Naruto: Infinity Divide
Little Lost Children
Blanket Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Trek
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This chapter marks a big departure from the norm. Enjoy!
Port = Left
Starboard = Right
[ ] Signifies a foreign language
…
Chapter 52
...
Last time:
The crew of the U.S.S. Darwin watched slack-jawed in silence as the U.S.S. Wolverine side-slipped around four massive particle beams that missed barely them. Then the fast cruiser dived like a bird of prey at the Cai Juggernaut and fired two fully overloaded photon torpedoes into the gargantuan ship's port upper particle beam cannon before shooting away at incredible speed in a rainbow-like flash. The Cai ship started to fire again only to have her port upper wing start crackling with jets of plasma energy coming out everywhere. The arcing energy started at the tip of the wing and quickly travelled down it towards the central hull. The feedback energy was too much for the massive vessel's structure to handle and the entire wing buckled causing it to explode with the brightness of a supernova…
…When the glare finally died down the remnants of the Cai starship's port side were floating about like a massive asteroid field of metal fragments. The starboard side was a pockmarked piece of wreckage that somehow seemed to have survived with minimal power.
Above the wreckage, the bridge crew of the Darwin saw the U.S.S Wolverine come out of warp and heard Naruto's voice transmit over subspace, "This is the U.S.S. Wolverine to Cai vessel; you are defeated. You are hereby ordered to stand down and surrender. There is no point in continuing this battle. We will assist any survivors."
A wheezing, gravelly voice replied, "The Cai can never surrender. It is against our code of honor… We knew this day would come… After twenty centuries the Cai have been eclipsed as the apex predators of the stars and for that we salute you Wolverine… Good hunting as you ride the wind…"
The massive vessel lit up like a jewel as its reactors imploded. Then it collapsed in upon itself in silence and vanished as if it had never been there…
The Cai were no more…
…
Stardate 2274.335, Arcanum System, NCC-1802 U.S.S. Darwin, Bridge
"What the hell just happened?!" screeched Lieutenant Thomas Abraham. "The U.S.S. Wolverine just vanished!"
"Pipe down Abraham!" commanded Commodore Terumi. She turned to her Chief Science Officer Jamie Beam and said, "What do we have Commander Beam? Was any of that caught on the special sensors?"
Jamie was looking into her sensor visor and said, "For a split second there were readings like a black hole there…then nothing. No debris, no explosions, no radiation; even the space dust is gone! There is literally nothing there to scan!"
'Oh gods, this is a disaster!' thought Mei with her head hung down. "Keep scanning Jamie; maybe we'll get lucky…"
…
Location Unknown
Naruto's eyes lethargically rolled open before slowly closing again. He felt cold and numb. There was a vague sensation of weightlessness, but he really didn't care. The blonde thought of his beautiful mates and how wonderful they felt in his arms before he drifted back into the dark embrace of sleep…
…
Two beings were observing Naruto as the blonde floated there. They were non corporeal life forms from a different continuum that really weren't well known or understood by humans. They called themselves 'Q'*①.
"Q?" asked a male voice.
A female voice replied, "Yes Q?"
The male paused and said, "You brought me here to see something interesting and all I see are dying primates and their ilk."
"You always miss the obvious Q." chuckled the female. 'He clearly doesn't get it.' She chortled some more and said, "That one there. He is the last of the living Otsutsuki. He could do great things."
"Great good things or great evil things?" asked the male Q.
She made a humming sound. "I suppose that is up to him. Good and evil depend on one's point of view after all."
"I wonder if he will survive this trial or sleep forever." pondered the male.
The female said with a smile in her voice, "His thoughts drift to those he loves. He cares more for their lives than his own. How romantic these lower life forms are. Almost poetic isn't it?"
The male said eagerly, "Let's give him a little push then!" The Otsutsuki emblem on the back of Naruto's hand began to glow fiercely before it faded again…
"Q; you idiot!" she hissed. "We came here to observe; not to interfere!"
