[UPDATE: Chapter 2] Tread Lightly Where Angels fear to Tread

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Taking a break from the hit Ashes of the Galaxy (nominate and vote for it in the GSDAs everyone!) I discovered an old fanfic chapter from months ago that I never continued. After completely re-writing the whole thing (causing it to balloon in size) I've finished chapter one.

Tread Lightly Where Angels Fear to Tread



"Incoming!"

The warning came too late. Captain Nathan Jones heard the voice, but before his brain could even register what it meant, the tiny bridge of the U.S.S. Florida should violently. There was an explosion, and a bright flash, and Jones was thrown from his chair across the bridge. He didn't get up.

Commander Johnson Kye couldn't allow himself to be concerned about his Captain's demise at the moment. Instead he looked at the two Jem'Hadar warships coming around for another attack on the viewscreen.

"Sir, that last hit took our shields down to 25%!" reported Tactical Officer Lt. Sarah Guher. "A few more hits and we might lose them completely. Heavy damage to impulse and warp engines, and we've lost one of the torpedo tubes!" Kye swore to himself. The Florida was just a small Steamrunner class. They'd managed to destroy one of the Jem'Hadar ships, but the other two were only lightly damaged and the Florida wasn't going to last much longer unless a miracle happened.

But Kye wasn't going to roll over and die without a fight. "Re-route auxiliary power to shields," he ordered. He quickly checked which Jem'Hadar ship had more damage. "Set course 5421 mark 7."

"Sir, that is a collision course to the Jem'Hadar ship," warned Guher. "Are we ramming them?"

Kye chuckled. "I'm not that desperate yet. Prepare to engage on course 2906 mark 3 on my mark with emergency warp power."

Guher figured out what Kye was doing. "Sir, we're going to get beaten up."

Kye smiled. "So will they. Open fire on the left Jem'Hadar ship."

The Florida came about and headed right towards one of the Jem'Hadar ships and opened fire with every phaser and photon torpedo it had. The two Jem'Hadar ships returned fire instantly and the Florida rocked, its shields buckling. It was heading towards the Jem'Hadar ship. It didn't turn away, because they were ready to die for their Gods.

"10 seconds to impact!" called out Guher. "Shields are down!"

"Wait for it...now! Engage! Fire rear torpedoes as soon as you have a target!"

The Florida angled 'up' and narrowly missed ramming the Jem'Hadar ship. Photon torpedoes from a rear mounted launcher slammed into the ship and it was destroyed.

Guher's jaw dropped. "How the hell did a few torpedoes get through their shields?"

"It's a little known trick," answered Kye. "If you go head on against a Jem'Hadar, they'll transfer power from the aft shields. If you can get behind him quick enough, you got a clear target. Of course, if you pull up too soon, they can see what you're doing and transfer power back, and if you pull up too late..."

On the viewscreen Kye watched the third Jem'Hadar ship come around for another attack. The Florida was too damaged to survive an attack and they could get through their shields. Phased poleron beams lashed out and the Federation ship exploded.

Under normal circumstances, the next thing Kye would see would be heaven, hell, oblivion or whatever came after death. Instead he saw a black room with a grid of yellow lines on the floor, walls and ceiling.

The 'dead' Captain Jones arose from the ground. "Well, my performance was utterly brilliant, if I do say so myself."

"You were a corpse, sir," Kye reminded him.

Jones scoffed. "I was talking about my death!" His expression turned serious. "That was a dangerous tactic, Commander, and a lot of young, cocky officers like yourself tried it during the war and died. Or didn't you know the Jem'Hadar developed a counter rather quickly?"

A grin appeared on Commander Kye's face. "I knew that, sir. I also knew the simulation wasn't programmed with that knowledge."

Jones sighed. "I'd hate to see what you did on your Kobyashi Maru tests. Report to the bridge Commander, I'll be there in a while, I have reports to fill out."

Kye didn't move. "Sir, you are dead. I don't think the judgement of a corpse is sound. I think I'll assume command myself and report to Starfleet Command your death. Actually, I'll have to report this ship's destruction. I don't think a blown up ship has to be given orders anymore either."

Jones had a pained look on his face. "Report to the bridge now , Commander. If you ever get promoted to Captain one day, I'll pray for your crew."




