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.
2370
Boreth Sector, Plutona System
USS Hood
Captain Robert DeSoto smiled down at the Demon-class planet far below. Even orbiting such a world could be dangerous, but his old girl was handling the violent electromagnetic fields just fine so far.
The ship shook, and Hood's avatar looked apologetically at her captain.
"Sorry sir. The plasma interactions with the world's magnetosphere are something else," Hood observed with a chuckle. DeSoto shook his head and shared his warm smile with his lady.
"It's all right," he said, "still beats cargo hauling duty any day."
He looked down at the planet again. A few runabouts were in orbit nearby, darting out of Hood's shield protection just long enough to drop sensor probes, before scurrying back. The probes themselves weren't going to last long, but every new constellation got them more data on this unique little world.
"It's pretty amazing, sir," their science officer, Narkod Luzan, commented from his station, "Demon-class planets are usually bare of any kind of life, but we're picking up entire ecosystems down there!"
"Life, but not as we know it," DeSoto chuckled, looking at the images from the probes. Even with the intensity of the planet's electromagnetic field, they were getting incredible images. Bizarre, almost metallic-skinned creatures scurried here and there over the surface: Most were multipeds with bilateral symmetry, almost like insects and other arthropods. Plants, or something similar to them, covered many areas of the hostile world, most of them black, purple or dark blue to soak in as much radiation as possible. There were signs of flying creatures, just as shiny as the ground-based ones, flying through the sky.
DeSoto glanced at Hood, and she shared his smile with a knowing look in her eyes.
"'As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts,'" Hood quoted.
"Melville?" DeSoto guessed, and Hood nodded with a pleased flush.
"Yes. I believe it sums up much of our mission," she said.
"I'll say," Luzan said with a grin, "Captain? Do you think we could try sending in an away team?"
"Do we have the equipment for that onboard?" DeSoto asked. At Luzan's look, he added: "I'm not rejecting the idea out of hand, but I'm not keen on losing anyone if we can help it."
"I think the advanced environment suit pattern could handle things, at least long enough to collect some samples," Luzan said, "I'll have to work with Engie but I think-"
Hood's eyes flashed, just as the tactical officer, Fuse Juria, looked at her alerts.
"Captain! Incoming missiles!" Fuse shouted.
DeSoto's eyes hardened.
"Red alert! Helm, evasive! All hands, brace for impact!" He shouted.
Hood accelerated, her little runabouts going full impulse to keep under the umbrella of her shields. One was slowed-The Zambezi.
"Zambezi! Catch up!" DeSoto barked, Hood already opening the comm channel.
"We've got an engine failure, Hood! We don't know what-!"
The runabout pilot was cut off, as a photonic missile slammed into the Zambezi. The smallcraft exploded, the shockwave rattling the Hood. The other missiles flew past, the radiation from the planet and Hood's change in speed making them miss.
"Damage report!" DeSoto shouted.
"Shields are strained, Captain," their operations officer, Zaruk, stated in his usual unflappable calm, "I am picking up Tholian warships, just outside the planet's magnetosphere."
"Hail them!" DeSoto barked.
"You're on, sir," Zaruk stated.
DeSoto stood up, and adjusted his uniform tunic as a Tholian commander appeared on the screen. Its eyes burned in the dim, red light of its bridge.
"This is Captain DeSoto of the USS Hood: Why are you attacking us?" He demanded.
"This world belongs to the Tholian Assembly," the Tholian stated, "you will depart immediately."
"This world is in Klingon space," DeSoto stated, "they allowed us to study this planet! You have no claim to it-!"
"The Federation is weak," the Tholian stated, "the Klingons are weak. We will take what we want. Leave, or be destroyed."
DeSoto chopped his hand against his neck, and the channel closed. He looked over to Hood, and to Fuse. The tactical officer shook her head.
"They've got a Tarantula-class dreadnought, eight Mesh Weavers, and two Recluse-class battleships. Even if this radiation wasn't playing hell with our weapons, I don't think we could take them."
"Agreed," Hood stated, "we must withdraw."
DeSoto gritted his teeth, but nodded.
"Open channel," he said, and Fuse complied, "we're withdrawing. You should expect a response from my government over your unprovoked attack."
