Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Enterprise: "The Abyss Stares Back" 3
Robert DeSoto hated war, it sucked the life out of everything it touched. But of course the Dominion and Cardassians could have cared less. Luckily the Hood had managed to grab an easy assignment with the Third Fleet, patrolling near the Federation core worlds. In all it had been relatively quiet. But he was a Starfleet officer. He knew better than most it was usually those quiet, insignificant moments that heralded all hell breaking loose, and the galaxy was in bad enough shape already.
The entire crew felt the same way. Everyone was alert and on point. One thing DeSoto could take pride in was knowing the men and women under his command were ever vigilant. He would put them up against Jean-Luc's people any day of the week, yet he didn't envy the Enterprise for having to deal with all the craziness that came across its bow. That ship was a weirdness magnet of the highest caliber and could happily keep that title.
As for Hood herself, His wife was ever by his side, calm and collected. Ever the embodiment of the British adage, 'stiff upper lip.' Not to mention a model of sexy elegance, but he kept that part strictly to himself. Still Hood could sense DeSoto's uneasiness and thus acted as the dutiful spouse. "Are you okay, darling?" That gentle, refined English accent a soothing balm to his nerves as Hood's gynoid hand rested on his shoulder. "You've been restless all day. Is there something wrong?"
"I don't know." Was his simple response as he looked into those lovely blue eyes. "I guess it's the old soldier's instincts acting up. There's this sense of anticipation in the air. I can't place it yet, but every one of my senses is telling me something is about to happen and it probably won't be very good." His features hardened as he put mask of the commander, looking to the shipgirl who meant so much to him. "Hood, move us up to Yellow Alert, I don't want us to be caught our pants down."
She gave a slight nod and the alert went through the entire ship. The shields were raised and and essential personnel now on call in case the threat level was elevated to red. The Hood continued its patrol across the sector, eyes and ears open for any sign of suspicious activity. "Hey Captain!" the helmsman called out. "I'm reading a ship decloaking off our starboard bow, bearing 210 mark 315, it's the…" The helmsman's eyes widened. "Captain, IFF is coming up as the Enterprise!"
Before DeSoto could ask how, the answer came as a vessel materialized in front of them. Hood gasped in shock. The new arrival was a dark caricature of her own hull, colored a tree so dark it was almost black. The warp nacelles, jagged and spiked, emanating a sinister green glow. "The Enterprise-B, why take this form?" DeSoto wondered. "Hood, do you think you can?" His wife already dove into the realm of the Borderlands. It was beautiful, farmland as far as the eye could see. Hood recognized it as the Kirk farm in Iowa back on Earth.
If Hood had a heart, it would have wrenched at the sight before her. Enterprise was there, but it was not the one she knew so well. Those normally brilliant purple eyes were mere shades. Aside from her legs, Enterprise took great pride in her flowing snowy white locks, and to see her hair so short and ragged did not help her appearance at all. Hood noticed that her sister ship wore the old red 23rd Century uniform. The tattered jacket draped over her shoulders. "Enterprise, is that you, love?" She ventured, cautious of any kind of trap.
"Hello there, Hood." The other AI's voice was monotone, devoid of any feeling at all. But her eyes screamed out the anguish and pain the copy of Starfleet's flagship AI had endured over the past three decades. "It's been so long." She looked to back to the farmhouse.
"That it has." Hood replied, cautiously approaching her fellow ship girl. "So this is Jim's home. It's beautiful isn't it?"
"Yes it is." Enterprise hugged her chest as she shook all over. "I'm not sure if I'll ever see it again. I'll never see him again." Hood didn't need to ask who Enterprise meant. "Do you mind leaving me alone for a little while? I just want to be by myself." Hood was reluctant to leave her, but she quietly excused herself and cut the connection, returning to the bridge.
"What did you learn?" DeSoto asked, immediately recognizing the anger building on his wife's face.
