Those are good questions," she conceded, " but Senator Picard's advice is also excellent. We have spent the past century safe in our isolation. I want our explorations and the newest phase of space to be fully colonised. I also want Starfleet to send out long range patrols, not probes to monitor our space and the development of all our colony world as they're being built. Can we hope our Stargate network will also be safe?"
Picard nodded, " As long as the Hegemony don't travel to another galaxy, our networks safe."
" I want more than that, I want safeguards placed on all the gateways on all our worlds. If the Hegemony come, I want our people to have the chance to prepare to evacuate. All colonies must built up their own fleets to support the main fleet. Starfleet academies must be established on all our worlds instead of just Earth and Mars." Foreman stated.
" That won't be difficult, Starfleet was thinking of expanding the academies anyway and new ship yard were to be commissioned."
Foreman nodded, then she dropped her voice to a whisper, " We may have to put the new Time project into action sooner than we thought."
There were instant protests.
" We've still got years to do that."
" The device is not ready."
Foreman's voice was cold, " Make it ready. We may need the Project to protect us."
