April 27th, 2367/Stardate 44318.6 - Federation/Cardassian Border


Captain's Log, USS Ra Cailum, Stardate 44318.6: Remind me to shoot Admiral Brand for forcing 8000 cadets on me. Most of whom, in the future, are my direct superiors. We're on our way to Sector 27808, which was originally in Cardassian space in our timeline, but they've pulled out due to the Bajoran Offensive to tighten their defenses. And we're picking up a distress call of some kind.

Probably something the Cardassians took care of without telling us.


"Why." asked Cadet Takeshi Yamato as he looked at the creature. "Is he cute?"

The land shark eyesmiled. And proceeded to give the customary CHOMP!

Takeshi couldn't help but reach up to pet the little guy. He wasn't expecting this when he and his girlfriend Christina Park were assigned to the Ra Cailum for an early graduation cruise.

Hell, he hadn't been expecting an early graduation in the first place - he was still just a first-year cadet! But, the need for officers and the arrival of the future fleet had resulted in an accelerated training regimen. Incredibly accelerated.

On the plus side, it had brought him closer to Chris. They might have broken up eventually, if on amicable terms, on a more standard schedule. But now, they were firmly cemented as a couple after several joint training exercises. And set to graduate together once they finished the cruise.

On the Ra Cailum, no less. Four months ago, this ship's predecessor was regarded as something of an embarrassment, whose AI was a danger to anyone who came on board.

Now?

She was the next Enterprise. A ship of advancement, of strength, of a resurgence in strength of the Federation Starfleet. The ship that made Wolf 359 into something of a joke.

"A million new things and that land shark is the first to raise morale." Chris said as Gible latched onto her head.

The MACOs found him a long time ago, then the shark rescued the captain, making first contact with his homeworld.

Of course, the classes on the Ra Cailum were eleven levels of hell. They really put in the 'accelerated training' aspect, and really strove to break your limits. He could tell it had worked, but… more than one time he felt sore all over, and that included an information-overload-induced headache.

Starfleet Academy and the MACOs had drill sergeants. Their job was to break you down and build you up better.

Apparently, Captain Pinkerton was are of the opinion that if you can be broken down in the first place, you were not worthy of wearing the uniform and the best thing for the service was to break you as soon as possible and dump your mentally and physically broken ass back home.

The worst part? He used to be an Academy instructor. Most of his crew used to be his students. And they spoke of him fondly while in the hand-to-hand lessons while he broke bones and shattered spines, meaning he had not changed AT ALL.

So far, Takeshi and Chris had survived. Barely. But they had survived. This was very good indeed.

Hundreds had been washed out and sent back to the Academy as broken, hollow men and women.

And it was only going to get worse, as the reward for excelling (by the captain's nigh-impossible standards) was being granted immediate command of a ship from the Mothball Fleet.

There were over fourty THOUSAND ships in the Mothball Fleet, from old Burke-Class frigates, redesignated as heavy cutters, to the mighty Missouri-Class battleship and the most sought-after ship, the godlike Yamato 1-class superbattleship, essentially a smaller version of the Ra Cailum.

That said, Chris was not command material. At least not ship command material. Which was fine, as after their training so far had brought them closer together than ever, they did not want separate assignments. They wanted to serve on the same ship.

They wanted one of the best.

"So…what's the captain planning on now?" Takeshi asked one of the ensigns near their table. "I mean…he's basically the President's go-to problem solver, right?"

The attractive blonde snorted. "Boss keeps that to himself and doesn't tell us until we need to know. And he keeps us in the loop so we're ready." said the woman, Sakura, he thought her name was.

"Makes sense," Chris replied. "Come on, Takeshi, we have bridge shift in 15 minutes."

Takeshi nodded. "Gotcha," he said, as the pair stood up to head to the bridge.

The Ra Cailum was a massive ship. The only thing that came close was a Galaxy and this thing was bigger, meaner and deadlier in every way.

