Of Cats and Dark Energy
Part 8: Winner Takes a Trip
"The Terminus Sector is right on the edge of explored space." Shepard was telling Data. "It's outside any major jurisdiction, but not uninhabited. There are human colonies there, people who don't want to live under Alliance or Council government. There are also mining colonies, trading posts, mercenary bases and groups of exiles. The entire Sector is crawling with pirates, slavers and every other kind of villain."
"There are several such sectors near Federation space." Data admitted. "Mostly dominated by cultures who are warp-capable but refuse to join the Federation. The Klingons, Cardassians and Romulans tend to annexe such worlds in their territory. The Ferengi simply exploit them."
"Nice." Shepard commented. "Anyway, Sahrabarik is right at the heart of the Terminus Sector. But what makes it unique is that it has two mass relays. One is just the standard article. The other is the Omega-4 Relay.
"That one's different from any other relay. It's a different colour, and it can only send you to one place. The Galactic Core."
"And the Core is, of course, extremely dangerous." Data noted. "Filled with closely-crowded black holes, residual energy from the Big Bang and planetary debris. The gravitational tides alone are sufficient to tear any ship apart."
"Which is why the Reapers built an outpost there for the Collectors. Their base had a powerful mass-effect field that created a safe zone, and the Collector and Reaper ships had a special IFF that guided them into it.
"But we destroyed that base, and the safe zone with it."
"Are there any inhabited planets in the Sahrabarik system?" Data wanted to know.
"No planets," Shepard told him, "but there is a space station. Omega. Built on, into and around a big asteroid. Nearly eight million inhabitants."
"Can we expect assistance from them?" Data asked.
Shepard laughed. "Unless anybody is looking out a window, they won't even notice what's going on!" He said. "Omega has no law, no government. An honest person can make a living there, providing they don't mind looking the other way. If you're not so honest, it's a place to get rich quick or get dead even quicker.
"Omega is where you go to sell stuff you don't really own, or buy stuff ordinary stores don't carry. You can get weapons there the military won't use and armour that the weapons can't dent. It's where you go if you don't want to be found and where the people looking for you can hire somebody to find you.
"All the mercenary groups, Eclipse, the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack, keep bases there and squabble over territory. But the place is run by an asari gangster called Aria T'Loak. I've had dealings with her in the past, and she trusts me – to a point – but there's no need or reason to contact her about this.
"Even she couldn't get the population to evacuate. Besides, any Dalek landing in Omega would be stripped down for parts before it got ten feet!"
"I'd pay money to see that!" The Doctor remarked. "Only I don't carry money."
"Entering Sahrabarik now." Joker informed them. "Picking up another ship, cruiser-size."
"Is it the Enterprise?" Shepard asked.
"About half of it, by the look of things. Either they've been in one Hell of a fight, or there's something they didn't tell us!" Joker replied.
An image flashed up on Shepards' monitor. Data looked over his shoulder.
"They must have separated the saucer." He said. "That would be wise. Without it, the main section is more manoeuvrable and slightly faster. The civilians and non-combat crew will also be out of harms' way."
"So the Enterprise is actually two ships?" This was Tali, at a nearby station.
"Not entirely." Data explained. "Both sections have computer cores, life support, fusion reactors and impulse drives. But the saucer section has no warp drive, though it does have the main phaser arrays. The main section has the warp core, photon torpedo bays and the secondary phaser banks."
"Picard to Normandy. Good to see you, Commander. Our guests accepted the invitation and should be along shortly. How about yours?"
"Coming along." Shepard replied. "Let's take our seats for the main feature, shall we?"
The Borg cube and Dalek saucer entered the system simultaneously, and both stopped in their tracks.
"They are scanning each other." EDI reported. "I have tapped into their communications. This should be interesting."
The first voice was clear, precise and matter-of-fact. It sent a chill down Shepards' spine.
"We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological uniqueness will be added to our perfection. Resistance is futile."
The response was immediate. "We are Da-leks. We are per-fec-tion. You are a-bom-in-a-tion. You will be ex-ter-min-at-ed!"
"What was all that about?" Shepard asked.
The Doctor sighed. "The Borg are the ultimate hybrids. To a species as obsessed with purity as the Daleks, they're also the ultimate obscenity."
The two massive ships approached each other. The cube was larger, and undamaged, while the saucer had been badly mauled in the Time-War.
"Gonna be a short fight." Grunt commented.
"Wait and see." The Doctor told him.