Two hours later Captain Jones walked onto the real bridge of the Florida. Like the holodeck simulation of it, it was small, and certainly not filled with large comfortable chairs and carpeting like the Galaxies. Still, it was his bridge, and a Captain's Chair was still a Captain Chair, no matter how small.

Jones had spent the last few hours filling out reviewing his crews' performance in the holodeck war game. He sighed to himself. Ten years ago only Captains like the infamous Jellico, known for his strict discipline and 'warmongering' behaviour would have had so many battle simulations. Now, with the peace treaty with the Dominion still new and shaky, the constant Borg threat and a Starfleet weakened by war, they were a unfortunate fact of life.

Commander Kye spotted Jones enter the bridge and said, "Captain, we've picked up something unusual."

"Usual? What is it?" asked Jones.

Kye tapped on a near by console. "Sir, there's some very strange subspace distortions emanating from a point in space 3 billion kilometres from our current position. I've never seen anything like it before."

Jones frowned. "We've been in this around this system for a while, why didn't previous scans detect this?"

"Sir, it looks like these reading are very hard to detect farther out," answered Kye. "If we were even a few billion kilometres farther out, I doubt that our sensors would be sensitive enough to filter it out from normal background radiation."

Jones thought for a moment, then said, "We might as well investigate. All of our combat drills have been completed and we don't have to return to Starbase 242 for another few days. Activate warp drive and take us to within 5 thousand kilometres of the readings."

The Florida's warp engines activated and sent the ship on a course towards the reading. At beyond the speed of light, 3 billion kilometres was a rather short distance. The Florida quickly returned to sub-light speeds and appeared only a few thousand kilometres away from the source of the subspace distortions.

Captain Jones looked at the viewscreen but only saw stars. That was unsurprising since subspace distortions were usually invisible, but always preferred to see space phenomena. Jones ordered, "Prepare for a level 3 subspace spectrum scan and prepare to-"

Jones never got to finish his sentence. The Florida suddenly lurched forward and he was thrown to the floor. With a bright flash the image of normal space on the viewscreen was replaced with strange swirls of a dozen different colors blended together. The ship rocked violently and Jones felt nauseous.

It felt like it went on for hours but only seconds actually passed. The Florida shook violently again and normal space reappeared.

Jones pulled himself up from the ground and said, "What the hell just happened?"

Operations Officer Lt. Herald looked worried. "Sir, if these readings are correct, I think we've just gone through a wormhole."

"A wormhole?!" Jones' eyebrows went up. There was only one stable wormhole known to the Federation and its discovery had caused nothing but grief. "Check our position, I want to know exactly where we are."

Herald checked his console a few times and then went very pale. "Captain, I am unable to locate our position."

"Unable to locate our position?" Jones repeated, confused. "How is that possible?"

Herald gulped and replied, "Sir, the only way that's possible if we have traveled so far we have no maps of this location. That means sir, that we must be millions of light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy."

"Millions of light-years! Lt., is that wormhole still open?"

Herald nodded. "I think so sir. We're picking up the same subspace distortions we did on the other side."

Jones said, "Thank God. If we weren't able to go back through it..." he let his sentence trail off. "Commence a detailed scan of the immediate area. I want to know what's out there."

"Sir, long range sensors were knocked out by our journey through the wormhole," reported Herald. "It will take at least 10, maybe 20 minutes to get them operational again."

"Captain, this is dangerous," warned Commander Kye. "We have no idea how long that wormhole is going to stay open, and if we remain too long we could get stranded. I sure as hell don't want to become another Voyager. We should return through the wormhole and report its discovery to Starfleet Command immediately."

Jones shook his head. "I don't see any indication the wormhole is unstable. Besides, this is one of the biggest discoveries Starfleet has ever made. We've never even theorized about traveling this far. This is a galaxy far, far away. Think of the things we could discover." Suddenly Jones thought of something and sighed. "But that's what they said about the Bajoran Wormhole and the Gamma Quadrant. Right up until we found the Dominion at least. We'll stick around to make one sensor sweep of the vicinity to see if there's anything of interest then return and file a report. Starfleet can send a dedicated science ships to investigate further."

Kye said, "I recommend to ask them to include a few dedicated warships to investigate as well. We can't take any chances that there may be a hostile race nearby."

