Temporal Ambassador: Part 6
In a dark and metallic hallway, Thomas and M’ress slowly walk with their rifles ready. “Lieutenant, I want you to be on your guard, and remember NOT to fire until I say so. Borg won’t attack until they consider you a threat.” The tension of the unexpected fill them with a heightened senses and a tendency to jump at every noise.”Sir, what am I up against?” “A cybernetic and biological beings, that conquires worlds and seize technologies to advance their hive mind. They can and will assimilate you through a retractable syringe on their wrist. They you will slowly become one of the hive through a nano-cellular reconstruction process at the cellular level.” M’ress turns white and stops, no longer hearing her footsteps, Thomas turns. “Lieutenant, are you alright?” “No sir, I think….I mean I think I would rather not…” Thomas walks over to her, turning once more to look behind him again for a second, then looks into her eyes, she looks down unable to face him, her fear of the situation adds shame to her stretched emotions. “Lieutenant, look at me..” Reluctantly she makes eye contact with him once again, with a tear in her eye. “Trust me, I will let no harm come to you…but I need you to have my back for this!” “I…i’m sorry sir, I just don’t…” He places a hand on her shoulder, “there is no need for apologies, we have been through a lot, but stay with me and focus on the task at hand. We will succeed, but we still have a long way to go yet.” M’ress takes a deep breath and hesitantly continues right behind Thomas. As they get within 10 meter to the doors, lights activate and a holographic sign lights up reading “Rebecca’s Latinum Luxury’s” They both look at each other in disbelief, then lower their weapons. “That was…unexpected to say the least.” Thomas says. He slightly opens one of the doors and peers in, a small gingle plays. He see’s a man dressed in finery’s behind a table, the clerks face lights up as he welcomes them, “come in come in, do not tary at the door, all of our wonders still await you inside!” Thomas looks at M’ress unsure of what to say. She lets out a small laugh, as if he where joking with her and shoves him a bit, as she slings her rifle around and walks in the other door to greet the clerk. Thomas does the same, but looks all around the room in amazement. The room was fully decorated with jewels, decor and rare luxurious items from around the quadrant, even some items he has never seen before. Thomas walks up to the counter and the clerk begins to subdue them with a sales pitch on several of their more pricier items, Thomas smiles and holds up his hand, “please, we only came for information of an item.” The man looks at them suspiciously and remarks, “is there a problem, we guarantee all of our products to be top of the line…” “well, we didn’t actually purchase this from your company, but we where told you would know about it.” Thomas tells him. The man gives Thomas a cold stare, “look we can’t guarantee items not sold from Rebecca’s! But let me have a look.” Thomas shows him the device he had picked up before, that brought him to this dimension. “Hmm, yes, it does look like something we would have sold…” The man takes out some sort of device and scans the object, “it does have signature traces of our processing, but we never discuss our clients or their purchases. I’m sorry I’m afraid I can’t help you!” “Perhaps I can talk to Rebecca herself?” Thomas asks. The man becomes a bit nervous, and gives a smirk, adding, “she’s not currently here.” “I’m sure someone in charge is, I would like speak to management!” Thomas says, raising an eyebrow to the man as if to call his out. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that, and if you have no further business with us, i’m going to have to ask you to leave!” Thomas crosses his arms and continues his interrogation, “How do the Tholians feel about your business here, surely they wouldn’t allow for such technologies and relics to be owned by commoners?” “Are you threatening us with blackmail? Because I won’t tolerate…” Thomas then interrupts, “Not at all, if you have a console available, you might want to check your long ranged sensors!” The clerk gives him a strange stare, a sudden concern comes to his face as Cats confident expression makes him believe its not a deception. As he scans long ranged sensors, he turns pale and looks back up at Thomas in horror. “That’s right, I would take this opportunity to run!” Thomas says. The man yells and runs to the back room, the exhaust of some sort of craft releasing sounds, with a quick decompression echo in the distance. M’ress glances over the items tempted to take something, but looks back at Thomas. “What is the plan sir?” “We find who is behind this operation, and see if we can find who owned this device and how to find them.” Thomas unslings his rifle, and goes through the back doors. M’ress does the same and follows right behind him. as they travel down a long corridor, the festive glow of the shop fades away and the rusted hulk of the station fill their view again. They reach a lift and take it down to the lower level. Before them they see what resembles a cavern of Borg technological wonder. The sound of clanks and machining parts moving gives an eerie atmosphere to the dimly lighted structure. Suddenly the sound of an activated Borg drone, flashes right next to them, Thomas quickly holds out his arm pushing M’ress away from its path. She yelps at the sight of it, “you weren’t kidding about those things where you?” She asks in a yelp. “Afraid not madam.” As they make their way further down to the cavern they notice a large amount of