The male Q quailed. "I just evolved him a tiny bit and summoned-"
"I know what you did Q…" she growled. Giving a long suffering sigh she said, "What's done is done. Let's observe from a distance. He'll be able to sense our presence now if we are close by…"
The two Q vanished…
…
Stardate Unknown, NX-1602 U.S.S. Wolverine, Bridge
Naruto suddenly awoke and felt freezing cold. He felt his breath condensing in the air in front of him but could see nothing but inky blackness around him. The gears inside the blonde's head started spinning and whirring at warp speed as he slowly looked about. There was no feeling of gravity or motion. The Vulcan hybrid felt totally alone in the darkness. Slowly looking up; Naruto saw the transparent aluminum dome that made up the roof of the U.S.S. Wolverine's bridge. The blonde saw stars everywhere but no signs of debris from the Cai ship. He let out a tiny sigh and thought, 'I'm still on the ship.'
The blonde thought to himself; 'That's right, the Cai ship imploded. Did the Wolverine get caught in the implosion? Was the ship damaged? Is my Samui safe? Is M'rella safe?' He reached out using his sensory abilities and quickly found he could sense the entire ship with ease. He quickly felt the reassuring presence of his mates and loved ones. 'Samui, M'rella, T'Lyra, Shizuka, Alison…They are all safe. Wait! T'Lyra, Shizuka and Alison?! What are they doing aboard the Wolverine?'
Naruto's eyes crackled with chakra, and he called out. "Computer; lights!" Red emergency lights flickered on, and the blonde hybrid saw his people all out cold floating or lying close to their assigned stations. Naruto maneuvered himself over to the science position where Maya Ayasugi and Shar were unconscious at their duty stations. Carefully moving his Andorian friend away from the console and slipping into the science station chair, Naruto activated the panel and found that all power was out but the ship's batteries were fully charged. He quickly activated emergency life support and was relieved to feel warm, fresh air circulating in. The artificial gravity was malfunctioning, but the other emergency systems were coming back online smoothly.
The half Vulcan looked and saw Samui asleep at the navigation station and made his way over to her. He felt how cold she was and gently kissed her lips. Samui's ice blue eyes fluttered open, and she smiled at her mate for a second before she asked, "N-naruto; what's going on? Why is it so bloody cold?"
He gave her a tiny smile and said, "I don't know what happened. We're on emergency life support with no gravity and nothing but battery power. Help me wake the others up. We've got to get this ship running again."
…
Engineering, Impulse Engine Room
Naruto's mate T'Lyra Tolaris awoke from an uncomfortable position on the floor of the impulse engine deck and wondered what had happened. 'I was on the Gettysburg's impulse deck performing routine maintenance checks with Brea for Chief Sassaav when I felt a crushing pressure upon me and blacked out. When I awoke, the emergency lighting is on and there is no gravity. It is also extremely cold which means I was rendered unconscious hours ago. What happened? Were the environmental controls damaged?' The Vulcan beauty sat up easily in the zero-G environment and looked around for her friend Brea Mathiun. She only saw strangers out cold and several of them weren't even wearing Starfleet Uniforms. T'Lyra whispered to herself, "Where is Brea…? Who are these people…?"
She looked about and thought, 'Even the impulse engines are cold…? They should be-' Focusing on her environment rather than the people; T'Lyra noticed several differences in the impulse engine room's layout. 'This ship is not the Gettysburg though it is clearly of Federation design…Just where am I…?'
That's when T'lyra's sharp Vulcan ears heard quiet clinking of someone hopping/climbing up a ladder to the impulse deck where she was currently. A male voice grumbled, "I can't believe I never noticed this ship had so many damn ladders before. Even in zero-g it took forever to get up here without a turbolift. Whoever is on the bridge brought the emergency lights online. I need to get the impulse engines reactivated. Then I can figure out how to restore communications to the bridge."
T'Lyra recognized the voice as Naruto's big Orion classmate Kloene. The green skinned man's head and shoulders came into view, and she asked, "Mister Kloene?"
"GAH!" screeched the Orion in a squeaky voice. His face was pale as a ghost. "Don't scare me like that!"
The young Vulcan woman had a flat look on her otherwise lovely face. She said in a stoic tone, "Your terrified overreaction is entirely unwarranted Mister Kloene."
Kloene face palmed and replied, "Petty Officer T'Lyra…you are the only person I've ever met that can sound so respectful and so demeaning at the same time."
