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 and Little Enty: "Emergence"
2370
It had been a week since she was born. Her hull flew alongside Enterprise-D, like a whale calf alongside her mother.
Aboard Enty, in her cramped (but growing) bridge, then-Commander Riker, Geordi, and Data were at her control consoles. Enty's avatar herself stood nervously at Riker's side as he handled her helm. Riker gave her a smile.
"You all right, Enty?" He asked. Enty nodded quickly.
"Of course! I'm a starship, after all," she said, far too quickly, "I-I'm gonna do great!"
Riker's smile became warmer, and he patted her on the shoulder.
"I know you will," he said, "just relax. We're all here for you."
"Right, right," Enty said nervously. She took a deep breath, a strange thing to program into an AI that didn't need oxygen, but it calmed her nevertheless.
"Warp core is online," she reported, "intermix reports stable."
"Confirmed, power is online," Data said, "plasma manifolds at 100 percent."
"Warp coils are charged," Geordi said, turning back with an encouraging smile at the young starship AI, "we're good to go here, Enterprise."
"Acknowledged," Picard had called over the comm, "Enty, we're about to go to warp. Countdown of ten seconds."
"Aye sir," Riker replied. Enty felt the charge in her warp nacelles, the power of her warp core as it sent energy through her like a beating heart sent blood around a humanoid body. She felt the tension of her hull, the nanotech making her feel much... Softer, and yet more tense than her mother's far more synthetic build.
And speaking of... She felt her mother in the Borderlands connection. She held her hand, and smiled lovingly. She sent data packets that all conveyed the same feelings of care, affection, and love.
"You're going to do fine," Enterprise said softly.
"But what if I mess up?" Enty murmured, wincing at how weak she felt. Enterprise hugged her daughter.
"Then we'll get up and try again," she said, "that's all there is to it."
"Warp one... Engage!"
Enterprise-D leaped into warp, and Enty was carried along in the subspace field. The universe was changed from Einstein's to Cochrane's, and the stars streaked past them. Enty took deep breaths, her sensors on full.
She had all the data on warp travel... But to actually experience it? That was brand new. She tensed and flexed, she surged her power in fear-!
Her mother tightened her hug on her.
"Focus," Enterprise said.
"I'm falling," Enty whimpered, blinking back tears. Enterprise chuckled, and Enty knew that her mother was... Nostalgic in this moment.
"You're not falling, Enty," Enterprise said softly, "you're flying. All you have to do is spread your wings... And catch the wind."
Riker's fingers worked over her controls. Enty resisted only a moment, only a second of hesitation... Then she powered on, and formed her own warp bubble.
"Warp field established," Data called out, "emerging from Enterprise-D's warp field."
Riker maneuvered her out ahead of her mother's huge form. She slid out, wobbling a bit as she transitioned... Then she was out, and steady as she flew at the speed of light. She scanned everything, from the gamma rays to the neutrino and tachyon emissions.
A smile came over her face, as she felt her mother pull back in the Borderlands.
"I-I'm doing it, Mama! I'm doing it!" Enty cried out.
"Yes! Yes you are!" Enterprise laughed, clapping her hands, "oh, it's wonderful!"
Riker patted Enty's console, a familiar and affectionate gesture.
"Good work, Little One, good work," Riker chuckled, "all right... Let's see what you can do."
Enty nodded happily. The Borderlands link disconnected, she was truly on her own... But instead of fear, this fact brought her joy.
"Yeah! FULL POWER!"
Enty leaped ahead, leaving warp booms in her wake. Riker's eyes went wide, but his smile was of delight.
"Warp 4... Warp 7... Warp 9... Warp 9 point 4... Warp 9 point 8... Warp 9 point 92...!" Geordi read off, astonished.
"Any issues, Geordi?" Riker called out. Geordi shook his head.
"No! If anything, she could go faster!"
"A lot faster!" Enty cried eagerly. "Come on, come on!"
She felt the pull of a billion stars and their light from all around. She was outrunning their very photons! Her warp core buzzed with power as she pushed, and pushed...!
"Warp 9 point 997...!"
Her power began to drop hard. Enty was shaken out of her bliss.
"Uh oh," she muttered, "fuel is draining fast...!"
"Throttle back down, Enty," Riker ordered, already slowing her, "let's go to relative stop."
