NX-01 Enterprise
Orion Prime orbit
Feb 18, 2155
Archer swept onto the bridge, with his team hot on his heels, taking to their workstations without a word spoken.
"Hoshi," Archer said. "You still have that list of quinary star systems handy?"
"I don't have it pulled up at the moment," Hoshi said. "Just give me a second."
"Look for a Panqual system."
"One moment…got it. It's definitely on the list. A system out near the edges of Orion space. Home to a monastery of something called the Church of the First Mother, according to this."
"I think we just found our Purifier." Archer said. "Copy to the helm. Mayweather, get us there, warp five."
Mayweather laid in a course and had the Enterprise prepared to go to warp in mere moments, sensing the captain's urgency.
Before he could, the Enterprise shook violently, and alarms sounded from the security station.
"That Vulcan ship just fired on us." Malcolm reported.
Trip chimed in. "We have a minor hull breach on C deck. Whatever they hit us with hit us hard."
"Malcolm, what are we up against?" Archer asked.
"Looks like a private Du'kal cruiser. Nothing we can't handle. Their armaments are definitely military grade, however. They'll put up a fight."
The security station chirped.
"Incoming ordnance." Malcolm reported. "Brace for impact."
The Enterprise shook again.
"No hull breach or critical systems hit." Trip said.
"Let's be diplomatic about this. Hoshi, contact the Orions. Ask if they're willing to aid us in removing the threat. Stress that they fired first, without provocation. Malcolm, don't wait for the Orions. Take them out."
A squeal of return fire sounded from the security station almost immediately. Malcolm had been prepared for the order.
"Hull breaches on their primary and secondary decks." Malcolm reported. "I think I can target their bridge or their propulsion, at your order."
"Target their bridge. I want them removed as a threat."
The security station squealed again, torpedo fire this time.
"Direct hit on their bridge." Malcolm announced. "They're dead in the water."
"Let the Orions deal with them. Travis, get us out of here."
The engines hummed as the Enterprise went to warp inside the Orion system. Like Malcolm, Mayweather had been ready for the order.
"Hoshi, call a meeting of all senior staff in conference room A." The captain ordered. "I want to be as prepared as possible for whatever is waiting for us in that system. Trip, casualty report."
"No reported casualties, but a portion of deck C will be cordoned off for the foreseeable future."
"I want repairs to take top priority with the engineering staff. I expect we'll need to be in fighting trim when we arrive at Panqual. We already know the Church of the First Mother is hostile. They may well have ships of their own within that system."
"I've already dispatched repair crews." Trip responded. "Shouldn't take more than a couple of days to fully patch the hull."
"Travis," Archer asked, "How long until we arrive in-system?"
"Six days at warp five." Travis said. "Plenty of time for repair teams to finish their work."
"Good. Hoshi, call up Gamma shift for bridge duty. I want all of us in conference room A in fifteen minutes."
Orion Citadel-ship Oshur
Panqual system
Feb 19, 2155
Orada entered the bridge where she had been summoned, finding the crew already busy at their stations.
"Report." She said.
The comm officer spoke up.
"Our sisters at the Grand Mountains monastery describe being overcome by the Humans who visited there. They're aware that the Purifier is hidden in the system somewhere and are on their way here."
"And the Vulcans?"
"Our contacts report that the earth vessel destroyed the Vulcan bridge, disabling their ship. Orion security forces have taken the surviving Vulcans into custody following an unprovoked attack on the Enterprise."
"Then we have only the humans to deal with." Orada said, "Nothing we can't handle. They're no match for our citadel-ship."
"We can be assured that they'll report what they know to Starfleet Command. The Enterprise won't be all we'll have to face. We can't stand against a fleet of human vessels."
Orada was silent for a long moment.
"It seems our hand has been forced." She said, at last. "Contact the monastery and have them open the rift. We'll transfer the Purifier to the Oshur once the rift is open and the device can be retrieved, assuming the device is of a manageable size and shape."
"What then? Spend our days outrunning warp five ships?"
"We will destroy the Enterprise when they arrive, then make our way to the human home world. We'll use the Purifier to eliminate the threat at its source."
The bridge went quiet.
In time, the comm officer spoke.
"You can't be serious. Using the Purifier goes against everything we stand for!"
"Our duty is to protect the device and keep it out of alien hands. Too many people on earth know about it already. As you say, we'll eventually face a fleet of human vessels. It's time to use the Purifier to establish Orion dominance in known space."
"I won't let you do it. Sergeant at arms, take the First Mother into custody. I'm assuming command of the ship."
The sergeant at arms looked uncomfortable but didn't move.
"You have your orders!" The comm officer exclaimed.
Still, the sergeant at arms didn't move.