activity, more Borg. Thomas notices that they are coming from the center of the cavern, a large rocky surface with what looks like dilithium being mined by them. “this station was built over a Dilithium rich asteroid, to hide it from the Tholians! When they find this place, its going to get hostile in here, we should hurry!” Thomas says, then jumps down to a lower level and looks around, M’ress lands next to him. He see’s another opening, “come quickly!” He adds, waving her forward. They run for the entrance to the open corridor and see movement at the end of it. As they get closer, they see 6 Borg lined up as if waiting on them. A disembodied Borg voice speaks, “Thomas….male…species Caitian…unknown female…species Caitian…state your purpose!” “You know my name?” Thomas asks in disbelief. The voice continues, “Thomas…unassimilated drone…Herald of Matrix…” “Herald?” Cat asks. “Thomas…carrier of nano-spores…” The Borg voice explains. “What does he mean Admiral?” M’ress asks. “I think they can still detect the extracted nano-probes from when I was injected during a siege we once did aboard a Borg cube, they where neutralized before they could turn me into a Borg, but they still remain in me.” M’ress backs away a bit, “you can turn into one of those things?” “Not at all Thomas assures her, I…” The Borg interrupts him, “Thomas…Herald of Matrix…state your business!” Thomas turns his attention back to the Borg, pausing M’ress to hold on, “I have sought you out for some answers, I have a device I need information on.” He explains. “Protocol breech…Thomas…herald of…” Thomas quickly interrupts back with a demand, “Look, I have a device that came from your shop, who did it come from and where are they?” Thomas shows them the device, there is a long pause. “Thomas…Herald of Matrix…possession of forbidden device…surrender designation 098990-2345-11…object will be reprocessed.” ” That isn’t going to happen! Will you comply with my request, or will I have to activate it?” There is a pause, “Where is Rebecca?” Cat asks. “Can I speak to her?” A moment passes, “Thomas…Herald of Matrix…request approved.” Suddenly the Borg technologies light up, outlining what appeared to be a mini Borg transwarp gate within the room, it activates and through it fly’s into the room, the Borg queen. M’ress draws her weapon to fire, but Thomas quickly stops her, “NO, stay that weapon!!” The queen smiles at the sight of him, her cold lifeless stare piercing the soul. “You have returned, my herald. What have you brought me?” the creature asks him. “What do you mean my Herald? and why this odd display?” Thomas asks. “She floats over to Thomas, my chosen Herald, I sent you to retrieve Gorn subjects for me, why have you returned to the collective without them?” She asks, placing an embrace to his helmet, with her hands. “Unhand me madam! I have never been a herald, I have sought you out for information.” The queen added herself to her robotic body and turns to face them once more. “You came to me ten years ago, and have used your skills to gain a foothold into this quadrant. But now I can sense a temporal energy about you, you are not from this timeline, this makes sense as to why you are unfamiliar to me.” “Please explain.” Thomas asks. “My Herald possessed tracking and exploration abilities to himself, that made him more valuable unassimilated.” Thomas crosses his arms and gives a smirk adding, “That does not sound like the Borg Queen I am familiar with!” “Our collective has been altered to adapt to the…changing.” She says with some discomfort. “What changing?” Thomas asks with some suspicion. “We where intercepted by a technologically advanced being named Trelane, who changed some of our programming aspects, this interfered with our natural order and caused a number of malfunctioning drones. We have been forced to conceal our locations in order to rebuild our population.” “What about the shop?” M’ress asks. “Its designed to distribute already acquired technologies to others around the quadrant in order to keep record of them and their activities.” Thomas looks at his device then back at the queen and says, “These items are tracked through the residual energies, you have placed nano-spores in them then?” The queen smiles, saying, “That is correct, I can sense you have the Master Key Thomas.” “That’s right, what can you tell me about it?” He asks, “It is another device created by Trelane, but he designed it to not be able to function for Borg, or we would have already used it to find and assimilate him.” “So you sold it?” Cat asks her. “No, it was to be delivered to our herald to use, by the early form of what you know as the Elichani, so that he may infiltrate Trelanes citadel for us.” “You mean those creatures that initially abducted us?” Cat asks in disgust. “That is correct.” She answers. M’ress cringes and steps a bit closer to Thomas, from the mention of those creatures of whom she was captive of for years. The lab sends a chilling reminder to her soul. Cat pondered for as second and looks at the device. “This will take me to Trelane?” He asks. “Possible, its a time key that allows for travel through the Aegier nebula. To a desired location. If you know how to use it!” She answers. The cold smile of the Borg queen intensifies as she gazes into Thomas’s eyes, then with a sharp command she says, “You have stalled long enough, place the device on the floor and offer yourself to us. You will make a fine drone.” Like a flash of lightning, Thomas unsheathes his sword and slashes through the limbs of the Borg queens body, she crumbles to the floor. In anger she yells for her drones to attack. M’ress quickly draws her rifle and