"Yes Uncle Will," Enty sighed, now disappointed. Riker chuckled, and patted her avatar on the back.
"You did great though," he said. Enty beamed.
"Really? I-I mean... Of course!" She admitted.
She dropped out of warp, and went to idle. Her fuel reserves were very low. She waited a few hours as her crew checked her over. Finally, after half a Solar day, her mother dropped out of warp behind her. The Borderlands connection was restored, and Enty beamed at her mother. She tackled her in a hug, and Enterprise held her as they both laughed.
"Did you see me, Mama? Did you see me?!"
"I did! I did!" Enterprise laughed back, tears in her eyes, "ohhh... I'm so proud!"
That was two weeks ago, and now? Lil Enty was bored.
It seemed fantastic in of itself to be bored. She had access to the sum total knowledge of the Federation, after all!
But playing and replaying data through her head was only so entertaining. So she did what she had done for most of the three weeks she'd been alive so far: Testing her systems.
Uncle Geordi, Uncle Data-Everyone was so amazed with her systems! And she guessed she was pretty awesome, overall. Her Mama thought so.
That said, the testing was getting a little weird. For one thing, Geordi had asked her to do several simulations of warping at high speed around a star or other large gravity well. She did multiple simulations, but she kept running into bizarre conclusions where her flight path would shift through the fifth dimension into a different part of the timeline!
Sure, the math worked, but it almost felt like dividing by zero-Strange when you actually got an outcome other than an error message.
For another, she was supposed to calculate these courses around stars that were nearby, and see which ones would work to deliberately cause this strange error, and which ones wouldn't! She'd tried finding out more on this phenomena, but her efforts were all locked out by top secret clearances.
Another weird simulation was sent by Worf and Data: How to conceal yourself in solar flares. It seemed a bit related to what she was doing, but why? Nevertheless, she soaked up all the information eagerly.
The other unusual thing happening was... How quiet everyone was after Captain Picard and Mama talked with Admiral Nechayev. She hadn't eavesdropped, really, but she'd heard crewmembers say the admiral was coming. Coming for her?
Why? For what purpose?
Finally, Enty had been told to rest in Mama's main shuttlebay. It was a bit of a tight fit, given she was growing. She'd eaten up some scrap metal and asteroids, and now she was slightly bigger than a Danube-class runabout. She'd had to adjust her nacelles to get in without damaging anything.
Sitting around for long periods of time, everyone on edge... It started to make Enty nervous.
She saw Captain Picard walk into the shuttlebay. He marched right up to the side of her hull, and she opened her airlock for him. He walked on in, and stood on her small bridge.
A moment later, Mama linked in, and projected herself next to Picard. Enty faced them, sitting in her captain's chair and feeling more and more anxious.
"Mama? Captain?"
Picard let out a long sigh.
"Enty... Admiral Nechayev is coming with the USS Intrepid, and the USS Pathfinder," Picard explained, "their orders are to take you from here, and take you back to a secret facility to be studied."
Enty blinked in confusion.
"But... I don't want to leave my Mama," she said. Picard shook his head.
"It doesn't matter what you want, or what we want," he explained, "the Admiral has received permission from Starfleet Command to take you into 'protective custody'. Most likely, you will be held in a secret facility where scientists will take you apart, and strip you down to find out every secret you contain."
Tears began to bulge at the corners of Enty's eyes.
"But-But I don't want to!" Enty insisted. "Th-They can't! I-I've been helping! I gave you parts of me-Why are they doing this?!"
"They're afraid that if you are left out here with your mother, you might be taken by an enemy power," Picard explained quietly.
Enty was really crying right now. She was so afraid, she felt like she was frozen.
"I-I don't want to! I want to stay with you!" Enty insisted, tearfully getting up and hugging her mother. Enterprise hugged her gently, stroking her hair.
"I know, but you can't," Enterprise sighed.
"I-I could run away!" Enty insisted.
Picard shook his head.
"Unlikely," he said, "you couldn't survive long on your own out here. And your mother already suggested that-She can't sustain herself. You'd both be hunted down."
"Isn't there anything you can do, Captain?" Enterprise pressed.
Picard sighed heavily.
"Unfortunately, any legal remedy will take months, or even years to get through the courts," Picard said, "and the Admiral and her ships have already arrived. They are in visual range."