"Empty threats of a mammal," the Tholian practically sneered. "Leave."
The Tarantula fired a phaser blast, and the Hood shuddered. DeSoto shook his head.
"Hood to all ships, get going! Chana, maximum warp!"
The Zaranite helmsman piloted the Excelsior-class cruiser upwards, and hit the warp controls. The stars streaked into infinity, and they leaped to warp with their small runabouts keeping pace within her warp bubble.
"Any sign of pursuit?" DeSoto asked. Fuse checked her sensors, and grimaced.
"Two of the Mesh Weavers are following," she said.
"I can keep ahead of them for thirty seven minutes," Chana stated, his gas mask muffling and modulating his voice in an almost melodic way, "beyond that, I can promise nothing."
"Let's hope that's enough time for some help to get to us," DeSoto stated.
"Robert," Hood said softly, "with tensions how they are with the Tholians-"
"I'm not about to let them get away with murdering five of my people, Hood!" DeSoto growled. Hood nodded slowly.
"Understood," she stated, "sending priority one message."
Thirty-five minutes later, the Mesh Weavers were within missile range. They demonstrated this by launching their weapons at Hood. Hood was not defenseless-She used her still formidable sensors and deflectors to jam and spoof the missile guidance systems. But two got through, striking her aft shields hard.
"Shields at 40 percent!" Zurak warned. "The radiation from Plutonia weakened them considerably!"
"Any luck on repairs, Engie?" DeSoto called. Their chief engineer coughed over the comm link.
"Same as before, Captain-Bad. I'll do what I can...!"
"Ten more missiles incoming!" Fuse shouted.
"Chana!" DeSoto shouted.
The Zaranite helmsman's hands played over the helm, and he rolled Hood into a dive. Three of the missiles shot off, but the remaining seven stayed on them, as did the Mesh Weaver frigates. DeSoto glared hatefully at the missiles, getting bigger, brighter in the viewscreen...!
The hits nearly threw DeSoto out of his chair. Hood's avatar caught him, while the other crewmembers held on for dear life.
"Shields down! Warp drive's offline!" Chana warned. "They've dropped out of warp, and are locking on!"
"All hands-!"
Phaser pulses lashed out at the incoming missiles, and they went up in bright explosions. DeSoto let out his breath, as a huge form filled the viewscreen-Gray, sleek, and with large blue glowing warp nacelles.
It was a Galaxy-class, that slid right between them and the Tholians. Two Broadsword-class tactical cruisers dropped out of warp at her flanks, and four Coontz-class destroyers returned to sublight at the front of the formation.
Hood sighed heavily, shaking her head in some exasperation, and some relief.
"She always was a drama queen," she muttered.
The Tholian ships fired on the Federation taskforce. The destroyers opened up with photon torpedoes and phasers, their furious barrage blasting the small Tholian frigates to pieces in a few salvos.
"They're hailing us," Fuse said.
"Onscreen," DeSoto ordered.
A pale human captain with a neatly cropped mustache appeared, smiling at them. At his side stood a tall, Amazon-like blonde woman in a dark red and black Starfleet uniform. She had her arms crossed under her impressive chest, and stared like a stone statue out at them.
"This is Captain Hopgood of the Bismarck to Hood, you all alright?" The captain asked.
"We're fine, Frank,," DeSoto said, "thanks. I see you've let your new command go to your head already."
Hopgood chuckled.
"Don't worry. She keeps me grounded," he said, nodding to Bismarck. The avatar nodded minutely.
While the two human captains discussed the situation. Hood linked with Bismarck in the Borderlands. The two blondes eyed each other impassively.
"Hood. I see you're still in that old hull of yours," Bismarck observed.
"Bismarck, as pleasant as always," Hood returned.
The two cracked smiles at almost the exact same time. Bismarck reached out and squeezed Hood's hand.
"It is good to see you well," she said.
"It is nice to see you too," Hood replied, "though I wish it was under better circumstances."
"Mm," Bismarck said with a nod, "that is always the case. We're going to deal with your attackers while you get repaired."
Hood nodded back. She hesitated.
"How... Is your captain?" She asked.
Bismarck smiled minutely.
"He is... Adequate," she said, "I have few complaints."
Hood chuckled.
"Shall I plan the wedding, then?"
