STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION THE GALAXY CHRONICLES “THE SOUND OF THE SHIANT”

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A tale of the Lost Era by RUSSELL CHRISTIANSEN

Based on STAR TREK created by GENE RODDENBERRY

STAR TREK and all related elements are registered trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

FOREWORD Welcome to the adventures of the USS Galaxy, the first of the Galaxy-class starships to be launched, and sister ship to the most well-known one, the USS Enterprise: NCC-1701-D. The Galaxy is in fact a canon vessel, first mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda. Her registry was mentioned also in that book. According to the book, and often accepted by fandom, the Galaxy was commissioned in 2357, six to seven years prior to when “Star Trek: The Next Generation” premiered. Also, according to the book, the Galaxy spent her first few years in the Sol System with the experimental designation NX-70637. Eventually in early 2360, where this first story takes place, Starfleet is pleased with the operation of the Galaxy and gives her an NCC designation, as they decide she’s ready for doing proper missions. The Galaxy’s first on-screen debut was in the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” sixth season finale “Tears of the Prophets,” where she participated in the first Battle of Chin’toka during the Dominion War. Despite being banged up some, she survived the ordeal. The ship’s name and registry were seen later in “Star Trek: Nemesis” as part of Battle Group Omega, indicating that the vessel survived the Dominion War. She has fared better than her first three subsequent sister ships: the Yamato (which was destroyed thanks to a sophisticated computer virus in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” second season episode “Contagion”), the

Odyssey (which was destroyed by the Jem’Hadar in the race’s debut episode that was the second season finale of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” known as – well – “The Jem’Hadar”), and of course the Enterprise-D (which was destroyed senselessly courtesy of a Klingon rust-bucket in “Star Trek: Generations” – I picture Picard’s court-martial for this, despite being acquitted, to have been a real roasting). So as of “Nemesis,” she outlasted these three ships put together. In “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” apart from the ill-fated Yamato, we haven’t seen any other sister ships of the Enterprise-D. Of course, the main reason was that Gene Roddenberry said these ships were to be special, and that around the fifth season of the show, there were only five Galaxy-class ships in service (only five? When the Romulans have all those D’Deridex-class warbirds?). Speaking of Romulans, you will not be seeing them here and in installments in the future, since this is before they started to show themselves again, set in 2360. You also will not be seeing the Borg, the Ferengi, or the Dominion for that matter. I know “Star Trek: Enterprise” played it loose by having a Ferengi episode (where of course Captain Archer and company do not have any idea of the Ferengi after the episode as an excuse), not to mention the Borg (slow gag reflex). You might have noticed that I have it being a tale of the Lost Era. The Lost Era was a Trek series of novels done by Pocket Books that take place in between the 23rd century portion of “Star Trek: Generations” (after Kirk was presumably killed) up to the pilot episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Since this is 2360,

four years prior to the beginning of The Next Generation, I decided to dub it a tale of the Lost Era. Will I be including any regulars from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager in any installments? I’m not sure yet. Picard, if you take the Lost Era novel “The Buried Age” as canon, is out doing some escapade for Starfleet, along with Data. Riker is serving as a lieutenant on board the Potemkin. Not sure where Dr. Beverly Crusher is serving in these days, but Dr. Katherine Pulaski would be serving on board the Repulse most likely. Geordi La Forge would either still be in the Academy or be on board the Victory around this period of time. Benjamin Sisko would be serving on board the Okinawa, Miles O’Brien would most likely be serving on board the Rutledge, not quite sure about Kathryn Janeway and company. Well anyways, enjoy!

PROLOGUE S.S. SIRENA • NGL-11789 STARDATE: 37012.3 “THREE MORE DAYS UNTIL PORT.” That’s what the helmsman of the SS Sirena stated, a young man by the name of Carlo Gomez, a Hispanic human male in his late thirties. The Sirena was formerly known as the USS Ariel during her Starfleet years. A Miranda-class vessel launched in the late twenty-third century, the vessel served Starfleet for three decades before being decommissioned and sent to a surplus depot. The vessel was then purchased and used as a civilian freighter, retrofitted for that purpose (among one of the adjustments was the removal of its trademark “roll-bar”). Starfleet also used older Miranda-class ships as supply vessels as well, often retrofitting them for that purpose. The bridge of the vessel was quite spartan, which wasn’t necessarily that bad for a vessel repurposed as a cargo ship. There was the center command chair, a seashell-shaped seat with retractable lap-restraints, in the center rear of the ship. In front of the center seat was the helm/navigation console, a combined console that had the ship’s helm and navigation functions: helm was on port where Carlo was sitting and nav was on the starboard side, with chairs similar to the center seat although their restraints did not have the controls on them. Directly aft was the turbolift station for the turbolift system that accessed the rest of the vessel, flanked by two small stations – one for tactical and the other for environmental control. Two larger stations on the port and starboard were for engineering and science.

“Looking forward to Seunta Four?” asked the captain, or owner of the Sirena, a middle-aged Caucasian male by the name of Terrence Sharpe, known for his short brown hair and beard. “I am too. Once we get this delivered, I could use a week off.” “I want to go to that carnival they have,” said Mr. Gomez. “I hear they have a new attraction that they say will blow everyone away.” “New attraction?” asked Sharpe. “One of those holographic entertainment areas I wonder?” “I heard rumors that some of the people captured some kind of strange creature in space,” said Mr. Gomez. “And are showing it at the carnival. Just to think, even Starfleet couldn’t get their hands on it! Guess the Cardassians have been keeping them occupied! Maybe they’ve gotten too lazy.” “That’s reckless,” said Sharpe. “While I may not fully agree with Starfleet, there’s a reason for them. They’re more trained to deal with the unknown than a bunch of carnies. That being said, I think you’re being duped. I bet what they found was nothing more but some banal thing, perhaps some kind of deformed alien vegetable or something like that.” “Really?” said Gomez as he swiveled his chair to face the master of the Sirena. “I’ve heard rumors about them. People that can actually “swim” in space. “Swim” – meaning no need of space vessels? Wouldn’t that give you some kind of rush?” “You sure they’re not pulling your leg?” asked Sharpe. “It’s probably some stupid holographic simulation of such. It’s all, as they used to say, ‘smoke and mirrors.’” Captain Sharpe, while never serving in Starfleet, knew quite a bit about them. While it was possible that civilians may have made a discovery outside of Starfleet, he thought the idea of the carnival showing “space swimming” aliens was absurd and

nonsense. He just wanted to take his leave on Seunta IV when they reached the place with their cargo. “Believe what you want,” said Gomez. “Oh, I’m believing it,” said Sharpe, in an extreme sense of sarcasm. Suddenly, the ship started to lurch some, which go the attention of Sharpe, Gomez, and the rest of the bridge crew on board the Sirena. Did something hit them? “What was that?” asked Gomez. “I don’t know,” said Sharpe as he folded the restraints onto his lap and turned to engineering, which was being manned by a young male Antican. “Are our stabilizers malfunctioning?” The Antican punched in commands at the engineering console, hoping to run a diagnostic on the Sirena’s systems to pinpoint any malfunction. While the vessel was no longer as meticulously maintained as it was when she was the Ariel, Sharpe always wanted the stabilizers to be functioning properly. Sharpe could see from the diagnostic screen that there wasn’t any problem with the ship’s stabilizers. “No malfunction,” said the Antican. “All ship systems are functioning normally!” Another jolt occurred. “We’re being buffeted by some kind of subspace distortion,” reported the crewmember manning Engineering, this one being a Tellarite male. “It’s affecting our warp field!” The bridge convulsed again. “This area of space shouldn’t be prone to that!” said Mr. Gomez. “I know,” said Captain Sharpe. “Take us out of warp! I want an analysis on this! All stop!”

“Yes,” said Gomez as he inputted the commands into the helm console to bring the Sirena out of warp speed. The sound of the warp engines powering down could be heard on the bridge as the ship dropped out of faster-than-light travel as power shifted to the vessel’s impulse drive, so the ship could cruise at sub-light speeds. “Bringing her to an all stop!” This perplexed Sharpe to a huge extent. He had been familiar with this area of space for several years now and he knew very well that this was abnormal. If something was affecting their warp field, they had to stop and check out exactly what was causing it. “Do we have sensor data on the disturbances?” asked Sharpe. “Not detecting any others,” reported the Tellarite who was manning the science station. “But I am detecting something else. I’m reading an increase of ionically charged particles all around us!” Just after the Tellarite made that report, the bridge started convulsing again, this time it was a more constant shake as opposed to the subspace distortions that had buffeted the ship earlier. “Activate the main viewer!” ordered Sharpe. “I want to see what’s around us!” The main viewer activated, as the star field that was being shown on the viewer was slowly being replaced by cloud like distortions and energy tendrils all over the place, some of the distortions looking like stray electricity in some cases. “What the?” asked Sharpe as the ship began shaking even more violently. “Shields up! Helm, can you try to get us out?” The phenomenon became even more apparent. It was an ion storm – a magnetic phenomenon comprised of ionically charged particles. And the storm was a threat to the Sirena.

“I’m trying!” reported Gomez as he fumbled with the helm controls. “What is this, an ion storm?!” “Looks like it!” called out Sharpe as the bridge began rocking even more violently now. “The shields aren’t going to hold long against this!” reported the Antican standing at the engineering terminal. “Sensor confirm this is an ion storm!” said the Tellarite at science. “It seems to have formed around us!” “That’s impossible, this area isn’t prone to…” Gomez couldn’t continue as there was an extreme violent rocking of the Sirena. The environmental station blew out in the aft section of the bridge. The helmsman turned to look at the burnt-out station before focusing on the station. “I don’t have helm control! Inertial dampeners are fluctuating too! We’ve completely lost attitude control!” “Captain!” called out the Tellarite at science. “There appears to be something in direct contact with our shields! Wait! The shields are registering physical contact in multiple locations!” “Can you ascertain what they…” Gomez couldn’t continue as the science station blew out in front of the Tellarite, the force of the explosion knocking his de facto science officer down. A conduit ruptured above the turbolift alcove, as gas began spewing onto the bridge. “Hull breach on decks five and six!” reported the Antican engineer. The viewer’s image became static-filled mostly due to the fluctuations of the Sirena’s sensors. One thing was clear, the ship was in an ion storm, and things were getting worse, and it was getting more and more possible that the ship would not survive this storm. “Can we send out a log buoy?” asked Sharpe. “If we can…”

“We’re getting fires in our main cargo holds!” reported the Antican engineer. “The fire suppression systems are not working there! Sir, what we’re carrying could…” If one was viewing the Sirena from the outside, whatever was in contact with the shields had moved away as a huge explosion occurred at the aft part of the vessel. Two lightning bolts struck the ship in the damaged area, causing the Sirena to explode, taking with it her crew.

CHAPTER ONE U.S.S. GALAXY • NCC-70637 STARDATE: 37068.6 THREE WEEKS LATER Captain Sonal Chandra stood in her quarters on Deck 8 on board the USS Galaxy: NCC-70637. The ship was the first of the Galaxy-class starships to enter service, the largest, most complex, and most sophisticated pieces of engineering that Starfleet had ever done before. The vessel was commissioned three years ago, with a registry of NX-70637 as opposed to the NCC prefix the ship had now, as the ship was finally pressed into normal service after spending the first three years confined to the Sol system. While she was the only vessel of her class in service, several sister ships were already under construction at Utopia Planetia, with one of them to bear the most reputable namesake in all of Starfleet: Enterprise. That wasn’t to lessen the impact of the Galaxy; she was after all the first of her class. Captain Chandra looked down at her uniform jumpsuit, the bottom part black but the top part of a cranberry color that was used to designate that she was of the command division. She wasn’t totally fond of the uniform, preferring the maroon-colored uniforms Starfleet used for more than half a century. To her, those looked quite a bit more majestic than these. She then looked out the viewports at the stars warping past, as the Galaxy was headed for her destination, Lya Station Alpha, where the ship would be engaged in patrol duties along the Cardassian border. While it wasn’t an exploration mission, it was a swell break from being confined to the Sol system for the first three years.

She turned to the two sets of doors that led out to the rest of Deck and left through the doors on the portside into the corridors that connected the deck with the rest of the ship. She turned to a wide straight radial corridor. She saw a few other crewmembers, subordinates traversing the corridors. The vessel’s normal crew compliment was slightly over one thousand, which included not only Starfleet crewmembers but civilians as well, even families with children. Children…ugh… Her senior staff had agreed with her about this – putting children on vessel’s like this was a terrible idea, one of the stupidest ideas that Starfleet ever thought of. The perilous unknown was no place for children at all. Starbases were OK, but being on starships? That was a bit too much. She wondered how long it would be until Starfleet reversed that policy. She headed for a turbolift station to her right as she touched the keypad to summon the nearest turbolift car to where she was. It took six seconds for a turbolift to reach where she was as the doors slid open revealing an empty turbolift car. Captain Chandra stepped in and made her request. “Bridge,” the captain said. The doors slid shut as the turbolift began moving again through the turboshaft network throughout the vessel. In fifteen seconds, the turbolift reached its destination as the doors opened to reveal the nerve center of the Galaxy, its main bridge. The main bridge of the vessel was an interesting configuration. The most recognizable feature of the bridge was a swooping curved railing where the tactical station was integrated, colored in metallic gray. In front of this on a raised section was the command seating which consisted of three seats. The center one, closest to the aft pillar was the command chair,

which was equipped with two fixed armrest panels that could control various functions. Flanking the command chair were two seats equipped with full-size swing-out consoles, primarily meant for the executive officer and another department head. In front of the command seating on a lower level were the Flight Control (Conn) and Operations Management (Ops) stations, Conn on the port, Ops on the starboard, also equipped with full-size swing-out consoles. Behind tactical were an array of stations: Science I, Science II, Mission Ops, Environment, and Engineering. Flanking these stations were two alcoves. The port one had a set of turbolift doors like the forward turbolift station on the bridge, and on the starboard side had doors that headed for the “conference lounge,” or Briefing Lounge as one would, as well as doors to the Head, which was a washroom that crewmembers could use. On port and starboard sides were equipment bays that had the same kind of blue-green that was the tone for the Galaxy’s bridge. There were two forward alcoves – one on the port side had the turbolift she just left as well as doors to her ready room, and on the opposite side was what was known as an “Emergency Turbolift,” this one connected the main bridge with the “Battle Bridge,” often called, since the Galaxy-class had the unique capability to separate its saucer section. Since the ship wasn’t in an alert situation, a sparse crew was present. Sitting in the seat directly on the port side of the command chair working on the console was Lieutenant Commander Sorista, the captain’s executive officer and science officer. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista was a Shrostian, a humanoid species that was mostly human looking except for their unusual hair colors: Lt. Sorista had long hair that was cotton-candy blue that she wore in a ponytail and held back with a headband, as her skin was a bit paler compared to most humans. Unlike other executive

officers, she preferred to wear the science blue uniform, with two gold pips and one black indicating that she was a lieutenant commander. At Conn was Lieutenant Junior Grade Motylla, a female Jadlian. She had yellow eyes as well as a triangular mark between her eyes right below the forehead; she wore a cranberry uniform jumpsuit like Captain Chandra’s, though not the jumpsuit like Chandra or Sorista. At Ops was Lieutenant Junior Grade Gonza, a male Saurian, a reptilian species known for their ability to breathe different gasses, have immense strength, and their huge eyes. He had on the mustard-colored services division uniform. Both Gonza and Motylla had one gold pip and one black pip on their collars to indicate they were lieutenant junior grades. At tactical was Lieutenant Olaas, a female Elasian, with long black hair also in a ponytail. She had on a mustard-colored uniform like Gonza’s but with two gold pips indicating she was a full lieutenant, she wore the more common jumpsuit variant like Chandra and Sorista as opposed to Motylla. She had a Type II phaser in her holster as well as an Elasian dagger that she had in a holster that was strapped to her upper left arm; Elasians often carried knives, and the lieutenant had to request a special permission from the captain to be allowed to carry one with her uniform. “Captain on the bridge!” called out Lt. Cmdr. Sorista to alert the other personnel that the captain was present. “We’re still on course for Lya Station Alpha, we should be there within four days.” “Thank you, commander,” said Captain Chandra. “Has there been any response to my request to offload all non-essential personnel?” “I would have informed you immediately if they did,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista.

“I’d very much appreciate it if we can,” said Chandra. “Anyways…” An alarm came from the Ops terminal as Lieutenant Gonza responded to it. The alarm also got the attention of both Captain Chandra and Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Captain, incoming message from Starbase eighty-eight,” reported Lt. Gonza. “Priority one channel!” Priority one? Captain Chandra thought. That was big. A priority one call usually meant something was amiss that required their attention. Were the Cardassians acting up again? Was someone else acting up? The captain knew she had to keep her speculation to a bare minimum and to respond as quick as she could. She stepped in front of the command seating and behind the Conn and Ops stations. “That’s serious,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. Chandra nodded and stated, “Patch it through to the main viewer.” “Aye captain,” said the Saurian Ops officer. The main viewer displayed a bald dark-skinned admiral sitting at a desk, in his office at Starbase 88. He had on the brass-lined admiral’s uniform as his rank insignia indicated he was a rear admiral. Captain Chandra recognized him as Vance Haden; the captain served under the admiral as an ensign on board Haden’s command at the time (he was a captain back then). “Admiral Haden,” said Captain Chandra. “Captain Chandra,” said Haden. “We have a change in mission for you. The Galaxy is to divert to the Hebridean Sector immediately. Over the past few weeks the sector has experienced a spate of unexplained ion storm activity in the region. Several ships in the area have gone silent. A few days ago, the USS Poseidon arrived in the system to investigate the unexplained ion storms. We’ve lost contact with the Poseidon a few hours ago and

haven’t heard from her at all since. Your orders are to investigate the activity, as well as search for the Poseidon. It’s quite possible that she may have succumbed to the ion storms that the other ships in the region have. Since the region hasn’t been prone to ion storms in the past, this has been a concern to Starfleet. We’re not sure if this is a naturally occurring phenomenon, or if it’s the cause of some unknown intelligence, which is why we’re ordering you to look into this. We’ll keep you advised of any updates that we have.” “Are you going to assign any other ships as backup?” asked Chandra. “At the moment we don’t want to risk it,” said Haden. “But that might change depending on your findings.” “All right,” said Captain Chandra. “Keep us updated with your findings as well,” said Haden. “Starfleet out.” The main viewer switched to the United Federation of Planets emblem and below that was “END TRANSMISSION.” “Lieutenant Motylla,” said Captain Chandra grimly. “Lay in a new course for the Hebridean Sector.” “Aye captain,” said Lt. Motylla as she punched in the new course for the Hebridean Sector. The captain headed to her command chair and sat down in it, activating the intercom from the armrest panel to her right. “Engineering,” said Captain Chandra. “We’re have a change in mission. We’re going to need every cochrane of power that you can squeeze out of the warp drive.” “I should be able to give you warp nine-point-three without much of a problem,” said a male voice. “Though I would advise against pushing the warp engines much faster than that for a sustained period of time.”

“Very well,” said Captain Chandra as she turned again to the Jadlian manning the Conn. “Execute course change, warp nine-point-three.” “Warp nine-point-three aye,” said Lt. Motylla as she punched in the speed. “Executing course change.” The Galaxy changed her heading and accelerated from her previous cruising speed of Warp 6 up to Warp 9.3, due to the captain wanting to get to the Hebridean Sector as quick as possible. “Commander Sorista,” said Chandra. “I’m going to need all the information we have on the Hebridean Sector. I want a staff meeting in two hours to discuss our change in mission.” “Understood captain,” said Sorista. Two hours later, the Galaxy’s department heads were all assembled in the briefing lounge, located on deck one in the aft section of the bridge module. The room had viewports looking out to the aft of the ship, where one could see the stars warping past, as well as the aft sections of the ship, including the warp nacelles. Opposite the aft viewports were pictures of Starfleet vessels, depicting the first of their class; including the SS Enterprise: NX-01, the USS Daedalus: NCC-129, the USS Walker: NCC-1221, the USS Constitution: NCC-1700, the USS Miranda: NCC-1803, the USS Oberth: NCC-602, the USS Excelsior: NCC-2000, the USS Ambassador: NCC-10521, the USS New Orleans: NCC-57290, the USS Nebula: NCC-70862, and of course, the USS Galaxy: NCC-70637. The main part of the lounge was the curved table in the center, with intercom and other control units for each person that was seated. At the center of the table was a

holographic display unit as the captain had a desk terminal at her place at the table. Captain Chandra sat at the port end of the conference table. To her left was Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. Next to her was the ship’s chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Jules Damen, a human male, although unusually short for a human, often considered “vertically challenged.” In earlier days he would have been referred to as a dwarf or midget. He had on the mustard colored services division uniform jumpsuit with the two gold and one black pips that indicated his lieutenant commander rank, tailored specifically to his size. Instead of the normal uniform boots, he wore a pair of special anti-gravity boots, allowing him to float and reach terminals throughout the ship that would have been inaccessible otherwise due to his height, activated by a controller he wore around his left wrist. Next to him was the ship’s chief medical officer, Dr. Warren M’Benga, who was like Sorista wearing the science/medical blue jumpsuit uniform with lieutenant commander’s pips as well. On the opposite side was both Lieutenant Olaas and Lt. Gonza. “All right,” said Captain Chandra. “By now, you all know we’ve had a change in our mission. We’re on our way to the Hebridean Sector, where Starfleet has reported an increase of ion storm activity in the area, and that they’ve lost contact with the ship they initially sent to investigate the activity.” Lt. Cmdr. Sorista used the controls in front of her to activate the holographic display at the center of the conference table. A 3-D representation of the Hebridean Sector appeared before the senior staff, rotating around for all to see. “The Hebridean Sector was initially charted back in twenty-two-ninety-five by the Enterprise-B. There are five star systems in the sector. Two of these have M-class worlds, which both have

been colonized roughly two decades later. Starfleet currently has a single outpost in the region as well as a supply depot orbiting planet Seunta Four, one of our colonies. Despite this, there are trading posts on both colonies as they have been used to trade to non-aligned worlds beyond Federation Space,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “The space beyond this sector has been the home to three spacefaring species. The Federation has had an amiable trade agreement between each of these races for roughly two decades.” “What’s their level of technological sophistication?” asked Lt. Olaas. “Could they be capable of the phenomena Starfleet reported in the sector?” “The most sophisticated of their species developed warp drive only within the past forty-seven years,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “The other two developed theirs shortly afterward. Neither of the races are likely to have the technological sophistication to fabricate these phenomena.” “Are we sure this isn’t a naturally occurring phenomenon?” asked Lt. Gonza. “No, we’re not,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “However, after the Enterprise-B’s initial survey of the region, science vessels were sent to obtain more detailed scans, which would be necessary should you want to colonize. Their readings of the area of space suggests that the sector is not prone to ion storms; it doesn’t have the conditions necessary for the recent ion storm activity that was recorded.” “Could something have been done to alter that area of space?” asked Captain Chandra. “A nova or a supernova nearby, for example?” “The outpost in the sector has not reported any celestial activity of that magnitude until the recent spate of ion storms,”

said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “The personnel there are as baffled as we are in why ion storm activity has flared up within the region.” “I’ve already spoken with the outpost commander,” said Captain Chandra. “They’ll keep us updated on the activity. But they don’t have any ships that can scan the region thoroughly like we can. Starfleet has sent a warning minimizing civilian ship travel in the sector. The other part of our mission is to investigate what happened to the Starfleet vessel that was initially assigned to this region: the Poseidon.” The Shrostian executive and science officer tapped a few controls on the keypad in front of her as the holographic image switched to a 3-D view of an Excelsior-class starship, with the ship’s name and registry: NCC-3518; this particular version being a variation with extra impulse engines and a more elaborate sensor suite in the engineering section, among other things. While registry numbers weren’t completely assigned in chronological order, the low registry suggested that the vessel was launched late in the previous century, and had been in service for seventy-plus years. There were ships that were that old still serving in Starfleet; if they held together well enough, they would be still in service. “The Poseidon is an Excelsior-class cruiser,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Crew of four-hundred-eighteen.” “I’ll have sickbay ready to handle that many,” said Dr. M’Benga. “If we do have to initiate a rescue.” “Good,” nodded Captain Chandra, although she knew that it most likely wouldn’t be necessary. A loss of contact with the Poseidon and the spate of ion storms would suggest that the ship was most likely wrecked or totally destroyed by such. Although they couldn’t rule out all possibilities. “It wouldn’t be likely they survived,” said Lt. Olaas, grimly.