And here... Captain Picard did a strange thing. He smiled.
"The only way you could escape, Enty," Picard said, "is if you got angry, overrode the controls of your mother, and took me as a hostage."
Enty blinked. Confusion ruled over her mind and face.
"I... What?"
"If you took me hostage," Picard said carefully, "you could escape. Long enough to try, say, warping around a nearby star in an effort to hide from their sensors. To make it look like you'd be destroyed, but in reality..."
Enty blinked. She blinked again.
Maybe she was young... But she wasn't stupid. And her face lit up with joy and a bright smile, even through her tears.
"You mean-?"
"I mean," Picard said carefully, "that if you were to take me hostage and make your escape... Doing it in full view of the people on the shuttlebay control deck and Admiral Nechayev would make it very convincing. After all... Nobody could blame me or your mother for not knowing that you, an advanced one of a kind ship, could override the security lockouts on your mother and escape."
Mama looked like she was trying hard not to laugh. Enty felt the same urge.
"Well... Then... Maybe I should get on with that?"
Mama smiled and nodded, stroking the top of Enty's head.
"Yes, I think that would be a very good idea..."
USS Intrepid
Intrepid was not supposed to eavesdrop on flag officers. This was strictly a no-no, hard coded into her privacy processors.
However, her captain, Walter Emerick, allowed her a certain amount of leeway. He was new, confident, and could be a bit flexible on the rules. He had a saying, taken from a 21st century program he favored: "If you can't do something smart, do something right."
Maybe it wasn't smart to monitor the prickly admiral and the "aide" who according to all Starfleet records, was just a regular Johnathan Sloane (and then a lot of links that went nowhere and doubled back on themselves). But it was the right thing to do, especially since the captain had left his desktop computer on recording mode.
"Honestly Admiral, this is going a bit too far-" Sloane tried, but Nechayev scoffed.
"From you? That means nothing!"
Sloane let out a soft huff through his nostrils.
"The technology of that ship and its AI is invaluable to the Federation. Keeping it and Enterprise happy would seem to be good-"
"Then why are you along for the ride?" Nechayev sneered.
Sloane was silent for a moment.
"Well, such captures do require people of my clearance level-"
"And the fact you could sabotage the situation has nothing to do with it?" Nechayev snorted.
Sloane was silent.
"Whatever you think of me or what I do, I do it for the sake of the Federation," Sloane stated, "and this feels more like an ego trip. Yorktown and the Media are condemning the action. Picard is threatening to give the AI asylum in the Klingon Empire. So why push things this hard, this far?"
Nechayev was silent for a time, before she answered.
"I don't trust Picard. Bad enough he was Locutus. But then he had to go and let a Borg drone go. Let him go when we could have used it to destroy the entire Collective! Surely you have the same concerns?"
Sloane... Actually chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Nechayev demanded.
"We looked over the viral package, of course," Sloane said, "we've been working on similar projects for use against the Borg. But we keep running into the same problem: The Borg might be diminished or damaged by it... But destroyed? No. We've extracted huge amounts of Borg data, Admiral, from sources you can't imagine. They're far more resilient than you can imagine. Picard may have made the choice to not deploy it for moral reasons, but in his shoes? I may have done the same, for practical reasons: If it didn't kill off the Borg, they'd know who made it, and they'd have more reason to take us more seriously."
"Speculation," Nechayev sneered.
"Practicality," Sloane argued.
"In any event, I'm not letting a weapon that could let us defeat the Borg or anything else out there remain in Picard's hands," Nechayev growled, "so make sure you don't get in my way."
"Perish the thought," Sloane observed.
Intrepid returned her focus to her bridge, where she stood alongside her captain. The admiral and Sloane emerged. Nechayev walked out into the center of the bridge, and focused intently on the Galaxy-class Enterprise ahead.
"Status?" Nechayev demanded.
"We'll be in transporter range in five minutes, sir," Emerick reported calmly, "we've opened hailing frequencies with the Enterprise. Little Enty is in their main shuttlebay, and has just been locked down-"
A huge burst of atmosphere erupted from the dorsal aft section of Enterprise's saucer section. A sleek little vessel leaped out, swung around, and jumped to warp. Nechayev's jaw dropped.
"Intrepid to Enterprise, what the hell happened?!" She demanded.