opens fire at one, its circuits sizzle and pop destroying it. She fires again but they have already adapted. She backs away, and Thomas leaps up in to the air and pounces down on top of one, shoving his sword into its chest and with a quick dance he spins to the next cutting it down, and then a 3rd. One grabs M’ress from behind in a choke and ready’s for another drone to assimilate her, but she kicks him away and uses leverage to flip her captive over her shoulder. it quickly grabs her leg and goes to inject her with its syringe. Thomas dives twords her and hacks its hand off just as she screamed from being caught. Thomas tries to jump back up to his feet but his leg gives out in a cramp, “Lieutenant!” He cry’s, as he tosses her the sword, and in a powerful swing hacks into the drone, finishing it off. She turns to face Thomas, “Thomas, are you alright?!” “I’m, ok madam, i’m just getting a bit too old for this.” He answers in pain. The queen releases herself from the destroyed body, and floats up into the air, saying in almost a snarl, “This does complicate things, giving that device to my herald would have be preferable, but as you have ruined my operation here, I will leave it and you to your demise!” The Borg Queen boasts, as she activates her transwarp gate and escapes back through it. They suddenly realize alarms where going off, “quickly Madam! bring up that console!” M’ress helps Thomas to his feet and runs to the Borg pillar, activating a monitor. They see Tholians ships had arrived, and they had already begun boarding the station. Their shuttle being tractor beamed into one of their ships. A look of peril comes to M’ress’s face, “Sir!?…” she cry’s out in terror!
To be continued….
Temporal Ambassador: Part 7
Temporal Ambassador: Part 7
Alarms activated, the station turned and rumbled. We could hear a fire fight and the shreaks of Tholian invaders, as they stormed the mining station. Still injured from overdoing myself in our last fight against the Borg. I hobbled over to the console and searched for a quick way to make a side to side transport to the Tholians ship. Then after a quick scan of both the Tholian Recluse and the station I beamed the Tholian Invaders into space and waited for their own ship to begin beaming them back to their own ship. Then I quickly began to beam the Borg drones onto their bridge. “The fighting has stopped Admiral, have those Borg won?” M’ress asks. Cat raises an eye brow, “Well my dear, lets find out!” “What?” M’ress asks with a stunned expression. Thomas activates the transporter once more beaming both himself and M’ress over to the Tholians ship. The coordinates he set up where for the least populated area he could find. As they materialised, a young Tholian Ensign screams in both terror and rage at the sight of these alien invaders to his ship. M’ress raises up her hand to strike the creature down, but Cat quickly stops her. “Stand fast Lieutenant!” “Relax young one, i’m here to help.” ” The creature screeches and roars backing away from Thomas, ” I know, but I am here to help you, the Borg are a common enemy and are planning an invasion force through a hidden warp gate hidden inside the station. If you have your Commander investigate, you will also find a Dilithium rich asteroid from which this station was built upon.” M’ress’s chin drops in disbelief and The creatures screams lessen in intensity, then Thomas continues, “we would like to assist your people in overcoming this invasion, and will cooperate with your superiors to stop this invasion into your space.” M’ress elbows Thomas, “are you crazy?!” She intensly whispers, even showing her teeth. The young Tholian waves them to follow him to processing, Cat takes his sword back from M’ress and sheaths it. Then unslings his rifle and fires a powerful stun blast at the creature, it topples forward a bit then runs into the wall of the corridor, Cat fires again and it falls to the floor unconscious. Thomas looks back at M’ress, so sorry that I have not the time to explain, but we need to find a Tholian scanning device, I have a hunch it may be what we need to learning how to activate this device.” “You…you, had this planned all along?” She asks. “that is correct, and the fact that the Borg has a transwarp gate at that location has also bought us more time, this Tholian now has information to help keep the Borg queen at bay for a while, so she can’t receive help from my Mirror self.” “Sir, I don’t understand..” Thomas grabs her hand and pulls her behind him, his stride in pain and he limps across the ship looking for a science officer. “I will explain a bit later, lets find a Thollian tricorder, we are on borrowed time here!” As they turn the corner, two large Tholian officers are firing at the Borg, they are backing away as their weapons no longer have an effect. Thomas looks around for a moment, trying to find a way to use this situation. Suddenly he notices a panel on the wall, and takes a tool from his rifle and uses it to hack into the console and raise a force field. Blocking the Thoians in, as they back into the energized field they both scream, and turn to see they are trapped in there with the advancing Borg. Their wails are terrible, rage and fear grip them, the thought of a possible assimilated Tholian would have fascinated some scientific minds, but being once assimilated himself Thomas had no stomach for witnessing it happen to any species. They come upon a small station, where a few Tholians are working on modifying their weapons, “greetings.” Thomas says, he then looks at M’ress and nods, then they both open fire taking them down. “Search them quickly!” “What are we looking