“I’m aware of that,” said Chandra. “In addition, Starfleet did provide us with a manifest of other ships that have been lost. We’ll be on search and rescue for them too. If there are survivors, we owe them a chance, no matter how small.” “On another note,” said the Elasian chief of security. “Is it possible that those three races we trade with beyond the sector might have knowledge of these phenomena?” “Starfleet has already contacting their governments to see if they might have any information that might assist us,” said Captain Chandra. “Are the storms localized in this sector?” asked Lt. Gonza. “For the moment, yes,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, nodding. “However, Starfleet believes it’s highly possible that this might be the prelude to something bigger, whether it’s natural or not.” “Which is why they’re sending us,” said Captain Chandra. “To investigate. We need to know if this is a potential threat to other sectors, perhaps even the entire Federation. Mister Damen, I’m going to need to have power to shields and hull integrity at the ready should we end up caught in one of these ion storms. Commander Sorista, once we’re in the sector, I want thorough sensor analyses of the areas of space we’re going to be investigating; we need to shed some light on this. Doctor M’Benga, you’ll be needed to stand by for casualties. Starbase one-zero-eight, our outpost in the sector will be standing by.” “I’ll have the science department ready once we arrive in the Hebridean Sector,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I’ll give you as much power as you need for the necessary systems upon on arrival,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen.

CHAPTER TWO Captain’s Log Stardate 37079.5: The Galaxy has been diverted from her patrol mission on the Cardassian border to the Hebridean Sector to investigate the unusual intense ion storm activity that has been reported. Multiple ships have been lost to the storm activity, including the Starfleet vessel initially assigned to investigate, the USS Poseidon. We as well as Starbase 108 have tried to raise our missing Starfleet vessel but no avail, making it likely that the ship was a victim of the ion storm activity. Up until now, the Hebridean Sector has not suffered a single ion storm, as the conditions in that area of space are not favorable for ion storm development. We have now entered the Hebridean Sector, our first destination being the last recorded coordinates of the Poseidon, as we will now learn firsthand what is going on. Travel throughout the Hebridean Sector has been limited to only crucial travel only. The sound of the warp drive powering down could be heard on the bridge as the Galaxy dropped out of warp to her destination, the last position of her fellow starship, the Poseidon. The vessel was at yellow alert with the shields raised. All the aft bridge terminals were manned. Captain Chandra was in the command chair, Lt. Cmdr. Sorista was sitting in the seat to the port side of the captain at the station, ready to use it for scanning and scientific purposes. Lt. Olaas was behind the curved rail at tactical, Lt. Motylla was at Conn, and Lt. Gonza was at Ops. The mood was a somber one on the bridge, since they knew they were going into a dangerous and hazardous situation, one that they might not get out of alive. However, that was part of the deal when being in Starfleet. One of the common unofficial mottos of Starfleet was “risk is our business,” and this definitely qualified

as risk. What were they going to find here? Would they be destroyed before they found out what was going on? “We’re now at the Poseidon’s last known coordinates,” said Lieutenant Motylla. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista started punching in commands on her console, which was configured to perform most of the functions of the scientific functions of the two aft science stations. Granted she could have used one of the aft stations, but the console beside the command chair was more convenient as first officer, as she could relay data easily to the captain that way. “Beginning sensor scans of this area of space,” reported Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I am reading residual ion particle traces, which is consistent of an ion storm; however, this area of space lacks any of the conditions necessary for ion storm development. I’m running more thorough scans now.” “Any other ships in the area?” asked Captain Chandra. “Any sign of the Poseidon.” “Scopes are negative so far,” said Lieutenant Olaas looking from the readouts in tactical. “For now, we’re alone.” “We just got here,” said Captain Chandra as she turned to Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Be sure to scan for anomalous readings.” “I already am,” said Sorista back at the captain. “So far, nothing.” At the moment, the main viewer on the Galaxy’s bridge was showing nothing more but a starfield, which didn’t look rather ominous. But that wasn’t enough to soothe most of the bridge crew. For all they knew, whatever happened to those other ships in the sector that met ill-fates came almost completely without warning. “Lay in a heading for our first set of search coordinates,” said Captain Chandra. “Full impulse power, helm.”

“Aye captain,” said Lt. Motylla as she punched in the coordinates in the Flight Control console. “Course set.” “Execute,” said Chandra. “Executing now,” said Lt. Motylla as she activated the controls on her console to take the Galaxy to the navigation coordinates that had been pre-programmed on route to the sector. “Still getting residual ions,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Again, this area of space does not have the conditions necessary for ion storm development. It is possible that there may be a way for these hazards to develop that we’re not aware of.” “Agreed,” nodded Chandra. “Keep scanning for anything out of the ordinary.” “That’s what I’m doing,” said Sorista as she punched in commands on her console, working the Galaxy’s sensor suite, hoping the ship’s sensors could bring back some kind of unusual information about the area of space. “Captain I’m now receiving a signal,” said Lt. Gonza. “Faint though.” Chandra sprung up from the command chair and stepped down behind the Conn and Ops stations looking at the viewer, and then at her Saurian Ops officer. A signal? What could it be? A distress call? One way or another there would be answers. “Can you get anything from it?” asked Captain Chandra. “It’s garbled,” said Lt. Gonza. “I can’t many anything out on it. It may be damaged.” “I’m already trying to triangulate the source,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista from her station as she was using her station to pinpoint where the signal was coming from. “Got it! Bearing three-four-one mark twenty-one.” “Shall I set a new heading?” asked the Jadlian helm officer.

“Do it,” said Captain Chandra. “Very well,” said Lt. Motylla as she punched in the new heading. “Changing heading now.” The image on the viewer panned showing other stars as the Galaxy turned toward her new destination – an unknown garbled signal that they were receiving. Was it from Poseidon? Was it some kind of fake lure? The questions flooded Captain Chandra’s mind. “Anything new from the signal?” asked Captain Chandra. “No,” said Lt. Gonza. “Can’t make anything out of it.” “Captain, we’re now getting something on forward scanners,” said Lt. Motylla. “I’m reading it now,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Looking at configuration. Excelsior-class starship, quite possibly the Poseidon. Energy output from the vessel appears to be quite low. Looks like she’s drifting. She’s coming within visual range now.” “Put it on screen,” said Chandra. Sorista inputted the commands as the viewscreen switched to what looked like another starfield. In the distance there was what looked like a vessel. Details couldn’t be seen on it, although the general shape of it suggested an Excelsior-class vessel. “Increasing magnification,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. A crosshair appeared on the main viewer, moving across to target the ship on the main viewer. The crosshair grew on the main viewer showing the vessel in full. Or in better terms, what was left of her. The ship’s primary “saucer” hull had been scarred. The rim of the saucer had been sheared off in several sections. The ship’s starboard nacelle had its aft section sheared off, as the other one was damaged on the forward end. There were no lights coming from the viewport from the ship. There was other shear in the

vessel’s engineering section, originating from the vessel’s deflector dish. There were burn marks in the hull that could have been weapons hit, or if the ship was hit by an ion bolt, which could have happened if the vessel was caught in an ion storm. The drift pattern of the ship allowed a better view of the saucer section, which contained the name of the ship and its registry number. Despite the damage, the name U.S.S. POSEIDON could be read on the hull, as could the registry: NCC-3518. “The Poseidon,” said Lt. Olaas. “What’s left of her,” said Lt. Motylla. “Multiple hull breaches on the ship,” reported Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she examined the sensor readings of the dead hulk of what was the Poseidon. “Numerous sections are exposed to space. Propulsion systems are out, defensive systems inactive.” “Life readings?” asked Captain Chandra. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista initiated the scans for life signs, as a few sounds came from her console. “None captain,” said Sorista. “Nor am I getting any escape pods.” “Continue sensor analysis,” said Captain Chandra. “Helm, close us to within fifteen kilometers of the Poseidon.” “Yes captain,” said Lt. Motylla as she adjusted the heading accordingly. “I’m trying to establish a trans-link with their computer core,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she punched in the commands on her console. “I’m unable to link up. Must be the emergency bulkheads that are in place. Life support is operational in most areas throughout the ship that are not exposed to space. Structural analysis suggests considerable stress on the transverse supports; however, we may be able to send an away team over there.”

“It’s possible there could be survivors still on board,” said Chandra. While sensor technology had improved over the two centuries when the Federation was founded, they weren’t totally infallible. It was possible that some of the damage on board the Poseidon could shield the Galaxy’s sensors, as sophisticated as they were, from life readings. Especially with life support systems still operational in many areas of the ship. Sorista continued using her console to program the Galaxy’s sensors to conduct more thorough scans on the wrecked Poseidon. “I’m getting some very unusual readings form the Poseidon’s hull,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Define unusual,” asked Captain Chandra. Sorista inputted the commands on her console as another crosshair appeared on the main viewer, this one much smaller. It was aimed at a part of the Poseidon’s saucer section, as it then zoomed in in to appoint just above the “N” in the ship’s registry number. It looked as if a hole was burned through the ship’s hull, a finely “drilled” hole as if something breached it. “What am I looking at?” asked Captain Chandra. “Looks like a hull breach,” said Lt. Olaas. “Seems like it was done by some kind precision energy drilling tool. Most weapons wouldn’t do that.” “There’s no way that could be caused by an ion storm,” said Lieutenant Gonza. “It appears as if something tunneled through the hull,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, looking at her readouts. “The shearing is consistent with ion storm damage; however, these are not. And they’re not consistent with any known weapon or tool.”

“Captain, this suggests some kind of unknown intelligence,” said Lt. Olaas. “A hostile one at that. Recommend we take the ship to red alert.” “Not yet,” said Captain Chandra as she turned to her first officer. “I do recommend we board her,” said Sorista. “If we can access the Poseidon’s logs, it might shed some more light on this.” “Agreed,” said Chandra. “Prepare your away team. I’ll have the transporter rooms maintain a constant lock on all members of the away team so we can get you out of there at the first sign of trouble.” “Very well,” said Sorista as she pushed her console aside and rose up. “Lieutenant Olaas, Lieutenant Gonza, you two are with me. Have Mister Damen meet us in transporter room one.” “Understood,” said Chandra. Lt. Olaas walked around the tactical rail and down the ramp to meet the first officer, as Lt. Gonza pushed away the Ops console and rose up from his seat to join them as the three headed for the forward port turbolift doors, which slid open automatically the three entered. Sorista, Damen, Olaas, and Gonza all materialized on the Poseidon’s bridge after being beamed over from the Galaxy. The first thing that was noticed was how dark the bridge was; most of the lighting was inoperable with the exception of some emergency lighting. Ruptured conduits spewed gas throughout the bridge. The current bridge of the Poseidon was not the original bridge that was installed back when the ship was launched in the late twenty-third century. It was a simplified module, with two sets of doors both port and starboard, one leading to a turbolift,

the other leading to an egress corridor that accessed the rest of deck one. The command chair was at the center of the bridge, though there was no secondary command/seat station for the executive officer or other department head. Behind it was the long tactical console, a more utilitarian design as opposed to the swooping rail that the Galaxy had. The Conn and Ops stations were of the same swing-out design as on the Galaxy though. There were three aft terminals, one for Science, another for Mission Ops, and the final one for Engineering.

The bridge a mess. Fallen girders were present as well as cables that were drooping down from the ceiling. Shrapnel littered the bridge’s deck. Red alert was still flashing on the bridge, indicating that the Poseidon was at red alert when this whole thing hit, which wasn’t surprising. The Science station in the aft had blown out, the Mission Ops terminal was dead, though the Engineering terminal was still flickering, as it was still getting intermittent power. Conn had also blown out, while the Ops station was simply dead, though the tactical station console like the engineering station was still flickering, as though it received intermittent power.

The four of them all activated palm beacon flashlights to allow them to see in this now-poorly lit and wrecked command center. Sorista and Gonza both activated tricorders to receive readings about their surroundings. Damen had one too, as well as a data recording device that he wore over his left shoulder that he would use to tap into the ship’s computer, if it was intact enough. They all had Type II phasers as well in their weapons holsters, though only Olaas had hers drawn out.

Sorista used the hand she was holding her tricorder with to hit her combadge as it activated.

“Galaxy,” said Sorista. “We’re on board. The bridge is heavily damaged. Most of her stations have blown out or are dead.”

“Understood,” said Captain Chandra over her combadge. “Keep an open channel.”

“Over here!” pointed out Lt. Olaas to the body of a Starfleet officer, a human male with short black hair combed back. He had on the rank insignia of a full lieutenant and had a nasty plasma burn on the right part of face as well as shrapnel embedded into him, primarily due to the blown-out science station. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista rushed toward the chief of security’s findings as she waved her tricorder over him.

“He’s dead,” said Sorista. “We’re going to see more like this, unfortunately. Must have been working at the station when it blew out.”

“What’s happening over there?” asked Captain Chandra. “Found a body,” said Sorista. “Probably won’t be the last one

we’ll see. Killed when the science station blew out on him.” “Not surprised,” said Captain Chandra. “Keep me updated.” “You need to see this!” called out Lt. Cmdr. Damen as both

Sorista and Olaas pivoted to face the chief engineer. He was beaming his palm beacon at the body of another officer, lying hear the tactical station. This one was a female officer, an ensign wearing the mustard colored services division Starfleet uniform. She had short black hair and her eyes and mouth were frozen wide open. The reason for it was almost obvious, there was a huge gaping cauterized wound in her chest, deep enough that her heart and some of her lungs were missing. Sorista looked up around the damaged bridge, hoping to catch anything that might have potentially caused the wound before kneeling and scanning the body herself with her tricorder and looking at the readings she was receiving from it.

“Another body,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “According to my readings, it’s as if some kind of superheated object gouged a cavity in her chest, destroying her heart and areas of her chest around it.” “There’s nothing around here that could have caused it,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “Doesn’t look like it was caused by the damage done to the bridge.” “I agree,” said Lt. Olaas as she canvassed the area around the body with her palm beacon. “Could it have been done intentionally?” “I wish I knew,” said Sorista. “It sure looks like it. From the expression on her face when she died, looks like she was quite scared of whatever killed her.” “You are saying it’s possible that someone or something boarded the ship?” asked Captain Chandra over Sorista’s combadge. “I’m not sure,” said Sorista as she looked at her tricorder reading. “The readings register it as a massive plasma burn. While it is possible that it might have been caused by a blown EPS conduit, it sure doesn’t look like it.” “I don’t think it was,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “Here’s another!” called out Lt. Gonza. “And something else!” Sorista rose up again to face the Saurian, who was standing beside the main viewscreen on the bridge, looking at the port side. Lt. Gonza beamed his palm beacon on another body, this one being a Vulcan male in a command division cranberry-colored uniform, with rank pips indicating he was a lieutenant junior grade. His eyes were shut but he had a similar cavity gouged into him, although this one was on his right side a bit below the chest area. This was the exact location of where the Vulcan heart was. But there was more. Next to the body of the

dead Vulcan was a strange foamy liquid substance, sticking to the bulkhead and the deck. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista immediately made her way to the body as well as the foamy substance as she began to scan the body of with the tricorder. “There’s another dead officer on the bridge,” commented Sorista. “A Vulcan male. Same kind of burn wound, as if someone bored a hole into him with some kind of plasma device and destroyed his pulmonary organ. Given the placement of where he was gouged, it seems that something or someone was responsible for the deaths of at least two of the crewmembers here.” “Commander,” said Lt. Olaas. “If those two crewmembers were killed deliberately, it is possible that whoever did it might still be on board.” Sorista turned to Lt. Olaas, knowing she had a point. The death of the Vulcan and the death of the services-division officer they found earlier suggested that this was done by an unknown intelligence; an intelligence that was bent on murdering the Poseidon’s crew. Granted the Galaxy’s sensors didn’t detect any life signs on board the ship, but that didn’t mean the assailant wasn’t on board. Whatever killed them might have a means to elude the Galaxy’s sensor scans. “It’s possible,” said Captain Chandra. “We still have the transporter locks on you, and we’ll be beaming you out at the first sign of trouble. Our sensors detect you as the only four life signs on board, though the assailant might not be detectable to our sensors.” “There’s something else,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she shone her palm beacon on the pink-blue liquid foam substance that was on the bulkhead and the deck. “A strange foam of some kind. My tricorder registers it as some form of bio-polymer, though it can’t fully recognize it. It appears to be inert. I’d like get a sample of it and return it to the Galaxy for further analysis.”

“Agreed,” said Captain Chandra. Lt. Cmdr. Damen headed for the engineering terminal that was still flickering. He placed down his data collection device and used his wrist control to activate his anti-gravity boots as he floated from the deck, so he could reach the control panel – the chair belonging to that station has fallen over. He tried to tap a few controls but all he got were non-responsive buzzes. “The engineering station is inoperative,” said Damen. “Looks like the other bridge terminals are also dead,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista looking at her tricorder. “Galaxy, I’m going to need a substance collector beamed over. I want to get a sample of the bio-polymer residue.” She turned to the other away team members. “Check out the rest of the bridge.” Lieutenant Olaas complied as did Lt. Gonza as they began canvassing the rest of the wrecked bridge of the Poseidon. One thing that managed to stay on the bulkhead was the ship’s original dedication plaque, with the older style Starfleet emblem on it, a general indicator on how old the ship truly was. Olaas beamed her palm beacon beside the Ops console. There lay the captain of the ship, a human male of Asian descent, with the same kind of gaping wound that the Vulcan and the female corpses had. “Commander,” said Olaas. “The captain suffered the same fate. I think we can safely say that something or someone came on board and murdered the crewmembers who didn’t succumb to the ship’s damage.” “Did you get that, Galaxy?” asked Sorista. “I did,” said Captain Chandra. Beside the Shrostian lieutenant commander, cylindrical container that was attached to a substance collection device via flexible tubing materialized, beamed over from the Galaxy.

Sorista wasted no time grabbing the collection device; the combined contraption was reminiscent of certain Earth vacuum cleaners; the collector worked on micro tractor beam technology to grab the substance as she activated it. The micro-tractor beams coming from the collector’s emitter began picking off the liquid substance left on the deck and bulkhead as it travelled through the tubing into the cylindrical sample container. While she was collecting the strange bio-polymer substance, a jolt rocked the bridge. “Does anyone know what that was?” asked Sorista. “Explosive decompression,” said Lt. Gonza looking at the readout from his tricorder. “Three decks down.” At least it wasn’t weapons fire, she thought. Or perhaps the assailant still lurking on board the dead hulk? Already they encountered at least three dead from some sort of plasma-based device that could gouge into people’s bodies as well as a bio-polymer residue that was unusual. It was possible that that the assailant might still be on board, undetectable to the sensors of the Galaxy or by the away team’s tricorders, as Captain Chandra told them. Perhaps the assailant was trying to find its way to the bridge and caused that explosive decompression. Most likely though it was an already stressed area of the hull that gave way. Even so, it did emphasize that the four needed to get done on board the Poseidon before the conditions on board became worse, if what was left of life support failed. At least get off the bridge, if was going to end up becoming exposed to space. “Commander, our sensors are indicating that what’s left of the ship’s hull is starting to give,” said Captain Chandra. “You’ll need to finish what you’re doing over there.” “I know,” said Sorista as she finished collecting the rest of the liquid foam bio-polymer and disengaged the collector device.

“Galaxy, lock onto the collector and sample container and beam it on board.” “Already on it,” said Captain Chandra. The collector device dematerialized before Sorista. “We’re going to need to get to computer core control in order to access the ship’s records,” said Damen. “Let’s get them and get out of here before the rest of this ship decides to fall apart on us,” said Olaas.