The saucer opened fire with a volley of missiles, which expended themselves uselessly against the Borg shields. In response, the Borg engaged their powerful tractor beams and began to draw the saucer toward a massive door that opened in the cube.
"They're being pulled in." Garrus noted. "They're not putting up much of a fight."
"Wait." The Doctor said again.
Then the Dalek ship was fully inside the Borg shields. Instantly, it cut loose with every weapon it had. Missiles and beam weapons similar to, but larger and more potent than, the ones used by individual Daleks. Within moments, that whole side of the cube was aflame, and the Dalek weapons were boring steadily deeper.
"Hang on a second!" Grunt said. "EDI, can you zoom in on that opening in the cube?"
The view narrowed down, to show squads of Daleks leaving the saucer and flying through space into the cube.
"They're boarding!" Grunt said. "They must be very brave or completely mad! There can't be more than a couple hundred Daleks on that saucer, but there could be thousands of Borg on that ship!"
"A bit of both, brave and insane." The Doctor replied. "But mostly arrogant. Convinced of their own superiority and invincibility. I grew up among people like that."
It was clear that the Daleks had taken out any weapon mounts on that side of the cube, which now began to rotate to bring its other weapons to bear. Energy beams lashed out to flare against the Dalek shields, but before they could penetrate, pinpoint accurate counter-attacks disabled the projectors.
Over the comlink to the Enterprise, Worf reported. "Sensors indicate that the Dalek boarding party is making steady progress despite heavy resistance. They are destroying everything in their path."
"How is that possible?" Picard asked. "When we've fought the Borg in the past, they've always adapted to our tactics and weapons too quickly for us to keep up."
"The Daleks adapt, too." The Doctor explained. "But they do it differently. When a Borg drone encounters a new weapon or tactic, it sends a report to the Collective, the Collective analyses it, formulates a response and sends it out to every other drone. It takes milliseconds.
"Whenever the Daleks encounter a new threat, each individual Dalek that sees it is able to analyse it and formulate a response - the same response -instantly, without having to refer to a central authority. Then they send the information across the Dalek internal network. It takes a few milliseconds less than the Borg process, but a few milliseconds is all a Dalek needs!
"Single Borg drones have little or no real intelligence, but every individual Dalek is a genius in its' own right, with the ability to make decisions for itself. That's the real difference."
The cube was now in flames on four sides, listing badly, and beginning to drift, but Worf had another caution.
"Borg self-repair systems are active, and are beginning to speed up. Unless this is finished quickly, there may be a stalemate. If it becomes a battle of attrition, then the advantage is with the Borg."
"That doesn't matter to us." Shepard said. "As long as one of them takes the other out."
"It may not be that simple Shepard." This was Miranda. "The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that someone on Omega will notice. Once that happens, we'll be hip-deep in scavengers and salvage crews. Not only will people get killed, but if any of that technology gets into the wrong hands..."
As if on cue, EDI said, "I have a call from Omega, Commander."
The face on the viewscreen was an agelessly-lovely asari one, but the eyes were cold. The voice, under the light tone, had more than a hint of steel.
"Commander Shepard." She said. "Interesting to see you again."
"Hello, Aria." Shepard said. "What can I do for you?"
"Cool as ever, I see." She responded. "A lot of people here were glad to see you going through the Omega-4 relay, Shepard. A lot of them were also really pissed that you came back through it. I wasn't one of them, I figured the Galaxy is a safer place with you in it.
"Now, I'm not so sure, though. Because now here you are again, with three ships like nothing I've ever seen before, two of them having a battle-royal on my doorstep.
"You gonna tell me what's going on, or don't I need to know?"
"Aria, I promise you, you don't want to know!" Shepard told her. "You'd probably never sleep again. For now, just put the word out for people to stay indoors. Whichever of those ships survives, I'm going to have to fight, and I don't need mercs and scavengers underfoot when I do!"
Aria gave a crooked grin. "If you were anyone else, I couldn't do it." She said. "But all I have to do is mention your name. Commander Shepard, the Spectre who ran the Omega-4 relay and came back. The man who put Vido Santiago and Donovan Hock down. According to the rumours, you even have the Shadow Broker onside. Nobody here is gonna want to mess with you, Shepard!
"Next time you're in town, come see me. I may have something for you."
With that, she closed the channel. Shepard turned to the main screen again. It looked as if Worf was right. The cube seemed to be slowly recovering from the initial assault. But was it quick enough? The Dalek bombardment was relentless, and who knew what was going on inside? Then Worf spoke again.