for?” She asks. ” A Tholian tricorder, It will be encased in a crystalline cover with a scrolling , plasma enhanced output meter.” M’ress looks up at him, as he where speaking another language. “Darn, nothing!” Thomas says as he gets to his feet. “Sir, is this it?” M’ress produces a tricorder from underneath the creature. Thomas smiles and takes the device, “brilliant Lieutenant, you do have a knack for finding useful items!” Thomas seals the door, and begins to scan the Master key device. “It has a data core, and a regenerative power source, the computer core within it, has a sophisticated network and seems to be using the Borg Nanites to adapt to my scans, almost an artificial Intelligence..” Thomas explains as he investigates the device. “Are you saying its intelligent?” ” It could possibly have been made for a more formal interface, I had not activated it before initially, it transported us on its own.” M’ress touches the device, “so we need to find a way to communicate with it?” “Precisely…though I must admit, under our current situation, we are limited in time.” “What would you suggest sir?” She asks. As if talking to someone in the room other then to M’ress, Thomas begins to play out a drama…”if the Tholians seize us, they will most definitely take this device and dissect it and try to make more, it would be a shame to allow such a fine bit of technology fall into..” Suddenly a field surrounds them of purple and gold haze, the transition lasts for a moment, then the view of the Thoian ship turns into the interior of another strange vessel, the decor of their surroundings appear to be that of federation, but of an unfamiliar time period or design to both of them, Thomas quickly scans the ship, adding in “fascinating!”. They slide once more through time and space and their environment is aboard a Klingon vessel, a ranking officer turns from feasting, surprised to see them, “You!” He shouts. “B’vat!” Thomas shouts back, unslinging his rifle. But they slide through time space once more and find themselves aboard an early Federation ship. “Where have you taken us friend?” Thomas asks, but the device powers down as if slipping off to sleep. “Sir, that was really strange! What just happened to us?” M’ress asks, over whelmed by so many explainable events. “I think it was time hopping, I would guess to save itself and us apparently.” “So this device is intelligent?” She asks. Thomas smiles as if holding the holy grail itself. “Very much so, Lieutenant. I think we have something that would be an engineers wonder, like I’ve never seen before!” “If its intelligent, why does it not communicate with us?” ” It has, and until now we have not tried to communicate with it. But having an advanced inner computer core and positronic matrix like it does, leaves it open to possibilities for growth, much like the works of Dr. Nunien Soong.” “What??…Who??” M’ress asks completely lost. ” We will save this bit of history for another time, right now we need to find where we are and take it from there.” “Wait sir!” “What is it Lieutenant?” “I have been dragged across time and space, fighting aliens I’ve never heard of, captive to sick and sinister beings, nearly turned into a robotic monster, chased by Tholians, almost blown up a few times and I don’t know if I will ever see my friends and family again…” Thomas begins to laugh, “Yes, I know, I have been with you every step of the way. Every adventure has its risk, every choice has its own consequence, but its how we play the game that decides the outcome, this stage is set and our time to make a difference is upon us. What ever has happened, it is up to us to fix it and make things right!” M’ress leans into him resting her head on his shoulder softly asking, “Why us?” “Because no one else can do it…no one else is here..” Thomas hugs her for support, helping her to gather herself once more. He browses his location, the monitors are several years old, the smell of old fires still line the corridors but the place was dusty and poorly lit as if its been uninhabited for a long time. The discolorations on the floor suggest heavy foot prints, that of armored Tholian suits. M’ress looks up at him, “i’m, ok sir.” She says and salutes him, “ready for orders.” Thomas points towards the lower passage, ” ok, here’s the plan, we need to find what deck we are on and then find a way to engineering. Power and life support are obviously working so we can remove our helmets.” There is a hiss as they break their suit pressure containment. The air is stale and cold, dry and very uncomfortable. But their suits will only keep them for so long, conserving them may prove valuable as they don’t know whats ahead of them. Thomas walks up to a wall console and uses it find where they are at, “deck 10 on deflector control.” We need to go down 2 levels, the nearest turbo lift is down this hall and to the left.” They quickly make their way there and step in, “where are the activation handles?” M’ress asks. “Those are no longer used any longer, its all automated. deck twelve Engineering.” The lift hums and stutters a bit then the doors open. M’ress steps off and looks around. Thomas nurses his leg a bit more then steps off the lift, ” does that strain still bother you?” Thomas nods, ” its unusually getting worse, even a simple strain heals itself after a time.” M’ress helps him out of the suit and they inspect his leg, there is a small bulge coming from the side of his leg, moving strangely. “What is that sir?” “I’m not sure lieutenant, but I did first feel this pain while on board the Borg station, Miss Simmons seems to have done something to me.” “We should get you to sickbay!” “I