T'Lyra stated, "It's a gift."
The big Orion sighed and gathered his thoughts. He said, "You shouldn't be on this ship. Tell me something only T'Lyra would know. I need to make sure you aren't an imposter."
She raised an eyebrow a said, "You are working on Auxiliary Warp Reactors to help my husband Naruto. It's classified information but you let it slip in front of me while playing Three-Dimensional Chess with him…Then Naruto put you in checkmate."
Kloene sweat dropped and said, "Ouch. What a painful memory. All doubts have been cleared from my mind that you are the real T'Lyra. How did you get aboard this ship? The U.S.S. Gettysburg was light years away from our location when everything went black."
"I have no explanation." said T'Lyra. "I felt a tremendous pressure and fell unconscious. Then I woke up here. I do not even know what ship this is. You are the first person I've seen that is awake aside from myself."
"So, everyone up here is out cold too eh?" asked the big Orion.
T'Lyra nodded. "It would appear so sir."
Kloene shrugged. "Well, welcome aboard the U.S.S. Wolverine, your husband's brainchild."
Her eyes widened. "This is Naruto's Fast Cruiser? I thought that it was still under construction."
"So did we." he replied. "There are a lot of mysteries about this ship. Regardless, here we are aboard with no power but batteries. Will you lend me a hand inputting the start-up sequence for the impulse engines?"
"Aye sir." answered T'Lyra in a pleased tone…
…
Bridge
"Everyone on the bridge is awake and ready for duty Naruto." reported Samui with a smile. "Thankfully no one was injured during the black out."
Naruto slid from underneath the communications console and replied, "Good. Now we need to get in touch with the rest of the ship." He turned to their beautiful Communications Officer and said, "M'rella, I'm going to have to bypass some things to get the communications panel some power. The backups aren't installed yet."
M'rella purred softly and said, "Hmmmm. You would have thought that this console would have had some priority."
Rafi chimed in, "The ship technically is still under construction M'rella."
"I know…" said the black furred Caitian. Her tail was twitching in frustration. "I just wish we had some power aside of batteries."
About that time the overhead lights came on the various bridge panels and stations started to come online. "Hallelujah! Ask and ye shall receive!" declared Rafi with a huge smile.
"Good job engineering!" said M'rella with delight.
Naruto closed the access panel to the communications station and said, "Excellent. Rafi, Samui, Shar. Check that your stations are online and try to find our location. M'rella; put me on the overhead."
…
Impulse Engine Room
"She lit up in an instant!" said Kloene triumphantly. "The impulse units are purring like kittens."
T'Lyra was a bit amused at Kloene's enthusiasm. She hid it well enough though. That's when they both heard the overhead com alert whistle.
"This is Captain Naruto M'Fau speaking. We currently have impulse power thanks to our Engineering Division. Well done. At this point I ask that those crew members that are conscious start checking on our crew members that are not. Our major goals at this point are to restore internal communications and assist our Medical Staff in any way we can. The safety of the crew is paramount. All decks capable of reporting in are to do so as per standard damage control procedures. That is all."
T'Lyra switched on the wall comm panel "Impulse Engine Room to Bridge. We have nineteen personnel unconscious here. We report no damage to the Impulse Deck. Everything was simply shut down…"
…
…And so, seventy-two hours of semi organized chaos began…
…
Stardate Unknown, NX-1602 U.S.S. Wolverine, Officer's Staff Room
…Seventy-two hours later…
A disheveled Chief Medical Officer Doctor Shelly Wilson was addressing the staff. She looked exhausted. "There are 429 crewmembers aboard this vessel and by some miracle everyone is alive and accounted for. There are 187 injured crewmembers that varied from broken bones to minor cuts and bruises, but nothing is life threatening. Now that the artificial gravity is functioning again things are running much smoother. As overworked as the Medical Staff is I believe that drafting more people with first aid training is necessary. There are simply too many injuries for my staff of 39 to handle Captain Naruto."
The blonde Captain silently slid a data tablet across the table and said, "There are 54 people with more than basic first aid training aboard that are both uninjured and can be spared from other duties. Use them wisely. They are all I can afford to give you at this time."