Jones sighed deeply. "Unfortunately you're right. I'm also going to recommend they bring a phased graviton beam generator."

"A phased graviton beam? What would they use that for?" asked Kye.

"If worst comes to worst, and there's aggressive powers like the Dominion there..." Jones looked very solemn. "They can use the phased graviton beam to collapse the wormhole."




Captain Kalan Tej sighed softly as he stared at the endless stars. He was in command of a massive Imperator class Star Destroyer, the Illustrious. It was a newer ship, but Tej thought that it was being wasted endlessly searching the Outer Rim. The Illustrious was one of countless Star Destroyers deployed to combat the many remnants of the New Republic (though most simply called them rebels). They had just destroyed a small convoy of a few freighters and escorting corvettes and a frigate. It had hardly been any kind of challenge, and the Illustrious didn't even have to fire a single heavy turbolaser.

But Tej knew any sort of combat these days was rare for the individual commander. Since the death of Palpatine and the emergence of the new Emperor, the New Republic had been constantly retreating and now only occupied a small fraction of the worlds it held. It was inevitable now that what was left of the New Republic Navy would have to abandon what few worlds it still had or face annihilation. The forces the Illustrious recently destroyed were scattered remnants that had broken off from the main New Republic Fleet and their Captains could only try to keep their ships maintained and supplied and make small, futile attacks against unimportant and lightly defended targets.

But what that meant was the huge fleet battles that the Illustrious was built to be a part of were few and happened in another part of the galaxy, while he was stuck fighting small, barely combat worthy ships. Rationally, Tej knew he should be thankful. In such battles, the victor suffering 'light casualties' actually lost huge amounts of ships and lives. There were ships many kilometers long that could blow a Imperator away with ease. Still, he wanted a challenge!

Tej's thoughts were interrupted by is Executive Officer, Commander Julan Varle. "Sir, com-scan has picked up an unknown ship in the system. It just appeared there out of no where."

Tej frowned. "Commander, ships do not just appear. Did she hyper in?"

Varle shook his head and said, "Negative. One minute there's empty space, the next a frigate sized ship. No transponder signal either, and she's emitting some strange readings."

Tej thought about it. A cloaking device seemed likely. But why would a cloaked ship be doing in a worthless system and just suddenly appear? Intelligence didn't report New Republic ships in this area with cloaking devices, but that made sense. They could have been waiting for the convoy the Illustrious intercepted and were forced to reveal themselves to the outside universe to find out what happened to the convoy. It was nothing but speculation but it did make sense...

"Prepare for hyperspace micro-jump," ordered Tej. "Bring us close to that ship. Prepare standard inspection teams, I want to know how that ship just managed to suddenly appear, and if they're NR."

"What if they are Rebel forces, sir?" asked Varle.

"Then you had better hope our Stormtroopers haven't gotten fat and lazy," replied Tej.

The massive engines of the Illustrious powered up the Star Destroyer jumped to hyperspace. The Illustrious could travel at speeds that would allow her to go across the entire galaxy and back in mere days, so a trip across a star system was short. The navcomputers of an Imperator were very advanced and the Illustrious arrived at the precise location it intended, only a mere few thousand kilometers away from the mysterious frigate.

"Weird looking ship," commented Varle as he looked at an image of it and its strange and streamlined shape. "Sure doesn't look like a warship."

"No, it doesn't," agreed Tej. "But I've seen even stranger ships in the Outer Rim, and if the NR is as desperate for ships as Intelligence says, they might be forced to used whatever they can get."

Tej looked over to his Communication Officer. "Hail that ship and order them to prepare for a standard Imperial inspection. And tell them to explain their lack of a required transponder." If his suspicions were correct, they would not allow an inspection. All he could do was wait for their reaction...




"Status on the sensors?" asked Captain Jones.

Herald shook his head. "I'm sorry sir, but that wormhole shook us up pretty bad. Its going to take some time to finish repairs and recalibrate them. Quite frankly sir, it's a damn miracle we weren't ripped apart by the gravimetric stress. I recommend that we reinforce the structural integrity field before we return home."

Jones could not help but silently say if we get home. "Well, I think that-"

A loud beep from Lt. Herald's console interrupted Jones. "Sir, there's a ship off the port bow, closing fast!" he said frantically.