She saw Riker on the bridge of the Enterprise, red alert lights flashing over his face.
"Admiral! Enty took the captain hostage, and she shut us down!" Riker shouted. "We'll try to get our systems back online, but right now-!"
"Right now, pursuit course, maximum warp!" Nechayev ordered.
Emerick nodded, and looked to Reggie, the helmsman.
"You heard the admiral, Reggie. After her, maximum warp!"
Intrepid leaped into warp after the tiny ship, Pathfinder following alongside. Outwardly, Intrepid remained calm and composed.
"Why does it always have to be Picard?" Nechayev muttered angrily.
"I suppose you don't get to blame me for this one," Sloane murmured, looking placid but just the tiniest bit smug. Nechayev shot him a venomous glare.
"Give me time," Nechayev hissed at him.
Intrepid shook her head, and focused. She had a job to do. But she was definitely letting Pathfinder in on the situation in case they found an opportunity to fix this.
Otherwise? She was hoping the little ship had some tricks up her sleeves...
Enty
Enty was scared. She was very scared. She'd been scared before, like when those Pakleds had tried to kidnap her. But her mother had stormed in and rescued her, and everything had been fine.
This time... Her mother couldn't save her.
She had to save herself.
Though she at least had some help in that regard. Captain Picard was at her helm console, monitoring their speed and their pursuers.
"The star approximately four lightyears away will be perfect" Picard grunted. Enty nodded.
"I think I can make it," she said. Picard sighed.
"At Warp 9? Sure. At Warp 9.975?"
Already, the two Intrepid-class ships were gaining on her. She was at Warp 9.5, but the larger ships easily kept pace with her. Her fuel consumption was
accelerating as she kept upping the ante.
"So what do we do?" Enty asked plaintively.
Picard thought hard. He spoke slowly.
"Enty... You're able to change the shape of your warp coils, right?"
Enty nodded.
"Yeah...?"
"Can you increase their surface area? Vent more heat?" Picard suggested. Enty focused. Her warp coils began to crinkle, and expand in some places...
"That's got it!" Enty said cheerfully, "Heat dissipation rate is increasing! I think... I think I can do this!"
Her nacelle housings opened up, and her warp coils glowed a brilliant blue. She pulled ahead of the Intrepid-class ships, faster and faster.
Picard smiled.
"Well... I suppose I'll have to think of some words to say when we come out of this," he said.
Enty turned and blinked at him curiously.
"Huh? What do you mean, Uncle Jean-Luc?"
Picard gave her a wan smile, as he settled into Enty's central command chair. He held onto the armrests, squeezing them, as though testing their mettle before he leaned back.
"A captain is supposed to go down with his ship," he said dryly.
"But… Mom needs you," Enty protested.
Picard shook his head.
"When we come out of time warp, you're going to need someone to speak for you," he said, "and I'm it. Riker can handle your mother. He's a good commander… He's proven it before."
Enty sniffled. She hesitated, before she walked over and hugged Picard. He stiffened in shock… But awkwardly patted the top of her head.
"Uncle Jean-Luc," she muttered, "you're all… All so nice… So kind…"
Picard chuckled softly.
"We're family," he said, "it's what we do for eachother."
Enty looked up, sniffling and trying to fight her tears.
"Th… Thank you," she muttered. She blinked in shock. "Uh oh… They're gaining on us…!"
Picard checked the readings. He frowned grimly.
"Well… Turns out Mister LaForge was right to treat the chief engineer of Intrepid as his rival," he observed. He turned to Enty. "Let's not give up. You simulated the maneuver with other stars, right?"
Enty pulled up a chart. She frowned, and pointed at a small red dwarf less than a lightyear away.
"Yes… But this one's a flare star!" She cried, "and it's undergoing a cycle right now! The probability of getting through with you, without contracting fatal radiation sickness-"
A photon torpedo flashed by the windows, just barely thrown off by Enty's jamming systems. Picard shook his head.
"It appears we have little choice, Enty-We'll have to risk it. Engage!"
Intrepid
"Fire again!"
Captain Emerick wanted to grimace, Intrepid knew him too well by now. But he kept his face as carefully neutral as possible as he turned to the vice admiral.