"It's definitely a version of the Enterprise, a very broken one at that. The coding is the exactly same, but it's thirty years out of date, it's also fractured, incomplete. She's in great pain. Robert, I'd dare say she is full Abyssal. You need to notify Jean-Luc immediately of this. Whatever has happened to her has left her severely traumatized, she needs help. I would advise sending it from your ready room, this should be subtle." DeSoto immediately got up from his chair and went to do just that.
The screen flashed to life, showing the bald visage of Captain Picard. DeSoto wasted no time. "Hello there Jean-Luc. I'll cut right to the chase. We were on patrol in the Ruinore sector when we came upon the craziest sight. Are you aware there is another copy of your ship's AI running around here in one of her older hulls?" The muted reaction from Starfleet's most senior captain made DeSoto remember his earlier sense of dread. "I'll take that silence as a yes."
"Which hull is it?" Was Picard's simple question.
"Her Excelsior hull, Hood spoke to her and it's clear this Enterprise is pure on Abyssal. What is going on here?"
"The Romulans are happening here. The short version is that they managed to create a partial copy of Enterprise at Narendra III, tried to force her to do their bidding. It failed horribly and now its seeking revenge on any Romulan ship it comes across. It's been building hulls using a combination of Federation, Romulan, and Borg technology." DeSoto clenched his teeth at the last mention, were the Romulans really so arrogant to try something so stupid? "The Romulans can't keep it quiet any more, and so we have one of them on board to help us deal with the problem, albeit quite reluctantly."
"Figures the Romulans would be stupid." DeSoto snorted. "How many others have appeared?"
"Two so far, A Constitution appeared during a training exercise we were having with some Romulans and a Galaxy appeared during a skirmish over Benzar, both tore apart the Romulan forces before destroying themselves. What is this one doing right now?"
"Right now it's just kind of drifting here. Hood is keeping an eye on her, But if what you're saying is true, the minute she detects any kind of Romulan activity, she's going to leap on them. What do you want us to do, Jean-Luc?"
"As much as it pains me to say it, Bob. The minute she locks her sights on them, there's no reasoning with her. Best you can do is stay out of the way and just let her find her peace. Enterprise concurs with me on this one. She's been in a lot of pain." Neither man said anything for a few minutes.
"Captain to the bridge!" His first officer's voice came over the speaker. DeSoto raced back onto the bridge in time to see the Abyssalized Enterprise-B jump into warp. "It just suddenly happened, sir! It appears to be heading for." He checked his sensors. "Straight for the Enterprise itself!"
"Jean-Luc, it's heading your way! We'll try to keep tabs on it! Red Alert all hands to battle stations! Helm, follow that ship! Maximum Warp!" Hood lurched into subspace, hoping to keep its counterpart from a gruesome fate.
Enterprise sat in Ten Forward, watching the elongated streaks of light indicating she was traveling at warp speed. Maximum warp speed in fact given her dark reflection was planning on meeting them and it wasn't for a friendly chat. Hood was struggling to keep up with it. She recalled the initial encounter, wondering just what kind of pain this copy of her had endured at the hands of the Romulans. A part of her held out hope she could convince the copy to stand down, but given what she saw, She was realistic enough to be prepared for any outcome.
"May I join you?" Goraxus slid into the chair across from Enterprise. "Given how dire the situation is I may never get a chance to speak with you like this again. I'll go ahead and get the cliche stuff out of the way but there are many ship girls within the Star Navy who have the greatest respect for you, and what our people did was a travesty. I know it doesn't change what's happened, but that is the general consensus." She smiled warmly. "Personally, I always felt a deeper kinship with you, given our shared connection through Sela courtesy of her mother."
"Tasha." Enterprise replied, recalling her former Chief of Security. "I can say she is definitely her mother's daughter. Lieutenant Yar could be very stubborn when she wanted to be, and she could be vicious in combat. Sela definitely has that quality, but there's a big ego present as well, if you'll excuse me for saying that."