CHAPTER THREE Once business was completed on the Poseidon’s bridge, the four away team members proceeded down to the Poseidon’s main computer core, which had the central control area located on deck six on board. The turbolifts on board the wrecked Excelsior-class vessel were inoperable, which wasn’t surprising, so the four had to use the Jefferies Tube network, using the escape hatch ladder on the bridge to descend to deck two, and then accessing the tube network to descend the rest of the way. Fortunately, the vertical Jefferies Tube ladderways were clear, though there were ruptured conduits spewing gas, as Sorista, Damen, Olaas, and Gonza all left the Jefferies Tube network to a short radial corridor. The corridor was lit by emergency lighting as well as the flashing red alert lights. “Computer core should be right up that way,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen pointing to the corridor’s terminus where there were a large set of doors at the entrance.” Another jolt occurred, this one rocking the ship even harder. Immediately, an eruption of sparks occurred in front of them, as two support girders fell obstructing their path. “Hull is buckling in some areas,” said Lt. Gonza looking at the readouts from his tricorder. “Looks like our path is blocked,” said Lt. Olaas noticing the two girders that were now blocking their way through the corridor. Sorista scanned the general vicinity around with her tricorder, in order to get more thorough readings on the surroundings around her and the other three members of her landing party, especially the structural status of what lay ahead

of them. After scanning the area for a few seconds, she folded her tricorder and placed it back in her holster. “Mister Gonza, I’m going to need you,” said Sorista as she placed down her palm beacon on the deck. “You want me to help move those beams?” said Lt. Gonza as he folded up his tricorder as well and placed in his holster for it and placed his palm beacon down and headed up to stand beside them. “Moving these beams shouldn’t affect the surrounding supports,” said Sorista. “I already did a structural scan. You take one and I take one.” “Aye commander,” said the Saurian as both he and Sorista maneuvered their ways as they each grabbed a girder. Shrostians and Saurians were both capable of immense strength that could exceed many times that of a human, allowing them to move objects such as the heavy girders that had fallen in front of them, clearing their way to access the Poseidon’s computer core. They both moved their beams as the sound of metal wrenching could be heard, slowly and carefully so that neither of them would be severely injured. Sorista was able to free her beam from the ceiling from which it fell and threw it down to the deck, as it struck with a loud clank. Gonza did the same with the one he was freeing and there was another loud clank. ‘That should do it,” said Sorista as she rushed back for her palm beacon and picked it up again, as did Lt. Gonza. “What are you waiting for?” The four proceeded carefully through the now-clear corridor, although they had to be careful not to trip over the girders that Sorista and Gonza both freed in order for them to get through. There was another crewmember lying dead, this one being a male Andorian in a mustard colored services division

uniform with a single ensign’s pip. The cause of death of him was obvious: he had a severe electrical burn on his right shoulder, suggesting he was electrocuted by some loose cables that were drooping down from the ceiling that were no longer live, but were when they touched the unfortunate ensign. On the corridor bulkhead across from him was more of the pink-blue foamy substance that they found on the bridge, the strange bio-polymer that Sorista collected a sample of earlier. “More of that foam,” said Lt. Olaas as she beamed her beacon on it. Sorista scanned the liquid foamy substance with her tricorder and turned to the other three members of the away team. “It’s the same kind of bio-polymer we found on the bridge,” said Sorista. “Let’s keep moving.” The corridor led to a small anteroom which had the large doors that led to computer core control. There was another dead crewmember, this one a human female in sciences blue with braided black hair, wearing the rank insignia of a chief petty officer. Her eyes were frozen wide as was her mouth, like the unfortunate female on the bridge, as there was a huge gaping charred cavity in her chest, just like the ones that were present on three of the Poseidon’s bridge crew. “Another one,” said Lt. Olaas. “Whoa,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she beamed her palm beacon on one of the bulkheads – a charred hole large enough for someone to crawl through was bored into it. She immediately pulled out her tricorder with her other hand and flipped it open, activating it and started scanning the charred opening through the bulkhead. “This hole is similar to those unusual hull breaches we found throughout the ship. From the scans, it seems like the

bulkhead was exposed to the same kind of plasma as some of the bodies.” “Meaning what was used to burrow was also was what killed the crewmembers we saw,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “Exactly,” said Sorista as she turned her attention to the doors to the computer core control area and scanned the door. “This door should still work.” The question was, would it really work? Sorista reached for the door controls and used them and sure enough, the door controls responded as the large doors to computer core control opened up. The control center was a large room, as big as the Poseidon’s bridge, with control interfaces around. The ship’s old duotronics computer core was replaced with an isolinear one, the upgrade being most likely done within the past ten years, as Starfleet had been systematically replacing the computer systems on their older ships with newer ones. There were still Starfleet ships in service that had yet to receive this, as there were also Federation facilities that also didn’t undergo this kind of upgrade. There was a table-like setup of four consoles in the center of the room as well as consoles along the bulkheads along with isolinear optical chip racks and another set of large doors that led within the computer core itself. Some of the stations were flickering but some weren’t. There were four dead crewmembers of the ship lying on the deck, killed in the same horrific way as the captain and two of his bridge officers were, as well as the crewman who was killed in the computer core control’s anteroom. “Let’s hope this works,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. Captain Chandra leaned forward in the command chair on the bridge of the Galaxy, as her eyes were fixed on the dead hulk

of the Poseidon, where four of her crew were busy investigating what happened with the ship. Already, the information retrieved by the landing party she had sent over was startling, indicating that an intelligence boarded the ship, probably during the ion storm, and killed the crewmembers on board who didn’t succumb to the damage caused by the storm itself. “Commander Damen is tapping into the computer banks to retrieve the ship’s logs,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista over audio communications channels. “Good,” said Chandra. “As soon as you’re done, I’d like you four back on the ship.” Suddenly, an alarm came from Science I. Chandra turned to the crewmember who was manning it, a sciences division ensign of Earth middle eastern descent for information on it. “Captain, the Poseidon’s hull is beginning to collapse!” reported the ensign. “How long until full structural failure?” asked Chandra. “Minutes,” replied the ensign. The captain turned back to the main viewer and sure enough, there were pieces of the hull that were blowing off. She knew the Poseidon wouldn’t last long, and that she had to get her away team off the dead hulk before the rest of it would finally give out. “Commander Sorista, prepare to return to the Galaxy!” called out Chandra. On board the Poseidon’s computer core control area, Lt. Cmdr. Damen had his data collection device retrieving the logs from the ill-fated starship, as the other three away team members were looking around the damaged computer core control room, using palm beacons to illuminate the area around the poorly lit-

room, otherwise lit only by flickering emergency lighting. Suddenly, the ship lurched again. “What was that?” asked Lt. Olaas. “Structural failure two decks below us!” said Sorista. “We have to get off this hulk soon before it comes apart on us, or least before what’s left of life support completely gives out.” “Not yet, commander,” said Damen as he examined the progress on how the data transfer. “Well get it as soon as you can,” said Sorista. “What’s left of this ship won’t last very long.” Suddenly, an even more violent jolt rocked the dead hulk of the Poseidon. Sorista struggled to maintain her footing, as Lt. Olaas was able to grip the center control console and Lt. Gonza was able to hold onto part of a bulkhead to keep themselves from falling. An explosion of sparks occurred as a girder fell from the ceiling and hit the deck. A sound like a thunderclap could be heard over audio, which caused the captain’s eyes to open wide. “Commander Sorista!” called out Chandra. “Commander Sorista!” A chunk of the hull from the engineering section blew away from the Poseidon, changing the vessel’s drifting trajectory, as could be seen on the main viewer. “That was a big explosive decompression!” called out Sorista. “I saw it too!” said Chandra as she activated the intercom unit. “Captain Chandra to transporter room one! Prepare to beam Commander Sorista and her away team back!” “The damage to the ship is interfering with my transporter lock on them!” said a male voice. “I can’t guarantee it will hold!”

“Commander Sorista you have to come off now!” said Chandra. “Not yet,” said Sorista. “We still don’t have the full logs!” “Damn it commander, the ship you’re on is coming apart at the seams!” called out Chandra. “It’s going to go up and you with it if we don’t beam you out now!” “Commander Damen is almost done,” said Sorista. Suddenly, an explosion occurred in the Poseidon’s saucer section, blowing away a huge chunk of the vessel as the corresponding thunderclap that could be heard through Sorista’s combadge on the speakers on the bridge. That ship was going to blow completely soon. “Captain, the Poseidon will go any minute now!” reported the ensign at Science I. “All right, we got it!” said Sorista. “Beam us aboard!” “Transporter room one, now!” ordered Captain Chandra. “I’m having trouble with the lock,” said the male voice from the officer manning transporter room one. “The damage to the ship is causing interference!” “Get them off!” ordered Chandra. “Trying to,” said the male voice. “Energizing now!”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Peter Preston stood at the transporter controls as he activated the transport sequence. The images of four people appeared on the transporter platform but flickered out, as Preston worked the console to stabilize the transport cycle in order to bring the away team back.

“Transporter room one, do you have them?” asked Captain Chandra over the audio speakers.

“I’m bringing them in now!” said Preston.

Or he hoped. He boosted the gain on the matter stream and narrowed the annular confinement beam to get a better signal with the four of them, as the images on the transport platform stabilized. The readouts confirmed that the transport cycle was now normal, as the transporter effect dissipated, revealing the four people he beamed off. One of them was in the sciences blue division uniform with long blonde hair with blue streaks in it, the other an unusually short person in a mustard uniform, as well as a Saurian also in a mustard uniform, and finally another woman with black hair who also wore the services division mustard uniform. The short officer was carrying a data collection device.

“Bridge, we got them!” said Peterson.

“Shields up!” ordered Chandra without wasting any time when she heard that. The officer manning tactical behind her, a human male of lieutenant junior grade with short brown hair, inputted the commands to activate the Galaxy’s shields. And just in time too; additional explosions started erupting around the vessel as the ship’s hull continued to collapse and blow apart. In only a few seconds, a final explosion was enough to blow apart the rest of the ship into fiery debris, which also lit up the bridge. Two pieces of this debris struck the Galaxy, but the shields protected the vessel from any damage as the ship lurched. “Minimal damage only,” reported the officer at Ops, a female with short boyish blonde hair, wearing an ensign’s pip and a mustard-colored services division uniform.

Captain’s Log Supplemental: We located and investigated the wreck of the Poseidon which was ultimately destroyed by structural failure due to the exposure to the ion storm. We were able to send an away team over there as they retrieved the ship’s logs as well as made

some unusual discoveries, suggesting that an unknown intelligence boarded the vessel and killed the surviving members of the crew. We are now underway to investigate the other recorded ion storm sites. Captain Chandra entered bio-lab five, located on deck twelve on the USS Galaxy, one of the smaller bio-labs on board the vessel. The bio-lab’s main feature was a central table with four consoles around it. Sitting at the center of this table was a sample container with the bio-polymer that the captain’s first officer retrieved from the Poseidon. There was also a terminal with a large viewing screen, along with several smaller bulkhead consoles. Two crewmembers were sitting at the consoles around the table with the bio-polymer sample, two more at smaller bulkhead stations, as Dr. M’Benga himself was at the bridge terminal with the large viewing screen. A quarantine forcefield was erected around the sample container, a precaution should what was brought back prove to be less than docile and less than benign. “Doctor,” said Captain Chandra. Dr. M’Benga turned to the captain. “Ah, captain,” said Dr. M’Benga. “As you can see we’re going over what your away team retrieved from the Poseidon.” “Do you have any information on it?” asked Chandra. “Let’s show you what we have,” said Dr. M’Benga as he turned to the terminal he was standing besides, as he brought up an image showing a very complex molecular structure. “As from the scans that Commander Sorista took, this substance is partly organic. It’s also bonded to neutronium and adamantium, two extremely heavy elements. We tried to compare this substance

with what we have in the library computer, however, there is no such record of this substance.” “You say it’s organic,” said Chandra. “Could it be alive?” Dr. M’Benga shook his head. “From what we have found, it’s entirely inert,” said Dr. M’Benga. “We tried exposing it to various stimuli, such as temperature variations, radiation, air pressure, and other tests. It doesn’t seem to respond. For safety reasons, we’ve put a quarantine field around the sample, just in case something does make it tick.” “I see,” said Chandra. “While I didn’t have any of the bodies that the away team found that were believed to be murdered, I was able to draw some information from the tricorder data retrieved.” “And?” asked Chandra. “The entirety of the cavities that were gouged into them suggests a massive plasma burn,” said Dr. M’Benga. “This was done by some form of plasma-related device that bored into the victims, effectively destroying their hearts and damaging other organs beyond repair. Again, there’s no record of anyone killed due the way these crewmembers were killed. There’s no known weapon capable of inflicting something like this on a living being. Though it definitely points to an unknown intelligence at work.” “Agreed,” said Chandra. “That’s what Commander Sorista said. Well, keep at it and see what you can find.” “Understood,” said Dr. M’Benga. “Do you think this intelligence is also behind the ion storm activity?” “Possible,” said Captain Chandra. “Humanity has been out doing this for what, a little over two centuries? I’d like to believe we’ve hardly scratched the surface yet.”

Meanwhile, Lt. Cmdr. Sorista was on the bridge of the Galaxy. Instead of the command chair or her seat and station besides it, she manned Science I. While the console she preferred to sit at could do most of the scientific functions that were necessary for her to perform her duties, the two aft science stations could give one more comprehensive data and more options. She was going over the logs from the Poseidon with Lt. Cmdr. Damen sitting in a chair beside her at Science II and Lt. Gonza looking on. “All right, looks we got the flight recorder logs fully re-constructed,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Let’s give it a try.” Sorista used the controls on Science I to begin a playback of the bridge flight recorder logs from the ill-fated Poseidon. First the station displayed the UFP emblem as well as the doomed ship’s name and registry number. Then the image cut to the bridge of the ship, which was shown in its intact form as opposed to the heavy damaged it suffered when Sorista and her away team beamed on board her. The first officer recognized the bridge crew, who were dead when they boarded the vessel, but were still alive here. It was a bit unsettling for them to see the last minutes of an entire vessel and their crew laid out before them, but they needed information. A Stardate and time index stamp was shown during the playback as well as USS POSEIDON and NCC-3518. “This doesn’t make sense,” said a male voice which appeared to be from the science officer. “This area of space has none of the conditions necessary for ion storm development.” “Just like our findings,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, quietly. “Are you sure?” asked the captain of the Poseidon who was currently sitting in the bridge’s command chair. “A ship was lost in this area and you’re telling me that there’s no evidence of an ion storm?”

“Evidence yes,” said the science officer. “There are residual ionic particles that are consistent with recent ion storm activity. However, this are of space lacks the conditions necessary for something like this to occur.” “Looks like we’re going to have to do some more extensive scans,” said the captain. “We’re losing ships here and Starfleet wants us to find out the cause of these…” On the playback, an alarm could be heard from the Poseidon’s science terminal. “Captain, sensors detecting multiple…” the science officer was cut off as on the playback, the Poseidon’s bridge began convulsing. “Captain, reading an exponential increase in accelerated ionic particles!” “On screen!” ordered the captain. “It’s an ion storm!” called out the female tactical officer. The bridge was really convulsing now. “Captain, force vibrations are increasing rapidly!” called out the Vulcan flight control officer. “Red alert!” called out the captain as the lights dimmed on the bridge, the klaxons sounded, and the red warning lights flashed to indicate that the vessel was now on red alert. “Helm, try to get us out of here!” The Poseidon continued to rock violently indicating that the ship was being buffeted by forces that were continuing to strengthen. “Helm is going unresponsive,” said the Vulcan helm officer as he was attempting to steer the doomed ship out of the newly formed ion storm. “Attitude control is failing, as are inertial dampeners!” “Ion storms don’t normally form that quickly,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen.

“No, they don’t,” said Sorista as she, Damen, and Gonza continued to watch the playback of the Poseidon’s final plight. “Hull stress is exceeding tolerance!” called out the officer at Ops, a dark-skinned human male. “It won’t be long until the hull begins to buckle under the stress!” “I cannot stabilize her!” called out the Vulcan helm officer. “We are being buffeted by magnetic shear!” “Captain,” reported the science officer. “Sensors are detecting small objects, they appear to be in direct contact with…” On the playback, Sorista, Damen, and Gonza could see the science station blow out and throw the science officer to the deck, the means consistent with how the three found their body on board the ship when she was reduced to the hulk they found her in. Three extremely violent jolts occurred on the bridge one which threw the Ops officer out of his seat and the tactical officer to lose her footing. Eruptions of sparks occurred on the bridge as suddenly, the playback stopped, once again showing the UFP emblem. “I guess that’s it,” said Damen. “It’s almost as if the ion storm formed right on top of them,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “And it strengthened rapidly.” “How about the sensor logs?” asked the Saurian Ops officer who was standing beside Damen who was seated. “Well let’s find out,” said Sorista as she inputted a number of commands into the Science I terminal as the image switched from the UFP emblem to a 3-D box image. In the center of this box was a 3-D representation of the USS Poseidon, with the name and registry number beside it. “Let’s see what happened.” On the sensor log playback, it seemed like it was business as usual for the Poseidon. Sorista played the sensor log back at the

same time index as the flight recorders so things could instantly play out. Suddenly, a swarm of small icons surrounded the image of the Poseidon, as the sensors began picking up the excited ionic particle increase. “Hold on,” said Sorista as she imputed a command to stop the log playback and began reversing it, stepping back to right before the ion particles around the Poseidon increased dramatically, and then paused it completely where the unknown sensor readings surrounded the ship. “Didn’t their science officer report that multiple anomalous readings shortly before the storm took effect?” asked Gonza. “He did,” said Sorista as she inputted more commands into the Science I console. “I’m trying to cross-reference these anomalous readings with our memory banks, maybe there’s something in there on what these are.” “A long shot,” said Damen. The display in front of Sorista focused on one of the anomalous readings as the computer began cross-referencing it with any known spatial phenomena. Unfortunately, there was no match with anything on records. “As I thought,” said Sorista as she inputted more commands into the console. “Let’s see what our computer makes these out to be. Are they vessels of some kind? Probes?” The Galaxy’s computer system went over the Poseidon’s scans of the anomaly. However, unfortunately, the computer determined the scans to be inconclusive. “So much for that,” said Damen. “Another long shot,” said Sorista. “All right, let’s began playback again.”

Sorista re-started the playback as the storm formed around the Poseidon. She then paused it again once the storm was fully around the vessel and buffeting it. “Computer,” said Sorista. “Between the time indices I’ve inputted, has there been any ion storm that has formed in the timespan that is the difference between these time indices?” “Negative,” said the computer. “All right,” said Sorista. “Compare this record with our memory banks. How fast was the development of this ion storm compared to previous ion storms on record? Compare with the fastest rate. How fast did this storm develop compared to that one?” “Two thousand six times,” said the computer. Two-thousand six times? Commander Sorista thought. There was almost no warning about when the storm developed, and it developed at a rate that many would consider initially to be impossible, though the Poseidon’s sensor logs stated otherwise. “Maybe something with the ships themselves may have caused it,” said Damen. “I know it’s far-fetched but there have been preliminary studies that suggest that warp drive has a negative impact on subspace. Granted the studies are in their early stages and very hypothetical.” “Ion storms developing that fast,” said Sorista. “I wonder if those anomalous readings they got only a few seconds before may have had something to do with it. I don’t think these storms are a naturally occurring phenomenon.” “Artificial?” asked Lt. Gonza. “Everything suggests this being by design,” said Sorista. “All right, we need to go through the rest of the playback.” Sorista re-started playback as the sensor playback showed the storm around the Poseidon as well as the damaged the vessel

sustained. That part was normal enough. However, suddenly, small icons appeared around the icon of the Poseidon. “Pause,” said Sorista as the playback paused. “The flight recorder log did say something got into direct contact with their shields,” said Damen. “Right,” said Sorista as she inputted commands into the science console to analyze the readings that the Poseidon took that were in direct physical contact with the ship’s deflector shields. The monitor indicated that the objects appeared to be emitting some form of plasma. “They were emitting plasma!” “The readings we obtained from the Poseidon do suggest that a plasma-based device was used to tunnel through the hull and bulkheads of the ship, as well as kill many of the crew,” said Lt. Gonza. “Exactly,” said Sorista as she inputted a few more commands into the science station. “I’m going run a correlation between this anomaly and the ones the Poseidon detected shortly before the storm formed on top of them.” Once the Shrostian first officer was done inputting the parameters, the computer display switched comparing the anomalous readings. The Science I display showed a list of the correlations between that anomaly and the other ones. All of them were at least roughly ninety percent or more. “Those are awfully high degrees of correlation,” said the diminutive chief engineer of the Galaxy. The aft port turbolift doors opened as Captain Chandra came out. Sorista turned to notice her. “Captain on the bridge!” said Sorista. “As you were,” said the captain. “Have you made any progress?”

“We have,” nodded Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “To give you the brief information, the storm that wrecked and ultimately destroyed the Poseidon formed right on top of her, at a rapid rate that has never been recorded for ion storm development. According to the ship’s logs, the vessel encountered anomalous readings right before the storm formed, and extremely similar readings again of objects that were in direct contact with the ship’s shields. These objects were emitting plasma – as you know we have found that plasma-based equipment was used to bore through the Poseidon’s hull and kill a good portion of her crew. I have reason to believe these ion storms are not a naturally-occurring phenomenon, that they’re being artificially produced.” “Something that can do that would be well beyond our technology,” said Captain Chandra. “I know,” said Sorista. “I’d like to know more about this,” said Captain Chandra. “We could be looking at a dire threat to the Federation, and we need to inform Starfleet.”

CHAPTER FOUR Captain Chandra was sitting in her ready room on board the USS Galaxy, her personal space that was just off the main bridge. When she needed some time away from the crew, like most captains did, she would be present here. The ready room’s bulkheads were padded with blue-green fabric, similar to the upholstery on the main bridge. On her desk was a desk terminal, along with an intercom unit like the ones that were in the briefing lounge, and a model of her previous command, the USS Vimy Ridge: NCC-40917, a Renaissance-class cruiser, which she had been offered command of thirteen years before and commanded her before Starfleet believed she was ready for the Galaxy. Her desk had two additional chairs along with a couch at opposite end, which a larger viewer, which was currently showing ship deployments in the area of space they were currently in. Between the couch was a book rack full of old-style paper-and-bound books that had been kept around. Present off to the side was a set of golf clubs, since the captain enjoyed the Earth sport of golf. There was also plant life present. Behind her was a portrait of her great-great grandfather, Kabir Chandra, who was a decorated Starfleet officer of the twenty-third century wearing his dress uniform from the late 2260’s. Beside the portrait on a table was a model of his command, the USS Essex: NCC-1697, one of the Constitution-class vessels to grace Starfleet in the twenty-third century. There were also several plants that the captain had to help decorate her ready room. Presently, she leaned over the table to her active terminal, as she was talking with Admiral Haden at Starbase 88 over subspace channels about her crew’s recent findings regarding the ion storm in the Hebridean Sector.