"I am detecting a rapidly spreading molecular instability in the Borg ship! The Dalek boarding party is being beamed back to the saucer!"
What happened next was difficult to describe afterwards. The Dalek saucer withdrew a few kilometres, and the cube...dissolved. It was like watching a sugar cube in a glass of hot water. The outer skin of the cube began to detach itself in clouds of what looked like dust, which swirled away and dissipated. The process continued, eating away the substance of the cube unevenly, but inevitably. In less than five minutes, the cube was gone, nothing but a cloud of rapidly-dispersing space dust.
"What the Hell...!" Shepard exclaimed.
"No time, Commander!" Picard snapped. "We have to deal with that saucer before it turns on the Omega station!"
"Understood, Captain." Shepard put his amazement aside. "Fire on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!"
Both ships fired their main armament at the saucer. It was extreme range for the Thanix cannons, and the photon torpedoes were deflected by the Dalek shields, but it didn't matter. The aim was to get the Daleks' attention, and it worked. The saucer bore down on the two ships, positioned close to the Omega-4 relay. Over EDIs monitoring, they could hear the Daleks' chant "Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate!"
The saucer began to fire at both targets impartially. "Hold position!" Shepard heard Picard order. "Warp power to shields!"
"We're taking a beating, Adam." Tali said. "Our shields can hold the missiles, but the beams are eating the armour away fast!"
"Just a few more seconds..." Shepard said. Then the Normandy shuddered. "Hull breach in Engineering!" Tali reported. "Shuttle bay, no casualties. I'm sealing it off."
"Saucer is now within range." EDI reported.
"Go!" Shepard ordered. As the Normandy swung off and darted away, he heard Picard give the same order. The Dalek ship hurtled between them, close to the relay.
"Now, EDI!" Shepard snapped.
"Signal sent." EDI replied.
Aboard the Dalek saucer, the captured mass-effect engines came online at full power. At the same moment, the device Kasumi had planted sent out a very specific signal. Outside, the Omega-4 relay flared into life, it's fields seized the now massless saucer, and before a single Dalek could react, the ship had been sent on a one-way trip.
There was a moments' silence, then Riker said: "And todays' winning contestant receives a free trip to the Galactic Core!"
"OK, so we did it." Shepard said. "But I'd still like to know what happened to that Borg ship. One minute they were starting to recover, the next..poof! What happened?"
"I would like to know the same." Picard agreed. Everyone looked at the Doctor.
"Do I have to explain everything?" He grumbled. "Can't you work it out for yourselves? The Borg assimilated a Dalek, that's all!"
"That was a scenario I had considered." Picard said. "I had assumed it was a worst-case. The combination of Dalek and Borg would be unstoppable."
"You can't combine a Dalek with anything!" The Doctor snapped. "They don't combine! Haven't you been paying attention, any of you?"
"I had expected that the Daleks would resist any such attempt." Data allowed. "Possibly to the extent of self-destruction."
"Like Styles." Riker added grimly.
The Doctor threw up his hands. "No wonder you always need me to put things right!" He growled. "Carry on underestimating threats like that and you'll end up extinct! Of course the Daleks would resist. But a Dalek wouldn't just self-destruct. Not if it could take some enemies with it!
"Look, when the Borg assimilate something, they do it by injecting it with nanoprobes. The probes connect whatever it is to the Collective – machine or living being – and make it Borg. But a Dalek will not allow itself to be made anything other than Dalek. According to themselves, they are the supreme race, and to combine with anything else is to lessen themselves.
"So the Dalek fought back. It took the nanoprobes and overwrote the Borg code with Dalek code. The imperative to exterminate anything – including themselves – that isn't pure Dalek. Then it let the probes destroy it and spread throughout the cube, reprogramming all the other probes. They took the cube and everything in it apart at the molecular level, then shut themselves down. There's nothing left of that cube but the atoms it was made up of, floating in space."
"Did you know that would happen?" Picard asked.
"I knew it was possible." The Doctor answered. "But I had no more idea than you of what the outcome of that battle would be."
"OK." Shepard said, aware that the Doctor would not tell them any more than he wanted them to know. "So what happens now?"
"Now we rendezvous with the saucer section." Picard said. "Then we have to put our minds to the problem of getting back where we belong."
"Oh, that's easy!" The Doctor told him. "I worked that out a while ago."
