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Marching Orders
USS Nautilus, Captain's Log, Stardate 81632.67:
We observed the crash of the Orion-controlled Klingon bird-of-prey last night in the nebula. As predicted, the polaric ion discharges that brought down our rescue shuttle were easily scaled up to bring down the larger bird-of-prey as well. While our probe was destroyed shortly after the incident by an ion storm, we gathered a great amount of data about the nature of the threat on this planet, enough information to perhaps confirm that it is, in fact, alive.
While we know more about its nature now, what we do not know is how to deal with it. We can neither communicate with, threaten, or defend ourselves against whatever keeps our people trapped on the planet. We are at an impasse. I have forwarded our data to Starfleet Command, but have little hope that they will be able to supply us with viable alternatives. Nevertheless, I have called a conference with my senior officers early this morning to discuss our findings and options.
"Replay the data," Captain Sokar ordered.
Ensign Mark Delaney nodded and pressed the controls in front of him. The wall monitor in the conference room of the Nautilus lit up with a four-way split display. One screen showed a visual of the Orion-commanded Klingon bird-of-prey climbing out of the stormy atmosphere of the mysterious M-class planet, as seen from the telescopic camera of the Class-5 Federation probe in orbit. The second screen showed the same image overlaid with a series of subspace scans. The third and fourth had the same relation to each other and each showed a wide-angle view of the bird-of-prey's flight, including the inner edge of the planet's thermosphere.
All of the screens showed the same disaster. As the bird-of-prey climbed out of the clouds, it took hit after hit from what appeared to be white lightning. It struggled upward, sustaining significant damage, until its path was cut off by an ion storm that suddenly formed in the lower thermosphere, unusually close to the planet's ionospheric barrier. Then, the ship broke apart - possibly a deliberate separation - and fell back into the clouds less than ten kilometers from where it had started. What the subspace scans revealed was that the "lightning" was actually enormously powerful polaric ion discharges travelling along the organically-branching subspace corridors from a central nexus on the main island. They emerged into normal space within a hundred meters of their target and struck with unerring accuracy. What was more, the appearance of the ion storm was also proceeded and controlled by a series of polaric energy bursts from the same subspace network.
Sokar and his officers watched until both halves of the bird-of-prey disappeared from view and the probe itself was destroyed by the ion storm. There was silence for a minute. Lieutenant T'Paie was the first to speak. "The sensor data has confirmed a number of our theories," she said dispassionately.
"None of them terribly good ones," said Ensign Jack Delaney
Sokar nodded. "We have confirmed that the subspace network is indeed capable of bringing down a starship, either directly via polaric ion discharges or indirectly through powerful ion storms."
"We may have confirmed your other theory too," said Mark Delaney. "I'm no biologist, but the way these networks operate definitely looks organic to me."
Jack nodded. "It could be a psychicly controlled weapons system, or it could be a living entity in itself. Personally, I'm more inclined to believe the latter. Our scans are highly reminiscent of the nucleogenic cloud entity encountered by Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, which they mistook for a nebula at first."
"Are you saying this is the nucleogenic cloud's big brother?" asked Lieutenant Toban, the ops officer.
"I wouldn't say that," Jack answered. "There are some significant differences. The gas composition is all wrong, for starters: way too much methane and sirillium. Then there's the subspace network, with its single nexus on the planet. The organism Voyager encountered had more of subspace lattice, with minor junctions all over the place. This is a totally different animal."
"Well, if it's alive, maybe we can reason with it," said Toban.
"You have spent the last twenty-four hours attempting to do so with no effect," T'Paie pointed out. "There is no evidence to suggest that the entity is aware of our communications, nor any logical reason why such an entity should care to help us."
"Indeed," said Sokar, steepling his fingers. "It is unlikely that such an entity would be any more aware of us than we are of bacterial cells. The attacks we've observed on our shuttle and the bird-of-prey could be as unconscious and instictive as the actions of our own immune system."
"An astute observation, sir," said T'Paie. "However an immune system functions to keep out and expel foreign mater and life, whereas the actions we have observed have had the opposite effect. What we are observing may be more comparable to...digestion."
Captain Sokar raised an eyebrow at the Lieutenant's contradiction, but he had to admit her logic was sound - to a point at least. "We have no report of any particularly unusual activity on the surface from our away teams," he pointed out. "How or what would the entity digest?"
"It could subsist on the neural energy of humanoid life. Starfleet has encountered a number of non-corporeal lifeforms that sustain themselves in this way: the Devidians, the Beta XII-A entity, the Drella, Redjac, the Komar, and many others," said T'Paie. "The entity could have created the highly-organized and hostile band of survivors our away teams encountered in order to facilitate feeding. It is highly improbable that such a group would have arisen spontaneously."
Sokar considered this for a minute. "Your logic is sound," he concluded.
"Alright, so a big, scary subspace monster is herding and possibly feeding on our away teams," said Toban. The Bolian shuddered. "What can we do to stop it?"
"When diplomatic options are exhausted, the logical recourse is the application of force," said T'Paie.