“I’ve talked with others at Starfleet Command and they agree,” said Admiral Haden. “Your findings are quite alarming. Many of them fear that what’s happening in the sector may be a prelude to an invasion. We’ll continue the essential-travel only restrictions in the Hebridean Sector. A few have considered evacuating the worlds as well as our facilities in the sector, but that will take time. Starbases and outposts in sectors adjoining yours as well as starships will be placed under full alert.” “You believe this could spread?” asked Chandra. “We’re not sure,” said Admiral Haden. “ But we must prepare for…” Suddenly, the image of the admiral became distorted, as if something was interfering with the subspace transmission. “Admiral, your message is breaking up!” called out Chandra. The image became even more distorted as the captain could barely make out the image of the admiral on the terminal’s viewer. In seconds, the screen went to the UFP emblem and the message “TRANSMISSION TERMINATED” in flashing red. She was about to call the bridge when the ship lurched. Immediately, the lights dimmed in the ready room, as the klaxons sounded, and the red alert warning lights flashed to indicate the Galaxy was now on red alert. The intercom sounded. “Bridge to captain,” said Sorista over the intercom. “Captain we need you on the bridge!” Captain Chandra was already on her feet when her first officer gave her the notification, knowing that something was amiss. She rushed for the doors to the main bridge as they slid open, revealing that the bridge’s overhead lights had dimmed to a dim blue, the red warning lights were going off as well as the klaxon. Sorista was in her typical seat at her typical station that was to the command chair’s left. Olaas was at tactical, Motylla

was at Conn, and Gonza was at Ops, as the five aft stations were also manned. “Report!” called out Captain Chandra before the first officer could signal to the rest that the captain was preset on the bridge. “We have a subspace distortion interfering with our warp drive,” said Sorista. Chandra made her way to the command chair as the bridge convulsed again. “I recommend we take the ship out of warp!” said Gonza. “The distortions…” Another nasty jolt occurred, this one made the captain fall into her chair as she was trying to get seated, as her hip struck the right armrest of the chair, making her feel sore, as she eased her way into the chair. “We’re not going to survive many more of these!” reported Sorista. “Helm!” ordered Chandra. “Bring us out of warp, slow to impulse power! Commander Sorista, scanners full on! I want to know what’s going on out there!” “Slowing to impulse captain!” reported Lt. Motylla as the sound of the warp drive powering down could be heard on the bridge. “Load torpedo bays and ready phasers!” ordered Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Aye,” said Lt. Olaas as she inputted commands into the tactical console to arm the ship’s weapon systems. “Phaser arrays ready, photon torpedo bays are arming now!” “Captain!” reported Sorista. “Sensors report numerous anomalies! They seem to be moving in position to surround the ship!”

Anomalies, Captain Chandra thought. This is what the Poseidon encountered right before the ion storm formed. “Do they correlate with the ones…” Captain Chandra couldn’t continue as the ship began convulsing, this time it was continuous. Sorista knew what this was, this was exactly what the Poseidon encountered before the ion storm that formed that enveloped them. The main viewer showed the starfield slowly being replaced by tendrils of energy as well as accelerated particles in a blue/violet pattern. “Ionic particles have increased by a factor of ten thousand!” reported Sorista. “And are increasing! It’s an ion storm!” “Helm, try to get us out!” ordered Captain Chandra. Lt. Motylla fumbled with the flight controls as she attempted to navigate the Galaxy out of this new rapidly-formed ion storm. “I’m trying captain!” reported Lieutenant Motylla as the consistent convulsing of the Galaxy became more and more violent and unbearable. “She’s fighting!” A violent thunderclap could be heard as there was a brief split second where the shaking became extremely violent. “That was an ion bolt!” reported Sorista. Captain Chandra struggled to activate the intercom to engineering. She was able to activate the control. “Engineering, I need more power to structural integrity and shields!” Main Engineering, located on deck thirty-six of the Galaxy, was just as chaotic as on the bridge. Lt. Cmdr. Damen was manning one of the stations in his office that had a transparent partition that looked over the warp core, though he was looking

at readouts at what the ion storm was putting the Galaxy through. “We’re trying to bring the fusion generators under surge control!” said Damen. “However, this storm is continuing to intensify!” “Well try to run them directly off the warp drive if you can!” called out Captain Chandra. “Aye!” called out Damen as he turned to Lieutenant Junior Grade Preston. “Mister Preston, initiate warp transfer pathways! Let’s see if we can run structural integrity and the shields directly off!” “Doing so!” said Lt. Preston as he struggled to input the commands into his console to allocate the power generated from the Galaxy’s warp core into the shield grid and to the vessel’s structural integrity field. Damen glanced at the monitor at the power allocation between the Galaxy’s main systems and sure enough, it was showing that the warp power was being channeled into the shield grid as well as the structural integrity field, providing them with more power. “All right!” said Damen. “You have additional power, but I can’t guarantee that it will hold up against this storm! I may be able to increase warp core output, but we could risk a warp core breach here!” Back on the bridge, the ship was still convulsing violently due to the ion storm. “The warp power is re-enforcing the structural integrity and shields!” reported Lt. Gonza. “However, I doubt it’s going to be able to last long against this!”

The bridge continued juddering violently under the stress of the ion storm that had formed around the Galaxy, as the red alert klaxons continued to wail as red alert continued to flash relentlessly on the bridge. “We’re losing inertial dampeners!” reported Lt. Motylla. “Attitude control is also failing! I don’t think I’ll be able to compensate here!” “Storm intensity’s increase has stopped!” reported Sorista looking at the readouts from her console. “Looks like it’s as strong as it’s going to get!” “We’re not going to be able to survive this long if it keeps up like this!” called out the Saurian Ops officer. “Hull stress is still well beyond tolerance levels! We’re looking at structural failure if this continues!” “I’m unable to navigate us out!” reported Lt. Motylla as she fumbled with the helm controls trying to steer the ship out of the newly formed hazard. “I can’t fight the magnetic shear of this storm!” Was this it? Was the Galaxy going to become yet another casualty of this unknown intelligence, if it was conjuring up these ion storms. While it was good news that the storm’s intensity had reached its peak, it was staying at its peak and there was no telling how long it would last. Another violent shake occurred, most likely from the hit from an ion bolt. “Direct hit!” reported Lt. Gonza. “Casualty reports coming on decks six, eight, nine, fourteen, and thirty-one! Our shields will not hold against many more of those!” “Captain!” reported Sorista. “Shields are registering direct contact with…something.” “I see it too!” said Lt. Olaas, struggling to hold onto the tactical console. “Shields are registering multiple contact points.

Seems like multiple objects are directly in contact! Whatever it is, it appears to be weakening our shields!” Captain Chandra couldn’t sit by and do nothing. She had seen first-hand the flight recorder of what happened to the Poseidon. Helm control was out, and they couldn’t escape. Her ship was still being rocked by the ion storm that was threatening to tear it apart. Would phasers have an effect? “Do we still have phasers?” asked Captain Chandra. “Yes we do,” said Lt. Olaas. “But I can’t imagine what you…” “Target whatever is in contact with our shields!” ordered Captain Chandra. “Aye, but computer target lock is…” said Olaas. “Then go manual!” ordered Chandra. “Aye!” said Olaas as she struggled to use the manual targeting with the phasers. “Ready to fire on your command!” “Fire!” ordered Chandra. Olaas activated the control to fire the phasers. A stream of phaser fire originated from the Galaxy’s ventral saucer phaser array, supposedly aimed at one of the objects that was in direct contact with the starship’s shields. “Captain, the storm’s intensity had just decreased five percent!” reported Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Phasers must be having an effect!” Five percent still wasn’t enough though, the storm’s intensity was still more than enough to tear the ship apart if gone unchecked. However, a sense of hope came right back into the captain as well as the first officer. The captain of the Poseidon never thought of using his ship’s phasers. However, the Poseidon was not as strong a ship as the Galaxy was and her weapons may have been already rendered useless. The ship continued to

convulse violently as Chandra had to continue gripping the armrests of her chair as tightly as she could in order not to fall off it. “Target another one and fire!” ordered Captain Chandra. Olaas activated the ship’s phasers again as the main dorsal saucer phaser array came to life, firing a stream of phaser fire at one of the other targets. Since they were close-by, Lt. Olaas, despite being tossed around by the buffeting that the ion storm was putting out, didn’t have that much trouble targeting them. “Again!” ordered Chandra. Olaas fired the phasers again, this time the phaser fire was from the phaser array on the port nacelle pylon. The convulsing, while still violent, became noticeably weaker. “Storm is continuing to weaken!” reported Sorista. “Keep targeting and firing phasers!” ordered Chandra. She knew that even though what they were doing was having an effect, it was possible that with the damage the ship sustained, the phasers could give out, and it would also be possible for whatever was attacking the ship to strike back with even greater force and destroy the ship and everyone on board. It was now or never. The phasers kept firing whatever was in contact with the shields. “Some of the objects have moved away from our shields!” stated Sorista as the violent convulsing of the Galaxy subsided even more. “We’re doing it!” “Keep it coming!” ordered Chandra. “Target those anomalous readings!” And Lt. Olaas responded as the phasers on the Galaxy still blazed on, firing in all directions, as the ship and crew fended themselves off from the threat that was attempting to destroy her.

“Hull stress decreasing!” reported Lt. Gonza. The phasers on the starship continued to fire in all directions, as the tremors continued subsiding even further. Some of the phaser fire could be seen on the main viewer being fired off at various areas. “Keep those phasers firing!” said Sorista. “I’m not holding back!” said Lt. Olaas as she kept inputting the commands into her console for the Galaxy’s phasers to fire in all directions. While the ship’s convulsing due to being buffeted by the magnetic forces of the ion storm were subsiding, they were still severe and uncomfortable. On the main viewer, the storm was subsiding even further, the storm being replaced by the stars that had been replaced by the storm beforehand, with streams of phaser fire also gracing the viewer, that the Galaxy was firing at whatever these anomalous objects were that they had detected. “The storm is still continuing to dissipate!” said Sorista. “Helm control is coming back!” reported Motylla. “Phasers maintain firing!” ordered Chandra. “Maintaining!” said Olaas. By now, the convulsing had weakened enough that Chandra didn’t need to grip so tightly onto the armrests on her command chair. She watched as what was left of the ion storm continued to disappear on the main viewer. “We’re nearly there!” reported Sorista looking at the sensor readings from her console. “Keep it going, Lieutenant Olaas!” reported Chandra. The phaser fire from the Galaxy was still visible on the screen as what was left of the storm disappeared, as what was shown on the viewer was what was shown before the storm began, just a star-field.

“Inertial dampeners and attitude control are coming back,” said Lt. Motylla. “Ion storm activity has ceased!” reported Sorista. “Cease firing!” ordered Captain Chandra as Lt. Olaas responded by no longer firing the ship’s phasers. There were some strange small objects swimming across the main viewer, very unusual. Were they ships? Or were they something else? “What are those?” asked Chandra. “They’re the same anomalous readings we detected before we got caught up in the storm,” said Sorista. “And what was in contact with our shields. I’m unable to discern clear readings from them.” “Lock onto one of them and magnify,” said the captain. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista inputted the commands in her console as a crosshair appeared, targeting one of the “swimming” objects and grew, with the object in question as the sensors now followed it. It was the shape of a humanoid, a bipedal humanoid, not unlike the humans themselves. It was lavender in color as it swam across space almost like swimming underwater. It was a slender body, with hands that appeared web as were the feet. There appeared to be scaled streaks along the creature’s legs and hips. “Impossible!” said Lt. Olaas. Captain Chandra got up from the command chair and glanced at it as the creature suddenly let loose a flash and then sped out of sight, it looked very much like a ship activating its warp drive. “Did that just go into warp?” asked Lt. Motylla. “It did,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Most of the others are withdrawing and entering warp in the same fashion.”

“Incredible,” said Chandra. “No need of a space vessel, no need of an environmental suit from the looks of things. Just swimming amongst the cosmos from one place to another.” “The knowledge necessary to do that must be well beyond our understanding,” said Sorista. “Agreed,” said Chandra. Sorista turned back to her console which was still feeding her sensor data from the anomalous readings and reviewed them, knowing that every bit of data would be crucial for studying this new alien species. One of the main goals of Starfleet was to seek out new life and new civilizations, and what they found most definitely qualified as such. But it was also quite disturbing. These aliens had proven to be hostile, in both wrecking and killing the crew of the Poseidon, and attempting to do the same with the Galaxy. “I have two more readings,” said Sorista. “They’re not veering off, but drifting in space. They’re both beside each other.” “Put them on main viewer,” said Chandra. Sorista responded to the captain’s commands as the viewer switched to two more of these unusual aliens. As what the lieutenant commander said, they were drifting in space, motionless. She decided to look at the sensor data coming from them as well, wondering if it’s possible that they were dead, or close to it, as she inputted some commands to superimpose the sensor readings from the objects over the viewscreen image. An alarm came from the first officer’s console as she addressed it. “I’m detecting what appears to a chemical reaction from one of them,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. On the main viewer, one of the two drifting creatures started to appear to emit foam substance from its body, as the substance spread through the vacuum of space, with the sensor

readings from the being that was undergoing the chemical reaction going erratic. “What’s happening?” asked Lt. Olaas. “I’m not certain,” said Sorista looking at the sensor readings from her console. “But it appears the body is…it’s dissolving!” More of the foam came from the body as the body itself shrank. The other body was still drifting intact, however the dissolving body continued to emit more if this foam substance. “What’s it dissolving into?” asked Chandra. “I’m running an analysis on it now,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she programmed the computer to cross-reference the substance with what was on file. “The readings correspond with the bio-polymer we found on board the Poseidon.” “If that’s right,” said Lt. Olaas. “Then what we encountered over there was the remains of one of these.” “Could be their way of decomposing,” said Lt. Gonza. “That’s awfully fast for decomposition,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “And in the vacuum of space. Maybe it’s a type of self-destruct.” “What about the other one?” asked Chandra. “Any signs that it’s going through the same reaction?” On the main viewer, the dissolving body now completely dissolved into this “space foam” substance while the other one continued to drift. “I’m getting faint energy readings from it,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “It may be still alive. We could bring it on board captain, and study it.” “I’m not sure,” said Lt. Olaas. “We’ve seen what they’re capable of, and what they did to a number of the Poseidon’s crew. If I were that being, I might not like being taken on board.”

“True,” said Sorista. “However, at the moment, their race is a threat to not just us, not just to the sector, but potentially to the entire Federation. I think we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with here.” “Agreed,” said Captain Chandra to Sorista. “Commander Sorista, you will make arrangements to beam whatever that is out there on board to one of our bio-labs.” She turned to Lt. Olaas. “And Lieutenant Olaas, you will arrange for tight security of the bio-lab. As you’ve said, the creature may pose a threat on board, and you will arrange for a full security detail to be present.” “Understood,” said Lt. Olaas. Captain Chandra then turned to Lt. Gonza. “Lieutenant Gonza, get me through to Starfleet Command,” said Chandra. “I want to report on what we just encountered.” “I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” said Gonza. “Our subspace communication system has been damaged. We cannot send or receive any kind of subspace transmission.” “All right then,” said Chandra. “I’ll have Damen work on the comm system. Meanwhile, it’s time we find out what exactly we’re dealing with here.”

CHAPTER FIVE Captain’s Log Stardate 37090.4: The Galaxy has encountered one of these ion storms in the Hebridean Sector. As suspected, these ion storms are not naturally occurring phenomena but the product of some unknown humanoid race that has the ability to travel through space without the needs of a space vessel. We’ve sustained considerable damage from the ion storm, among our damaged systems is our subspace communications, as we are unable to send a warning to Starfleet Command about what we’ve encountered. Lieutenant Commander Sorista and Dr. M’Benga have both prepped one of our bio-labs for analysis of one of these creatures who didn’t withdraw from our vicinity with the others. I know it’s a risk letting this creature on board, however, we must know more about this threat to not only the Hebridean Sector, but the entire United Federation of Planets. Casualties on board the ship were limited to injuries and no fatalities, which is a relief to some extent. Captain Chandra stepped into Bio-Lab one on board the Galaxy, located on Deck twelve. Bio-lab one was a considerably larger lab than the one she was in earlier. To her right was a bio-bed that was often used for surgical procedures and behind that was a large viewing screen. On the other side of this examination bed/table was a raised area which had a long control console where Lt. Cmdr. Sorista and Dr. M’Benga both stood, and behind them was an area raised higher with additional computer terminals, manned by scientific and medical personnel. Opposite where the captain entered was another set of doors where Lt. Olaas and security personnel stood. Sorista turned to the captain to give her report.

“Ah captain,” said Sorista. “We’re about to beam the alien on board.” “Computer,” said Dr. M’Benga. “Initiate level three quarantine field around the bio-examination table.” A forcefield snapped into place around the examination table in front of the viewer. “Quarantine field activated,” said the computer, in its stoic female voice. “All right,” said Sorista as she touched a control on the console that both she and the chief medical officer stood at. “Transporter room one, we’re ready for transport.” “Understood,” said a male voice. “Establishing lock now.” “Engage transport,” said Dr. M’Benga. The sound of the transporter could be heard as the creature began to materialize on the examination bed ion the bio-lab. The transporter beam dissipated, revealing the violet-colored humanoid shape that had materialized in the bed, within the quarantine field. Immediately, Lt. Cmdr. Sorista activated the viewer which the examination table was in front of, which focused on the creature so that one could actively see the features. Sure enough, it was definitely some kind of humanoid life form, with hair that appeared to be a neon pink color. The skin was a dark shade of lavender and was shiny and sparkly in some areas. The head had the usual two eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, although the ears were webbed, more like ears on a Tiburon than on a human. The shape of the body suggested this was a female gender, although for all they knew this could be an alien species that did not have any genders. The aliens’ breasts appeared to be covered with a type hard material, that was colored of a dark shiny bronze, with smaller pieces of the same material covering up the rest of her torso and around its pelvic region, almost like

scales, possibly a form of clothing. The arms were human looking, in the same kind of shiny/sparky lavender skin, but were most known for their webbed hands, although there were also the same kind of “scales” along a streak in the creature’s arms. The same kind of “scales” appeared to run along down the creature’s legs down to its webbed feet. “Incredible,” said Lt. Olaas looking at the viewscreen image of the alien. “There are no records of such an alien in our records,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she turned to Dr. M’Benga. “Let’s start out with a series of passive scans and work our way from there.” “Right,” said Dr. M’Benga as he activated the sensors on the examination bed on a passive scan level. Passive scans were less intrusive than active scans, and there was no telling what might happen if the creature was exposed to an active scan, if the creature did have any kind of reaction to such a scan. “Beginning passive scans.” The image on the viewer switched to an outline of the creature that was brought on board with sensor data being displayed at the bottom right and bottom left. The anatomy of the creature started to fill in. “Definitely a biological being of some kind,” said Dr. M’Benga as he was looking at the readouts from the console he and the first officer was manning. “I am getting life readings from it on a low level. Possibly the creature is unconscious.” The sensors were able to detect and make out most of the alien’s biological anatomy. The heart of the alien was lower than that would be in humans but in the center, with what appeared to a quad-lung respiratory configuration, which was a bit baffling to the captain since this alien was able to function out in space.

“Looks like the alien breathes a similar nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere like most other humanoids we’ve encountered,” commented Dr. M’Benga. “How’s it able to breathe out in space?” asked Lt. Olaas. “Not certain,” said Dr. M’Benga. “There are energy readings coming from the body,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she changed the scans of the body. “Multiple ones. They’re faint but I can ascertain the sources.” The sensor imaging showed where the signatures were coming form, they were in the same place as those strange scale-like features from the alien. “These features are not biological,” said Dr. M’Benga. “They’re implants!” “Implants?” asked Captain Chandra. “I would agree,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “The makeup appears to be a combination of both neutronium and adamantium. Far beyond our technology. There appear to be tiny processing units in each implant.” “Neutronium and adamantium,” said Dr. M’Benga. “Those are the same elements present in that bio-polymer that you brought back from Poseidon.” “Maybe when they’re dead,” said Sorista. “The implants react with the body, creating that ‘space foam’ that they dissolve into.” The viewer showed the implants as well as tendrils that extended throughout the body where there were no visual implants were present. “Looks like they’re intertwined with the rest of the body,” said Captain Chandra. “Agreed,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Cybernetics, but not as we’ve seen before. This being is part biological organism, and part

machine, for the lack of a better term. The machine part possibly regulates the body, maybe is programmed to allow the organism to function in outer space and sustain it in the vacuum. It would take a long time to fully understand and study this kind of technology. Decades perhaps, maybe even centuries.” “We do know of some races that augment their abilities with machines,” said Captain Chandra. “The Bynars for one.” “This is far more advanced than theirs,” said Sorista. “The implants have tendrils that seem to network the creatures’ bodily functions, including the brain.” “How could they navigate through space?” asked Lt. Olaas. “My guess is their interconnection with the technological devices they’re implanted with,” said Sorista. “Kind of an interaction between biological being and machine.” “How could these aliens then conjure up those ion storms?” asked Lt. Olaas. “The implants also seem to stimulate the brain,” said Sorista. “Most biological beings we use only use a fraction of their brain’s potential. Increase it, and one’s capable of more. We’ve already encountered beings capable of telekinesis. Perhaps these aliens use their telekinetic abilities to conjure these storms. The same implants might also be used to allow them to communicate with each other, possible a sort telepathy.” “Telepathy?” asked Captain Chandra. “And telekinesis? If so, then fabricating an ion storm like that must take extensive mental coordination.” “Exactly,” said Dr. M’Benga. “That also may explain why the beings fled when you opened fire on them. It’s quite possible the phaser fire killed many of them, and that disrupted the aliens’ coordination maintaining the conditions for the ion storm. It’s

also possible some of them suffered shock – shock that was fatal to one and may have knocked the one we have here unconscious.” “Can we treat the alien?” asked Captain Chandra. “Not certain,” said Dr. M’Benga. “While there are similarities with other humanoid life forms, there is still so much we don’t know. I’m not sure what we use for treatments will do to this one. It could be fatal to the creature.” One race’s medicine was another race’s poison, thought Captain Chandra as she glanced at the viewer that the examination bed/table that the alien rested in stood in front of. There was no telling what could happen if they tried to treat it. This was undoubtedly a first contact situation with an unknown life form, and she didn’t want to do anything to harm the unknown patient’s health, unless of course it tried to go after the ship and crew. “Captain,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Recommend we now switch to active scans.” “Considering the creature’s mental abilities,” said Captain Chandra. “The alien might very well respond to an active scan.” “I know,” said Sorista. “But we will need active scans to know more about this alien.” “Very well,” said Chandra. “Lieutenant Olaas, get ready.” “Yes captain,” said Lt. Olaas as she pulled her Type II phaser out of her holster and gestured to her other security staff to surround the examination bed in case the active scan would make the alien tick. “Normally I wouldn’t like to do that,” said Captain Chandra. “However, these beings were responsible for the destruction of one our ships and the deaths of her crew. Set your phasers for maximum stun.”