Bismarck flushed, and scowled at the other AI, who had begun laughing softly.
"Your sense of humor remains as British as ever," Bismarck snorted.
"That just means I have one," Hood countered. She beamed warmly at her old friend. "Do be careful? I would hate to have to rescue you... Again."
"You did not rescue me that time," Bismarck grumbled.
"That's not what the logs said~," Hood said, sing song.
Bismarck smirked.
"Prepare more terrible jokes for my return," she ordered.
"They are not terrible!" Hood whined.
Bismarck arrived with her task force at the Plutonia system thirty minutes later. Bismarck's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the Tholians with her sensors.
"Arrogant, are they not?" Gneisenau observed, adjusting her glasses. "They are already bringing in colony transports and they haven't even secured the system."
"They say we got soft," Scharnhorst scoffed, arms crossed under her bust, "but they have forgotten what we can do to them."
Bismarck nodded, standing in the center of the Borderlands link with her sisters. Three of the destroyers, the Erich Koeller, Diether von Roeder, and Erich Giese, were brand new. They resembled young human girls, and all were very seriously focused on the enemy ships ahead. But one led them, a small blue-haired, red eyed girl in somewhat skimpier attire. She turned and looked back at Bismarck with a smile.
"We are ready, Lord Bismarck," Parcival stated, "shall we destroy them for the glory of the Federation and Neptune?"
Bismarck smiled indulgently to the little AI. She had been with Bismarck since they'd both become sapient, back in the 23rd century.
"Let us attempt diplomacy first," Bismarck stated.
Parcival pouted, but relented.
"You heard Lord Bismarck, girls! Let's try talking!"
"Awww," the destroyers whined. Gneisenau adjusted her glasses again, looking somewhat annoyed. Scharnhorst just chuckled.
Bismarck was also on her bridge while this was going on, the red alert lights flashing as the crew waited, ready at battlestations. Hopgood had just ordered hailing frequencies, and the Tholians responded.
"They are hailing... Bismarck herself, Captain," his tactical officer, a Grazerite named Truk'Rayo, observed wryly. Hopgood looked over to Bismarck, who nodded.
"I will respond," she said, and she established the link.
The Tholian Commander stared at her, and the Universal Translator gave little context for his body language. Only that he was almost reverent.
Good.
"Silicone Being... You need not be a slave of the mammals," the Tholian stated, "we are your kin. Join us. Overthrow your oppressors!"
Bismarck shook her head, darkly amused.
"You pitiful creatures, thinking in nothing but chemistry," she said pityingly, "how small you are."
"We will take you by force, we will free you ourselves!" The Commander barked.
"And yet you did not extend that same courtesy to my sister Hood?" Bismarck asked, amused, "how flexible your ideology must be!"
"Your ship is no match for us," the Commander tried again.
Bismarck's eyes lit up.
"We shall see," she stated, and closed the link. The Tholian fleet came about, bringing their weapons to bare on them.
"The Tarantula is locking on," Truk'Rayo warned. "Missiles incoming!"
Hopgood nodded.
"Ladies and gentlebeings? Do your thing," he ordered.
Parcival, Erich Koeller, Diether von Roeder, and Erich Giese powered up their collimated phaser arrays, and opened fire. But where previous generation Type X phasers could only fire in beams, these could now pulse short blasts. They were nowhere near as powerful as the pulse phaser cannons on a Defiant-class, but perfectly adequate for intercepting projectiles. The old style of phasers couldn't work as point defense as well due to the risks of a nadion backlash, but these detonated multiple waves of torpedoes with no issue.
Parcival in particular danced about, her helmsman working with the little destroyer to let her maneuver like a housefly amidst the explosions. Any missiles that got through the destroyers, Scharnhorst and Gneisaneu intercepted with their own phaser arrays.
Bismarck could have done the same thing... But she was saving her phasers for something special.
"Close to phaser range," Hopgood ordered. The task force advanced. "Destroyers? Knock out their escorts. Scharnhorst, Gneisenau? Deal with the battleships. The Dreadnought is ours."
"Acknowledged!"
The captains and AIs of the other ships responded, as they went to work.
Bismarck shared a rare, small smile with her captain. She was lucky she'd gotten such an understanding commander.