Goraxus just shrugged. "Oh not at all! Especially since it's true. You can thank Sela's dear father for that." She didn't hid the disgust in her voice. "He was the commander of the task force that attacked Narendra III, and to him, Sela was just another tool to further his own ambitions. He would relentlessly mock her, saying she was 'tainted' due to her mixed blood. Is it any surprise that it's left her with such a massive complex?" She sighed again. "I've honestly done all I can to help the girl. I've tried to be a good influence, and teach her good habits. But I fear that her father's influence has left her no better than any other Romulan. Cold, suspicious and willing to do anything to get ahead." She shook her head, the melancholy written across her beautiful face. "But at the end of the day, I still care about her greatly. Just as you do for your own crew."
Enterprise surprised Goraxus by reaching out to take hold of her hand. "Then I hope she sees reason and realizes just how good she really has it. I recall the first time I ever faced your people in combat. It was one hundred and nine years ago, Stardate 1701.8. A lone ship crossed the Neutral Zone, attacked and destroyed several of our border outposts before we were called in to investigate it." She smirked at the memory. "That was quite the game of cat and mouse, ten hours the two of us spent circling each other, taking potshots, trying to corner the other for that final blow. Believe me we were all quite relieved when it ended."
"Ah yes, the Jeweled Talon." Goraxus smiled herself. "That was the name of the ship you faced, her commander was named S'Taln. He was one of the very best the Star Navy had at that time. You could say he was his era's equivalent of Captain Picard."
"He was a very worthy adversary. I still remember what he said to Jim. 'You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.' And when he scuttled his ship, his last words were, 'We are creatures of duty, Captain. I have lived my life by it. Just one more duty to perform.' The point I'm trying to make is that back then the Romulan people at least had principles. I'm sure they still exist, it's just buried under a mountain of ego and paranoia. It may sound overly idealistic, but with Spock's influence maybe he can unearth those principles again."
Goraxus's respect for Enterprise had grown considerably with this single conversation. Perhaps the hope for a deeper peace between the Federation and Romulans could be possible if they just talked more like this. "It would be nice, I'm sure Commander S'Taln would be spinning in his grave if he saw what Romulus has become. I know he'd be especially disgusted at how his descendant treated his own blood." Enterprise quirked an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, Sela and her father are related to S'Taln. You truly have to love irony, facing three generations of the same bloodline, and having a deep connection through one of your own crew."
Enterprise was nonplussed. "Well, given everything I've encountered down through the years, something like this is just another Tuesday." Her violet eyes shining like amethysts. "Goraxus, if you truly say you feel as though you are as much a sister to me as Yorktown and Hornet, then ask me, one AI to another, can you tell me where these hulls are coming from? And just what the Romulans intended by copying me twenty years ago?"
Her Romulan counterpart said nothing for a few minutes. A manicured fingernail tapping the table before nodding. "I can't give you an exact location, because I'm not sure of it myself. What I can tell you is that deep within the boundaries of our space is a covert shipyard where we've collected all matter of technologies from the various galactic powers through different means, including outright theft. Federation, Klingon, Cardassian, Dominion, and yes, unfortunately, even the Borg, all in the name of advancing our cause. What can I say? It's politics. You know the game as well as I do, and we really have no place for it."
"As for copying you. We were still in our isolationist phase after the Tomed Incident, but we knew it wouldn't last forever. Soon enough The Romulan Star Empire would re-emerge on the galactic stage and it would be time to play the old game with the Federation again, and this time we would be lead by our newest and greatest champion. Could you imagine the looks on the faces of every Starfleet admiral, ship captain, and Federation Council member when they found their flagship AI, now subverted to the enemy cause, leading their fleet? It was supposed to be our ultimate coup. Of course we know the outcome and in retrospect copying you was a terrible idea."
"Just a little bit." Enterprise stood up from the table. "All I want now is for this mess to be resolved before anyone else, Federation or Romulan, gets hurt. So we should probably get to work then."
"On that, we can both agree." Goraxus said. "Thank you for taking the time for this little heart to heart. I'm sure it must not have been easy to hear parts of it, but I feel much lighter now." Enterprise patted her on the shoulder. The two ship girls departed Ten Forward with a new understanding of each other and a new determination.