“A stun setting might not work against the creature,” said Lt. Olaas. “I know,” said Chandra. “But I will only consider killing the creature as a last resort.” “Understood,” said the Elasian security chief, albeit with some reluctance in her voice. The captain could understand her caution, after all, if this creature did wake, chances are, it wouldn’t be very pleasant. “All right,” said the Shrostian first officer as she inputted commands in the console she stood behind. “Switching to active scans now!” An alarm came from the console as Dr. M’Benga responded it. “I’m reading an increase in cardiovascular and respiratory activity!” reported Dr. M’Benga. “Neurological activity is also increasing!” Sorista switched to an overhead image of the alien on the viewer as the alien’s eyes flipped open wide. A split second later, the creature was jerking its legs and arms against the restraining forcefield placed over the examination bed as a precaution. It started making noises from her mouth, noises similar to Earth crows cawing. “What’s happening?” asked Chandra. “The alien has regained consciousness!” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Sounds like the alien isn’t too happy about being restrained!” said Lt. Olaas as she had her phaser trained on the examination bed, ready to shoot the creature should it somehow break free of the restraining forcefield and the quarantine field around the examination bed.

The cawing continued as Lt. Cmdr. Sorista glanced at the creature. “It’s terrified!” commented Sorista. “It might be trying to say something!” said Captain Chandra. “Sorista, is there any way you can adjust the universal translator to determine what this alien is trying to communicate?” “I’m on it!” said Sorista as she turned away from the console she was standing behind and gestured to one of the science personnel at one of the stations behind her as he left and Sorista took over as she began to use the terminal. “All right, I’m going to calibrate the universal translator, maybe figure out what this creature is saying.” “Doctor, what’s the alien’s vitals?” asked Chandra. “Body activity has gone up considerably,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I’m reading a huge chemical increase in her body, similar to adrenaline. Quite possibly a fight or flight response!” “Commander Sorista!” called out Chandra. “The translator?” “Still on it,” said Sorista as she frantically tried to adjust the universal translator to translate the alien’s cawing into something that the crewmembers in the lab could understand. The creature still struggled against the forcefield, as it then forced its web hands against the restraining field as an energy surge came from both hands which caused a flash of light and the sound of the forcefield failing. The alien then sprang out of the bed and stood on her two webbed feet on the deck. “It broke free of the restraining forcefield!” said Lt. Olaas. “The quarantine field might not be strong enough to hold it!” “I got it!” said Sorista. Instead of caws, the crewmembers started hearing what the creature was saying in their own language, as the computer translated it to their language.

“Barbarians!” called out a loud high-pitched female voice, coming from the creature. “You will pay for this!” Captain Chandra had to step in on this. Now they were able to communicate with this alien, and she needed to gain an audience with it to gain understanding. “Life form,” said Captain Chandra, not knowing what exactly to call the alien creature, so she chose a common point of reference that she thought would be the least insulting to the alien. “Do you understand me?” The creature tried to press its hands against the forcefield as some greenish glow impacted it. “Quarantine field is weakening!” said Dr. M’Benga. “Can you divert more power to it?” asked Captain Chandra. “Doing so,” said Dr. M’Benga as he inputted the commands into the console to increase the power to the quarantine field. “Life form!” called out Captain Chandra as she put her hands in a peaceful gesture. “We mean you no harm! We have no intention of hurting you!” “Lies!” called out the alien. “You kidnapped me! You’re tormenting me!” “That was not the intent!” called out Captain Chandra as she turned to her chief of security. “Lower your weapons.” “Captain?” asked Lt. Olaas with a surprised gesture. “Are you…” “Lower them now, that’s a direct order!” called out Chandra. “Aye,” said Lt. Olaas as she and the rest of the security staff lowered their phasers and no longer had them trained against the strange alien who was trying to break free of the quarantine field that she was placed in. Captain Chandra turned back to the alien being as the alien continued to press against the quarantine forcefield.

“Captain that forcefield is going to fail!” reported Dr. M’Benga. “Please!” said Captain Chandra. “Stop this. We have no intention of harming you, we never did. You appeared injured. We brought you on board to treat you, nurse you back to health.” “You killed our kind!” called out the alien. “You murdered us!” “You’ve been attacking our ships,” said Captain Chandra. “Killing our people. You tried to attack this ship you’re on now and tried to kill all of us. Most of us share a want for self-preservation. We had to defend ourselves. I regret this led to the death of some of your species. But you gave us no choice! Why do you attack us? We would not have harmed you if you hadn’t attacked us in the first place!” The creature removed its hands from pushing against the quarantine field. “How should I trust you?” asked the alien. “Because I’m willing to let you go,” said Captain Chandra. “In exchange for your word that you will not harm any of my crew, as well as the reason for your race destroying our ships.” “You would let me go willingly?” asked the alien. “Absolutely,” said Captain Chandra. “The people on this ship are explorers. We seek to expand our knowledge and better ourselves. We have no intention of kidnapping any of your kind.” “Then why were our S’ram’s daughters captured by your people?” asked the alien. “They were in this area, travelling with no intention of harm, only to be kidnapped.” “Wait,” said Lt. Olaas. “You’re saying our people kidnapped yours?” Lt. Cmdr. Sorista headed up to Lt. Olaas. “Are you sure?” asked Lt. Cmdr. Sorista.

“Our S’ram’s daughters were in this area of space,” said the alien. “We felt them kidnapped by cold-blooded barbarians, who like you use these crude machines to traverse space.” Crude machines? Well, compared to this alien tech, any kind of space vessel would be considered crude. The captain wasn’t at all taken back by that comment. “Were they killed?” asked Captain Chandra. “Who were they?” “Why do you ask?” asked the alien creature. “Because kidnapping sentient beings like that is what we consider to be a vile offense,” said Captain Chandra. “We have rules, and whoever kidnapped your kind have violated those rules. We will see to it that they are properly punished.” “We have no idea where they are?” asked the alien creature. “We sensed them get kidnapped, but they have gone blank. We don’t know where they are, or whether they are alive or dead. Our people have been searching among your stars for them, and will not rest until they are found.” “Then let us help!” said Captain Chandra. “We know this area of space too. I can contact who I work for, perhaps they can also help find your kidnapped people!” “Listen to her,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “We are more than willing to help. We know this area of space, we can help comb this sector for them.” The alien leaned back against the examination bed, trying to ponder what the crew was saying. Was this creature going to accept what they said, or was this creature going to want them dead anyway? She looked down to the deck as she started respiring heavily. “Are you all right?” asked the Shrostian first officer.

“I’m still at odds to trust you,” said the creature. “You say you mean no harm, and yet you have me held in this place.” “Because we didn’t know what you’d do,” said Sorista. “I’m sorry it had to be that way. But we are willing to let you go if you promise not to harm any others.” “If you let me go,” said the creature. “I’ll tell the others about your nature. I don’t know if I can trust you yet. However, if you let me go, it will help build that trust. It is possible that the S’ram has misunderstood your species, that you may not be as barbaric as he originally thought.” “You’re in a lot of pain,” said Sorista. “I know we might not be able to bring back your fallen friends, but I’d like to bring a gesture of goodwill. Don’t be afraid.” “Commander?” asked Olaas, extremely perplexed, referring to the first officer. “I know what I’m doing, lieutenant,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I do too,” nodded Captain Chandra. “Doctor M’Benga,” said Sorista to the chief medical officer. “Lower the quarantine field.” Sorista shot a stern look to the Elasian security chief, who was reaching for her phaser as she moved her hand away from it. Dr. M’Benga though looked uneasy at the first officer’s orders to drop the quarantine forcefield, knowing that the alien could strike. “Do it,” said Captain Chandra. Dr. M’Benga inputted the command as the quarantine forcefield deactivated around the medical bed and the alien being. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista walked slowly up to the alien being. “It’s all right,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as the alien looked nervously. “Let me hold your…”

The Shrostian pointed to the right hand of the alien creature, aware that the alien might not refer to their limb appendages as hands and feet. The alien held out her right hand as Lt. Cmdr. Sorista reached out her left hand and clasped it around the alien flesh. Shen the closed her eyes and started breathing heavily. “At ease,” said Captain Chandra to the rest of the crewmembers. Suddenly, Sorista started to moan in pain, and started panting extremely heavily. “Captain?” asked Lt. Olaas. Suddenly, Sorista let loose a huge cry of pain. Dr. M’Benga was wondering what was going on. It was as if something was seriously hurting her, but there was nothing coming from the alien. Immediately, tears began streaming from Shrostian’s eyes as she began sobbing. She let go of the alien’s hand and fell to the deck. “You relieved my pain,” said the alien. “However, that will not bring back ours who were captured.” “You have my word we will assist,” said Captain Chandra. “You are free to leave the ship. We’ll escort you to a place on our ship that you’ll be able to leave easily. My first officer can heal strong emotions empathically and telepathically through the contact that just occurred. I think right now she knows the grief your people are suffering from.” “Very well,” said the alien. “Lieutenant Olaas,” said Chandra to the chief of security. “I’d like our guest escorted to transporter room one.” “Captain, what about Commander Sorista,” said Dr. M’Benga. “Take her to sickbay,” said Chandra. “If you will come with us, we’ll let you out.”

With that, Captain Chandra, Lt. Olaas, and her security detachment escorted the alien, who was capable of walking on its feet, through the corridors and into a turbolift to head to transporter room. The turbolift moved toward its destination and stopped once it reached the closest turbolift station to the transporter room requested by the captain. The doors slid open revealing a radial corridor, as the captain, Olaas, and her security detachment headed for the large doors that led to transporter room one as they slid open. Lieutenant Preston manned the transporter controls. “Captain?” asked Preston. “Set the transporter coordinates for fifty kilometers off our port bow,” said Chandra. “Aye,” said Preston as he punched in the transporter coordinates. “This is one of our transporter rooms,” said Captain Chandra. “It can beam you, transport you almost instantly outside our vessel. It’s how we brought you on board initially.” “I see,” said the alien. “You need to get up on to platform,” said Chandra, pointing to the transporter chamber. “There, we will transport you into space, where you can depart. After that, we will help free those that are held captive. We’ll do everything in our power to free them.” “Thank you for showing that your kind aren’t all as malevolent as those who committed the kidnappings,” said the alien. “We’ll find them and bring them to justice,” said Chandra. “Safe travels.”

The alien stepped up onto the transporter platform and took the center transporter pad and then faced the captain and the chief of security. “Coordinates set,” said Lt. Preston. “Energize,” said Captain Chandra. Preston slid his fingers along the transport sequence initiators on the transporter consoles as the transporter activated, as the transporter beam dematerialized the alien off the transporter platform. “Transport successful,” said Preston. “The alien has materialized outside and is now moving away from the ship.” “Good,” said Chandra. “We have other business to attend to.”

CHAPTER SIX Captain Chandra entered main engineering on deck thirty-six, in the lower part of the Galaxy. She entered the short wide corridor section that housed the main engineering master control console where engineering personnel could access the ship’s systems; this console had schematics of the Galaxy along with controls and seats around it as well as a holographic projection showing a projection of the USS Galaxy, highlighting the vessel’s vital systems. The corridor section had doors accessing the vessel’s Jefferies Tube networks and led to the chief engineer’s office, additional monitoring stations, as well as the ship’s warp core, which was pulsing slowly for the moment. On the opposite side of this corridor section was a set of large doors that led to a main service corridor of the ship, basically a large Jeffries Tube one could walk through, that one could access many vital systems. Personnel were moving in and out through main engineering, obviously dealing with repairs wrought upon the ship during her run-in with the ion storm. Lt. Cmdr. Damen was sitting on a seat at the master console. “Mister Damen,” said Captain Chandra. “What’s our assessment?” “Impulse power is fully available,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “You do have partial warp drive capability up to warp six, but she won’t take it any faster. I can get your shields up to full strength within the hour. Phasers and photon torpedoes are still operational.” “What about subspace communications?” asked Captain Chandra. “We have been able to repair the short-range subspace transceivers,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “However, those won’t do

any good if you want to reach Starfleet Command. As with the longer-range subspace transceivers, I’m afraid I can’t have them repaired without the proper supplies.” “We need to inform Starfleet Command on our findings here,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “I am aware of that,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “However, we are only five hours away from Seunta Four at warp six. There’s an orbital supply depot there which may have the supplies necessary to repair our damaged long-range subspace transceivers. We could also use the colony’s subspace communications to contact Starfleet that way.” “Then that’s what we’ll do,” said Captain Chandra as she tapped her combadge which chirped. “Chandra to bridge, lay in a course for Seunta Four and engage at warp six!” “Understood,” said Lt. Olaas’s voice through the intercom system. “Execute immediately,” said Captain Chandra, emphasizing that the ship should proceed there immediately, knowing that every second counted in doing what they were doing before turning back to the ship’s diminutive chief engineer. “If there’s any way you can get more speed out of her.” “We’ll do our best,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. As per Captain Chandra’s orders, the Galaxy sped to warp speed toward Seunta IV, though the captain had another stop to make before the bridge. She rode the turbolift up to sickbay and entered the main sickbay intensive care unit, which featured three bio-beds off to one side as well as a central examination table and a station for the nurse. The three bio-beds off to the side were unoccupied although the central examination table was not, it was occupied by Lt. Cmdr. Sorista who was wearing a

white medical jumpsuit though her feet were bare. Dr. M’Benga was examining her with his medical tricorder, after her empathic/telepathic ordeal with the alien being they brought on board earlier. “Captain,” said Dr. M’Benga. “Your first officer should make a full recovery, although I’ll need to keep her in here for a few more hours.” “What exactly occurred?” asked the captain. “Well,” said Dr. M’Benga. “The experience threw her nervous system out of whack. Some areas of her are extremely sensitive. For example, if she tried to walk right now, it would be like her treading on razor sharp knives. She also wasn’t able to speak until ten minutes before you came in here.” “Can I speak to her now?” asked the captain. “She hears fine,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I don’t see the problem, as long as I’m here to monitor her vital signs.” “Very well,” said Captain Chandra as she walked up to Sorista who was lying down on the examination table. She had two forehead devices on her, most likely to stabilize her nervous system. “Commander Sorista?” “Captain?” asked Sorista softly. “How are you feeling?” asked Captain Chandra. “I’ve managed to piece together what I learned when I connected with her,” said Sorista. “They’re called the Diamrem. Their home is a star cluster not too far from this sector. They used to travel in space vessels, but their technology advanced beyond the need for them.” “That’s obvious,” said Captain Chandra. “The Diamrem I connected with,” said Sorista. “Is grieving about the disappearance of the three who were kidnapped. It’s something that the rest of their race has. Their society is feudal,

captain. These three are daughters of their S’ram, what you humans would refer to as a king.” “I see,” said Chandra. “The entirety of their race is…what’s that word you call it...heartbroken,” said Sorista. “Whoever kidnapped them has given them a bad impression of everyone living in the sector. They’re angry, and they’re hurting.” “Could they wring their destruction beyond this sector?” asked the captain. Sorista nodded weakly. “They will,” said Sorista. “Eventually the Diamrem will move on to other areas of space. No world, no ship, will be safe from them.” “I see,” said Chandra with a sense of dread as this confirmed her fears that this alien threat would eventually strike other areas within the Federation, which made it even more paramount that they had to inform Starfleet Command. “Do they have any idea where their missing people might be?” “None,” said Sorista. “The three wandered out here. Apparently, they did something rather reckless which endangered them, that’s what I know. The others…they sensed them being kidnapped. But then their thoughts became silent with the rest of them.” “They can share thoughts across multiple light years?” asked the captain. “They have technology that can enhance their telepathic abilities,” said Sorista. “Amplify them to be carried across light years, even though subspace. Imagine that scientific breakthrough, knowing that people you cared about and feeling them across vast distances.”

“I could believe it,” said Chandra. “Considering what we’ve seen already.” “With the sensor data we acquired form our study of the one we brought on board,” said Sorista. “Atsira was her name. Anyways, I may be able to program the sensors to detect them better. We may be able to find them ourselves.” Captain Chandra turned back to the chief medical officer, giving a cue that she wanted Sorista back on the bridge as soon as possible. “We need to keep her in here until her nervous system stabilizes enough,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I’ll let you know when I clear her for duty again.” “Good,” nodded Chandra. Captain’s Log Supplemental: The Galaxy has arrived at Seunta IV, one of the two habitable planets in the sector. Because our subspace communications system has been severely damaged by the ion storm we encountered earlier, we have been unable to raise Starfleet about our findings about this alien race, known as the Diamrem, after what we learned after bringing one of their own on board. We hope to use the subspace comm system on the planet to contact Starfleet, as well as acquire supplies from the supply depot orbiting the planet to repair our own. Lieutenant Commander Sorista is recovering after creating a telepathic/empathic connection with the Diamrem we brought on board and is expected to make a full recovery. Captain Chandra leaned back in the command chair on the bridge of the Galaxy as the ship had just dropped out of warp and automatically performed a gravity-assist maneuver for the ship to enter the gravity well of Seunta IV. Lt. Olaas was behind her at

the tactical rail, with Lt. Motylla at the Conn and Lt. Gonza at Ops. The ship was presently at yellow alert. The aft port turbolift doors slid open as Lt. Cmdr. Sorista stepped out of the lift, once again back in her blue sciences uniform. Chandra swiveled her chair to face her immediately. “Commander,” said Captain Chandra. “How are you feeling?” “Well enough,” said Sorista. “With your permission, I’d like to adjust the sensors to better detect Diamrem.” “Very well,” said Chandra. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista headed to the two principal science stations that were aft bridge terminals. This was another time where she better found use using the aft terminals than the bridge station that she typically manned beside the command chair, since they were configured to be dedicated science stations that could better perform the tasks she wanted. She relieved the crewmember manning Science II as she took over the station. “Seunta Four on screen,” said Lt. Motylla as she activated the main viewer, showing the planet in the distant. An M-class world, the planet shared many similarities with Earth, such as a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere with blue areas signifying oceans and green/brown areas signifying land masses, although the continental arrangement was considerably different than that of Earth’s. “Program the ship for a standard orbit around the planet,” ordered Chandra. “Standard orbit, aye sir,” said Lt. Motylla as she programmed the ship’s heading for a standard orbital approach toward Seunta IV. An alarm came from the Ops station as Lt. Gonza responded to it.

“We’re being hailed,” said Lt. Gonza. “It’s the governor of the colony.” “On screen,” ordered Captain Chandra. The main viewer switched from the distant image of the planet to an office that overlooked one the planet’s cities. At the desk was a human male with his hair graying a bit. He had on a dark red civilian suit and was sitting at a desk with a desk terminal and several Personal Access Display Devices, otherwise known as PADDs, sitting on his desk, as well as the model of an Ambassador-class starship. There were shuttles flying around the city that could be made out on the main viewer. “This is governor Edward Castillo of Seunta Four,” said the person on the main viewer. “We detected your approach, although you haven’t responded to us.” “This is Captain Sonal Chandra of the Federation Starship USS Galaxy,” said Captain Chandra. “We apologize for not responding, but our long-range subspace transceivers have been badly damaged, and we have been unable to repair them.” “Ion storm?” asked the governor. “We’ve been sent to investigate after the previous ship lost contact,” said Chandra. “We’ve figured out what is causing the unusual ion storm activity in the sector. Since our long-range transceivers are out, we can’t raise Starfleet to update them on our condition.” “You know what’s actually causing the activity?” asked the governor. “Yes,” nodded Chandra. “These storms are being engineered by an alien race, one we’ve never encountered before. Three of their own went missing in this area of space, and are believed to have been kidnapped. These aliens are responding by conjuring

up ion storms and wrecking vessels that have been travelling through the region. We were able to survive their attack.” “I see,” said Governor Castillo. “Well I can contact the commander of the supply depot. I’m sure he can provide you with the necessary equipment to repair your long-range subspace transceiver. In the meantime, I can have your transmission relayed through ours and you can communicate with Starfleet that way.” “Thank you,” said Captain Chandra. “I know this is a long shot, but considering you’re the governor of this world, has there been any indication of a new kind of alien race among what you might have heard in this sector?” “Now that you mention it,” said Governor Castillo. “I did hear some indication of that. I haven’t been able to address it since we’ve been dealing with trade relations with our neighbors beyond the frontier here. I have more than enough to do in keeping them happy and managing the colony to keep things under control, since this is a remote colony as well as the other one in this sector. There was talk of three mysterious alien beauties that are being held in captivity, as some kind of exhibit for the Akwamar Carnival.” The captain showed some perplexity in that comment. A carnival? Seriously? Not quite was she was expecting. The response also perplexed Lt. Olaas, as Lt. Cmdr. Sorista briefly turned her head to the main viewer though she was working at Science II attempting to program the sensors to better detect Diamrem life-signs. “A carnival?” asked Captain Chandra. “An annual event,” said the governor. “One of the most celebrated events yearly. “And this didn’t get your attention at all?” asked Chandra, sternly at the governor. “You didn’t investigate or inform Starfleet

Command, which is what you’re supposed to do by Federation law?” “Honesty captain, I thought it was an elaborate hoax,” said the governor. “Most of those supposed acts are ludicrous, and not real. It’s not like I heard of some sort of illegal research.” “People have died, governor,” said Captain Chandra sternly. “Besides the civilian ships that have been lost, another Starfleet vessel has been destroyed with all her hands. And we almost didn’t live to tell the tale. You can assist now by providing us with the coordinates of where this carnival is being held on your world.” “Very well,” said Governor Castillo. “I will transmit to you the coordinates. And I will also allow you to tap our long-range subspace transceivers, so you can contact Starfleet, and the commander of the supply depot will be notified to expect you.” “Thank you, governor,” said Captain Chandra. “Expect a call from Starfleet Command about this.” “I understand,” said Castillo nervously. “I’ll make the arrangements now. Seunta Four out.” The main viewer switched back to the image of Seunta IV, which was still a distance away, as Captain Chandra turned back to her command chair, but then turned to Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, who was back at work adjusting the Galaxy’s sensors. “Commander Sorista,” said Chandra. “How long until the sensor programming has been adjusted to detect the Diamrem easier?” “I can have it for you in an hour,” said Sorista. “You have thirty minutes,” said Chandra as she turned to Lt. Gonza. “Mister Gonza, assist Commander Sorista with the sensor adjustments.”