"On screen!" shouted Jones. The image of empty space was replaced by that of a dagger shaped ship. "Go, to yellow alert, raise shields. Report!"

Herald checked the sensors. "Sir, its approximately 1600 meters long, and extremely massive. There appears to be many weapon like structures on the hull, but none are currently active. Our scans aren't penetrating its hull, and I'm picking up unknown materials, as well as small amounts of neutronium."

Jones realized the implications of the last statement. Even putting small amounts of neutronium in a hull was beyond the Federation's technology, and the hull would be far stronger than any Starfleet ship.

Lt. Guher interrupted his thoughts. "Sir, we're picking up a communication, audio only. It's very powerful, the damn signal nearly burned out half of our communication equipment."

"Let's hear it," said Jones. What he heard was a short message that sounded like utter gibberish. "Try running it through the universal translator."

"I've already ready tried that sir," she replied. "It couldn't translate a fragment of it. It's completely alien, but that's understandable given the circumstances."

Jones sighed. "Just great. Send a standard hail and ask for their intentions. All we can do is hope they have better luck translating."



Tej listened closely as his Communication Officer played the message they'd received. The signal had been weak, implying damage, an underpowered communication system, or some kind of deceit. Tej suspected the last option. But the short message sounded like utter gibberish.

"What the kriff is that?" asked Varle. "Should we get some protocol droids up here and try to translate it?"


"Don't bother, it is a trick," replied Tej. When he saw the confused looked on his Executive Officer's face, he explained, "They want us to believe they're a strange alien race with a language we can't understand. It sounds reasonable, but we're picking up human life-signs. This area of space has been explored a thousand times, and I'm not going to believe they're from a 'long lost Pre-Old Republic colony that doesn't understand Basic'. It's a trick."

"They must know we can pick up their life signs," said Varle. "All this will do is buy a little time. Why?"

Tej though about that for a second then came up with an answer. "If they are NR, they may be trying to delay us until they can bring in reinforcements. Jam their communications. Power up all weapons, and raise shields. Send the hail one more time. Close towards them and prepare to lock on with a tractor beam. If they are NR, they'll bolt or attack."



"Sir!" shouted Lt. Guher. "Looks like their weapons are powering up and they've raised shields! Picking up heavy jamming as well. They're closing fast!"

"Captain, we've got to attack them first," recommended Kye. "They're jamming us so we can't get off a signal and now they're closing to point-blank range! We can't let them get the first shot off."

Jones swore to himself. He had seen more combat then he would have preferred and he knew what Kye was saying was almost certainly true. "Power up all phasers, load photon torpedo tubes. Target their weapons only, I just want to disable them. Fire."



Tej watched, as he was proven right as the tiny frigate opened fire. "Report," he ordered. There was no way a frigate could harm him, but it was better to be safe then dead.

One of his Weapons Officers responded, "Sir, these readings can't be right. According to this, their weapons fire is high kiloton only."

" Kiloton? For a frigate? That's very strange indeed. Very well, return fire, light turbolasers and ion cannons only." As return fire lanced at the frigate, he thought about what his officer had said. Kiloton weapons? The only possible explanation he could think of was a pure Anti-Starfighter ship, with no other weapons, not even their torpedoes. Whatever the answer was though, he have it soon enough.



The bridge of the Florida shook as blast after blast impacted against its shields. Lt. Guher shouted out, "Weapons are having no effect! Shields failing, we-"

The Florida shook even harder and several people were actually knocked down. However the real effect was power began to drop and systems started to fail.

Lt. Gerald said, "Whatever that blast was, it knocked out main power! Anti-matter containment is fluctuating!"

"Eject the warp core!" Jones immediately ordered. He hoped silently that there was enough power left to eject it and get it far enough away from the shieldless Florida before the inevitable explosion.



Captain Tej smiled as the frigate lost power, but then suddenly something shot out of it and exploded. "Do you have any idea what that was?" he asked.

A lieutenant answered him. "Sir, it looks like it was their power core. Pretty small, and it looked like anti-matter based, not hypermatter. Might have had some strange reaction to the ion cannon, or maybe even needed power to stay stable, but that's unlikely."

