Past and Future, Present

Posted on Mon Mar 22nd, 2021 @ 12:22am by Administrator LordeEmp

Mission: Heroes of the Hov'hurgh
Location: Eta Eridani Sector Near the Donatu System
Timeline: Stardate 901432.2

Hairlike microfilaments drew cleanly from the brain and into the rootlike couch below, knitting flesh and bone in their wake, pumping endorphins to ease the shock of separation as the pilot roused to consciousness. A single finger twitched, then two, drawing strings of mucus-like stickiness. Eyes rolled behind lids, finally peering out through through irises like polished crystal. A tongue licked dry lips and the mouth parted, taking the first breath in weeks.

Nfrel, but he needed to brush his teeth. The pilot lay on the couch, willing his heart to beat faster, warming his body. The cabin assumed a comfortable temperature and humidity level. Bright light matching the rays of the twin suns of Rigel IV shone down on bare skin, feeding hungry cells radiation that killed normal humans. What Pili called “Terminal Sunburn.”

Pili.

~I love you, Imzadi,~ the pilot sent feelings of love and longing out into the void.

Thoughts ordered slowly as muscles stretched. Some Fleeter physicians might have voiced alarm at the speed from which Tenas Tecorin roused from a comatose state. For him it felt no more unusual than a good night’s sleep. Memories of the past month settled in his mind, reminding Tenas of leaves touching water. Each ripple of information interacted with others until his full memory of recent events fell into decipherable whole. He remembered the voice of the Unity as clearly as when they contacted him over a month ago.

~Go to this place and wait,~ Countless billions of thoughts whispered as with one voice.

They offered nothing more than a set of coordinates inside what used to be the Klingon/Federation neutral zone, specifically to the location of a small, abandoned space station that held a lot of painful memories for Tenas.

TengchaH Yay or “Victory Station” once served as a remote top-secret base of a bold, ambitious partnership between the Klingon Empire, the United Federation of Planets, and the Romulan Star Empire, called the Khitomer Alliance. A rapacious race of alien predators called the Anazi swept into the Alpha Quadrant without warning and, alongside a conglomerate of ex-patriot black operations agents and terrorist cells calling themselves the Syndicate conquered two thirds of Federation and Romulan space in less than two years. The Alliance mounted a hopeless defense against overwhelming odds in order to buy time for their greatest minds to develop a defense against the Anazi and their temporal technology.

Innovations from Victory Station turned the tide of the war and in the years since the Alliance declared the station a historical site and museum. The station now served as a stronghold of hope once more and as before that hope seemed fleeting. A desperate voice crackled fitfully past a whine of static on the com system.

“This is Victory Station to any ship within range. We are…attack. Repeat, we are under…require assistance...This is a hospital...no defenses...require assistance…”

~The distress call is jammed at the source,~ a new voice whispered softly in Tenas’ mind. ~I detect three cloaked Klingon vessels on an attack vector; a Negh’var battlecruiser and two B’rel birds of prey.~

Tenas sat up in his seat, suddenly alert. He took in readings from the sensory brains while the tactical brain plotted the attacker’s most likely course of action. The nacreous canopy ahead rippled in a manner similar to the touch of a single fingertip in still water and a view from deep space appeared.

Victory Station loomed near. A relatively small and unassuming station with a command module mounted atop a central axis with an oversized power core at the base. The next larger module served as living quarters for base personnel, perhaps a thousand specialists and support crew. Inside that the commons provided a little comfort with a promenade and shops, a few holosuites, and a bar to relieve some of the tedium of serving so far from home.

The next larger module once held an enormous collection of labs, workshops, and industrial replicators necessary to fabricate new weapons, ships, and technology. Below that the attached shipyard and dock clearly dominated as the most expansive feature of the base.

At the moment however the station served as home only to museum props and a makeshift hospital. The station mounted minimal defenses in its heyday, depending on secrecy, prodigious defensive shields, and its location deep inside Alliance territory to protect it from enemy attack. Museum rules stripped the station of all but minimal defensive shields and all weapons. A lone ship, a relic from the Federation’s glory days of galactic exploration, a vessel calling to memory the infamous U.S.S. Reliant of the Genesis Incident, flew boldly between the station and any-would be attackers. A brave gesture but a futile one against ships of the day.

Telemetry on the station and all vessels present streamed into Tenas’ mind from the sensor brains. The tactical brain then stimulated the optic nerves, transmitting caloric data that Tenas processed into a visual image before his eyes. A map of local space appeared, showing the station in the center. The ship, Miranda class “U.S.S. Helen Keller” assumed a defensive orbit along the equatorial plane of the station. Radiant energy pulses between the two revealed that the Keller desperately worked to evacuate the station before the Klingons arrived.

~How long before the Keller has evacuated all personnel,~ Tenas sent his thoughts out to the organic vessel surrounding him.

~Ten minutes, mark.~ The ship, Tr’yu responded.

~ETA on the Klingons?~

~One minute, 90 seconds...mark.~

“Nfrel,” Tenas cursed aloud. At a thought the crew manifest of the Keller streamed into his mind and Tenas opened a channel. He cleared his throat, forcing vocal chords to work once more.

“Keller, we’re responding to your distress call. We show a Negh’var and two B’rel on an attack vector. Angle your shields and weapons to heading 121 mark 22. Focus on evacuating the station, we’ll draw their fire.”

“Thanks for the help, Tray-you,” Lieutenant Commander Cecil R. Harrington responded with a twangy drawl reminiscent of Earth’s Old South.

~Get a fix on that signal,~ Harrington’s thoughts rang loud and clear in Tenas’ mind.