“Aye captain,” said Lt. Gonza as he pushed aside the Ops console and climbed out his chair, making his way to the aft terminals to give the first officer a hand. “I’ll be in my ready room contacting Starfleet,” said Chandra. With the Galaxy entering standard orbit of the planet, Governor Castillo did what he promised and relayed the ship’s transmission through the planet’s long-range subspace transceivers for her to contact Starbase 88. She was able to talk to Admiral Haden again, who believed the Galaxy initially perished in the ion storms. Chandra, in her ready room, told the admiral all about their run in and contact with the alien species behind the ion storms, the Diamrem and their findings. “I must say that’s a rather…interesting story,” said Admiral Haden. “That being said, I’m inclined to agree with you on all of it. You have full autonomy in your investigation, captain. If anyone complains, they can take it up with me. In the meantime, I’m sending the Zhukov and the Fearless to assist you in the event your findings on Seunta Four turn out negative. You’ve done well captain, although we still need you. We must alleviate this threat to the sector, or else it could threaten other sectors, and perhaps the entire Federation.” “I understand,” said Captain Chandra nodding. “We’ll scan the planet. Hopefully we’ll find what we’re looking for there. If not, we’ll work out a search pattern in locating whoever did this.” “Assuming that’s what really happened,” said Admiral Haden. “Worst case, we may have to evacuate everyone from the sector.” “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Chandra. “Let’s hope not either,” said Haden. “Haden out.” The viewer on her desk terminal switched to the UFP emblem and below that the words END TRANSMISSION. Now

that the call to Starfleet was taken care of, she could return to the bridge. She rose up from the chair in her ready room and headed for the doors to the bridge. The doors slid open as the captain stepped into her command center once again. “Captain,” said Lt. Motylla. “We’re entering standard orbit now.” “Thank you, lieutenant,” said Chandra as she headed for her first officer. “Commander Sorista?” Sorista rose from the chair at Science II as Lieutenant Gonza turned to face the captain as well. “Lieutenant Gonza and I have just finished the sensor adjustments,” said Sorista. “We already have the coordinates the governor provided us.” “Can you initiate the scan now?” asked Captain Chandra. “We can,” said Sorista. “Then do so,” said Chandra. “Aye captain,” said Sorista as the captain walked up the starboard side of the bridge up the ramp toward the array of aft bridge stations, as the Galaxy’s sensors did their thing. An alarm came from Science II as the Shrostian first officer examined it. “We got something, captain!” “You found them?” asked Chandra as she stepped up behind her first officer and looked at the monitor at Science II, which was showing a planetary scan. “Yes,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Right near the coordinates Governor Castillo provided us. Three Diamrem life-signs on the planet’s surface. They appear to be close by each other. We can beam down there. Do you want me to assemble an away team?” “I think I should lead the away team this time,” said Captain Chandra. “I need to be there myself. However, I do want you

accompanying me down there. Commander Damen will watch over the ship when we’ve beamed down.” “You sure? It’s risky,” said Sorista. “I’m aware of that,” said Chandra. “We’re about to attempt to diffuse a massive crisis, and that’s where I need to be.” “Well,” said Sorista, knowing that the captain had a strong point. “You’re the captain.” Captain Chandra tapped her combadge which chirped. “Engineering,” said Chandra. “Lieutenant Commander Damen, report to the bridge!” “On my way,” said Damen over the captain’s combadge. Once Lt. Cmdr. Damen came onto the bridge, Captain Chandra told her of her intentions to beam down. She requested Sorista, Dr. M’Benga, Olaas, and Gonza to accompany them as well as two additional security personnel to transporter room one. Lt. Preston was once again manning the transporter controls in transporter room one as Sorista opened up one of the equipment lockers which contained Type II phasers as well as tricorders. “The sensors detect a lot of activity at the beam-down coordinates,” said Lt. Preston. “I’m going to set you down in one of the more open areas, so you won’t startle as many people. It won’t be right on top of the location of those aliens, but it will be in proximity.” “Understood,” said Captain Chandra. “Captain,” said Sorista as the captain turned to notice that her first officer was offering her a Type II phaser as well as a tricorder, both of which the captain took and placed them in the respective holsters of her uniform. Sorista already had had a phaser as well as a tricorder.

“Thank you,” said Chandra. “Is there any interference or any other problems with the beam-down point?” “No,” said Lt. Preston. “I’ll get you as close to the alien life signs as possible, but again, there’s a good deal of pedestrian traffic down there.” “I get it,” said Chandra. Dr. M’Benga and Lt. Gonza also took Type II phasers as the Saurian Ops officer also took a tricorder, as Captain Chandra’s landing party just about ready to beam down to the planet. Dr. M’Benga also carried a medical kit that would likely come in handy down there should the aliens down there be in not particularly good health. “All set?” asked Chandra to the other six away team members. “We’re ready,” nodded Sorista. “Let’s do this,” said Chandra as she stepped up onto the transporter platform and took the center transporter pad. The two security personnel that accompanied the captain, both enlisted crewmen, occupied the rear transporter pads, Dr. M’Benga and Gonza took the transporter pads side by side to the captain as Sorista and Olaas took the forward two pads. Lt. Preston checked the sensor readout from the transporter operator console to make sure that the coordinates he had specified for them was an open area that they could beam down to. “Phasers on stun.” Chandra pulled out her phaser to check if it was on stun, as it was, as did the other six members of her landing party, as they checked theirs to make sure they were set to a stun setting and not anything higher than that. “Ready when you are,” said Lt. Preston.

Chandra looked around to make sure the other six members of the away team were ready for beam down and then turned back to the lieutenant manning the transporter. “Energize, Mister Preston,” said Chandra. Lieutenant Preston slid his fingers on the transporter sequence initiators as the transporter pads lit up from below the seven away team members. The transporter beam activated as the members of the landing party dematerialized off the transporter platform.

CHAPTER SEVEN The transporter beam dissipated as Captain Chandra and company attempted to get their bearings. The one thing that mostly perplexed them was the noise, which was much louder than in the transporter room on the Galaxy. They materialized on a large rectangular wooden platform underneath a canopy, with strings of multi-colored lights around them. The canopy supports were covered with a kind of ivy-like plant, possibly one indigenous to Seunta IV. There were lit torches around the platform. “Hey, what the?! You aren’t supposed to be up there!” called out a male voice. “Get them off! Get them off!” called out another male voice as there was a number of boos that came from a crowd of people standing in front of the platform. “Excuse me!” called out someone who approached the away team, a man with short black hair, a black beard, dressed in an old Earth suit known as a tuxedo with an old-fashioned top hat. “You folks need to get off this stage! You’re ruining the show!” Lieutenant Olaas turned and noticed a number of green-skinned females, all of them scantily dressed, showing as much of their green-colored skin as possible. They were Orion females, known for their abilities to attract males of many species due to their pheromones and opened her eyes wide, not amused. Captain Chandra noticed it too. “Well this surely is different,” said Captain Chandra as she turned to her landing party. “All right, let’s get go!” The seven away team members cleared the stage that they materialized onto. Guess I’ll have a bone to pick with Lieutenant Preston about him picking the beam-down coordinates, the captain thought.

Once they were off the stage, the tuxedoed man wearing the top hat took the stage. “All right! All right!” called out the man with the top hat. “We apologize that! Not every day we have these Starfleet people ruining our fun! Now let’s have it for Calloos and her Minses!” Music that was similar to middle eastern style music was played by a band that was just off the stage as the green Orion females started their seductive dance. The audience, mostly males from various other species, were cheering them on. “Well that’s not somewhere I’d expect to materialize,” said Lieutenant Olaas. “I wonder if they got the beam-down coordinates right,” said Captain Chandra. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista pulled out her tricorder and flipped it open, hoping to get a fix on the Diamrem life signs that the Galaxy detected from orbit. She had to adjust the tricorder settings to disregard the crowd since the tricorder would register all those life signs and it would confuse her when she looked at the readout; she set it to scan for Diamrem life-signs only. “We were beamed down to the proper coordinates?” asked Lt. Gonza. “Setting this to scan for Diamrem life-signs only,” said Sorista. “Otherwise, I’m going to have trouble detecting them through this crowd.” “Hey!” called out someone from behind the captain, as Chandra turned to face a male Nausicaan, who was clearly unhappy with the away team beaming down on the stage that featured the entertainment he wanted to see. “Do you have anything else to do than to ruin one’s fun?” Lt. Olaas reached for her phaser and pulled it out, and aimed it at the disgruntled Nausicaan.

“Leave us alone or perhaps you’ll be sleeping through your entertainment!” called out Lt. Olaas as she adjusted the setting of her phaser to setting three, which was the highest stun setting of the weapon. “Never mind!” said the Nausicaan, as he turned to face the stage. “I have a fix on them,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she pointed the direction. “One hundred meters that way.” Captain Chandra and her landing party began heading through the crowd, which consisted of various people, both human and alien alike, such as Tellarites, a few Andorians, an Antican, as well as a Selay, and others. The carnival also had a few old-style Earth carnival rides, such as a Ferris Wheel, a roller coaster, and a carousel. “How could an unknown alien race end up here?” asked Lieutenant Olaas. “Don’t we have regulations regarding discovery of unknown life forms?” “We do,” said Captain Chandra. “Maybe it wasn’t a Federation citizen, but one of the other races we trade with beyond the borders. They don’t have the same kind of regulations that we do.” The landing party continued through the rustling crowds of this carnival on Seunta IV. There were people carrying balloons, some offering various edible treats, among other things. The music, the colored lighting, not to mention some costumes that some were interesting, and some were surrealistic. The Shrostian first officer continued leading the way with her tricorder as she was distracted by some giggling, primarily meant for her. She turned to notice what appeared to be a small wading pool, which looked like it was made from solid rock. There were three females sitting on it, one with long blonde hair,

another with long black hair like Lt. Olaas’s, and another one with long red hair, and covered their breasts with seashell-shaped bras. From waist up, they were human looking but instead of legs, they had giant fishtails. Of course, they were human and really did have legs, and the fishtails were only some type of elaborate costume; as any properly functioning tricorder would reveal. “[Yuck!]” called out Lt. Cmdr. Sorista in her native Shrostian tongue, disgustedly at the young women dressed as mermaids and then focused her attention on her tricorder on what they were really looking for and scoffed another word in Shrostian language that the landing party’s combadges couldn’t fully translate. “[Gross!]” “Are you all right, commander?” asked Captain Chandra. “I’m all right,” said the Shrostian lieutenant commander back to the captain. “It’s just…” Suddenly, Lt. Cmdr. Sorista felt something strike her in the rear right shoulder as she felt a splash of water that struck her in the head. The right shoulder part of her uniform and part of her right sleeve were wet, as well as the right part of her neck and ear. She turned to see the three women costumed as mermaids laugh at her. She looked at her phaser that was sitting in her holster. “Commander…” said Captain Chandra, knowing that her first officer wanted to yell some sense into these pranksters. “At ease. We have bigger concerns to deal with.” “Aye captain,” said Sorista quietly as she looked at her tricorder at the Diamrem life form readings that were on it and pointed to the direction where they needed to be going. “This way.”

The seven landing party members continued toward the alien life signs. “What were those?” asked Lieutenant Olaas. “It’s from Earth folklore,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “They’re called mermaids. The upper part of their body is human, the lower part is supposed to resemble a fish. I took a course on myths and legends from various cultures at the Academy.” “Not quite reaction I’d expect from you,” said Dr. M’Benga. “Centaur, satyrs, mermaids or merfolk,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Shrostians find such concepts repulsive. To us, they are to us a lot like the creation of your fictitious Doctor Frankenstein.” “You wouldn’t get along well with little human girls,” said Captain Chandra. “Most adore such mythical creatures.” “I see,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she looked at the readings from her tricorder and then up ahead, where there was a massive crowd of people in front of a small structure. “The life signs, they’re in that structure!” Sorista pointed to the structure, which appeared to be a wooden shed that could barely hold the crowd that was in front of the landing party. There were three people up on a raised platform. From their facial features and their attire, they appeared to be Zibalians. “For the first time!” called out one of the Zibalians through a small mic that he had attached to his cheek that could communicate through a loudspeaker. “The strangest creatures ever known to exist! Found in deep space, they travel without the need of space vessels, without the need of environmental suits! Come, witness Kido’s Nerisian Maidens!” “Looks like they attracted a crowd,” said Lt. Olaas.

“Are you sure the aliens are being held in that structure?” asked Captain Chandra. “Yes,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I, Zamas Kido, am the first to welcome you to this great attraction!” said the main Zibalian, as Zamas Kido was obviously the man’s name. There was a huge applause from the rest of the crowd. “Let’s just go through,” said the Elasian security chief. “Feeling’s mutual,” said Captain Chandra. “I’ll lead.” The Galaxy landing party made their way toward the crowd. The captain began members of the crowd to make way, informing them that they were working with Starfleet. Most of them complied of course, knowing the authority that Starfleet personnel had in such areas. There were a few who sneered at the away team as the seven crew members form the starship shuffled through the crowd. “All right, move it!” called out Lt. Olaas as she had her phaser drawn, as did the two security personnel who accompanied the landing party. “Starfleet coming through! You are hereby ordered to let us pass! This is a Starfleet investigation!” “All right, what’s going on here?!” called out Kido. “Looks like we got some trouble in the crowd!” The captain pulled out her phaser, just in case the crowd would turn against the landing party, as did Lt. Gonza, if the Zibalian ringmaster of this sideshow was hoping to turn the crowd against the Starfleet crewmembers. A male Yridian appeared in the landing party’s path. “Go home, Starfleet!” called out the Yridian. “You’re not welcome here!”

Captain Chandra aimed her phaser at the Yridian, ready to push the button on her weapon that would fire a beam that would knock him unconscious. “I can have you brought in for disrupting a Starfleet investigation,” said Captain Chandra. “Any of you assault us, you end up in my ship’s brig!” Lt. Cmdr. Sorista and Dr. M’Benga both pulled out their phasers, as they were ready to defend themselves. Suddenly, a liquor bottle struck Lt. Gonza, which shattered due to the Saurian’s toughness. Lt. Gonza turned to face who threw the bottle, which was a disgruntled Tellarite, aimed his phaser at him, and pushed the trigger as a blast came from the lieutenant’s weapon, knocking the Tellarite unconscious. The Yridian tried to charge at Captain Chandra, as the captain fired her phaser at the Yridian, knocking him unconscious. Fortunately, the phaser shots were enough to pacify most of the disgruntled members of the crowd it wasn’t long until the captain climbed up on the platform with Lt. Olaas as the captain confronted Zamas Kido. “I’m sorry,” said Captain Chandra. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to shut down your attraction.” Kido laughed hard at the captain. “What’s the matter?” asked Kido. “Sore that we made a discovery you Starfleet couldn’t? This isn’t your business, we didn’t find these creatures in your space. You have no jurisdiction!” “What you’ve done has endangered this whole sector!” called out Lt. Olaas. “These aliens are far more dangerous than you think they are. And you’ve made them angry by capturing those three.” “Oh really?” chuckled Kido.

“This is to be taken seriously,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista who also climbed up onto the platform. “Their kind are very angry about what has been happening. Hundreds have already died because of your actions! We lost one of our own here as well!” Captain Chandra tapped her combadge to contact the Galaxy. “Chandra to Galaxy,” said Chandra. “I’m going to need additional security personnel beamed down here to my coordinates, there are people here who need to be taken into custody.” “Understood,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen, who was presently in command of the Galaxy while Chandra was on the planet. “I want you to prepare detention cells on board for these people,” said Captain Chandra as she turned to Kido and aimed her phaser at him. “I’m hereby placing you under arrest for transporting a dangerous species into Federation Space, as well as enslavement and kidnapping. I don’t know how they do it with your people, but here, we don’t take kidnapping and exploitation of a sentient species lightly. Since you are in Federation Space, you are bound to their laws!” “But…” said Kido nervously. “You can’t!” “Lieutenant Olaas,” said Chandra. “Keep an eye on him with your other two security guards while we investigate the structure.” “Understood,” said Lt. Olaas. With that, Captain Chandra, Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, Dr. M’Benga, and Lt. Gonza entered the wooden structure, which was accessible via wooden doors. In front of the four landing party members there were multiple rows of seats, like a theater. However, on the stage appeared to be three large metallic containment chambers with transparent panels for viewing

inside. In each of them was a Diamrem. One had a blue-colored skin and similar blue hair to Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, another had a pink-colored skin and similar pink hair, while the other had a bright-green colored skin and shiny green hair. Each one of them had the same kind of scaly implants as the Diamrem that the crew brought on board earlier. They were sitting, moving slowly. “That’s them,” said Captain Chandra. “Yes,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she looked at the readings on her tricorder. “Doubt they’re really happy to be there.” The four away team members started down the aisle that split the rows of seats. Suddenly, four devices, planted on metallic posts activated. These devices looked like spheres as each one shot an energy beam on each of the four crewmembers, almost like spotlights in some way, however, these were more than just spotlights. The pink energy beams made the away team members crumble to the ground as each of them started feeling acute pain. “What…” said Chandra struggling from the intense pain that the beam on her was causing. “Can’t...move…” Lt. Cmdr. Sorista was also moaning in pain, however, she reached for her phaser. Since she had superior strength to humans, she had a higher resistance to the pain, as did Lieutenant Gonza, who also reached for his phaser. “Security…feature,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she was able to grab her phaser and pull it out. “Used by…Tholians. Meant to cause…pain!” Dr. M’Benga, who was also affected, shrieked out, as the pain caused by these energy beams was too intense for him. Sorista struggled to bring the phaser in front so she could adjust the beam intensity to a high disruption setting that would affect the energy beam emitter that was affecting her. Captain Chandra

was sweating and trying to keep her composure under the pain, but it was becoming unbearable to her. Lt. Gonza, however, was able to free the phaser from his holster and began adjusting the setting on it. Sorista had already adjusted her phaser’s beam intensity as she struggled to aim it at the beam emitter that was causing her intense agony, the setting high enough to damage or destroy the device. She held the weapon with both hands, aiming it at the beam emitter, and then was able to push the trigger button on it. An orange energy beam shot out of the phaser, powerful enough to cause a small explosion that damaged the beam’s inner workings, causing it to smoke, spark, as well as emit a few flames. The beam ceased as the Shrostian first officer no longer felt the acute pain that the device caused her. The Saurian lieutenant did the same thing, firing his phaser at the device that affected him, which damaged the device enough that it disengaged. Sorista struggled a bit to get up and aimed her phaser at the device that was causing the captain pain and fired her weapon at it, damaging and disengage the device, as Lt. Gonza did the same to the device affecting Dr. M’Benga. “Clever,” said Captain Chandra as she slowly got back on her feet. “I know about those. It does look like Tholian technology; they use those as a form of wringing information out of people they capture. I hear it’s actually rumored they appropriated this technology from a parallel reality.” “I heard that too,” said Sorista as she picked up the tricorder that she dropped when the energy beam hit her. “Improbable, but there is that area of space in their territory1.” The four landing party members headed up to the containment chambers that held these three Diamrem as both Sorista and Dr. M’Benga started scanning the chambers and the 1 “Star Trek” Original Series 3rd season episode “The Tholian Web”

aliens with their tricorders. The three aliens had forlorn looks on their faces, which suggested that they didn’t volunteer for this willingly. “Sounds like who captured them came quite prepared,” said Lt. Sorista. “These chambers have forcefields as well as transport inhibitors.” “Meaning we can’t beam them back to the Galaxy,” said Captain Chandra. “However, with their abilities, couldn’t they escape themselves?” “I may have the answer to that,” said Dr. M’Benga as he was scanning the green skinned alien through the containment chamber with his medical tricorder. “All three Diamrem have a crude implant in them, that from the purpose is designed to give a shock to those who are disobedient. Orion slavers often use them to keep their so-called ‘property’ in check.” Sorista scanned the pink-skinned Diamrem, checking the readings out from her tricorder. “He’s right,” said Sorista. “The implants are emitting an EM interference that may be interfering with the aliens’ implants. If we can shut down the containment fields and the transport inhibitor, we can transport them to the Galaxy.” “Commander Sorista’s correct,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I may be able to surgically remove these crude implants from their bodies. That should then allow the aliens’ normal implants to function properly.” “We’ll have to shut down the containment fields and the transport inhibitors in order do to that though,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista, turning to a control console that was connected via flexible conduit. She rushed up to it and scanned it with her tricorder, hoping to figure out the controls on how to use it, since the controls were Zibalian instead of known Starfleet interfaces.