Sokar cocked an eyebrow. He knew that force was sometimes the logical course of action, but he had not expected his Chief Engineer to be the first to suggest it - especially given the technical difficulties inherent in attacking an unknown non-corporeal entity of this size. "How do you propose we apply such force?" he asked.
"By striking at the entity's weakness," she said, as if that were perfectly obvious. "All of the subspace structures and polaric energy signatures emanate from a central nexus located on the main island of the archipelago. According to these readings, the nexus is stationary and measures less than two meters in diameter. A precisely targeted strike with a tricobalt device should destroy the nexus and collapse the network."
Sokar raised both his eyebrows. "Tricobalt devices are not standard-issue armaments for a Federation starship, nor can they be replicated."
"Not to mention the collateral damage just firing one would cause to the planet. Add in the release of all of that polaric energy and you have a recipe for destruction across the entire nebula at least!" said Mark Delaney.
"And how would you even get close enough to fire?" asked Toban.
"Even if you could, there's the moral question of killing what is arguably the largest lifeform ever discovered for just doing what comes naturally to it," said Jack.
"Simply because the entity encountered by the USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise on Stardate 4308.8 was just doing what came naturally to it was not deemed sufficient cause to allow it to survive," T'Paie countered. Then she looked directly at Sokar. "Sir, destroying the entity may be our only way of rescuing our personnel. It is the logical choice."
"Logical or not, it is an impossibility. As it is, we have no way of attacking the entity at all," said Sokar, refusing to debate the point with her. "I have forwarded our findings and all available data to Starfleet Command. Until we receive word from them, there is nothing we can do but wait." He stood and was about to say, "Dismissed," when his combadge went off.
"Bridge to Captain," said the voice of Ensign Mordom, the ranking tactical officer in the absence of Lieutenant-Commander Rejes and Commander Drel. "We're receiving a priority transmission from Starfleet Command. It's flagged as urgent."
Sokar raised his eyebrows. He had not expected a reply so soon. "Put it through to the conference room, Ensign," he said.
The monitor lit up with the seal of Starfleet Command momentarily, then was replaced with an image of Admiral Jorel Quinn sitting behind his desk with a mug of coffee half-forgotten in his hand. His uniform was rumpled and his hair disheveled, as if he had been in a rush getting ready earlier that morning. His eyes, though, conveyed nothing but steely focus and resolve. "Captain Sokar, we just received your transmission," he said by way of introduction. "Is it true that Carlin Agran is missing?"
"The Lieutenant is among six officers and a crewman missing after their shuttles went down on an M-class planet inside the nebula," Sokar said, matter-of-factly.
"She was the one who sent the distress call, though. I recognized her voice," said Jorel.
Sokar acknowledged the fact with a small nod.
The Trill admiral wiped his brow with his uniform sleeve. "Captain, I'm authorizing you to mount a rescue mission for her and the other missing Starfleet personnel, at all cost."
"With all due respect, Admiral, we have no means with which to mount a successful rescue operation," said Sokar. "To even attempt it would most likely result in the destruction of the Nautilus and the stranding of its entire crew on the planet, along with the survivors of the shuttle crashes."
"I've reviewed the data you sent, and the recommendations of your crew, including those of Lieutenant T'Paie," said Quinn. "I believe we can find a way to destroy the entity and retrieve our people before the chain reaction destroys the nebula."
Sokar glanced at T'Paie and arched an eyebrow questioningly, but the Lieutenant seemed just as surprised as he was. "I responded to a request for possible recommendations based on our preliminary data late last night. I assumed you had been informed, Captain."
"It doesn't matter how I got the recommendation, all that matters is that it's our best chance of saving our people," said Quinn. "I'm detaching a Sovereign-class ship, the Endurance, to help in the rescue effort. She's currently engaged with the Klingons as part of Operation Spearhead, attacking the Klingon shipyards at Ganalda IV, but I don't expect that will take very long. The Klingons have been running from us for the better part of a week in that sector, and their forces are severely outnumbered. Once the Endurance is done there, it'll head to your location at maximum warp. Expect it in two days, three at the most. I'm authorizing the deployment of tricobalt devices to both your ships. Captain Ramsey will be in overall command, and I expect you to support him in every way." He leaned across the desk. "Destroy the entity on that planet, and get our people home alive. Understood, Captain?"
"Quite," said Sokar.
"Good, Quinn out." With that, the image flicked back to the seal of Starfleet Command before going dark again.
There was silence in the conference room for a minute. T'Paie was the first to break it. "Captain, I apologize if I acted out of line in forwarding my recommendations to Starfleet Command without your knowledge."
"You are not to blame," said Sokar. "You believed you were doing the right thing. It remains to be seen whether the course of action the Admiral has seized upon may be implemented successfully."
"The firepower and durability of the Endurance will certainly help," said Toban.
"With all due respect, Lieutenant, not even one of the new Typhoon-class ships would stand much chance against the kind of energy this entity is capable of generating," said Mark Delaney.