will be fine for the time being, we need to access the ships computer and find out where we are.” Thomas accesses the computer systems, ” this is the Enterprise, NCC-1701-C” “C?” M’ress asks surprised. “yes, there have been several ships that carried that name, the one you served aboard has been decommissioned many years before my time. I myself even commanded the Enterprise E before its decommission and my promotion to admiral.” She smiles and looks at him in admiration. Thomas reactivates all its systems and powers up the warp core, getting it stabilized. “Are we going to fly this ship home?” She asks. Thomas turns to a wall console and scans thier current location, “oh dear!” “What is it Admiral?” “It appears we are back in the Dilithium mine once more, but docked behind a Tholian force field, plus the docking clamps are holding it place…and there are tractor beams also holding it!” “M’ress countenance falls, ” so we are stuck here?” “It looks like we will have to find another way, those scans I took of that strange Federation vessel when we where sliding, I wonder if I could use the reading i took to try and find them, this is a long shot but here it goes…” “Sir? What are you doing?” Thomas removes the tools from his rifle stock and begins to work on merging the Tholian tricorder, and the Master Key device. ” I’m hoping the port on the side of this device will allow for me to improve the interactivity of myself and the Master key.” Thomas then inserts his badge onto the tricorders relay port, and fuses it, for an audio input/output feed. Then lays the device on the table, “Can you hear me? Hello?” Thomas asks the device. M’ress leans in fancinated in anticipation of it speaking back. Nothing happens, Thomas activates the tricorder and trys to use it to send a signal, but the device shuts itself off. Suddenly a yellow light flashes back on the wall console, Thomas activates the controls and finds the docking clamps have been disengaged, the tractor beams where removed and the Thollian force field was down. ” it looks like someone was ready to launch.” M’ress says with a smile. “Thomas looks at the device, surely not?” He thinks to himself, wondering if the master key was responsible. He then directs M’ress to further assist him in preparing the ship for launch, turning once more to the console to scan for who or what ever would be coming aboard to fly this ship. He finds a hand full of assorted beings making their way to the bridge, the Tholian alarms sound. “They must be escaping prisoners from the mine, the Tholians will board the ship and take them down if we don’t do something!” “I’m on it sir!” M’ress says and quickly brings up a dampening field while Thomas brings shields back online. They are suddenly met by a surprised prisoner, to see two Caitians in engineering. Thomas pinches him in the collar unconscious. ” The less you know the better.” He adds then continues to bring up the ships systems. Within minutes, they are under attack by Tholian vessels. The hull rocks as each attack hits, Thomas confidently directs M’ress and they help to hold things together during the battle, both acting instinctively as they both have so many times before while while in combat, until the last enemy disappears off their radar. Suddenly they are both transported aboard a federation star Ship. The one from before, met by armed guards in strange armor with federation markings on them. “Hello Admiral, we got your signal. But you have a lot of explaining to do!” Thomas looks around, “what year is this?” They pause and look at one another for a moment then back at their guests, ” I think the Captain would be better suited to answer your questions! But leave your weapons here.” “Are we prisoners?” Thomas asks. “That is to be determined, follow me but hand over your weapons first!” Thomas hands him his rifle and unbelts his sword, handing them to the officer. M’ress looks over at Thomas, and he assures her its ok. They are led into a conference room. “Have a seat and the Captain will be in shortly, feel free to use the replicators if you are hungry.” The officer tells them, then leaves revealing nothing more. Thomas sits back in a chair exhaling, and he gathers himself once more. M’ress sits right next to him. Wanting to ask or say something, but no words come to her. She takes his hand and he grips it, M’ress smiles and leans back exhaling too, finally feeling safe and relaxed for the first time since this whole thing started. In what seemed to be 20 minutes time, the door slides open and the Captain walked in, placing their weapons on the table. “Admiral Thomas, your a dead man as is your friend here!” M’ress grips his hand tighter. “Would you care to clarify that statement Captain?” Thomas asks. The ships Captain holds up a data PaDD and lays it on the table, you where MIA during your time period, considered killed due to a systems failure aboard your shuttle. Admiral Alanna T’Par lead an investigation for up to 3 years prior to it, hoping to still find you ok. Star Fleet even named their next explorer class star ship after you.” Thomas looks out the window to the stars, whispering to himself, “Alanna…” and a tear comes to his eye. “The Captain then continues, “M’ress you where reported to be KIA when a transporter accident happened during your last mission aboard the Enterprise.” “well, I am obviously here and alive!” “yes…and that’s where we have a problem, neither of you exists in your own times any longer, your history’s record your deaths and the timelines can’t be allowed to be interrupted!” Thomas stands up, favoring his leg still, “what are you getting at captain?” Thomas demands.