An exploding anti-matter reactor. Another mystery added to the frigate. Tej sighed to himself. "Very well, lock on tractor beams. I want a Stormtrooper battalion loaded up in their transports. Launch them as soon as there ready and have another two ready to launch. We're going to board that ship."

[Sceptre]

I like it.

A loud beep from Lt. Herald's console interrupted Jones. "Sir, there's a ship off the port bow, losing fast!" he said frantically.

I think that needs fixing up ... oh and who is the new Emperor?

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

I like it.

A loud beep from Lt. Herald's console interrupted Jones. "Sir, there's a ship off the port bow, losing fast!" he said frantically.

I think that needs fixing up ...

Done.

oh and who is the new Emperor?

Maybe he's a random Sith of the Week. Maybe he's a certain Blue Grand Admiral. Maybe he's actually just a human looking robot controlled by a intelligent rat named after a important part of the nervous system who has moved his goals up to taking over the universe.

[Sceptre]

oh and who is the new Emperor?

Maybe he's a random Sith of the Week. Maybe he's a certain Blue Grand Admiral. Maybe he's actually just a human looking robot controlled by a intelligent rat named after a important part of the nervous system who has moved his goals up to taking over the universe.

Point taken. Will continue reading.

[darthdavid]

Write more, i can see another starcrossed in the making just off this little bit.

[Darth Phoenix]

Looking good, hope you write more soon.

[Crazedwraith]

Excellant GAT. now write more
*pokes with the cattlerod of encouragement*

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Sorry for the 2 week+ time delay, but I haven't had a lot of time to write. Thankfully I've gotten this chapter finished for Christmas at least.

Tread Lightly Where Angels Fear to Tread: Chapter 2




"Any progress?" asked Captain Jones.

Lt. Herald sighed. "None sir. That weapon nearly blew out every plasma conduit on the ship. Even if I could jury-rig the parts needed, the repairs would take at least several days."

"We don't have several minutes!" said Commander Kye. "There's only one reason they'd intentionally disable us. They want us alive and captured. We should tell the crew to expect troops to transport in at any second."

Lt. Guher interrupted. "Sir, I don't think they're going to transport. I've detected the launch of several small ships that are heading right towards us. I think they mean to board us conventionally."

Jones frowned. The enemy ship was obviously very technologically advanced, but did they not have transporters? He would have to remember that. "Very well. Tell the crew to arm themselves. Station security around all airlocks. They may just cut threw the hull, but its worth a try."

Jones watched his crew get to work but all he could do was worry. The Florida didn't have a large crew and none of them had any real combat experience. How were they possibly going to repel boarders?




"Time to intercept?"

"2 minutes. Airlock located, locking on. No hostile weapons active, initiating cold docking procedures."

Lt. Tainer Darj listened to the pilot and co-pilot of the transport chatter and then turned to his. It was the 2nd Platoon of B Company, specially trained for close quarters bordering operations. Their record was superb, with many Rebel Ships being captured with only a handful of losses.

"All right men, listen up!" he shouted. "We've got a disabled Rebel Ship just waiting to be boarded. Captain Tej wants prisoners, so stun only! He's also told us there's something real kriffin' weird about this ship, so be prepared for surprises! We'll be using an airlock, so be ready for heavy resistance!"

"1 minute!" the co-pilot shouted to them. Tainer checked his armor one last time and loaded his E-11 and set it for heavy stun. He also considered the words he had spoken. Be prepared for surprises? He hated surprises.




Lt. Commander Uly checked his Phaser rifle one last time. In front of him was the airlock he had been told the alien forces would be coming through. His men were well positioned and he was confident he could cut down any invaders before they could even take a step onto the ship. Still, he worried. The alien ship was massive and there were certainly a lot of transports heading towards the Florida. How many hundreds of troops was he going to face?

Uly's thoughts were interrupted when the Florida suddenly shook. An alarm sounded indicating the first alien transport had docked. The airlock was of course locked, but that would only slow them down for a moment. Suddenly Uly heard a soft hissing noise that rapidly became louder and louder.

When he realized what is was he shouted to his men, "Get back!" He just managed to shield his face when the airlock door exploded.