"All hands, yellow alert. Stand to emergency relief stations." came the voice of the ship's XO, Commander Wilhelmia Buck, who apparently was… unlucky. "Repeat, all hands-GAH!"

"People need help, crew! Let's get helping!" said their shipgirl, the infamous Jade, whose lewd antics made it so Starfleet Command never gave her a crew until the big ship arrived.

"GET OFF ME!" said the XO.

"I suppose we should see what's going on," Chris said, as the pair continued along the path to the Bridge.

"Hopefully it's something simple, even in a relief situation," Takeshi replied. "I'd like something simple for a change."


The working environment on the bridge was as expected on a Starfleet ship, even with their shipgirl being… well, JADE.

Takeshi would credit that to the man in the center chair, radiating menace and promising death just SITTING there: Captain Ronald Pinkerton, son of Damascus CO Veronica Pinkerton, an ex-Borg drone who had a personal body count in the hundreds of thousands.

As in he killed them himself. WITH A SWORD.

"Can you play the distress call again?" he asked.

Murasaki put it over the speakers, a distorted warble with noises that couldn't be made out. "I can't make any sense of it." she said.

"Neither can I." said the shipgirl before looking at the captain. "What's that big brain of yours say?"

"White noise and chaos." Ron answered. "Bring us into range."

As Takeshi and Chris took their stations, Riza brought them closer to the source of the signal… a ship unlike any they'd seen before.

Massive stanchions shot out of the long hull, holding up a massive chunk of rock over a planet, with a massive engineering section.

It was even bigger than the Ra Cailum.

"What the hell?" asked Murasaki. "There's a name on the side… in English."

"That's impossible. We have records of every ship ever built by Earth." Ron refuted. "On screen."

In bright white letters, barely illuminated, was a name.

'USG Ishimura'.

"…Isn't there a USS Ishimura in the fleet?" Takeshi asked Chris quietly.

"There is," Chris replied. "This isn't that."

The Ishimura was a Constellation-Class medium cruiser, essentially turned into a repair ship like most of her sisters, which was doubled down on after the Ra Cailum arrived and their refits…well, it was basically like Clarketech.

"Can we get a transporter lock on anything in there?" the captain asked.

"No sir. Too much gravitational distortions from those arms." Murasaki reported. "And with the massive gravitational bullshit going on in there, I can't even pick up any lifesigns."

The captain nodded grimly. "Fine. Prep the Ra-Horakhty for launch." he ordered. "I'll take an away team over there."

"Um, Captain," one of the other cadets on the bridge began, "Starfleet Protocol clearly dictates-"

"Protocol changed in 2385. Captain's prerogative." Ron cut off. "Yamato, Park, arms locker. Arm yourselves and get your asses to Shuttlebay Two."

"Yes, sir!" they both stated, before heading off to get armed.

Chris then looked at Takeshi. "There's a second shuttlebay?" she asked.


It turned out there WAS. It was small, but housed in it was a bunch of work bees and an ANCIENT Type-2 shuttlecraft, with the big blocky '01' telling them this was the Ra Cailum's shuttlecraft one, the Ra-Horakhty.

They knew better than to assume this ancient craft was outdated: EVERYTHING here was enhanced with Borg technology. This was arguably the most advanced shuttle in the galaxy.

The captain marched up, sword on his hip with two holstered phasers, one a type-2 that looked marginally more advanced than the newest models and an old assault phaser from the 2280s and packing a massive phaser rifle on in one hand while another, the compact one the MACOs adored, was slung over his back.

Takeshi had his own sword on his hip, along with a phaser rifle on his back. He would never be dedicated marksman material, but he was decent at midrange, especially with the rifle in full-auto bolt mode.

"Not exactly standard issue." Chris said to the captain.

"Ever fight a Klingon while he's drunk?" the captain retorted bluntly. "All but impossible to stun. Only solution's to kill him. Also, the Borg don't bother with adapting to bladed weapons."