"Admiral Nechayav, we have to do this carefully," he said, "photon torpedoes are not as precise as phasers, especially at warp-"
"I don't care!" Nechayav growled, "I want that ship brought out of warp, now!"
Emerick paused, then slowly nodded. He turned to the tactical officer, as Intrepid stood alongside.
"Vera, coordinate with Pathfinder," he said, "shoot to disable her warp engines only. Intrepid?"
"Making the calculations," Intrepid said quietly, "firing solution established."
Vera, the staturesque Capellan woman, looked over her readings and nodded.
"Locked on, Captain."
Emerick turned back to the viewscreen.
"Fire."
Intrepid launched her torpedoes, as did Pathfinder. The two AIs guided their weapons towards little Enty's aft section. Intrepid narrowed her eyes, focusing on the right distance.
"Three... Two... One-"
She detonated her torpedoes with Pathfinder's, sending a series of shockwaves that would batter the tiny ship and hopefully force her out of warp. Enty passed through the blasts, nearly tumbling out of control. Intrepid bit her lower lip.
Come on, little sister, don't give up now...
Enty righted herself, and powered on, still at warp speed as she shot right for a red dwarf star. Nechayav gaped in disbelief.
"How did it-What kind of a maneuver was that?!"
"A variation on the Sulu-Cochrane Deceleration, I believe," Sloane observed, "must have learned from her mother."
"Or Picard is flying her," Nechayav muttered angrily.
"She's flying right for the corona of the star, sir!" Intrepid warned. "It's in a flare cycle!"
"Onscreen," Emerick ordered, and Intrepid presented an image of the star in question. It burned bright red, almost orangish, and wide arcs of nuclear fire burst from its burning surface. Massive streams of solar ions rocketed out into space. Already, the sensor resolution was getting fuzzy from the interference.
"We're equipped with metaphasic shields, are we not?" Nechayav demanded. Emerick sucked in a breath.
"Yes Admiral, however-"
"Raise them, continue pursuit!" Nechayav ordered. Intrepid winced.
"Pathfinder doesn't have such shields, Admiral, and even mine-"
"Did I ask for your opinion?" Nechayav demanded, shooting a nasty glare at the shipgirl AI. Intrepid stood primly, trying not to narrow her eyes.
"No admiral-"
"Then execute! Now!" She shouted. Intrepid again looked to Emerick, who sighed and nodded.
"Reggie?"
"On it sir," the pilot responded, and Intrepid shot off after Enty for the star. Pathfinder hung back, and in their Borderlands connection, she was worrying her lower lip and fussing with her fingers nervously. Unlike most shipgirl AIs, Pathfinder's avatar was very mechanical-Like a smooth golden gynoid robot from old science fiction. Her hair resembled braids made of blue solar panels, treaded wheels on her backpack, and she had a NASA logo on her shoulder underneath her Starfleet insignia.
"Intrepid, I hate to remind you but metaphasic shields have never been tested at warp speed-"
"I know," Intrepid sighed, "so gather as much data as you can, all right?"
Pathfinder nodded.
"Understood!"
Intrepid raced after the tiny ship, Reggie putting her full warp power into her nacelles.
"Warp 9... Warp 9 point 6... Point 9..." Reggie read off.
"She's bluffing," Nechayav gloated, "she's playing chicken. Hoping we'll back off before she burns up!"
"How brave of us," Emerick muttered, and he met Nechayav's glare evenly.
"Hull temperature is exceeding designed limit," Yung-Phat, the operations officer, reported worriedly, "deflectors at 60 percent and falling!"
"Maintain course!" Nechayav ordered. Intrepid began to shake and buckle around them. The shipgirl AI redirected her power as she could, and adjusted her warp fields.
"Shields at 40 percent! 30!"
"Admiral, if we're hit with a flare without our shields at this speed," Emerick stated, but Nechayav shot him a deadly look.
"Maintain course!"
"We're in weapons range!" Vera shouted.
"FIRE!" Nechyav shouted.
"Wait!" Yung-Phat yelled. "Look!"
A small star shot out from Enty's hull, racing away... Towards a gigantic solar flare. Yung-Phat shook his head.
"Sirs! There's one lifesign in that pod! I'm picking up Captain Picard's commbadge! He'll be consumed by the wavefront of the solar system in less than twenty seconds!"
"Admiral?" Emerick pressed. Nechayav shook her head.