To be continued….
Temporal Ambassador Part 8
I guess you could say, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Here they sat, Thomas and his subordinate, finding out they where both killed in accidents, as recorded in their own timelines history. Before them stood a Captain aboard some sort of time ship they where unfamiliar with, he would decide their fates. As Thomas stood after listening to him, the pain in his leg still bothered him. “what are you getting at Captain?” Thomas demanded. I’m afraid I will have to take you both into protective custody, to protect the timeline until our director can determine what to do with you.” The Captain explains. “Who are you, and where are we?” M’ress asks. “I can’t disclose…” Thomas then interrupts,” what could it hurt, are we going anywhere?” The Captain pauses weighing his suggestion, then answers, “I am Captain Walker, the ship you are aboard is a Wells class Temporal Class ship called the U.S.S. Pastak. My mission is to monitor and prevent disruptions to the normal timeline.” “And we are both anomalies that you have to correct?” “That is correct Admiral.” The Captain reply’s. “I will arrange for quarters for the both of you while your situation is reviewed, in the mean time, you both look a bit roughed up, our sickbay is at your disposal I suggest you take some time to recover.” Thomas picks up his gear from the table, and walks from the room with M’ress. Both escorted by a security officer suited in an advanced set of MACO armor like they had both never seen before. M’ress looks back at them, then towards Cat. “Did things just get worse or better?” “I’m sure this can all be sorted out, in time.” he adds. She looks back at the security officers, then leans towards Thomas whispering, “do you smell that on them, somethings wrong here?” “Its ozone, they are Photonic guards, holographic projections.” He explains. “They didn’t have this advancement during your time, it was in fact just being introduced during my time.” M’ress looked back at them a bit fearful, “we had a holoprojection chamber on the Enterprise, but it was localized to just the one room. I never dreamed that the projections could follow you around the ship, or even be used as security.” “..and that’s why we are dangerous, we know too much about things outside our own times.” Cat pauses for a moment, as if to realise something. Then grabs his leg as if in a lot of pain, he goes down to one knee saying, “oh my, the pain is dreadful.” “Thomas?” M’ress asks, seeing no wince from actual pain. “Should I retrieve you a doctor from sickbay sir?” One of the hologuards asks. ” No, I shall be fine I just need a moment to collect myself.” Thomas takes out his tricorder and begins to scan with his tricorder, saying to the guards, “It appears I have really gave myself quite a injury here from these scans.” “but sir that’s not a med…” Thomas winks at her, and she bites her lip, wondering what he’s up to. “Thomas then extends his hand then asks one of the guards, “can you help an old man up son?” “Yes sir.” It responds. “Well then, shall we continue to sickbay.” Thomas says as he begins limping down the corridor once more, with M’ress shaking her head from not knowing what that was all about. They shortly arrive at the sickbay and they are both greeted by a doctor, “welcome Admiral…Lieutenant, just have a seat up on the table and let see if we can get you both patched up. The doctor grabs a medical tricorder from his table and begins to scan M’ress. Thomas, who had left his tricorder on, continues to subtly scan more of the ship. M’ress and the doctor chat back and forth, but Thomas suddenly notices something during his scan, a transponder, that is Borg in origin coming from the lump in his leg. “Doctor! Come here quickly!” He yells. Startled by the sudden outburst, both the doctor and M’ress come running over to him. “Whats wrong Admiral?” The doctor asks. “This device in my leg, remove it quickly and destroy it!” The doctor scans his leg for a moment then looks back up at Cat, “no!” he exclaims. Tapping his badge, “Commander Barclay to Captain, lock down the medical bay quickly! We have a Borg transponder tracking us!” Suddenly a forcefield is placed around Thomas and the doctor, and off duty medical personal and security rush into the sickbay. “Hurry doctor!” Cat orders. With haste he incises the lump on Cats leg and a small cybernetic creature screams as its tendrils whip about and leap onto the doctor and inject him. “Noooo! Someone help me!” Barclay screams. “Security, quickly lock onto the Borg nanites in his system and transport him through the filtering systems!” Thomas demands. The security chief orders an emergency transport, but he begins to break up upon re-materialization. “We are loosing him, the nanites are working faster then normal sir!” A voice says