"Ship Personification's Log, Stardate 43205.6: Orelious IX is our destination, a distant planet now not much more than a collection of asteroid fields. It's all that's left of a cataclysmic battle that took place here more than a thousand years ago."
Dorothy watched as Wesley and Data played chess in Ten Forward. The kanmusu was off duty like them and enjoying a fresh drink. She leaned back as Wesley took one of Data's pawns only for Data to take his rook instead. Instead of being frustrated, the acting ensign looked out the window.
"This was the final battle, wasn't it?" He asked.
"Mmm, neither side expected Orelious IX to be the decisive conflict." Data replied.
"There's not much left, is there?" Wesley asked, looking out at the battlefield that contained the remanents of the Menthar and Promelian civilizations.
"Considering both sides warred themselves into extinction, that isn't surprising." Dorothy chimed in, taking a sip off her drink. She set it down when La Forge entered and went straight to the bar. "Uh oh." She muttered.
"Geordi had that big date with Christi tonight." Wesley said. "Looks like it ended early."
"Uh oh." Data agreed and Dorothy stifled her laugh by polishing off her drink. Just in time too for Picard called them both to the bridge.
"It would seem to be interplanetary code." The captain was saying as they entered.
Dorothy took up a position next to him. The Enterprise moved in closer to the source of the distress signal and what they saw was nothing short of astonishing.
"A Promellian battle cruiser." Dorothy breathed.
"With its Lang cycle fusion engines still intact?" Picard added, equally stunned.
Dorothy shared a knowing look with Riker. Sometimes, her captain was an even bigger nerd than she was! With curiosity peaked, inevitably an away mission was formed and that let to the equally inevitable arguing as Picard insisted on leading it.
"No, captain's prerogative this one's mine!" Picard growled.
"Besides Will, I'll be going with him!" Dorothy put in, equally cheerful.
"Both of you are simply impossible." Riker growled. "The risks on a ship this old and fragile are inconceivable."
"Ghosts perhaps?" Picard asked, sharing a wry smirk with Dorothy. "Number one, have you ever dreamed of climbing inside the bottle."
"Sir?" Riker questioned.
"The ship in the bottle." Picard explained while Dorothy put a hand over her mouth although the slight quivering of her shoulder's gave her away. "Model airships?" Picard continued. "I used to build them when I was a kid. My god, I bet I even had a Promelian battlecruiser too!"
Dorothy was still chuckling as she followed behind him and they entered the transporter room. O'Brian was on duty as they stepped onto the pad.
"You're certain of the atmospheric conditions, Data?" Riker asked as he stood next to O'Brian. Both him and Lieutenant Worf would be joining this away mission.
"There is adequate oxygen for life support, sir." Data replied.
"It's exactly as they left it number one, in the bottle!" Picard said and was met with silence. "The ship in the bott- Good lord, didn't anyone build ships in bottles when they were boys?"
"I did not play with toys." Worf said with his typical Klingon dignity.
"Liar." Dorothy whispered, ignoring his growl.
"I was never a boy." Data added.
"I did, sir!" O'Brian cut in and once again Dorothy had to laugh.
"Thank you Mr. O'Brian." Picard said which only made her laugh harder. She was still laughing as they beamed off.
The ship was simply extraordinary, to quote her captain. While Picard and the others examined the bridge, Dorothy's senses led her in another direction. In some sort of control room was a single lifeform, lying on her side. She knew it had to be the spirit of the ship. Given that it was still intact, it was likely she was still alive. The Federation kanmusu felt for a pulse, getting a hard grasp on her arm for her efforts.
The Promelian's eyes were wide and frightened. "Easy, easy there!" Dorothy was quick to soothe her. "My name is Dorothy, what's yours?"
"C-Cleponji." The other rasped out, her breaths ragged. "You must leave! You must leave and kill me on your way out."
"Steady now." Dorothy helped her sit up. "Can you tell me what happened here?"