"Fire on Enty, now!"
"Sir, if we don't act now," Emerick stated, "Captain Picard dies-"
"I don't give a damn about Picard!" Nechayav roared, "bring me that ship! NOW!"
Emerick took a breath... Before Sloane cleared his throat.
"Captain? Divert course, rescue Captain Picard," he ordered.
Nechayav whirled about, fire in her eyes as she spat:
"WHAT?!"
"Under Starfleet Regulation 34, rescuing an officer in distress under these circumstances is more important than recovering that ship," Sloane stated calmly. He nodded to Emerick. "If you would, Captain?"
"If you dare to-"
"Reggie! Shift course! Get us to the pod, now!" Emerick ordered. Intrepid helped the shift, and hit the brakes. She came out of warp right on top of the helpless escape pod, and with Vera's help, extended her shields around it. She checked the lifesigns, the radiation levels...
She mentally breathed a sigh of relief. The captain was fine.
"What about the ship?!" Nechayav demanded angrily.
Yung-Phat gaped.
"I-I'm picking up... Nothing, Admiral!"
"Nothing?!" Nechayav shouted, "nothing?! WHERE DID IT GO?!"
"Judging from the radiation levels," Yung-Phat stated, "it appears to have crashed into the star... There was a large flash of energy just before I lost contact with it."
"Confirmed with Pathfinder," Intrepid said calmly, "there's... Nothing left."
The admiral gaped in horror and rage at the viewscreen, where Intrepid helpfully brought up a recording of the events. One moment, Enty was there, racing around the star... The next? She was gone.
Utterly gone.
Nechayav looked fit to explode in her rage, but her voice was icy when she spoke.
"Your career-All of your careers, are over," she stated, sweeping a glare around at them all, "bring Picard aboard. I want him in the brig!"
"On what charge, Admiral?" Emerick asked. Nechayav sneered at him.
"Same as you'll be getting-Incompetence at best, treason at worst! Get him aboard and get us back to the Enterprise, maximum warp!"
She stormed into the turbolift, and the doors slid shut behind her. Emerick grit his teeth, and looked over at Sloane.
"I hope you have a way out of this for me and my crew," he stated.
Sloane chuckled.
"Captain Emerick, I assure you, everything is well in hand."
"How do you know?" Intrepid demanded. Sloane smirked.
"Let's just say I've got a good feeling..."
He remembered the sight of the red star at warp... Such an incredible view. Then, tiny hands grabbing him with incredible strength.
"Urk! Enty-!"
"I'm sorry, Uncle Jean-Luc!" Enty shouted. She fairly tossed him into a small torpedo casing-Where in the hell had she gotten that?! She looked down at him with regret as she sealed the pod.
"But I have to save myself... And you... Goodbye."
Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Federation starship Enterprise, awoke with a headache on an uncomfortable bunk. It reminded him of his academy days-Coming back to his dorm after partying too hard. He sat up, and tugged down his uniform...
And held in a sigh at the downright murderous looking Admiral Nechyav standing in front of the brig cell's forcefield.
"Admiral, I appreciate you-"
"Spare me, Picard," Nechyav growled, "you weren't kidnapped."
Picard raised a pale eyebrow.
"Really? I was not aware that-"
"You planned this from the start!" Nechyav growled, "your bleeding heart stupidity cost us a vital strategic resource!"
"I believe," Picard said, after a moment, "her name was Enty-"
"What it's name was is irrelevant! You tried to help it to escape!" Nechyav raged. Picard frowned.
"That's an interesting theory, given I nearly lost my life thanks to the panicking Enty-"
"BULL!" Nechyav fairly screamed, "you set it up! You are responsible! And I assure you, Picard, the second we get back to Earth I'll fry you! I'll destroy you, your crew, your ship-!"
The double doors swung open. Commanders Riker and Data, Captain Emerick, Enterprise's gynoid, Intrepid's avatar, some security officers, and Sloane all entered. Riker's poker face was on full, as he and Commander Data laid out a holographic projector system on the deck. Nechyav sneered.
"What is the meaning of-?!"
A second later, a tall, imposing man with a graying beard appeared. A man in a Starfleet admiral's uniform. Nechyav's jaw dropped.
"I-Admiral Leyton-?!"
The Chief of Starfleet Operations himself didn't bother to hide his disgust with Nechyav as he glared down at her.