over the security chiefs comm badge. “Quickly recycle the initial pattern and transfer memory to the holodeck….you do have one don’t you?” “Sorry sir, this isn’t a luxury vessel.” The force field is dropped around Thomas and a couple of doctors patch up his wound. “How are you feeling Admiral?” The nurse asks. Without saying a word Thomas runs to activate a console to try to take control of the transporters, but is quickly subdued by security. “Wait, let me help him, I can save him!” Thomas crys. “I’m sorry sir, I can’t permit you to have access to our ships functions.” The security chief tells him. “Sorry sir, we lost him.” A voice over the comm badge says. “No, you didn’t, they intercepted him…” But before Thomas could speak, a transwarp opens before them and several Borg ships emerge through the portal and lock a tractor beam onto their hull. The ship goes to red alert. “All hands to battle stations! We are under attack!” The Captain announces over the intercom. ” Nurse, see to the Lieutenant…chief, I need to get to the bridge!” Thomas rushes out to the corridor but is stopped a ways down by the Security team. “Sorry sir, you don’t have clearance to access the bridge.” The projection tells him. “Don’t I?” Cat says with a smile as he modifies his tricorder to reprogram the security projections directives, in its remote personal holoemitter. “Sir, allow me to escort you to the bridge.” The other security projections turn to intercept them, but Thomas deactivates them on their personal holoemitters and collects them, placing the devices into his pocket. “Not to worry I’ll take good care of your friends here. Please continue Chief.” Thomas and the security officer quickly run to the turbo lift and head for the bridge, allowing a moment for Thomas to secure his gear back onto himself. The ship rocks back and forth, as the doors open to deck one they see Borg battling the bridge staff. “Chief secure the bridge!” Both of them draw their rifles and open fire. The Borg adapt after their first shots, both Thomas and the Chief quickly re-modulate their weapons instantly, but Thomas slings his rifle around his back and leaps into the thick of it with his cutlass. With a quickly spiraling dance of bladed destruction he cuts down Borg regaining ground back on the bridge. “Admiral…HELP!” Thomas looks back to see the Captain laying on the floor next to his chair, with the assimilation process already underway. More Borg block his path, 10 more also beam to the bridge. Some of them are blasted by the security Chief, ” Chief cover me, I need to get to the Captain!” “Aye sir.” Both begin to subdue the bridge in a brutal fight, with a hearty laugh and relentless posture, Thomas and his companion finish securing the bridge. “Chief get him to sick bay NOW!” Thomas orders. He then takes the Captains seat, “…um…computer activate photonic…bridge officers?” Thomas asks, thinking they have a security version, maybe they have bridge officers too. The Computer then replays, “please specify officer type you require.” “Computer, our officers are all down, fill all key locations on the bridge and…prepare for Borg assault?” he asks, hoping on a long shot. Suddenly 5 officers manifest on the bridge manning the key stations. All at once they say, awaiting orders sir!” A smile comes to his face, you gotta love the future!….ok, reverse polarity of the hull and lets get this tractor beam off of us! Helm evasive maneuvers and lock a tractor beam on the sphere!” “Aye sir.” ” Full impulse, drag that sphere over the top of the other, engage!” “Engaging thrusters sir!” The Pastak fly’s past two other Spheres that begin to open fire on it, one of them is suddenly disrupted by the hull of the other disabling both of them. The other sphere pursues them still firing, the ship rocks with each hit.” Helm align us with the towed vessel and let it give us some cover.” “Aye sir.” The persuing sphere stops firing and quickly fly’s at full speed ahead of their path and begins to fire once more. “Borg are nothing if not predictable! heh!” “Cut loose the tractor beam, Thomas runs to the helm and takes the controls, causing the ship to break hard and to the left, the disabled sphere they where towing slams into the the perusing one and disables the one and the destroys the other. “Success! A fine job…uh, officers.” Thank you sir they randomly replay. “Remain at your stations, until revealed.” “Aye sir” they reply. Thomas presses a button on the console next to the Captains chair, sickbay, what is the status of the Captain?” ” We have reversed the assimilation, but he will remain out of commission for the next week.” Thomas looks around the bridge, and sees the Commander lying on the floor dead, “computer, open ships open intercom frequencies.” There is a beep. “Attention, this is Admiral Thomas, I am taking command