The Normandy accompanied the Enterprise back along the trail until they met up with the saucer again. Shepard and his crew watched, fascinated, as the two sections moved slowly together and rejoined with barely a bump.
"OK." Joker said from the cockpit. "Now I'm jealous. What a ship!"
"I see." EDI said. "Am I no longer good enough for you, Jeff?"
"Oh, right!" He replied. "As if I'd be caught dead on any ship that didn't have you on it! When I build one of those, the first thing I'm doing is installing you aboard!"
"You got out of that one well." The AI told him.
"How long have those two been married?" Zaeed asked Garrus.
According to the Doctor, they needed to get back to the spot where the Enterprise had first appeared.
"Have to put you right back where you started." He stated. "Otherwise, there could be all sorts of consequences."
"You have yet to tell us, Doctor, exactly how you plan to achieve this." Picard pointed out.
"Oh! Yes!" The Doctor shook his head. "Humans! You always want explanations. Well, it was that Dalek in the warehouse that made it all clear. It told me that they'd been trying to retreat from the Gates of Elysium when the TimeLords attacked them with Dark Energy.
"Now, as I said before, there isn't a lot of free Dark Energy in that universe, but the TimeLords did in fact possess a number of Dark Energy artefacts. In the course of the Time War, they tried to weaponise a few of them. If they hit the saucer with Dark Energy just as it went into hyperdrive, they'd have sent it on a cat hunt. Looking for a quantum state where that particular cat was still alive That's what brought them here.
"Now Borg TransWarp technology is similar in a lot of ways to Dalek hyperdrive, and if that cube ran across a stray strand or bubble of Dark Energy in the TransWarp corridor, the same would have happened."
"So what you're saying," LaForge said, "is that when we tested the TransWarp module on the Enterprise, we must have been near a Dark Energy source?"
"Exactly." The Doctor said. "If I'm right – and I usually am – all we have to do is find out which pole of the TransWarp field the Dark Energy went in at, and inject some into the opposite pole when you switch it on again."
"A Dalek saucer, a Borg cube, and the Enterprise, all meeting similar 'accidents' that put us in the same place at the same time." Picard said. "Surely that's not a coincidence, Doctor?"
"Oh, these things always happen in threes." The Doctor said dismissively. "I've seen coincidences even a soap opera writer couldn't dream up!"
It was a leisurely trip back. The Doctor and LaForge had work to do, so there was no point in rushing. There was a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing between the ships. Worf introduced Garrus and Grunt to his 'callisthenics' program in the Holodeck. He also introduced them to Klingon Bloodwine and Romulan Ale – Security had to intervene. The Commissary officers on the Enterprise supplied Mess-Sergeant Gardner of the Normandy with a generous amount of replicated ingredients, guaranteeing some excellent meals for the crew.
But eventually, the day came when all was ready, and there were no more excuses. There was a final, formal dinner aboard the Enterprise, and then it was time.
Data dressed quickly and efficiently as always. Jack lay on the bed watching him. Finally, he turned to her.
"I must return to the Enterprise, now." He told her.
"Sure." Jack said, then got up and came over to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Now look, Mr Fully-Functional, I'm not one for soppy goodbyes, any more than you are, but stuff needs saying.
"Data, even in your ever-so-civilised universe, there are always gonna be some women who just want, or need, a no-strings romp around the bedroom with a guy who'll treat them right and won't make a big deal of it. There are also gonna be some who just want to talk to a guy without him always trying to fix them, like most guys do.
"So, you quit hiding your light under a bushel and be that guy, Data! Spread yourself around a little, OK?
"And thanks for everything."
She kissed him on both cheeks and let him go. She smiled as she watched him leave, she felt better than she had done for years.
Data made his way up to the Conference Room, from where he was going to beam out. Tali was waiting there for him.
"I still feel bad about the way I acted when we first met, Data." She said. "You've been nothing but kind, brave and helpful to us all, and you've changed the way I think about AIs. Whether that will change my peoples' attitude remains to be seen, but I will do my part.
"I want to give you this, it's everything we have about the mass-effect. I know your universe has different rules, but if anyone can make use of this there, you can.
"Thank you for everything, Data'Soong vas Enterprise. Keelah sel'ai."
Data accepted the data chip with a nod. "Thank you, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." He replied. "Live long and prosper."
In Riker's cabin, Miranda put her arms round the tall Commander and smiled up into his face.