~It’s coming from the station,~ Keller’s Operations Chief Nemh twitched her antennae irritably.

~Should we trust them?~ First Officer Nomri furrowed his bushy white eyebrows.

~I sense…a presence…~ The Vulcan Helm Chief, Storn sent thought tendrils out into the darkness.

“Forty-five seconds, Keller!” Tenas snapped impatiently across the channel.

~Helm, keep our starboard flank to the station. Nemh, step up the evacuation, beam escape pods to cargo bays if you have to! Tactical, power to weapons on the heading sent by Tray-you.~

~Captain, what if it’s a trick?~ Nomri visualized an ambush from the opposite heading.

~We’ll deal with it,~ Harrington’s mind already postulated a number of counterattacks and defensive maneuvers.

Tenas turned his concentration from Keller over to a sliver or partition of his conscious mind and focused his full attention to the invisible vessels that swooped on Keller. Little did they know how Tr’yu and Tenas saw through their cloaking devices.

~We are scout class, 24 meters in length. A B’rel class escort is just over four times our size at 109 meters. The Negh’var battle cruiser is over 28 times our size at 682 meters.~ Tr’yu assessed. ~We can fire while cloaked and we are far more maneuverable. Nonetheless they severely outgun us and our weapons are all but useless against their shields.~

Tenas visualized a course and Tr’yu accelerated silently. ~We have only one advantage and we have to make it count.~

~Understood, drawing us into phase with the Negh’var.~

The tiny bioship climbed through layers of subspace, slicing carefully into normal space as not to set off alarms on the gargantuan Negh’var. They drew unseen into the vessel’s wake, trailing as Tenas’ pupils dilated to target the sublight engines of the armored behemoth. Power hummed ominously inside Tr’yu’s shell and a split-second later a spear of brilliant light stabbed forth. An engine port large enough for Tr’yu to fly through exploded spectacularly. The Negh’var lurched hard to port and tumbled out from its cloak of invisibility, careening wildly out of control and bleeding plasma like a wounded shark. A fast-moving ripple in space, the only trace of Tr’yu’s passage stabbed at the now shielded battleship with needles of coherent energy.

Tenas whooped triumphantly as they passed. “Don’t like it when you’re on the receiving end of the ambush, do ya, nfrellan?”

Meanwhile, the birds of prey decloaked and strafed a primed and prepared opponent. The Keller let fly with a salvo of photon torpedoes and phasers, pounding the energy shields of enemy ships as they passed. The ambushers veered off expecting the Negh’var to follow up with a blistering barrage of torpedoes and cannons.

Instead their sensors registered a teetering hulk struggling to right itself. The birds wheeled about and prepared another strafing run against the Keller, committed to the battle and determined to recover from an unexpected blow. Tenas moved to intercept but Tr’yu drew Tenas’ attention to a bulge forming in the fabric of space and time directly in their path. Invisible to the naked eye it struck Tenas’ senses as like the blackness of space formed a growing and unsightly blister.

Tr’yu banked hard, not waiting for Tenas to react. The little bioship glanced the outer edge of the phenomenon and poured on speed to escape. The birds of prey however proved slower and less maneuverable. One veered away sharply but the other ruptured the blister, vanishing in a blinding flash. Meanwhile, Tenas screamed as the rupture seared his mind. White hot claws of agony tore into him mercilessly and then, blackness.

Moments or perhaps eons later a hand gripped the rest next to the pilot’s couch. Tenas climbed back from where he fell with a pained groan of effort. Though his mind felt peeled and raw, he forced a tendril of telepathy to his companion.

~Tr’yu, you alive?~

~Unfortunately.~

~Status?~

~Ow.~

Tenas poked the sensory organs awake with a thought and felt as his point of view shifted to that of Tr’yu. It seemed as if Tenas drifted aimlessly in space. Stellar wind drifted through his hair and the light of distant stars tingled across his skin. He tested his limbs and slowly Tr’yu’s impellers and subspace organs responded. He opened his eyes and gasped, as above him, blocking the light of the nearest star loomed a great ship.

Tenas beheld the central hull, long boom, and command module of a Klingon ship. It sat silently in space overhead and he took time to study it in detail.

Though obviously Klingon, the design seemed sleeker, faster, and more dangerous than what Klingons produced. A thin, crescent shaped primary hull rested horizontally with horns forward while a thick boom jutted from the center to form a third horn. A sleek command module rested at the end of the boom directing vast firepower front and center per Klingon martial philosophy. Interestingly, the primary hull curved down slightly, forming wings that provided cover for twin armored nacelles. A mission module sat on the back and dominating the design, a pair of enormous cannons worked into the wing tips. It was easily twice the size of the Negh’var, a truly awesome and ominous sight.

~Reinforcements,~ Tenas sighed with resignation.

~I don’t think so,~ Tr’yu adjusted sensory organs and Tenas watched as the great ship shimmered subtly. It vibrated to his senses like a bell resting from a hammer strike and it shone with radiation unseen to the eye but that Tenas identified through his connection with Tr’yu.

~Chroniton and tachyon particles; a temporal distortion?~ Tenas asked.

~That would be my guess but we have no time to look into it. Our bumpy-headed ambushers have a one track mind. The Negh’var is recalibrating shields after the tachyon bombardment.~

Sensor organs whipped about to the station where the remaining B’rel hammered the Keller hard with torpedoes. In the meantime the cruiser recovered and closed at full power. The Keller held on stubbornly, bleeding plasma from a number of hull breaches. Tenas drew back to his body so that Tr’yu might maneuver independently. The little bioship picked up speed and homed in on the big cruiser.

~Let’s hit it while shields are down!~