"See, the captain's got a point." Takeshi said smugly.

"I'm a former elite tactical Borg drone with destroyer-grade personal shields and four times the strength of even the most physically peak Klingon or Vulcan." Ron said dryly. "You're not even close to peak physical condition and neither of you picked up a PSG."

The two flushed a bit in embarrassment. "We're still getting used to the idea of having personal shields," Chris replied. "We thought those were non-workable until you brought them from the future."

Two belt buckle-sized devices were tossed into their faces, the captain marching to the pilot's seat and starting the shuttle's engines.

"Ra Cailum STC, this is Ra-Horakhty, requesting permission to depart Shuttlebay 2." he said, activating physical toggle switches as the two put their PSGs on and the hatch shut behind them.

"Ra-Horakhty, this is STC, clear to depart, vector 210 mark 000." came the voice of the captain's sister, who also ran Space Traffic Control.

Takeshi and Chris took seats as the shuttle lifted off the deck, and then left the shuttlebay.

And got another look at the large ship sitting there. "That thing is enormous… I wonder what it's used for," Chris mused.

"It's a mining ship," said the captain. "Large transfer docks for asteroidal material and I can see a fragment near what looks to be a processing unit. Also, the fact it's holding up a rock the size of a small moon is a big hint."

Chris cringed.

"Hangar bay on the dorsal side." Takeshi pointed out. "Doors are open."

"I'll set us down. Something really fucked this boat." said the captain, Chris spotting something moving on the outside of the ship, but didn's say anything as the shuttle passed through a gravitic forcefield designed to keep the air in.

"What the hell happened here?" she then asked, seeing blood EVERYWHERE near a wrecked shuttle that, burned all to hell, read 'USG Kellion'.

"Boarding action gone wrong?" Takeshi asked the captain, who shook his head.

"No, that shuttle wouldn't've gotten on board if it were that." Ron said. "That ship blew up from the inside."

"Which makes me wonder just what the hell happened," Takeshi replied. "This ship looks battered to hell. Inside and out. What, did the whole crew go crazy or something?"

"We're about to find out. Setting us down." Ron informed as the shuttle landed with a thud, the rear hatch opening and allowing them to depart. "Stick close to me at all times. Try not to get yourselves killed."


Ron the True Fan: Behold… COUNT GIBULA!

Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, we're doing Trek/Dead Space. With Ship and Soul. Ron wanted to do something for Halloween.

Ron the True Fan: I'm getting into the spirit of these things. SOT isn't going to get one because… I think that's an all-year-long Halloween event.

(Gibles all Gib, which is translated into a chant of 'HALLOWEEN!')

Takeshi Yamato: Fair enough. But yeah, Trek-verse Takeshi Yamato only joined the Academy in the 2366-2367 year. He graduates in 2371 normally. His girlfriend Christina Park is one year his senior, though joined the Academy one year younger, essentially, so they're still the same age. Which is currently 19. In 'normal' timelines, they date for a time, part amicably, but still care for each other. Then, in late 2371, Chris sends Takeshi a message asking for his help. He answers the call, they deal with a 'Starfleet Bioweapon Project' (Actually a little something called Project Einherjar, which I won't say more about now), and resume their romance. By the end of the Dominion War, they're married and Takeshi's a captain. By 2401, Takeshi's an Admiral, and both survive Frontier Day. Their daughter Tatsuki then proceeds to take the role of the 2409 Starfleet Protagonist/Delta Recruit in Star Trek Online. Obviously, Ship and Soul's timeline screwed things up a bit.

Ron the True Fan: Wolf 359 turned into a joke, the Bajoran Occupation ended two years early and the Federation's at war with the Talarians and Cardassians. 'Screwed up' is an understatement. Now Takeshi's going to be learning the hard way the universe HATES you.

Ja Ne!