"Just so you know," she said, "I'm not the kind of girl who carries a torch. But that doesn't mean I'll ever forget you, William T Riker, or the times we've had together. It's been wonderful, and I don't regret a minute of it! I just hope that Deanna finally realises what's right there for her whenever she wants to reach out for it."
"Am I so transparent?" He asked.
"Only to a woman who pays attention." She told him. "Now give me a kiss and let's go!"
Picard and Samara walked down the corridor arm-in-arm.
"This has been an extraordinary few days for me, in many ways." Picard was saying. "Your company being not the least of it, Samara."
"Then I am glad, Jean-Luc." She replied. "Because I have seldom, in a long life, encountered quite so remarkable a man as you are."
"I'm flattered." He replied.
She stopped then, and turned to face him, placing a hand on his chest.
"Understand this, Jean-Luc," she said, "an asari mating is more than just a brief joining. When we meld as deeply as you and I did, when both individuals are strong-willed and great-hearted enough, then something rare happens.
"An echo of me will always be with you, Jean-Luc, and I shall always carry an echo of you. I will treasure it."
"As will I." He promised.
"Well, Jean-Luc," Shepard said over the comlink, "it's been an eye-opener in a lot of ways! The Doctor tells me we shouldn't talk about it – not directly or openly, anyway."
"I doubt we would be believed, Adam." Picard replied. "Still, part of our mission is to meet new civilisations or peoples, and learn about and from them. We shall make use – discreetly I assure you – of what we have learned from you. I imagine you will do the same. I hope so, anyway."
"We'll do our best." Shepard promised. "Good luck and Godspeed, Captain."
"And to you, Commander. Picard out."
A few minutes later, the Enterprise was suddenly outlined in black light, then it disappeared.
"I hope they made it." Miranda murmured.
"They did." The Doctor assured them. "Captain Picard and his crew have a great deal to do, and I happen to know that they did it."
"So that's it, then?" Shepard asked him. "All done?"
"All over." The Doctor asserted. "I'll be going, now."
"No offence," Shepard said, "but I hope we don't meet again, Doctor!"
"I am a harbinger of trouble, aren't I?" The TimeLord said quizzically.
"Because you only come when you are needed." Samara pointed out.
"I suppose so." He replied. "Still, it would be nice not to arrive in the middle of a crisis occasionally."
With that, and a brief wave, he left. Shortly after that, Engineer Donnelly reported that the TARDIS had departed. It wasn't until a few hours later that they realised he'd taken the Progenitor Device with him.
The Doctor stood in the open doorway of the TARDIS and watched the Progenitor Device gently fall into the nearby star. There was a certain elegance in disposing of the thing in Skaros' own sun. But there were other loose ends to tie up.
"Hello, Jet." The Doctor said.
The tall woman turned, her fine ebony features breaking into a wide smile.
"Doctor!" She said brightly. "Long time no see! Come slumming among the repairmen, have you?"
"I have every respect for what your people do, you know that." He told her. "But if you were going to go off the reservation, you should have told me first. I could have helped."
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean!" The tone, and the smile, were a little forced now.
"There's an old Earth saying," he told her, "it goes 'once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action'. A Dalek saucer, a Borg cube and a Federation starship, all having identical Dark Energy accidents in a universe with almost no Dark Energy. That's not a coincidence, so who better to ask about it than a Dark Energy specialist?"
"Surely you don't suspect..." she began. He cut her off.
"I don't suspect, I know!" He snapped. "I examined that TransWarp module on the Enterprise. You were a bit too precise, just the right amount, no more, no less. Not a natural phenomenon, but only I would know that."
"A universe was at risk." She pointed out.
"Since when do your lot care about a minor universe outside the main stream?" He demanded.
"When it affects the main stream." She told him. "We had to save Shepard so he could save you, a long time ago."
"What?" The Doctor was taken aback.
"You've lost so many memories of the Time War." Jet explained. "But your life was saved by someone at the Battle of the Silver Devastation. Someone from an army summoned by your people from other universes."
"That was the first battle where the TimeLords used the Could-Have-Been King!" The Doctor realised. "One of them saved me that day...wait a minute!"
Jet nodded. "He was older, he had scars, but that man, that soldier among the Meanwhiles and Never-weres, was Commander Adam Shepard. Of course, he didn't recognise you, and you didn't call yourself the Doctor back then."
"I wasn't the Doctor back then." He told her. "Not for a long time."
"I know." She said. "But you are now, and the universe, all the universes, need the Doctor.
"Not a tale of cock and bull, Doctor, but a tale of cats and Dark Energy."