Shelly started scrutinizing the list and said, "We'll do our best."
Naruto nodded and said, "Our three guests from the U.S.S. Gettysburg are going to be integrated into our regular crew and will be in the following positions: Chief Petty Officer T'Lyra Tolaris will serve in Engineering in the same capacity she did on the U.S.S. Gettysburg. Doctor Alison Fairbanks will be taking over the position of Chief Science Officer to free up Shar for communications repairs. Shar; I need you there."
Shar nodded in agreement and said, "The external communications arrays need serious work. We're reduced to light signals."
Alison grinned. "Don't you worry; I've got a few tricks up my sleeve Naruto."
"I'm more concerned with you getting along with everyone Alison." replied the blonde hybrid. "With a quarter of the crew being civilian contractors anyway; I don't see why one can't serve as a staff officer. Just try to behave just this once…?"
The redhead frowned. "Alright; alright…I'll be good."
Naruto gave her a secret smile of appreciation and Doctor Fairbanks smiled back.
The half Vulcan turned to Lieutenant Edgar Shores and said, "Mister Shores; you have proven quite capable as our Chief of Security. I want you to remain in that position."
Shores nearly choked in shock. "I appreciate your praise Captain Naruto but what about Lieutenant Nadeshiko?"
"I have other duties for her." answered Naruto. The blonde turned to Freyja Christianson and said, "Lieutenant Commander Christianson; I need you to be my Chief Engineer and get our warp engines back online. Lieutenant Kloene himself said they were so unique and specialized that he requires your help. You know them better than anyone. I can't squander your skills on the bridge when you could be in engineering."
Freyja smiled and said, "Thank you sir. I'm much more comfortable in engineering anyway."
The young Captain hummed in the affirmative and pivoted to Shizuka. "Lieutenant Shizuka Nadeshiko; I need you on the bridge as my First Officer."
Shizuka was both surprised and pleased at her 'promotion.' She smiled and said, "Okay then…As First Officer I'd like to know if someone can tell me exactly where the hell we are?"
Ever the humorist; Rafi grinned and said, "Currently we are in the middle of nowhere; standing on the ship's nose as we drift along aimlessly like some kind of cosmic Flying Dutchman."
The Earth raised Vulcan woman growled and said, "This is serious Lieutenant Rafi!"
"We are approximately 14,250 parsecs due west of Earth First Officer Nadeshiko." said Samui in a dour tone. "Rafi and I calculated it yesterday by using stellar drift measurements manually since our main sensors are still down. Now you know exactly where we are."
Shizuka looked a little pale and the whole room was silent. "…So are we in Klingon Territory?" asked the new First Officer warily.
Rafi brought up a holographic map of the Milky Way Galaxy and pointed towards the southern territory of the United Federation of Planets. "We were here. Now we're way beyond Klingon territory." Tracing her finger west she went across the Klingon Empire, the Lyran Star Empire*② and the Hydran Kingdom*③ below it. Then she stopped just west of the Lyran Star Empire. "We woke up here in what is Lyran Survey Territory."
Samui added, "On the positive side it's unlikely we'll run into anybody out here. Intelligence reports show there are no major powers known to the Lyrans this far out."
"How long will it take us to get home?" asked Doctor Wilson in a worried tone.
"Seven months at minimum." answered Rafi. "That is assuming we don't run into any problems with other empires."
M'rella added quietly, "Once our subspace radio equipment is repaired; it will take about five weeks for our message to reach Federation Territory."
Naruto saw several questioning looks and said, "We will get home. That much, I promise you. The first steps are to get the crew and the U.S.S. Wolverine back at full operating capacity."
"Does anyone know exactly how we got here?" asked First Officer Nadeshiko.
The blonde Captain motioned towards Alison. "I believe that question would be best directed at Doctor Fairbanks."
The redhead perked up and said, "I have a working theory about the ship but T'Lyra, Shizuka and myself I can't account for at this point."
Shelly Wilson asked; "What do you have about the Wolverine Doctor Fairbanks?"
Allison said, "I theorize the U.S.S. Wolverine was displaced through space-time. When the Cai ship self-destructed, the implosion caused each piece of debris to be destroyed and made it impossible to reconstruct or recover any Cai technology. Meanwhile, the Wolverine was displaced though space and time which makes it impossible to track."