While he had managed to protect himself, several others were too close to the airlock door. Small pieces of superheated shrapnel traveling at high speeds hit several of his men and Uly heard their cries of pain. Fortunately most of his men had moved far enough away from the door or had seen Uly shield himself and done the same and were unharmed.

Uly looked up and was confused. He saw large black clouds of smoke rolling into the corridor and knew they were not from simply blowing up a door. The invaders were intentionally blinding his men with the thick smoke. All he could see was blue flashes, presumably weapons fire, and he heard the shouts as some of his men went down.

He tried to return fire but the chances of him hitting anything firing blindly were slim to none. As heard more of his men shout and scream he knew somehow the enemy troops were seeing threw the thick smoke and cutting the Starfleet forces down. There was no way they were going to repel the borders here.

So Uly gave the order every commander in history hated to give. "Retreat!" he shouted. "Fall back!" Firing a few last shots, ran back to the end of the corridor. Some of his men were alive and falling back. A lot weren't. After waiting several seconds and hearing no further Federation weapons fire, he closed a thick door intended to protect the ship from decompression if the airlock was compromised.

As he saw Federation reinforcements rush towards him he was about to sigh in relief when the hissing sound returned.




Tainer watched as a Stormtrooper blew the second door, and then threw a smoke grenade towards the Rebel forces. Stormtrooper helmets had a variety of multi-spectral imaging and sensor systems and even thick smoke couldn't obstruct their vision. The Rebel Forces were relying on simply eyesight, and were hitting nothing with their blind fire.

Tainer rushed through the ruined door and began firing with his E-11. He stunned several Rebels who seemed to be injured by the exploding door immediately as they were easy targets. Return fire whizzed by but it was inaccurate and hit nothing. His men quickly cut down the Rebel forces with utter ease and soon they were retreating again.

"Hold!" he called out to his men. Their orders were to establish a 'beachhead' around the wormhole and hold it against any Rebel counter attack. None came. The full 40 men of the 2nd Platoon were only now all getting off the transport. He quickly ordered all the prisoners loaded onboard to be brought back to the Illustrious. The transport broke off and another attached itself to the airlock and offloaded the 3rd Platoon with Captain Remal.

And Captain Remal ordered the two platoons advance. Tainer sighed lightly. Boarding Rebel ships was hardly a challenge. They were filled with poorly equipped and poorly trained men who couldn't put up any fight. The rest of the boarding was going to be a one sided slaughter.




"I'm sorry Captain, but they've taken Deck 4 and they're rapidly advancing on our position right now. There using some kind of smoke grenade and we're fighting blindly. From what we can tell there are a hell of a lot of them on the ship, and more transports are arriving. I don't think we can hold-"

Captain Jones heard lots of shouting and screaming and then the communication ended.

"We're not doing to well are we, sir?" said Commander Kye solemnly.

Jones shook his head. "We couldn't hold them at the airlocks and they've been pushing us back since. We've lost most of the ship. There are a few pockets of resistance but they won't last long. There were forces defending the way to the bridge but we've lost contact so..." Jones sighed.

"Damnit. We can't even activate the self destruct without a warp core or a main computer. Did we even get a signal to Starfleet?"

Jones shrugged. "I don't know. They should have gotten our earlier messages about the wormhole and Lt. Guher tried some 'interesting' methods to get around their jamming, but there's no way to be certain."

Kye raised and cocked his phaser rifle. "Well sir, if we're going to lose, let's at least put up a fight then!"

Jones never got off a reply to that. They both heard the hatch to the Jeffrey's tube open. Several blue bolts were fired from it and several officers went down. A small grenade was thrown to the center of the bridge and Jones dove to the ground and covered his head. A large explosion followed and when he looked up several officers had been stunned or disoriented.

Jones managed to get up. Several humanoids dressed in pure white body armor had appeared and were shooting everything that moved. He saw Kye firing his rifle madly and hit one them but he fell to a blue bolt. Shots whizzed by Jones and he fired his phaser. He missed. A blue bolt missed him but impacted on a console to his side. Jones realized the danger and tried to move away but it was too late. The console exploded and showered Jones with high speed hot shrapnel. He felt immense pain, and then there was blackness.




Several days later, after many interrogations of the prisoners and analyzing the strange ship's computer, Captain Tej had all the answers to his questions.