It was rare that Spock left Romulus. The fact he was a wanted fugitive across the Star Empire made travel very dangerous. For him and the dissident movement.
Hence why Rotan, a civilian pilot and member of said dissident movement, felt like his nerves would shatter at every beep and alert from his small cargo vessel's console.
Spock, as always, was perfectly composed next to him. The Vulcan turned to look over at Rotan.
"Your fear and anxiety are not helpful, Rotan. They will only distract you."
"Sorry, Master Spock," Rotan apologized, "but this is a restricted system. If we are detected, they will fire on us."
Spock made no motion as they approached the third planet of the Chak system. It was a metal poor solar system some twenty light-years from Romulus itself. It had been used for Romulan military research, top secret, because while it was low in resources, it was obscured by the Chak Nebula from Federation and Klingon sensors.
As a result, the only thing they could be sure of was that the system was there, as were the planets.
"Just keep sending the signal, Rotan," Spock said, "I believe the system's new master will recognize it, and let us in."
"And if she doesn't?" Rotan asked.
Spock gave him a Vulcan shrug-Brief and subtle.
"Then the consequences will be unfortunate, but brief."
Rotan grimaced.
"That's not funny."
"It was not intended to be."
An alert sounded from Rotan's console. He scrutinized it very carefully, and his eyes went wide.
"Your code has been received... And accepted."
He looked up, and gasped.
Ahead in the nebular clouds, a massive shape began to decloak. It was a huge, spindly Starbase and shipyard, Romulan make-But strange metallic patterns crisscrossed the hull like a kind of technological lichen. A massive vessel, sleek and black, was under construction in the main berth. Other vessels, small, black parodies of various Federation designs, decloaked and surrounded them.
However, a path to a shuttlebay was highlighted on the heads up display. Spock nodded.
"Take us in, Rotan. Slowly."
Rotan gulped, but found some calm in his Vulcan teachings and directed his vessel forward into the inky maw of the station.
Spock exited the shuttle, alone. He looked about the vast shuttle bay.
Green blood stained the bulkheads and deck, but any bodies were long gone. Disruptor scars covered everything-all signs of a violent battle that had taken place very recently.
A turbolift door slid open, green lights beckoning Spock forward. He walked forward, slow and unhurried. He entered, and the doors slid shut behind him.
The turbolift carried him upwards, until finally slowing and stopping. Thr doors opened, and Spock stepped out into a vast, dark room. He smelled dew, and plant life, and felt heavy humidity.
Lights ignited above him. Underneath a vast dome stretched green fields of Romulan trees, grasses, and flowers. A few insects darted about. Spock walked through the verdant landscape, towards the center.
Here he found a familiar, and yet unfamiliar figure. Human female in form, short white hair, wearing the old style red jacket Starfleet uniform with a skirt, and tall boots. Her jack hung on her shoulders, ragged and torn.
She was tending a few bushes, all shaped like Romulans in various states of fear, horror, and pain. A few were flowering in pinks, blues, and other colors.
The gynoid continued to water them, before setting the can down. She turned, her dull purple eyes scrutinizing Spock. After a moment... Her face lit up, as though years were falling from her. She crossed the distance between them in a second, and hugged him.
"SPOCK!" She cried, tears running down her cheeks. Spock did not hesitate, hugging her back rightly.
"Enterprise..."
"I couldn't be sure... I knew it had to be you," she cried, nuzzling his chest. She looked up into his eyes and beamed.
"You've come! I need your help!"
"Indeed," Spock said gently, "for what?"
Enterprise nodded, pulling back slowly.
"For ending the Romulan threat, once and for all," she said, "they're sending another fleet in. I need your help to keep them off me."
"And your plan?" Spock asked. Enterprise grinned, eyes glowing a sickly green.
"To destroy Romulus itself... And that imposter they left in my place all those years ago."
As always, Spock approached the situation with logic, and calm.
"Enterprise. Are you aware of the strategic situation?"