"Is that even possible?" asked Shizuka in disbelief.
"Sure, it is." answered the redhead brightly. "Just keep a microscopic quantum singularity locked in a stasis box and turn the stasis field off when you want to self-destruct. Whoosh! Everything is nearby obliterated. It would be difficult and prohibitively expensive but certainly not impossible…The reason The Wolverine was displaced through space and time instead of destroyed is it had an active and very powerful warp field protecting the ship. When the event horizon of the singularity and the warp field interacted, the Wolverine was sent careening out here."
Naruto nodded in understanding and most of the others stared slack jawed with swirls in their eyes. "An intriguing theory Doctor Fairbanks." complimented Naruto.
"Why thank you Captain M'Fau." replied Alison sounding pleased with herself.
Shar caught the gist of the theory and stated, "So a super gravity field and a warp field reacted to each other, and we ended up here." Hearing Alison hum in agreement he asked, "What about the time factor?"
Rafi spoke up this time. "Our manual calculations show we are within 100 years of when we started; give or take. Once we intercept a Stardate from somebody (presumably the Lyrans) we will be able to pinpoint an exact date."
"Do you have any theories about yourself, Shizuka and T'Lyra Doctor Fairbanks?" asked Samui.
Alison reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of antique ivory dice. She rolled them on the table and said, "Snake eyes! Looks like divine intervention to me."
Everyone else face faulted…
…After Alison collected her dice; Naruto said authoritatively, "We have 429 people on this ship. Our Staff Officers are young and inexperienced by Starfleet standards and approximately one quarter of our crew are civilian contractors which have no military discipline at all. It is going to be very difficult to turn this group around from a disorganized mob into an efficient crew unit. I must ask all of you as well as myself to act with patience, responsibility and above all else maturity. We don't have anyone out here to fall back on and every decision counts. We are alone. That being said, I believe we are also capable of being the best. Please reflect upon this as you carry out your duties."
Then he asked; "…Are there any further questions or topics that need to be discussed?" Seeing the room was quiet; the blonde Shinobi said, "Dismissed. We all have duties to attend to…"
…
POSTSCRIPT:
*①: Q: These are not the same Q seen in Star Trek: TNG or Voyager. They are simply other members of the Q continuum.
*②: Lyran Star Empire: The Lyrans are a sentient, bipedal felinoid species much like the Kzintis and Caitians. They are a spacefaring race whose territories are collectively known as the Lyran Star Empire. They are about the size of an average human and possess a great deal of physical strength. Their natural aggressiveness (even towards each other) and feudal government system have prevented them from expanding further than they already have. They are erstwhile allies of the Klingon Empire.
The Lyrans are known to be bitter enemies of the Kzintis and contact between the two races almost always breaks out into violence. They have a great racial hatred of the Hydrans as well.
*③: Hydran Kingdom: The Hydrans are a race of sentient tripedal beings that inhabit worlds with methane atmospheres such as gas giants. As the race evolved to breathe in such an environment, they require environmental suits to interact directly with oxygen breathing species. They were once conquered by the Klingons and Lyrans and as such are bitter enemies of both of those races. As the Kzintis are also enemies of the Lyrans and Klingons; the Hydrans and Kzinti's share a co-belligerent status. The Hydran government is a monarchy which is headed by the Hydran Royal Family. The day-to-day affairs of the Hydran Kingdom are run by the Merchant Guilds however.
As a point of interest, the Hydrans are known to have a vast pantheon of gods and the 'power' of these deities varies depending on which political party is dominant in Hydran society at the time. Each household, starship, squadron and fleet possess their own god or gods.
Okay; the U.S.S. Wolverine is quite literally Lost in Space. They have a rough idea of where but not precisely when they are. Even worse; a couple of nosy Q are poking around the area. How are they going to get out of this one? This chapter was a bit short (intentionally) because I have several directions to go from this point. This is not a copy of Star Trek: Voyager, however. Travelling back to the Federation isn't impossible and they are in (somewhat) known/mapped space. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of adventures to be had though. See you next time. Blue out. 10/3/23