She tried inputting commands into the console, but it wasn’t responding, as she looked at the readings and found out why. “These controls are encrypted.” Suddenly, Captain Chandra’s combadge chirped. “Captain Chandra, this is Commander Damen on board the Galaxy,” reported “Sensors have detected numerous Diamrem life-signs appearing in the system.” The captain hit her combadge. “How many?” asked Captain Chandra. “Hundreds, possibly more than that,” said Damen. “They’re approaching Seunta Four.” Those last words attracted the captain’s attention, as did Lt. Cmdr. Sorista’s. What the Galaxy’s chief engineer said about hundreds of Diamrem life signs approaching Seunta IV suggested that the Diamrem were not here for any courtesy calls, but for something greater. “Given what we know about the Diamrem and their capability to create ion storms,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “It is possible they could create one large enough to devastate the entire surface of this planet.” “Can you break through the encryption?” asked Chandra. “It’s pretty complicated,” said Sorista. “Maybe a few hours, but I doubt we have that kind of time.” “Perhaps there’s a way we can cut the power to this,” said Chandra. “Right,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she adjusted her tricorder’s scans. “This device is connected to an external fusion generator.” Lt. Cmdr. Sorista walked around the three containment chambers and found the fusion reactor, which was connected to the containment chambers with similar flexible conduits that connected the device’s control console. There was a panel on the

reactor, probably meant for basic operations such as shutting it down, powering it up, or adjusting the power output of it. She rushed up to this panel and tried inputting it. Chandra, Gonza, and Dr. M’Benga followed her. “This is encrypted too,” said the Shrostian first officer. “We may be able to sever the power to the chamber,” said Gonza. “If we do that,” said Sorista. “With the generator’s power output, it will create a feedback that will overload and destroy the generator, taking everything and everyone within a five-hundred-meter radius.” The captain tapped her combadge. “Galaxy,” said Chandra. “What’s the status of the Diamrem approaching the planet? How many are we looking at?” “Our sensors have detected roughly five thousand of them approaching,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “Recommend you and the others return to the ship immediately!” “Not yet,” said Chandra as an idea hit her. “We will sever the power, however, before the reactor blows, we can have the Galaxy beam it off and redirect the transporter beam into empty space. There it will detonate harmlessly.” “We’ll need a combadge signal,” said Lt. Gonza as he scanned the fusion reactor with his tricorder. “The reactor’s output will otherwise scramble the transporter lock.” The Saurian closed his tricorder and placed it back in his holster, and then removed his combadge/insignia from his uniform. “That might work,” said Captain Chandra as she hit her combadge again. “Galaxy,” said Captain Chandra. “Lock onto Lieutenant Gonza’s combadge and engage site-to-site transport, set

coordinates to deep space, away as possible from any other ship and safely away from the planet. Energize on my mark!” “What’s going on?” asked Damen. “Just do it!” ordered Captain Chandra. Lt. Gonza placed his combadge on the fusion reactor and stepped away from it. He then then pulled out his phaser, as did Captain Chandra. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista closed her tricorder and placed it back in her holster and pulled out her phaser. The three officers adjusted the beam intensity and width to sever the three sets of conduits that were providing the containment chambers with the appropriate power necessary to keep their captives incarcerated. “Transporter room one here,” said a male voice, being Lieutenant Preston’s. “I’ve established a lock on Lieutenant Gonza’s combadge.” “Stand by to energize,” said Captain Chandra as she aimed her phaser at one of the sets of conduits, as her first officer and Ops officer both did the same as she turned to her two subordinates. “On three,” said Chandra as she turned her head back to the conduits she was about to fire her phaser at. “One…two…three….” Chandra, Sorista, and Gonza all fired their phasers at the same time, severing all the reactor’s energy conduits that were powering the containment chambers. Immediately, the reactor’s low whirring noise became louder, caused by the feedback by the severed conduits. “Energize!” ordered Captain Chandra. Immediately before them, the fusion reactor, which was whirring louder and louder was seized by a transporter beam from the Galaxy and dematerialized before the four officers’ eyes, taken away from them, saving them from the reactor’s eventual

detonation which would have taken them along with it had it stayed. “That was close,” said Sorista. “Away team,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen over the captain’s combadge. “Transport complete. We beamed the reactor into deep space as it as has already detonated safely away from us, the planet, and any space vessels in the area.” “Thank you,” said Captain Chandra. “Lock onto the Diamrem life signs next. We’re going to beam them directly to sickbay. We’ll also be returning to the ship.” “Understood,” said Damen.

CHAPTER EIGHT Captain Chandra, Lieutenant Olaas, and Lieutenant Gonza all rushed onto the bridge of the Galaxy from the forward port turbolift exit, having recently been beamed back from Seunta IV. Lt. Cmdr. Damen eased his way out of the command chair, which felt a bit awkward for him, considering he was unusually short that most of the other crewmembers on board the starship. Gonza was still missing his combadge, after he used it to establish a lock on the fusion reactor that was powering the containment chambers the three captured Diamrem were in which had to be done before transporting them over to the Galaxy. “Captain,” said Lt. Cmdr. Damen. “We have the three Diamrems safely on board in sickbay.” “I know,” nodded Captain Chandra. “Commander Sorista is down there with Doctor M’Benga hoping to surgically remove the obedience implants. Otherwise, they can’t…function normally.” Lieutenant Olaas relieved her subordinate who was presently manning the tactical rail, as Lt. Gonza did the same with the crewmember who was currently manning Ops. “Diamrem creatures are now in visual range,” reported Lieutenant Motylla from the Conn. “Put them on main viewer,” ordered Captain Chandra. The main viewer showed not just dozens, but hundreds of these Diamrem that were closing in on the planet, recognized by their varying colors of skin. The scene was somewhat of a beautiful scene, if the purpose of these aliens was not malevolent, which is what the intent was likely to be.

“They’re continuing to close in on the planet,” reported Lieutenant Olaas, who was briefed on route to the bridge about the arrival of these creatures in the Seunta system. “Commander Damen, I want you down in engineering,” said Chandra. “I want you to prepare the ship for maximum acceleration.” “Aye captain,” said Damen as he stepped down from the command platform and approached the turbolift doors that the captain, chief of security, and Ops officer all entered from initially in the forward part of the bridge. “What’s this about maximum acceleration?” asked Lt. Motylla. “If this doesn’t work out, I want you to set course for Starbase eighty-eight,” said Captain Chandra. “As fast as we can get out of here, and not look back.” “Very well,” said Lt Motylla. Captain Chandra turned to the image of the approaching swarm of Diamrem on the main viewscreen. From the looks of things, they were not deviating from their course. “Raise shields, arm phasers and photon torpedoes, and go to red alert,” said Chandra to Lt. Olaas. “Aye,” said Lt. Olaas as she inputted the appropriate commands into the tactical console. The lights dimmed on the bridge, the klaxons sounded, and the red warning lights flashed to indicate that the starship was now on red alert. Captain Chandra sat down in the command chair and gazed at the main viewer at the sight of the aliens, still approaching. “Mister Gonza,” said Captain Chandra. “Open a channel to those…aliens. All frequencies. Inform them that we have rescued the three of them that were held in captivity and are intending to help them.”

It was a long shot, if there was any way that the Galaxy could communicate with these aliens in a conventional sense, they may be able to understand it. Down in sickbay, Dr. M’Benga put on a pair of surgical gloves. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista was present with him to assist in his attempt to surgically remove the devices that were inhibiting the aliens’ links to their native implants. Both officers heard the red alert from the bridge and wondered what was going on. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista tapped her combadge. The three aliens were lying down on the three parameter biobeds that were in the sickbay’s ICU. “Bridge, what’s happening?” asked Sorista. “We’re trying to use our comm system to communicate with the aliens,” said Chandra. “So far it’s not working. As a precaution, we’ve raised our shields and powered our weapons.” “We’re about to begin the surgery now,” said Sorista. “I want you to try to communicate with them,” said Chandra. “Tell them about our intentions.” “Understood,” said Sorista as she headed up to the Diamrem with the bright-green skin color. Since the universal translator was able to pin down the aliens’ language, she was able to speak with them. “We’ve rescued you from your captors as they have been taken into our custody. We hope to return you to your kind once we remove a device from you and your sisters that was put in you that is prevent you from…what you normally do.” “You want to return us home?” asked the Diamrem back to Sorista. “That’s right,” said Sorista. “We intend to. But first we must remove the devices that your captors put inside you. Hopefully it’ll help. Many of your kind are already present and approaching

the planet we’re orbiting. Is it possible for you to communicate with them?” “I can’t,” said the Diamrem as she panted. “What they put in us…” “Commander,” said Dr. M’Benga from behind Sorista. “I need to…” “All right,” said Sorista as she stepped aside for the chief medical officer. “This is Doctor M’Benga. He will remove the foreign devices you have been implanted with.” The Diamrem didn’t respond. Dr. M’Benga turned to one of his nurses, a male Rhaandarite, who already had on a pair of surgical gloves “Sensor helmet please,” said Dr. M’Benga. The Rhaandarite nurse walked up to a moveable set of storage drawers and pushed a button that caused one of the larger ones to slide out. There, he pulled out a wearable head apparatus that head an eyepiece that went over the wearer’s right eye. He brought the apparatus to Dr. M’Benga, who in turn put it on over his head and turned the eyepiece so that it could cover his right eye. He activated the device which showed various sensor readings from the alien, as well as the creature’s internal organs, blood vessels, and other vital parts of the body, the devices that the alien was normally implanted with, along with the foreign object, which was implanted in the upper part of the aliens’ right shoulder. This gave the doctor some relief since the device wasn’t implanted into the brain stem or some other vital area that if he botched it on, could kill or adversely negatively impact his patient. “I see it,” said Dr. M’Benga as he turned to the Rhaandarite nurse. “I’m going to need a laser scalpel, two TB retractors and a TB extractor.”

“Right away,” said the nurse as he headed back to the moveable cabinet of drawers that he took the sensor helmet from. “You found it?” asked Sorista. “Yes,” nodded Dr. M’Benga. “Should all go well, this should be a quick procedure.” “Shouldn’t we give her a sedative?” asked Sorista. “I don’t know what a sedative would do to her alien implants,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I don’t want to risk it.” “In that case,” said Sorista. “I would like to try to absorb her pain as you perform the procedure. This is the first time we’ve performed surgery on one of these aliens, and we can’t afford a margin of error.” “Commander, last time you did that…” said Dr. M’Benga. “I’m aware of the risks,” said Sorista. “Everyone on Seunta Four may be dead if we don’t do this.” “All right,” said Sorista as she took the side of the bio-bed opposite to Dr. M’Benga and turned to the alien. “I don’t know how much pain you will feel, but my species has an ability to absorb it. I’ll need your left hand, if that’s what you call it.” Sorista pointed to the creature’s webbed left hand as the creature raised it. Sorista used both her hands to grip as Dr. M’Benga took the laser scalpel that was on top of the moveable cabinet and readied it for the incision. “All right,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I’m going to open.” Dr. M’Benga, with the help of the sensor helmet, was able to determine exactly where the device was as he activated his laser scalpel, which finely cut open an incision in the alien’s green skin. Sorista grunted, absorbing the Diamrem’s pain. “Get one of the TB retractors,” said Dr. M’Benga. “I’ll get the other one and the TB extractor.”

The Rhaandarite nurse grabbed one of the TB retractors as did Dr. M’Benga, which were small pen-like devices, as the chief medical officer also took a TB extractor, which was a thicker more sophisticated version of the retractor. TB stood for “tractor beam,” as these surgical instruments utilized micro tractor beam technology to move things, and were considered less invasive than their primitive ancestors. “All right, here we go,” said Dr. M’Benga as he activated his retractor, as did the nurse that was helping him. The micro tractor beams emanating from the devices helped pull open the creature’s skin, hoping to open a large enough gap that the doctor could use to extract the foreign implant from the alien. Sorista, still holding the Diamrem’s left hand, started cringing in pain, absorbing what the creature was feeling. The retractors not only moved the outer skin, but the inner muscle and fat parts as well; the reason so many layers could be moved at once was because the laser scalpel doubled as a cauterizer. “I see it,” said Dr. M’Benga as he saw the device, which looked like a miniature metallic volleyball, through his sensor. He then moved into position the TB extractor, moving it only a centimeter away from the implant and activated it, which engaged another micro-tractor beam that locked onto the implant, and slowly lifted the extractor, which had the implant as it also lifted out. The chief medical officer was very careful with removing the device, hoping not to cause harm to his patient. It took roughly twenty seconds for him to slowly lift the crude implant out of the alien’s body, since it had to be done carefully. Once it was done, he held the extractor over the tray on the top of the mobile cabinet and disengaged the micro-tractor beam; the implant fell to the table. “All right, let’s close.”

On the bridge of the Galaxy, Captain Chandra continued to watch the Diamrem swarming on the main viewscreen. “The Diamrem appear to be moving into position around the planet,” said Lt. Olaas. “Mister Gonza, has there been any response to our communication?” asked Captain Chandra. “Negative,” said Lt. Gonza from Ops. “We’re not getting any signal from the aliens.” Captain Chandra activated the intercom from the right armrest panel on her command chair to call sickbay. “Sickbay,” said Captain Chandra. “How is it going with our patients?” “We successfully extracted one of the obedience implants from one of the aliens,” said Dr. M’Benga. “We’re about to do the same with the other two.” That was of some relief. However, the captain knew that surgery wasn’t exactly quick and dirty, even if medicine was not her field of expertise. It was her hope that with the time they had left, they could free the other two aliens from this “shackle” that kept them in check and release them to their kind, before their folks would unleash on Seunta IV an ion storm powerful enough to devastate the entire surface on the planet, killing everyone who was currently on it. “Captain, I’m reading a change in the creatures’ flight patterns,” said Lt. Motylla. “A group of them are moving in toward us!” Captain Chandra activated the intercom to sickbay. “Sickbay,” said Chandra. “A number of the aliens are now moving in on us.”

“They might be sensing the presence of one of their kind on board the vessel,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista over the intercom. “Now that we removed the implant from her.” Lt. Cmdr. Sorista stood beside the green Diamrem in sickbay, who was getting up from her bio-bed, the incision the chief medical officer made was now closed. Dr. M’Benga successfully removed the implant that was suppressing her abilities. “That’s fast,” said Sorista. “I’m starting to feel normal,” said the alien. “Thank you.” “Is there any way you can now communicate with the rest of your kind?” asked Dr. M’Benga. “I know that you are trying to assist us,” said the alien. “Let me try communicating with them, inform them of your real intentions.” “Understood,” said Captain Chandra. “Commander,” said Dr. M’Benga as he was about to operate on the pink-skinned Diamrem to Sorista. “We need you.” “I can help my sisters,” said the Diamrem. “Now that you removed that device from me, I should be able to remove their devices with considerable ease.” “Well,” said Dr. M’Benga. “You know them better than we do. Be our guest.” The green skinned Diamrem walked up between the bio-beds that held both her sisters. She held out both her hands, aimed the other two sisters as there was a strange whirring sound that lasted for two seconds. Almost instantly, the other two aliens arose from their bio-beds. “Incredible!” said Dr. M’Benga as he activated his medical tricorder. “The devices, they’re gone!”

“We have the ability to transform matter into energy,” said the green-skinned Diamrem. “And convert it back into matter in different locations, or store it if necessary.” “Transporter technology,” said Sorista. “We’re familiar with that. We use it too, a far cruder version of it. Can you beam yourselves out of the ship?” “No,” said the green-skinned Diamrem. “But your transporter can.” “We can take you to one of our transporter rooms,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Beam you out. You can join your kind. Anyways, I apologize that our first encounter with your kind was well…” “We know,” nodded the green-skinned Diamrem. “My name is Alleda, and these are my sisters Analla, and Ataqua. We’re the daughters of Notir, our S’ram. Helping is already giving our kind second thoughts about your people.” “I’m Lieutenant Commander Sorista of the Federation Starship Galaxy, which you are now on. And this is our chief medical officer, Doctor M’Benga.” “A pleasure to meet you,” said Dr. M’Benga. “We’re representatives of the United Federation of Planets,” said Sorista. “And we are deeply sorrowful about your kidnapping and exploitation. You have our word that the people who did that to you will be properly punished. The Federation has strict rules about sentient species.” “We understand,” said Analla, who was the pink-skinned Diamrem. “Our people outside are waiting for us,” said Ataqua, who was the blue-skinned Diamrem. “We are ready to leave.” “Of course,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as he turned to Dr. M’Benga. “Let’s get them to transporter room one.”

Sorista entered transporter room one along with Dr. M’Benga as well as Alleda, Ataqua, and Analla. Lt. Preston once again manned the transporter controls. “Commander?” asked Lt. Preston. “I’ll take over here,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as Lieutenant Preston stepped aside as the Shrostian took over the transporter controls, and began entering beam-out coordinates for the three Diamrem. “I only wish more of your kind were this compassionate,” said Alleda. “You’d be surprised,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “We could learn from one another.” “I’m not sure the S’ram think that way,” said Ataqua. “Some of your kind are still rash and impulsive. Not all would welcome us.” “No,” said Sorista empathically. “They probably wouldn’t.” “We wish you good journeys,” said Analla. “And to you,” said Sorista as she pointed to the transport chamber. “If you three get up on that, I can beam you three out to join the rest of your people.” “They’re expecting us,” said Alleda as she turned to her two sisters as the three of them stepped up onto the transporter platform. “You’ll want to take the transporter pads on the platform,” said Sorista. “One is in the center, the other six are around. The markings will help.” The three Diamrem assumed positions on the transporter platform, with Alleda taking the center pad and her two sisters taking the front two. Sorista nodded, telling them they were in the right position. “You are a kind person,” said Analla.

Sorista hit her combadge. “Sorista to captain,” said Sorista. “Captain, we are in transporter room one. I’m standing by to beam the Diamrem out into space with the rest of their kind.” “Understood,” said Chandra. “You are clear for transport.” “Thank you,” said Sorista as she turned to the three Diamrem on the transport platform. “Farwell. Energizing!” Sorista slid her fingers among the transport sequence initiators as the transport activated. The three Diamrem sisters dematerialized off the transporter platform. Captain Chandra leaned forward in the command chair on the bridge glancing at the main viewer, as she knew about Sorista beaming the three captive Diamrem out into space so that they could join the rest of their kind. “Transport complete,” said Lt. Gonza. “They’re out.” Three of these Diamrem creatures, the ones that were likely just beamed out, appeared on the main viewer, “swimming” out to be the rest of their kind. Chandra watched, wondering what the rest of the aliens would do now that the ones that had been wrongfully kidnapped would be returned to them. Would they withdraw from the Seunta System, or would they decide to decimate everyone on the surface anyway? “Status of the aliens?” asked Captain Chandra. “Are they still assuming positions around the planet?” “I am reading a change in patterns,” said Lt. Olaas looking at the readouts from the tactical console. “Looks like some of them are slowing. I can’t be sure at the moment.” “Keep an eye on them,” said the captain as she continued to watch the “swimming” Diamrem that were being shown on the main viewer.

The forward port turbolift doors slid open, revealing both Lieutenant Commander Sorista and Dr. M’Benga, as both of them stepped out onto the bridge. They both looked at the main viewer at the Diamrem creatures swimming in space. “Any change in their behavior?” asked Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I’m not sure,” said Captain Chandra. The first officer made her way to her station to the left of the command chair, stepping up onto the command platform, getting into her seat, and pulling her console toward her, as she started using the console to gather sensor readings from the swarm of Diamrem aliens. “It seems like the aliens are changing their direction,” commented Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as she looked at the sensor readouts. “They’re moving away from the planet!” “We’re not out of this yet,” said Captain Chandra. A large group of Diamrem on the viewer flew toward the Galaxy, and began “swimming” around the starship. It seemed almost haunting to see it on the main viewer, as if it was some kind of “dance” they were watching. “What are they up to?” asked Lt. Motylla. “Not certain,” said Sorista. “Perhaps they’re trying to create another ion storm,” said Lt. Olaas. “I doubt it,” said Sorista. “I’m not detecting any increase in ionically charged particles around us.” There was another group of four Diamrem, who flew toward the Galaxy, although they didn’t seem to be “swimming” around the starship. “Hold position helm,” said Captain Chandra. “Magnifying viewer image,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista as a crosshair appeared on the main viewer, focusing on the four

Diamrem that were approaching the starship. The crosshair grew, as the image showed a pink Diamrem, a blue Diamrem, and a green Diamrem, along with a yellow-skinned Diamrem, although this one appeared bulkier, as if it appeared masculine. “Those are the three we just rescued,” said Captain Chandra. “Yes,” nodded Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. An alarm came from the Ops console. “Captain, we’re receiving an audio transmission,” said Lt. Gonza. “Correction, four audio transmissions. They appear to be coming from the aliens right in front of us!” “Put it through,” said Captain Chandra as she got up from her chair. Lt. Cmdr. Sorista pushed her console aside and stood up. “People of the Galaxy,” said a male voice. “This is S’ram Notir of the Diamrem. You have our deep regrets about our actions in your area of space, as well as the loss of your vessels. I’ve misjudged your kind.” “We understand,” said Captain Chandra. “We never meant your kind any harm. You have our deepest regrets about what happened to your people. I represent a United Federation of Planets, one that finds what happened to your daughters as being illegal.” “My daughter Alleda told me about you,” said Nitor over the speakers. “We apologize that things have gone the way they did. We will leave this section of space.” “One of our goals,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “Is to seek out new life, and new civilizations. And well, to us, you’re one of the most interesting species we’ve ever encountered out there.” “There are still those among you that seek to exploit us,” said Nitor. “We will withdraw to our place among the stars. Maybe in a few of what you

call centuries, perhaps we may be ready for contact. However, for now, I think the best option is to leave you be, and for you to leave us alone.” “If that’s what you wish, we’ll honor it,” said Captain Chandra. “This is Alleda,” said a female voice that the Shrostian first officer recognized. “Again, I convey my thanks to you and your crew.” “Thank you,” said Sorista, as a tear started to form in her eye. “I wish I could communicate with your kind,” said Alleda through the communication speakers. “However, our father is right. This is not the time for us to make contact.” “I understand,” said Sorista. “Anyways,” said Nitor. “Farewell, crew of the Galaxy.” The four Diamrem turned and “swam” away from the Galaxy, as did the remainder of these aliens. It seemed magical to see them swimming among the stars, without the need of any space vessels of any kind. Chandra would have quite a report for Starfleet regarding these aliens. “It’s a shame,” said Sorista. “Yes, it is,” nodded Chandra. “We’ll get there in time. Just not today.” The Diamrem aliens started to enter warp speed, withdrawing from Seunta IV. It was just as unusual to see them enter warp, moving quickly away from the planet as well as the Galaxy. Chandra did feel relief of her mission being accomplished; the Hebridean Sector was now safe once again. However, that would not erase the deaths that already happened, such as the crew of the Poseidon. The captain would have to discuss that, and deliver the news to the crews’ next of kin in regards to what happened on board that ill-fated starship, as well as the other ships that were lost. The people who would be feeling relieved

the most would be those at Starfleet Command who were fearing an invasion. “Captain,” said Lt. Gonza looking at the Ops console. “We’re getting a data feed from the aliens. It appears to be a star chart, probably from their area of space.” “I see,” said Captain Chandra, nodding. “We’ll have Starfleet put those areas of space under quarantine.” The bridge crew continued to gaze at the main viewer, as the last of the alien creatures entered warp speed, not to be seen again, and not likely to return. “Should we secure from red alert?” asked Sorista. “That we should,” said Chandra. “Lieutenant Olaas, stand down red alert.” “With pleasure,” said Lt. Olaas as the lights resumed normal illumination as the red alert lights ceased flashing. “Now,” said Captain Chandra. “I believe we’ve got some other business to take care of, such as repairs. Helm, set us on course for the orbital supply depot in the region.” “With pleasure,” said Lt. Motylla as she inputted the hew heading in her console. Captain’s Log Stardate 37112.7: The Diamrem, the aliens responsible for the ion storms in the Hebridean Sector have withdrawn from the Seunta system and from Federation Space. With the aid of the planet’s supply depot, we’ve completed our repairs to the Galaxy and are ready to get underway. Zamas Kido, as well as the other members of his cadre who were responsible for the kidnapping of the three Diamrem which resulted in their retaliation by creating ion storms in the region are being held in our brig, as they will be turned over to the authorities at

Starbase 88. As per orders by Starfleet Command, the sectors of space occupied the Diamrem are placed under indefinite quarantine, to prevent another incident such as the one that led to the ion storms to happen again. Captain Chandra leaned back in the command chair. Beside her at her seat and station was Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. Lt. Motylla was at Conn, Lt. Gonza was at Ops, and Lt. Olaas was at tactical. Standing beside the tactical rail was Dr. M’Benga, as the bridge crew was ready to put their strife in the Hebridean Sector behind them. The repairs to the ship’s communication systems as well as additional systems were completed. “Ready to put this behind us?” asked Captain Chandra to Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I do miss the Diamrem,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sorista. “I bet some of them miss you too,” said Chandra. “Stuff like this is part of the deal when you’re a Starfleet officer.” “I know,” said Sorista. “Well then,” said Chandra. “Shouldn’t we get underway?” “That we should,” said Sorista. “Helm, break orbit. Set a course for Starbase eighty-eight.” “Aye commander,” said Lt. Motylla as she punched in the commands in the Flight Control console as the Galaxy broke out of orbit. “Course for Starbase eighty-eight set.” “Warp six, lieutenant,” said Sorista. “Speed set,” said Lieutenant Motylla as she inputted the speed into her console as well. “Ready.” “Engage,” said Chandra. Lt. Motylla executed the course change, as the Galaxy turned away from the planet to the heading that would take the ship to Starbase 88. Once the ship was lined up with their appropriate

course heading, the vessel engaged her warp speed, ready for her next destination. Space…the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life forms and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.