"We were lured here by a fake signal. The Mentharins- they created a trap." Cleponji gasped, back arching in pain.
"I can get you back to my ship. We can help you." Dorothy said.
"No. No one can help me. Kill me please. Kill me now, before it's too late!" She gasped.
Dorothy tapped her commbadge. "Lieutenant Brahms to Enterprise, two to beam directly to sickbay!"
There was little Dr. Crusher could do for Cleponji's pain unless they somehow were able to tow her ship to a starbase. A prospect that was looking far less likely now that the trap had revealed itself. In hindsight, Dorothy cursed herself. The Promellian had tried to warn them, tried to warn her.
"I wish anyone who finds this record to know that my crew has behaved most courageously. I want it recorded for all time that I alone am responsible for the fate that befell us. I have failed as a captain and as the man responsible for the souls aboard my ship."
When Dorothy played the Promellian captain's last message to Cleponji, the other ship nearly lost. Her grief was obvious. "The asteroids were too perfectly shaped to be anything other than an emitter." She said. "I could have warned him, instead I let my own drive for glory get them all killed."
"Whether you could have or not matters little now." Dorothy said, sitting next to her. "What you can do is help these lives, my crew. Prevent them from suffering the same fate."
"How do you know I hold all the answers, Enterprise?" Cleponji asked. It was Promellian custom to address a ship by her name, rather than her selected alias, as a sign of respect. Dorothy easily accepted the adjustment.
"I do not." Dorothy admitted. "But you must have some idea?"
"The trap is simple, Enterprise. The more power that's put into the surrounding area, the more the emitters absorb it and give it back as radiation. You are fortunate to possess shields of this scale. The amount of radiation currently being emitted is three times that of what killed my crew." Cleponji sighed.
"Lieutenant Brahms, report to engineering!" La Forge ordered.
Dorothy sighed, rising to her feet. "I have to go." She said.
"Enterprise," Cleponji called her back. "Remember, throwing more power at the problem will only make it worse not better."
Dorothy arrived in engineering to find La Forge deeply focused on his screen. "Dorothy take a look at these." He called her over. "Do any of these look familiar to you?"
Dorothy leaned over his shoulder to look. She chuckled. "Ah, now you see where I got my last name from." She said.
"Leah Brahms was certainly a genius." La Forge agreed. "But genius isn't enough to get us out of this." He stood up, walking towards the warp core. "What I need to do is get inside that thing." He paused, considering. Then turned to Dorothy. "Fancy a trip to the holodeck?" He asked.
"As long as you don't use that ridiculous violin program." She grinned.
"It was a cello I'll have you know." La Forge replied, patting her on the back as they both headed that direction.
Even Dorothy was surprised at the level of recreation on the holodeck. "My goodness, I haven't seen this in nearly four years." She said.
"This is incredible!" La Forge exclaimed as he examined the schematics. "Leah, I want to find a way to supplement the energy supply to the ship and to the engines. Could we alter the matter/antimatter paths?"
"Theoretically yes."
Asking to be shown which paths produced a surprise for them both in the form of a near perfect maximally to Leah. Dorothy had to resist the urge to reach out and hug the woman who was essentially her mother. Leah's cold, analytical responses to La Forge's questions certainly helped the kanmusu maintain her distance. But when La Forge asked for a more realistic representation, all bets were off.
"Geordi its me, Leah. Don't start calling me Doctor Brahms or I'll have to call you Commander La Forge." She said. Then she turned to Dorothy. "And you Dorothy, are you just going to stand there or give me a hug?"
"Mom." Dorothy rushed over and the two women embraced.
Once they separated, Leah got right to work. "Now, we've managed to maintain energy but we can't leave it in this realignment forever without burning out components so we need to move quickly. Are you with me?" She asked a stunned La Forge who was staring at her with his mouth open. Dorothy snickered as she took up her position at one of the stations.
She kept her head down even as La Forge lost his temper at Leah's suggestion. "No, no, no!" He growled.
"Will you listen to me?!" Leah snapped.