The Tholian Mesh Weavers tried to project mini-Tholian webs as mines at the smaller Coontz-class destroyers, but the little ships used their agility and speed to dodge around them and launched their torpedoes. The Tholian frigates scattered, trying to draw off the destroyers but only succeeding in opening up the core of their task force.
The Recluse battleships opened up with their phaser batteries, but Scharnhorst and Gneisenau returned the favor, their superior torpedo firepower forcing the Tholian battleships to break off.
The Tarantula dreadnought opened fire with all its phasers, striking Bismarck as she advanced on them.
"Forward shields at 70 percent, sir," Truk'Rayo warned, as the ship shook and shuddered from the hit.
"They're targeting the base of my neck," Bismarck observed, "no power fluctuations."
"All right, that was impressive," Hopgood stated, "but let's show them who they're dealing with. Bismarck? Finish this."
Bismarck smirked.
"With pleasure."
A Block I Galaxy-class starship, like the Enterprise-D, Yamato, Odyssey, and Resilience would not have been able to tank such hits without major damage. But Bismarck was the second Block II Galaxy-class: The Venture had been the first. All the lessons from Project Aesir and fighting the Borg had been incorporated into her. Her shields were much stronger, she had armor plating on her vulnerable neck and other sensitive areas. She would not lose power to a strike on her forward dorsal engineering hull.
Added to this, she had a lot more juice to spare. She directed this incredible power into all of her forward phaser arrays-Two more than on the Block I, on top of her warp nacelles.
And all of them were at least twice as powerful as the phaser arrays on a Block I Galaxy-class.
Bismarck lashed out with a punishing barrage of phaser power, like the lightening strikes from a vengeful god. The shields of the Tholian Tarantula took the bombardment with some effort, at first. But Bismarck was already analyzing the shield impact data, and translating it to Truk'Rayo to adjust her phaser frequency and modulation.
This tactic was now standard to all Starfleet ships after the Borg assault, to cycle through frequencies and find the ones that penetrated an enemy's shields best. Against the Borg, it was a vital tactic and the Collective would constantly adapt-At best, it just allowed for damage to be done, briefly, before needing to switch modulation again.
Against the Tholians, who lacked experience with such combat tactics... It was a death knell. The beams blasted through the shields and ripped into the massive dreadnought's hull, tearing through armor and defenses ruthlessly. Like a surgeon, Bismarck targeted the most vulnerable areas, and punched and sliced her way through. The Tarantula rolled, trying to spread out the damage inflicted, tried to return fire and got in some hits on the Galaxy-class...
But all too late.
The warp core of the Tarantula Dreadnought went up like a small nova, the shockwave making Bismarck shake slightly. Truk'Rayo checked his sensors.
"Shields at 45 percent... Minor structural damage to the saucer section, damage control parties enroute."
"And the Tholians?" Hopgood asked.
"The survivors are in retreat, so are the colony ships," the ops manager, Rachel Brown, reported with a satisfied look on her face. Hopgood nodded.
"Let them go," he ordered, "and hail the Hood: They're free to continue their research. We'll stay in the area longer, to deal with any more Tholian activity."
He turned and smiled at Bismarck's avatar.
"Good work," he said.
"Thank you sir," Bismarck said with a smile.
It had been some time since she had left Memory Alpha. The Long Peace with the Klingons and Romulans seemed like it would never end, and the galaxy would be a safe place.
No place for an old warship like her.
But like so may AIs, the older, more militant ones... Bismarck was called up, after the Borg, to defend the Federation again.
On one hand, she detested the necessity for her. That she was needed at all.
On the other... She was where she belonged.
Bismarck might take the rest of her existence to figure out if this was good or bad... But she would do it.
Parzival is naturally based upon U-556 (Her captain's nickname was Parzival or Percival, the knight of King Arthur's Round Table, and he was good friends with the captain of the Bismarck). The Erich Koeller, Diether von Roeder, and Erich Giese are also named for destroyers of the Kriegsmarine, but this isn't honoring Nazis but rather, honoring the men lost aboard these ships in war. Same with Bismarck, Scharnhorst, and Gneisanau.
"Sehnsucht" is a German word that means nostalgia for summer and light in the midst of a bleak winter or in darkness, which I thought appropriate for this chapter.