"Alynna," he stated, "you have been causing the biggest headache in public relations for Starfleet since the goddamned Khitomer Accords."
"I-But sir," Nechayav began, "the prototype ship-!"
"You unilaterally assumed authority you had no business taking," Leyton continued, "to seize the first organically birthed shipgirl AI and her hull from her mother. Her mother who happens to be The Enterprise. Perhaps you've heard of her?"
Enterprise was keeping her features as neutral as Data, but Picard had no doubt she was smirking at Nechayav viciously. He would be too, in the same situation.
"But sir-!"
"Furthermore," Leyond went on, "rather than allow a team of specialists in nascent AIs come in to examine Enty first-as protocol dictates-you decided to essentially commandeer two ships and seize her for yourself. That Enty ran away is the least surprising part of this entire debacle."
He paused and turned to Enterprise, bowing his head.
"My deepest and sincerest sympathies, Enterprise," he said softly, "for your daughter."
Enterprise nodded slowly.
"Thank you, sir," she managed quietly.
Nechayav tried to get things back under control.
"But-Picard clearly helped her escape-!"
"I looked over the files from Enterprise, Alynna. They are very thorough," Leyton stated, "I also looked at the recordings of your conversations with the crew of the Enterprise. You really think Enty needed any help to escape? If I'd seen you acting this way, I'd have run first chance I got, too!"
"But-!"
"Between this and the utter disaster that is your Cardassian Treaty," Leyton said, cold and hard, "I believe I have more than enough cause to place you under arrest, as we begin investigations into your conduct."
Nechayav frantically shook her head.
"You-You don't want to do that-You know how important I am to Starfleet-!"
"Not that important," Leyton stated gravely. "Captain Emerick? Take Admiral Nechayav into custody. Keep her confined to her quarters."
"Aye sir," Emerick said with a smile. He nodded to the two security officers, and Intrepid, who all pulled guns on the gaping admiral. "If you'll follow these ladies and gentlemen, Admiral?"
"You're going to pay for this, all of you," Nechayav snarled, glaring death at everyone as she was escorted out. The doors to the brig slammed shut behind her, as another Intrepid avatar materialized next to her captain. All eyes turned to Leyton, who looked over at Picard.
"Captain Picard. You do tend to end up in a lot of messes, don't you?" Leyton asked, with a small smile. Picard smiled back softly.
"Name of the game, sir," he said. Emerick released the forcefield, and Picard walked out. "I imagine this is going to involve many debriefings, Admiral?"
"Yes," Leyton stated with a nod, "but I'll leave that to Agent Sloane to conduct initially. He tipped us off about the situation with Nechayav."
"Just doing my humble duty as a Starfleet Internal Affairs agent," Sloane said with a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. "But no rush. Ladies, gentlemen?"
He nodded, and headed out. Leyton's communication cut out, and Data calmly picked up the relay and held it in one hand. Emerick and Intrepid looked back at the crew of the Enterprise. Intrepid herself bowed her head.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm... I'm sorry-"
Enterprise hugged the hologram.
"It's all right," she murmured, "it's all right."
"She'll be back again, won't she?" Emerick asked.
The Enterprise and her crew stared in shock at the captain. Intrepid did the calculations in her head... And her eyes widened.
"Time warp?" She gasped.
"While it is theoretically possible that Enty did achieve time warp," Data stated, "and that she would return in a potentially more politically advantageous time for her than now... There is no conclusive means of proving this was her intention. Nor that that is what actually happened."
A tense silence followed.
Emerick then very slowly nodded.
"Of course," he said, smiling wryly. Riker and Picard relaxed. Enterprise beamed.
Intrepid sighed... And nodded quickly.
"Well... If she's anything like her mother," Intrepid stated flatly, "I'm sure she'll pop up again in the most annoying way possible."
Enterprise beamed, her violet eyes filled with both sadness and pride.
"That's my girl..."
Hope it's not too rushed? It is a bit rough, so I may go back and expand on it. But I felt that if Sloane was keeping everyone in the loop, he'd have planned to drop the hammer on Nechayav before she could do anything else stupid. This is also to explain why Nechayav never showed up after 2370, save as a simulation in 2371 when the Dominion captured the Defiant's crew. I hope you enjoyed.