"Are you sure this is right?" he asked Commander Varle.

Varle nodded. "We've interrogated every prisoner and they all say the same story. We've checked their computer and sent a probe droid to the indicated coordinates. There definitely is a wormhole."

Tej sighed softly. "Get me Coruscant immediately."




Even as Captain Tej consulted his superiors on his startling discovery, Starfleet Command on Earth was learning of the wormhole as well.

Normally, no ship as small or under-powered as the Florida would have had a chance of getting through the massive amounts of jamming an ship like the Illustrious could emit. However Lt. Guher hadn't tried to get a signal through. When the Florida lost power she had realized the ship was doomed. She then quickly modified a probe and launched it towards the wormhole. Imperial sensors had only picked up the object for a moment before it vanished and the man that had recorded it had simply assumed it had been a sensor malfunction. Thus the probe made it safely undetected into the wormhole.

It was plain luck the probe managed to survive the gravimetric stress that damaged the Florida never mind intact. But it did survive and blew it self apart amplifying a short message and sending it to Earth. The last warning of a doomed starship.

Captain Jean Luc Picard knew nothing of the message. All he knew was he had been ordered to report to Starfleet Command immediately. He entered the huge building and took a turbolift to level twenty-two. As he entered the room he saw a large table with a lot of Starfleet Officers, including Commander Riker and Lt. Commander Data. He sat down beside them.

"Captain!' exclaimed Riker. "I though you were on Vulcan analyzing some ancient artifacts."

"I was," replied Picard. "But I got a message from Starfleet Command ordering me to report here as soon as possible. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

Riker shook his head. "We got the same orders. All I've heard is idle speculation and wild rumors."

Their conversation was interrupted when Fleet Admiral John McKay entered the room and sat at the head of the conference table and began speaking. "Gentlemen, what you are about to hear is classified and not to be discussed except with authorized personnel."

McKay activated a screen behind him. An image of Lt. Guher appeared and in a frantic voice with more then a hint of fear she began to explain the fate of the Florida from the discovery of the wormhole to the alien ship disabling her and the launch of boarding craft. The message ended.

There was no noise in the room as everyone tried to absorb the information. McKay continued to speak. "Now since they were about to be boarded, I'm afraid we're going to have to assume a worse case scenario that the Florida was captured intact with its databanks downloaded and crew interrogated. We've changed all access codes they had but this alien ship might now have important tactical and strategic information."

"This is going to be another fucking Dominion," commented Vice-Admiral Jellico. Picard sighed to himself. During the Dominion War, Jellico's strict discipline and aggressive and perhaps reckless behavior had gotten him several key victories, which had overshadowed multiple defeats. Starfleet had promoted him and he had a lot of influence with the top brass.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," warned Admiral Carov. "According to this message, we fired first."

Jellico replied, "Are you saying Captain Jones initiated an unprovoked attack on an alien ship? For God's sake, they started jamming the Florida's transmissions! Why else would they do that if not to make sure she couldn't call for help?"

Admiral Tuval calmly said, "The Florida did raise shields and arm weapons first, and could have been violating their territory."

Jellico angrily replied, "I heard the same thing when Dominion apologists tried to explain the destruction of the Odyssey! You're sticking your heads in the sand to ignore an obvious hostile action!"

"Gentlemen, please!" interrupted McKay. "Now it is possible this may have been the fault of the Florida or it may have been a hostile action by the alien ship. But, you're forgetting the fact attempts at communication were useless because we didn't understand them, and they might not have understood us, a situation that could have easily gotten out of control."

"What, do you think this was nothing more then a misunderstanding? asked Jellico.

"This is an completely different galaxy we're talking about," answered McKay. "It is quite possible either side could have mistaken an action as hostile and responded in kind."

Jellico looked unconvinced. "Then what do you propose we do then?"

McKay placed his hands on the table. "If this is just a misunderstanding then we have to send a ship to clear this whole mess up." McKay stared at Jellico. "However, if this was indeed a hostile action, then we must respond immediately. I propose sending the 14th tactical force."

"The 14th?!" exclaimed Carov. "That's 35 top of the line ships, many of which are purpose built warships! That's not much less then what we had at Wolf 359!"