Sokar waved the discussion away. "We have our orders, and we must do our utmost to fulfill them."
T'Paie nodded. "Sir, if the Endurance is arriving straight from a combat zone, it may have material and personnel casualties. I will prepare damage control and repair crews to deploy and assist the other vessel the moment it arrives."
"Of course," said Sokar. "Lieutenant Toban, as our medical personnel are among those missing, I want you to insure that the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram is in working order and stand by to activate him and receive overflow from Endurance's sickbay. We may not need such preparations, given the Admiral's confidence in the operation at Ganalda IV, but nothing can be taken for granted in war," he said. "Meanwhile, Ensigns Delaney, you will launch a replacement probe into the planet's orbit and continue to monitor the entity, taking particular care to note any weaknesses and opportunities the nexus might present." He looked around the room and noted with satisfaction that, while not everyone was happy with the course of events or optimistic about their success, they were all prepared to do their best and fulfill their duty. "We have our orders," he said. "Dismissed!"
Author's note: This chapter was meant to be posted between the chapters "Night in the Forest" and "The Bigger They Come," taking place as it does in the early morning of May 30, 2407. My apologies for getting it lost in the shuffle and posting it out of order. Since it is this week's update, it will remain up as chapter 40 through the week of August 3. After that, it'll be moved to its proper position as chapter 38.
Callbacks here are numerous. Hopefully you remember Mark and Jack Delaney, the stellar cartography twins from chapter 2. That was...a long time ago, in my mind. Funny to think that only four days have passed in story-time! Also, of course, there's the Endurance and Captain Ramsey, which was Sam's first posting from "Airborne."
The thermosphere is the atmospheric layer directly above the mesosphere and above the ionospheric barrier. According to my previous chapters, this is the lowest possible place an ion storm can reach over a planet. Whether this is real science or not I have no idea. The atmospheric layers I'm using are real, but I've never met an ion storm and been able to ask detailed questions about its existence.
The nucleogenic cloud being was encountered and accidentally injured and subsequently repaired by Voyager in the episode "The Cloud." At 7 AUs in diameter, it is the largest lifeform shown in the Star Trek universe, dwarfing even V'Ger (Star Trek: the Motion Picture). Assuming that the shuttles went in at the fairly-cautious speed of 1/2 impulse and took a more-or-less direct route to the planet, and assuming the planet lies more-or-less at the center of the nebula (since the Cluros took equally long to reach it - that is, about 9-10 hours - starting from the other side) the Dragon's Head Nebula would be around 16 AUs across. Since I never bothered deciding the size of the nebula by other means and since this is big enough to take up most of the Solar system, I think I'll let it stand, even though this would be ridiculously small for a real nebula (a real nebula, though, would be so spread out that passage through it would be hardly noticeable).
The entities T'Paie lists come from many different sources, in many different flavors. The Devidians drain all neural energy from their victims (TNG: "Time's Arrow, Part 1 and 2" and also an STO story arc). The Beta XII-A entity fed on hatred and anger (TOS: "Day of the Dove"). The Drella fed on love while Redjac fed on pain and fear (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold"). The Komar fed on neural energy as well, though it's unknown exactly how since their attempt to trick the crew of Voyager into their lair for feeding was defeated (VOY: "Cathexis"). She later refers to the unnamed space amoeba in TOS "Immunity Syndrome," which destroyed the Intrepid and was destroyed itself by the Enterprise.
Tricobalt devices are among the most powerful weapons in Starfleet's arsenal, as well as flat-out the most powerful torpedoes available to players in Star Trek Online. Voyager used two of them to destroy the Caretaker array, which was apparently all it had since they were never used or mentioned again. Later Seven mentioned that tricobalt devices were not standard-issue weapons for Federation starships (VOY: "Caretaker" "The Voyager Conspiracy").
Ganalda IV was the site of a Federation victory over the Klingons in the 2373 Klingon-Federation War. The loss of Ganalda was said to particularly outrage them (DS9: "Nor the Battle to the Strong"). In Star Trek Online's perpetual year of 2409, Ganalda is the site of a station that serves as the Klingon PvP hub and is located on the Klingon side of the lines in the Archanis Sector. It's about 75 lightyears from the intersection of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan space (where the Dragon's Head Nebula is said to lie; source: Star Trek: Star Charts). A Sovereign-class ship can cross that distance in 1.5 days according to the Warp Calculator on Anycalculator .com, but only if it sustains the maximum warp of 9.985 given by the Star Trek Evolutions documentary-which seems reasonable as this speed is the only one high enough to allow the Enterprise to travel from the Romulan Neutral Zone to Earth (a distance of roughly 22 light years, minimum, according to Star Trek: Star Charts) quickly enough to participate in the Battle of Sector 001 (Star Trek: First Contact).
The Typhoon-class is a non-playable Federation battleship/boss in Star Trek Online, second only to the Odyssey-class and Jupiter-class in terms of size and toughness. Since the Odyssey-class is not launched until later, the Typhoon-class would be the second toughest ships in active service in 2407.