of the Pastak until the Captain is recovered, I would like all available staff to report to their watch commanders and report for duty at once. All senior staff, please report to the conference immediately.” Thomas then sits back in the Captains chair, “sickbay, once the Lieutenant is released, have her report to the bridge, we also need a medical staff to the bridge to see to our fallen and wounded..” “Aye sir” “Helm, what is our present location?” Thomas asks. ” We are in Romulan space, the exact coordinates are on your display.” “Romulan….why are we in Romulan space?” The holo-officer pauses for a moment, ” I don’t have access to classified material sir.” M’ress walks onto the bridge, looking around in amazement. “Comm, teach the lieutenant how to operate the communications console. I expect you to be a pro once I return.” Thomas says with a wink in his eye. M’ress smiles, with a bit more confidence to her expression. A moment later Thomas walks into the conference room, three officers await him. “Sir? Who are you?” One of them asks. ” I am Admiral Thomas, for the time being I will be taking command of this vessel and oversee its missions until the Captains fit to once more command.” They all look at each other, “Sir, you..” Thomas then interrupts them, “…and I expect you to follow my orders!” All of them, cautiously agree, not knowing Cat or if he did have the authority to take command. The long shot worked, as Temporal Assignments often include unknown and mysterious agents from time to time. “What is our statues, and present coarse?” Thomas asks. “We are headed to Romulan space to investigate temporal activity in this area.” “It appears we have found and contributed to its existence.” Thomas tells them. “I don’t understand sir.” Thomas presses a button on the table, “bridge, take us out of Romulan space immediately.” “What about our mission?” one of the officers asks. “The Borg where acting on a transponder signal, and knew to act just at the exact moment it activated. They intercepted us and now there is Borg technology in Romulan space for them to reverse engineer. Someone is wanting the Romulans to have such technology.” Thomas brings up their current timeline, at this current time in history we haven’t yet made peace or friendly relations with the Romulans yet. They are in fact still at odds with the Federation.” “What are your orders sir?” ” We trace the location of that signal, I want you to gather a staff and investigate the ships sensor and communication logs and track down where that signal was sent to.” Thomas explains. We seem to have someone outside of time, that is trying to give the Romulans the upper hand, by providing them with Borg technology. I also want those spheres to be unapproachable that we left behind.” “Should we scuttle them sir?” Thomas thinks on his question, “no, if we do that it will arise suspicion, i would rather you made it look like an accident, having them overload with radiation to keep outsiders at bay so their scans don’t detect the Federation was inside Romulan space.” “Very good sir, we can do that.” “Alright then, dismissed.” The officers begin to walk out of the room, but Thomas stops the chief Engineer. “I could use a new comm badge son.” He smiles and walks over to the replicator, “computer, standard comm badge.” Instantly one appears in the compartment, and the Chief engineer hands it to Cat. “There you go sir.” Thomas smiles and places it on his chest. “Thank you, carry on.” Thomas then looks at the replicator, “computer, Star cluster comm badge.” Instantly it appears and Thomas replaces the one on his chest with it. Then tidy’s his uniform before heading back to the bridge, slipping the extra comm badge in his palm. As he walks onto the bridge he tosses M’ress the extra comm badge, “keep in touch.” “Thank you sir.” Thomas takes the Captains chair and sits back, “helm, take us back to Romulan space maximum warp, we have a few loose ends to tie up.” M’ress looks back with a gasp. “Coarse laid in sir.” “Engage.” With in a few moments, they reach their destination. “Engineering, is your team ready?” Thomas asks. “Aye sir, package is ready.” “Transporter room, transport the package to the designated location, activate upon arrival.” Thomas orders. A moment later they see on the main viewer the Borg Sphere begin to filling with burning radiation. “Helm, bring us about to the next one.” “Aye sir” Once more they radiate another sphere, making it unapproachable and eliminating the traces of phaser fire from the previous battle. “Sir! Long range sensor show too Romulan Warbirds heading our way.” “Blast, we have ran out of time…helm, take us out of here.” Thomas orders, with a certain displeasing tone to his voice. “What time sir?” “TIme?…take us to your head quarters, we need to report in our findings.”
To be continued…