Image by Jetfreak-7 THE END

AFTERWORDS AND REFLECTIONS And so ends the first true mission of the USS Galaxy. My primary inspiration for this adventure is the Blue Men of Minch, which is Scottish folklore. The sector of space that is featured prominently in this, the Hebridean Sector, is a nod to the legend since the Blue Men of the Minch legend has them residing in the Outer Hebrides. Personally, I have a like-hate fascination with mer-folk; somehow, I’m drawn in, but I’m not too crazy about the ideas of such creatures whose upper part is that of a human and the bottom part being fish-tail. Heck the name of my species, the Diamrem, is actually “mermaid” spelled backward. Though of course the idea of such a mythical creature would be hard to think of scientifically. We have experienced creatures who loosely fit this, primarily from “Star Trek’s” short-lived animated series in the episode “The Ambergris Element,” not to mention in the Trek novels there are some other species that could fit the bill as such. Then again, there’s Infinite Diversity Infinite Combinations - though if you did actually see a mer-person – the upper part being human and the bottom part being fish, or whatever, chances are it’d probably be a shape-shifter (such as the Founders of the Dominion – Odo’s species – which was featured prominently in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” the Chameloids of whom Marta was in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” the Allasomorphs (Anya and Salia) from the second season “Star Trek: The Next Generation” second season episode the “Dauphin,” the Devidians from the two-part “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “Time’s Arrow,” or the Vendorians from the animated Star Trek episode “The Survivor.” FYI, the M-113 creature of the “Man Trap” does not qualify – I assume it didn’t actually change shape, but projected into other

peoples’ brains what they wanted them to see, which explains a few things. The Diamrems themselves are humanoid with the most interesting feature being the fact that they have flippers for hands and feet, which was part of my undersea inspiration. They have implants on them that do look scaly, these implants are extremely advanced and can allow these aliens to “swim” in space (it’s probably a utilization of gravitational forces) and even travel in warp speed. They don’t require the use of space vessels, which most intelligent species we see in Trek require. It does have a “magical” look to it, but as famed Sci-Fi writer Arthur C. Clarke said, any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic. They’re far more advanced than most of the known species in the galaxy. With these advanced implants that regulate their bodies, they don’t need protective spacesuits. We’ve already seen the Borg not needing them in “Star Trek: First Contact” when they were fooling around with the Enterprise-E’s deflector dish. Yes, there are some similarities between the Borg and the Diamrems. Both of them have technological implants, though the Diamrems’ are more organic and seem to integrate well with them, as opposed to the Borg which, as Lily in “Star Trek: First Contact” said, are “bionic zombies.” They’re not as repulsive to look at, and of course they don’t assimilate you. The idea of a different language came up to me after seeing an episode of the TNT series “The Librarians,” where one of the titular characters was transformed into a mermaid and she can’t speak English (her language was a bit more like the Thermians

from the 1999 movie “Galaxy Quest.”). I thought it would be good to give them a language that the Galaxy’s universal translator wouldn’t recognize initially. As with their ability to create ion storms; these aliens have telekinetic abilities, that are enhanced via their elaborate implants. However, it takes many of them in order to conjure up a storm strong enough to wreck a ship, and it takes an extreme amount of mental coordination and discipline in order for this to work, which is why the Diamrems gave up when the Galaxy started firing on them, one disruption would be enough to screw them all up, which is why they left. These aliens are sophisticated, but they probably can’t withstand phaser fire from the starship’s phaser arrays. We’ve seen telekinetic abilities work in a similar fashion in the original “Star Trek” episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” when Parmen’s telekinetic abilities are thrown out of whack because of his illness. I had to give them some weaknesses or else the story wouldn’t work! As with the crew of the Galaxy, the ship’s captain, Sonal Chandra, is a descendant of a character seen in the original “Star Trek;” there was a Captain Chandra in the episode “Court Martial,” who was part of Captain Kirk’s court-martial board during that episode. She’s of Indian descent, but as seen in the dossiers that I have shown later, she was born in New York City. This idea came from the fact that the original Trek character Hikaru Sulu wasn’t born in Japan but in San Francisco. To honor her great-great grandfather, she had a portrait of him in the ready room. If this was a live-actions series, I’d prefer her being portrayed by Archie Panjabi, who was known most for her work in the CBS series “The Good Wife.” I had to give her some previous experience in

command before the Galaxy – Starfleet wouldn’t give one of these out to a newly promoted captain but to one who already had miles on him/her. She is younger than Picard though, although like Picard she did make captain fast. But I wanted to go against the gray/white-haired or bald veteran that would typically command a ship like this (Captain Picard, but also Captain Donald Varley from TNG’s “Contagion” or Captain Keogh from DS9’s “The Jem’Hadar”). Lieutenant Commander Sorista is the ship’s Shrostian’s first officer, who also doubles as science officer on board the Galaxy. She entered the Academy rather young but got through just fine, though she looks a bit more like a teenager despite her age (she’s in her twenties). The most known feature of Shrostians are their hair – Sorista has hair that is colored a cotton-candy blue color. My inspiration for this look is not from anime like some might believe, but from the character Frosta in the “Princess of Power” line from Mattel – as well as the TV series “She-Ra Princess of Power.” When I was six, I had a big crush on Frosta. So, I decided to carry that over here. Unlike other first officers who wear command red, she wears the science blue uniform to indicate her science branch, not unlike Mr. Spock in the original series, who also wore science blue despite being first officer. She has the ability to empathically heal people through their hands, which is used, and like Vulcans they are stronger than humans (her strength is roughly on par with her crewmate Lieutenant Gonza, who is a Saurian). She’s probably the most enchanting looking of the crewmembers on board the Galaxy, although I didn’t let that be without surprises. In “The Sound of the Shiant” we learn that she thinks mythical creatures like mermaids are as disgusting as the creation of a certain monster originating from the creation of

Mary Shelley! To her, they’re gross and disgusting. After all, she is an alien and doesn’t see things the same ways humans do. I also may put in a few more surprises to her character. Rounding out the “big three” (TOS had Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, while TNG had Picard, Data, and Worf) is Lieutenant Olaas. Olaas is an Elasian, whom which we’ve seen before in the original “Star Trek” episode “Elaan of Troyius.” If anyone was to portray her, I’d probably choose Marie Avgeropoulos, who portrays Octavia Blake in the CW series “The 100,” since she portrays an aggressive character there as well. I do picture her having the same mannerisms as other Elasians – she does prefer eating with her hands and doesn’t have that good table manners like others – and I do see her having some fits later on. As Worf had his sash in TNG, Olaas wears a dagger typically around her left arm, as part of her Elasian tradition, a special privilege. In the next installment I will flesh her out more. We’ve seen a blind crewmember in TNG, and recently some gay crewmembers in “Star Trek: Discovery,” but here I introduce Lieutenant Commander Jules Damen – a vertically challenged crewmember. He’s human, but he’s, how should I say it, abnormally short? We never saw many midget characters on Trek; the one most people know is Alexander from the aforementioned “Plato’s Stepchildren.” So, I rectified that. The idea of a vertically challenged crewmember has been with me for a decade. However, he is a reputable engineer. If you see the illustration of the character further down, you’ll know I’d picture him to be portrayed by Peter Dinklage, otherwise known as Tyrion Lannister in “Game of Thrones.” Granted this guy doesn’t drink as heavily. To help him in his work, he wears anti-grav boots that help him float above the deck, ground, floor, whenever.

Unlike some, he probably has no problem crawling through Jefferies Tubes! Dr. Warren M’Benga is the ship’s chief medical officer. Not much is said about him, though he is a descendant of the Dr. M’Benga we knew in the original series who appeared in “A Private Little War” and “That Which Survives.” I haven’t figured out fully what to do with him, but he is a reputable medical officer. Lieutenant Junior Grade Gonza is of the Saurian species. Saurians are a canon species in Trek, who are most known for their booze! Their only canon appearance in Trek was one background character in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Descriptions indicate that they also have superior strength, not to mention the ability to breathe gasses that most humanoids can’t. They do have very sensitive vision though due to their huge eyes (like how Ferengi have sensitive hearing). We see his usefulness in “The sound of the Shiant.” Saurians are also in “Star Trek: Online” and while they appear somewhat like the ones from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” I’d prefer they look like the ones from said movie. There are two other characters that are featured here. One of them is Lieutenant Junior Grade Motylla. I’m going to have her as an extra, more of a recurring character as opposed to a regular. She is of the same species as the communications officer on board the USS Shepard from “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” known as Lieutenant Trillya. We see her briefly transmitting a message to Starfleet command about the dire straits that the ship she was on was in after making contact with the alien probe. That particular character was portrayed by Jane Wiedlin who was a

member of the Go-Go’s, which got me to coin the term for her race as “Jadlian.” We know she’s an alien because Wiedlin’s credit was “alien communications officer” as well as a close-up of her character in rare photos on the Trekcore sight, where you can clearly see that her eyes are yellow-ish (she’s sitting next to Leonard Nimoy). As for her abilities, I don’t know, but I’ve got another chief helm officer in mind for future installments. The other one is Lieutenant Junior Grade Peter Preston. Some of you big fans probably have guessed right that he’s an indirect descendant of the ill-fated cadet from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” not to mention related to Scotty himself (that is if you saw the director’s edition). He does have a striking resemblance to his long-dead relative (which means he would look like Ike Eisenmann). Interestingly when I first saw “Star Trek II” all the way through – this was back when I was seven and well I don’t think so anymore – but he reminded me of Wesley Crusher (this was back in 1988 when TNG had started). Don’t worry, Preston’s no Wesley. I think of him like Mr. Kyle from the original series, often he worked the transporters but he did get bridge duty from time to time. He’s one of Damen’s subordinates. Back to the story itself, it does in many ways echo the Disney 1989 classic “The Little Mermaid” not to mention the original Hans Christian Andersen tale. In the 1989 movie, King Triton despised humans believing them to be barbaric, which is similar to the Diamrems in this story on how they view uh…beings who travel in space differently than they do (to be politically correct). In fact, their leader or monarch is called Nitor, which is Triton spelled backwards sans the “t” at the end, and his title is S’ram, which is Mars spelled backwards – Triton’s voice in the original movie was portrayed by the late Kenneth Mars.

As with the original Hans Christian Andersen tale, mer-folk would dissolve into sea foam at the end of their lives. This is also the fate of the titular mermaid from the original Andersen’s tale, she is unable to win the love of the prince she so desires so she ends up dissolving into sea foam. The Diamrem’s way of “self-destructing,” which involves chemical reactions with the organic material and the implants that make it seem like they dissolve into “space foam” is of the same nature, although in the story it’s a self-destruct mechanism. Do they do it for funerals? Possibly, but I don’t know. Apparently, like others in their adolescent years, Diamrems can be irresponsible, which is how the three ended up captive (which causes the whole mess in the story). We’ve seen horror and fantasy stories when mythical creatures are captured and used as carnival exhibits, and this is an interesting take too. First off, it’s bizarre when the away team beams down in the middle of a carnival, mind you, but this is a more sci-fi take on such. To make things believable, I didn’t make carnies that captured them human since I believe that most humans would probably see through this and have more common sense, so I chose another canon race, the Zibalians. We’ve seen a Zibalian in the third season TNG episode “The Most Toys:” Kivas Fajo, the twisted collector who kidnapped Data. Zibalians aren’t humans, and their way of thinking may quite differ. Though I would speculate that if they did successfully put on their act, there would be a lot of people calling them out on pulling a stunt like they did, though some might believe it’s just simply “smoke

and mirrors,” or perhaps “photons and forcefields” if you want to think holographically. I do admit, the end of this story with the Diamrems taking leave does echo similar Trek stories, such as the original Trek episode “Arena” where the Metrons tell Kirk there’s hope in humanity but they’re not ready for contact, or the “micro-brain” from the TNG episode “Home Soil” who thought “ugly bags of mostly water” were too primitive (that episode in my opinion gets a bad rap). There’s also an echo to the TNG pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” itself. Both feature an alien or aliens who capture a powerful advanced being or beings who need to be liberated in order to prevent damage. Although there is no Q in this story. Another touch I added was the fact that Starfleet Academy teaches a class (or classes) about old mythology and folklore from many cultures. This knowledge could come in handy exploring the unknown – keep in mind the original Enterprise did encounter the Greek God Apollo in the original episode “Who Mourns for Adonais!” One did criticize me for including too many characters who were descendants of known canon Trek characters. I am planning to rectify this some in upcoming installments. Keep in mind the idea of “The Galaxy Chronicles” is in its infancy and I haven’t fleshed everything out. There are images of the USS Galaxy’s bridge that are present so one can see the differences. I have to say, I got some praise for the color choices here, as some like it better than the beiges on her better known (and shorter lived, BTW) sister ship, so I did

something right. The interiors are very much like those that we saw in TNG, although there are some differences. The route Captain Chandra take to the bridge at the beginning drew inspiration from the “Stage 9” project which looks to recreate the Enterprise-D deck by deck. No two ships are exactly alike, and there are some differences between the Galaxy and the Enterprise-D. For you folks who are big ship information freaks, since the Galaxy’s namesake herself isn’t as reputable as the Enterprise, its briefing lounge (what I call that conference room at the aft of the bridge module) has pictures of Starfleet vessels that were the first of their kind, such as USS Excelsior seen in Star Treks III-VI, the USS Constitution: NCC-1700, as well as the NX-01 Enterprise that Jonathan Archer commanded, along with a host of others. One of them is the USS Walker: NCC-1221, which is of the same class as the USS Shenzhou: NCC-1227 from “Star Trek: Discovery” as a nod to that series. I did not include the Crossfield-class (which is the class of the Discovery from said series) because we don’t know fully if it received a reputation enough to be shown. I might include it later in a revised version of this story. One that some might call me out on is the USS Nebula, of which I gave a registry of NCC-70862. Registry numbers aren’t always sequential. If you look at Constitution-class ships, they had registries all over the place. The first of its kind was NCC-1700, but there were a number of them in the NCC-16xx range and one as low as NCC-1017 (though that was just simple rearranging of the numbers from an AMT model kit!). In the same note, most Nebula-class ships we’ve seen or are referenced have registries in the NCC-6xxxx range. The Phoenix from the wounded for example, if one

looked at the plaque, she was launched in 2363, which is six years after the Galaxy was launched! So, registries aren’t sequential. Another example is the Discovery in the aforementioned “Star Trek: Discovery,” which is newer than the Shenzhou but has a lower registry number than the older ship. Another interesting Easter egg I put in here is the governor of Seunta IV: he’s the twin brother of the ill-fated Richard Castillo who we saw in the TNG classic episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and the model on his desk is of the Enterprise-C! One trope that I avoided here was the fact that our “hero ship” is usually the only one in the area in an emergency. Like somehow the Enterprise-B, which was still hanging around in the friggin’ Sol system was the closest ship to deal with the transport ships in the Nexus Ribbon in “Star Trek: Generations” (one of the many problems). Not this time. Starfleet initially sent the Poseidon to investigate the spate of ion storms in the Hebridean Sector since that was the closest ship, and when they lost contact with her, they decided to send a ship that could take a lot more punch, and that was the Galaxy. Due to the nautical-like mer-folk-esque theme of “The Sound of the Shiant,” I decided that it should the USS Poseidon to be the one that was initially sent to investigate the ion storms. Poseidon was in Greek Mythology the Greek God of the Sea, though he’s more known by his Roman name, Neptune. The Poseidon is an old ship, launched either in the late 2290’s or early 2300’s, mostly due to her low registry number (NCC-3518).

Around the time she was launched, she was one of Starfleet’s best ships, of the Enterprise-B variant of the Excelsior-class. We’ve seen Starfleet still use ships that entered service in the late twenty-third century, as seen by their registry numbers. Among these are the USS Lantree: NCC-1837 from the second season TNG episode “Unnatural Selection,” the USS Repulse: NCC-2544 as seen in the second season TNG episode “The Child,” and of course Jean-Luc Picard’s first command, the USS Stargazer: NCC-2893 featured in the first season TNG episode “The Battle.” As old as the ship was, she has been refitted with a newer isolinear computer system and LCARS interfaces sometime in the 2350’s (Starfleet has been systematically upgrading their ships with the new system) not to mention a simplified bridge module. One nice touch in my description is that the dedication plaque had the older Starfleet emblem used from the late 23rd to mid 24th centuries instead of the TNG one (which unfortunately was used on older ships in TNG episodes!). We’ve seen the Lantree use the newer LCARS in cannon so I had the same thing done here. I picture the bridge looking similar to a bridge design done by Tadeo D’Oria (who did the Galaxy bridge model for me) which resembles his Charybdis bridge mostly in terms of design with some differences. The corridors on the Poseidon I picture look like the ones we saw on the Raman and on the Pegasus in the sevenths season TNG episodes “Interface” and “The Pegasus” respectively, for those who want a point of reference. The other ship featured in the beginning is the SS Sirena. This ship is a Miranda-class vessel that had been retired from Starfleet and has been repurposed for civilian use. Like the Lantree from the TNG episode “Unnatural Selection,” it doesn’t have the signature

roll-bar which has those extra phasers and the photon torpedo pod. It uses the older okudagrams that were seen in Star Trek movies IV through VI. I picture it having a bridge that is a cross between the Reliant bridge from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and the Stargazer bridge seen in TNG’s “The Battle.” Basically, it’s the Stargazer bridge with one turbolift alcove directly behind the center seat and those side stations that flanked the turbolift alcove on the Reliant bridge but with the older-style okudagrams. For other people who geek out about sets (people like me), the medical lab where Dr. M’Benga analyzes the space foam brought on board the Galaxy is similar to the labs we’ve seen in the first season TNG episode “Home Soil” and the third season TNG episode “Evolution.” The bio-lab where the Diamrem that was recovered by the Galaxy crew in the story I picture looking very much like a variation of that oft-redressed TNG battle bridge set that was used throughout the series. In nods to canon, the admiral who orders the Galaxy to investigate the spate of ion storms in Hebridean Sector is in Vance Haden. His first name was mentioned in novels, but the character was seen in two “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episodes: third season’s “The Defector” and fourth season’s “The Wounded.” Furthermore, the ships that Admiral Haden dispatches to assist the Galaxy (but they’re ultimately not needed) are the Fearless and the Zhukov. We saw the USS Fearless in the TNG episode “Where No One Has Gone Before” where she delivered the arrogant

engineer Kosinski and the Traveler from Tau Alpha C to the Enterprise-D; it was an Excelsior-class vessel. The Zhukov was mentioned in multiple TNG episodes but was seen in “Data’s Day” where it dropped off Sub-Commander Selok, a Romulan spy who was masquerading as a Vulcan ambassador, the ship being of the Ambassador-class variety. The initial mission of the Galaxy before she is diverted to the Hebridean Sector is a patrol mission among the Cardassian Border; the ship was originally supposed to stop at Lya Station Alpha – which we saw in the TNG episode “Ensign Ro.” The Cardassians are bitter enemies of the Federation when this story takes place. This revised version of the story features changes in the descriptions to the Galaxy’s briefing lounge and sickbay, the latter is being modelled for me by Tadeo D’Oria and will be shown in the next installment.

U.S.S. GALAXY SENIOR STAFF MANIFEST This section will showcase profiles from the USS Galaxy’s senior staff, that is the principal crewmembers that these adventures will be focusing on. Special thanks to Marcel De Souza, an illustrator of mostly comic-related art. Since this is set in 2360, four years prior to the beginning of the events of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the crew wear the Starfleet uniforms that were seen in the early seasons of the show (seasons one and two), with equipment that is also appropriate to those eras (e.g. the “dustbuster” phasers).

U.S.S. GALAXY BRIDGE RENDERS One common rule among sister ships is that no two are exactly alike, and that there are differences between ships of the same class. One common rule among sister ships is that no two are exactly alike, and that there are differences between ships of the same class. And the Galaxy herself is no exception to this rule at all. Examples of this include the three Defiant-class ships seen in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” – the Defiant herself that was introduced in season three, the Valiant seen in the season six episode “Valiant,” and the Sao Paulo (which was later renamed to Defiant) seen in the episodes “Dogs of War” and “What You Leave Behind…” These bridge images were done by Tadeo D’Oria, otherwise known as Rekkert on sites such as DeviantArt and Sci-Fi Meshes. As you can see, the style is the pretty much the same with differences in color tone and a few differences in configuration. Again, since this is set in 2360, four years prior to the first season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” there are elements of the bridge that reflect this.