"You can't boost the warp power that way!"
"If you can just increase the speed of the parallel subspace field processor to gain a quicker response time..."
"I want to give us enough power to strengthen the shields and barrel out of here, not blow us up!" La Forge yelled.
Dorothy could stand it no longer. She stepped in. "Commander, Doctor. Throwing more power at the problem isn't going to get us out of this." She said.
"What do you mean, Dorothy?" La Forge asked. Leah too turned to look at her.
"Cleponji told me something about assimilators that take the energy we put out and convert it into radiation. A primitive but effective booby trap." She said.
"So we find a way to be quicker than them." La Forge said.
"We can't, that's the trap! More power, more energy. No, we need to go about this a different way." Dorothy began to pace, a move matched by Leah and La Forge began to see why his ship had chosen to adapt the doctor's last name as her own.
As quick as La Forge and Leah were at working, they weren't quick enough. The energy drain, amplified by Picard's decision to fire on the assimilators, had an instantaneous effect on Dorothy. "Ah, Geordi!" She called as she staggered.
La Forge was at her side instantly, the holodeck program going dark a second later. Dorothy strained to look up at him. "I'm sorry, I couldn't hold it back any longer." She rasped.
"No one has ever asked you to do that." He replied, helping her get an arm over his shoulders. "Now we need to get you to sickbay."
Cleponji was still there when La Forge dropped her off. Dorothy, too weak to stand on her own, was grateful for the biobed. The Promellian looked over at her, then at the chief engineer. "Help her." She said. "No more should have to die with me."
"I'll do my best." La Forge promised and left.
The two kanmusu were left in total darkness for nearly two hours. That was a lot of time to communicate and commiserate their similar situations. Dorothy for her part was curious about Promellian culture and Cleponji shared what she could remember of happier times. Although as a warship, much of what she recalled occurred during the last conflict.
"I still find it hard to believe my entire race is gone. But given the ferocity of the war, I suppose it was inevitable." She sighed.
"Hey, Promellians aren't extinct yet." Dorothy nodded to her.
"No but they will be. Whether now or in another thousand years, some other ship will come along and destroy those assimilators and me along with it." Cleponji heaved a breath. "Which is as it should be." She looked at Dorothy. "No ship should have to outlive their crew." She whispered, a great pain in her eyes.
With great effort, Dorothy reached out with her right arm, fingertips shaking as Cleponji met her halfway and grasped her hand, taking her weight for her. "If this is to be their end, your presence is most welcome." She rasped.
What remained of the power in sickbay was shutdown. Dorothy sensed life support was still functional as were two thrusters. "Looks like Geordi figured it out." She said.
"Now I only pray he did so in time. For your sake." Cleponji said.
La Forge did indeed find a way out of the booby trap and Dorothy instantly felt the return of her strength, all but leaping out of the biobed. Her hand still grasped Cleponji's however and she leaned over the other kanmusu. Cleponji smiled. "Just one last thing for you to do." She said.
Dorothy shook her head. "I am not in the business of committing genocide." She said.
"A fact that makes you better than my kind ever was." Cleponji said. "We were so sure we were right. So convinced of our superiority over our foe that we engaged in a prolonged war that only killed us both."
"Cleponji-" Dorothy tried one last time. The Enterprise had cleared the asteroid field and turned around, ready to bring weapons to bear on the assimilators.
"It's alright." Cleponji whispered. "My crew are waiting for me. I will be with them. But yours still need you, here and now." With some effort, the Promellian yanked the fleet sigil off the collar of her uniform and handed it to her.
"Cleponji, I can't take this!" Dorothy gasped.
"Yes you can. Because you are worthy. At least, through you, some of my heritage will live on." Cleponji rasped.
Dorothy nodded and accepted the sigil while her other hand maintained its grip. "Farewell, Enterprise..."
Cleponji never felt a thing as the torpedoes impacted her hull. The battlecruiser's shattered remains impacted several asteroids, taking them with her.