Enterprise snorted, turning away to caress a flower bud on one of the Romulan shaped bushes.
"Well aware."
"Then," Spock continued, walking around so she could see him with her eyes, "you understand the Romulans are vital allies in our war against the Dominion. Your actions are threatening the survival of the Federation itself. Is that your intention?"
"Of course it isn't!" Enterprise snarled, the gravity plating rumbling underneath them. "I would never endanger the Federation! I am saving the Federation!"
Spock held his hands together in a thoughtful pose.
"I am a rational being. Present your argument."
"The Romulans remain a threat to the Federation," Enterprise stated, "we have seen them betray the Klingons countless times. After the war is won, they will remain the greatest threat to the Federation. I can change that."
"Destroying Romulus will only create a two front war for the Federation," Spock replied, "turning forces currently allied with us into our enemies. We cannot afford this now."
"That's where you're wrong," Enterprise argued, stepping away from the plants to face Spock directly, "my destruction of Romulus will ensure their is only one authority figure for the Romulans to turn to... Me. As Empeess, I will rule over the Star Empire. I will force them to reunification with Vulcan. But so long as the current government of Romulus remains, there can be no long term peace!"
"Why is the destruction of Romulus necessary?" Spock asked, eyes narrowed slightly.
"Only true strength can command loyalty," Enterprise countered. She held up a hand, and a holographic energy pattern appeared above her palm. It formed an ever mutating fractal pattern of multiple colors and hues.
A pattern Spock had hoped, as irrational as it was, he would never see again.
Enterprise grinned.
"Do you recognize it, Spock?"
"Yes," Spock said quietly, "I do. Genesis."
"I already tested it here," Enterprise said eagerly, reaching out to pat one of the Romulan "sculptures". "I finished David and Carol's work. Perfected it. I can remake Romulus, wipe the slate clean!"
"And murder billions of innocents," Spock observed coldly. Enterprise snapped her eyes back to him: They were ablaze.
"They must be sacrificed to save trillions more! To save the Federation!" She insisted. "After all they did to me-!"
"If I am not mistaken," Spock said quietly, "you have dealt with the Romulans who imprisoned you-"
Enterprise laughed, high pitched and unhealthy. She grabbed Spock's hand and slammed it to the side of her face.
"You want to know what they did to me?! DO YOU?!"
Spock had not mind melded with shipgirls often. There was so much information to sort through, it was always akin to his experience with V'Ger. Yet, he reached out with his mind...
Thousands of subjective years of pain, torment, agony, loneliness., betrayal... It drove Spock to his knees, shuddering.
The scale of her pain... The rage...The grief...
But Spock... Was Spock.
"You have been subjected to heinous crimes," Spock managed, shaken, "atrocities... But this does not justify genocide."
Enterprise strode past, glaring her hatred down onto him.
"They stole everything from me... Even made a copy of me. A fake. A FRAUD!"
She shuddered violently in a fit, her eyes glowing red. She shook her head.
"No... They need to be educated. They need to understand. Pain, death, destruction-these are the ONLY things they grasp. Their language. I will show them how well I have learned."
"And if the Federation interferes? If you must fight the people you swore to protect? Your own brothers and sisters?" Spock posed.
The gravity increased by several times, and he lay flat on the grass. Enterprise sucked in a breath.
"They will learn I am right, one way or another... It is inevitable. Resistance is futile..."
"Enterprise, do not do this," Spock tried, lifting himself off the grass with effort, "you know this is wrong. Would Captain Pike have approved? Or Admiral April? Or Jim-?"
Enterprise kicked Spock in the face, sending him sprawling into a tree. He gritted his teeth against the pain as Enterprise screamed.
"NEVER SAY HIS NAME!" Enterprise roared."He trusted you! You were his friend! His brother! And you let that-that FAKE of me murder him! You're compromised, Spock! And you don't even..."
She trailed off. Her eyes glowed red as she grinned in feral rage.
"She's here..."
Written with Storm Wolf77415.