"It seems you've reached beyond your grasp." Orada said. "Sergeant at arms, take the comm officer into custody. Remove her from the bridge. Laywoman Oleo, summon the secondary comm officer."
Now the sergeant at arms moved, brandishing her weapon and gesturing harshly for the comm officer to abandon her station.
"God will not forgive you for this." She said, as she submitted herself to custody.
"That is between God and myself." Orada replied.
On the surface of Panqual one, the laywomen received their orders and removed themselves to the ancient rift control station beneath the monastery. The chamber was older than the monastery by the order of a thousand years and there were no guarantees it still functioned. The head priestess approached the station and began the series of command prompts that had been drilled into her head for decades, in preparation for this very event.
The station sprang to life immediately, with prompts in an ancient language the head priestess had long committed to memory. In moments the station readout reported all systems functional. With a further input of commands, the high priestess had the rift open prompt flashing across the screen.
With a deft flourish the head priestess ordered the spatial rift nestled in the midst of the system's five stars to open.
After giving a harrowing moment of squealing protest, the screen finally indicated that the rift was opening, and the Purifier would soon be at hand.
A booming voice echoed from behind the priestess.
"Interlopers! Why have you opened the rift?!"
The high priestess turned with a gasp, finding a glowing humanoid form occupying the center of the chamber.
She was speechless. The glowing figure was not.
"You have sealed your fate! None may access the Purifier!"
The glowing figure flashed brightly for a brief moment.
The assorted priestesses and laywoman in the chamber suddenly collapsed, rendered lifeless by the awful power of the glowing form.
The entity surveyed the carnage for a moment, before moving out from the chamber to find and destroy everyone else in the monastery who had dared their fate.
Safehouse One
55 Dupont Circle
Long Island, New York
Paxton was finishing up his read of Plato's Republic when a knock sounded at his door. He put the book aside for a moment.
"Come." He said.
Johansen poked his head in through the door.
"We just received word. The Enterprise is headed for Panqual, a quinary star system."
"And our own ships?"
"We have six along the Orion trade route near Panqual. We can get there a full day before the Enterprise does."
"Give the order. Seize the Panqual system and prepare for the Enterprise's arrival."
"Already done. With any luck we'll be able to secure the Purifier and vacate the system with it before the Enterprise even arrives."
"Outstanding work, Johansen. Make sure that…"
An alarm suddenly sounded, ringing outrageously over the sounds of distant explosions.
"We've been breached!" Johansen cried.
"Quickly!" Paxton exclaimed. "Dump the data in the main computer and get to your evacuation station!"
Johansen disappeared, leaving Paxton to secure a phase pistol from his desk and vacate the room, heading for his own escape route.
Paxton passed several Terra Prime agents, running hither and yon in mad reaction to the breach. Interpol had arrived and explosions occurring much closer now belied the idea that Terra Prime agents might have managed to stem the tide. Interpol was closing in on him. Screams and phaser fire echoed throughout the complex.
Interpol was taking no prisoners it seemed.
Paxton could tell he wouldn't be able to escape the compound before Interpol agents caught up with him. In desperation, he hid in a storage closet, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be discovered.
Paxton had panicked.
Screams and bevies of phaser fire sounded through the complex, moving ever closer. In due time Paxton heard something move in the room beyond the storage closet.
"I know you're in there." A voice rang out. "Come out with your hands up."
Paxton's luck had run out and he knew it. There was nothing for it but to comply and be taken into custody, facing international tribunals and a reinstatement of his life sentence. He opened the door a crack and tossed the phase pistol out before showing himself, his hands up high as ordered.
He found himself facing a single Interpol agent with a phase rifle aimed at his chest.
Paxton turned his hands aside. "I surrender. Take me into custody."
The Interpol agent said nothing, merely aiming his rifle center mass at Paxton's chest.
"Did you hear what I said? Take me into custody."
The Interpol agent didn't waver.
"You'll make a better martyr than you were a leader." The agent said.
"What?" Paxton asked, mystified.
"Terra Prime forever." The agent said and pulled the trigger.
His aim was true, and the phased energy beam lanced out to strike Paxton in the chest, exploding his heart.
Paxton crumbled lifeless to the floor, just as another Interpol agent moved into the room.
Seeing Paxton dead on the floor, the second agent asked in shock, "What the hell happened? We were supposed to take him alive!"
"He had a phase pistol." The first agent replied, coolly. "I had to defend myself."
"Well damn. I suppose that saves the agency a lengthy show-trial. Let's continue forward and drive who's left out the southern exit. Let the main task force make their arrests."
The two agents left Paxton's lifeless body where it lay, driving the remaining Terra Prime agents out the back into the waiting arms of New York's finest and the Terra Prime task force.