"And look what happened there," said Jellico. "Quite frankly, I'd prefer if we took the 8th fleet."

McKay sighed. "Bringing 200 ships could ruin any chance of peace. Rear Admiral Juya will be leading this mission, we'll contact her at the end of this meeting. Captain Picard, you will be the lead ambassador."

"Me, sir?" asked Picard. "There are dedicated diplomatic staffs."

McKay laughed. "Quite frankly, most dedicated diplomats staffs are only good for bickering about minor treaty details. You have the most first contact experience in all of Starfleet. The Enterprise will join the 14th and depart immediately to the coordinates of this wormhole. Good luck."




Meanwhile, on Coruscant, Captain Tej was delivering his report to Grand Admiral Faros and a number of top Imperial Officers.

"We have analyzed their databases," he said. "The full technical details are available but in short, they completely inferior power generation, FTL capacity, and numbers. We're looking at a number of scattered small nation-states. The largest and most powerful near the wormhole seems to be something called 'The United Federation of Planets' who the ship that attacked us belonged to."

"How inferior?" questioned Admiral Jawera.

"Quite," answered Tej. "Their weapons are only kiloton level, and their shields can't handle anything more than low megaton shots. Their FTL drive, something known as 'warp' is only a few thousand times C maximum. Their numbers appear to be less than 200 lightly populated member worlds and a number of small colonies. Their fleet numbers less than 10 thousand, with no ship over 700 meters and a few million tons."

"What is your opinion of their attitudes? Are they hostile?" asked Fleet Admiral Luraku.

"Well sir, they did attack us first. There apparently have been a large number of warns between the nations near the wormhole, and while this Federation claims to have not started any, there's plain propaganda included, everything from claims of paradise worlds to various racial claims about neighboring powers."

Faros nodded. "Do you think they're aware of us?"

Tej shrugged. "I honestly don't know sir. They had plenty of time to get off a lot of messages before we started jamming, and I can't be sure our jamming was completely effective due to differences in communications."

Faros said, "Then we'll have to assume they're coming. How much forces can they bring against us?"

"Not a lot sir. Their major fleets are comprised of a few hundred ships. And their communications and FTL travel is slow enough we can bring forces to bear a lot faster."

"Good. We'll have to send a fleet immediately to secure the wormhole against any future attack."

"And after that, sir?" inquired Luraku.

Faros looked into his eyes. "They attacked an Imperial ship. There's only one response to that. War."




The place where he sat did not exist in the universe. It was not even a natural place. Instead it was an artificial construct, a separate dimension sealed off from everything else. A separate continuum. Suddenly there was another being there.

The first being's voice was pure ice. "What do you want?"

The second's sounded hurt. "Do I need a reason? Can't I check up on an old friend?"

The First scoffed. "Friend? After what you did, you should be glad I tolerate you presence."

The Second did not respond to that. Instead, an image of 2 galaxies appeared in front of them. "Amazing isn't it? A wormhole is just a simple tunnel between two points in space, and look what one does. Both galaxies are about to go to war."

"Why should I care?" asked the First. "They're mere ants compared to us. Their petty squabbles are of no concern. Besides, that is not why you came."

The Second sighed. "That kind of arrogance is going to lead to your doom. I've come to discuss a threat even you would take seriously."

The First replied, "You're wrong, no one will take you seriously. You've come to prove once again you're what the humans you love so much would call 'Chicken Little.'"

"Chicken Little?" said the Second. "You know this is a real threat. He's growing more powerful. Even you can't ignore his tries to escape."

"Tries that merely prove how mad he is. We would never allow it."

The Second laughed. "Now you're doing what the humans I'm simply interested in would call 'sticking your head in the sand.' He doesn't care what you will or will not allow. You cannot ignore the evidence of his returning strength."

The First retorted, "It is a good thing you won't stick your head in the sand, for you would need a galaxy sized desert to cover it. There is no evidence."

The Second gestured to the image of the galaxies. "What do you call this?"

"I thought you were past claiming every supernova was proof he was breaking free. It's a random event caused by the shear aggressiveness of both sides. You're not going to convince me just as you've failed to convince the others."

"I can see that now. You've all closed your eyes to the truth and by the time you opened them I fear it will be too late." The Second vanished in a flash of light.

[Singular Quartet]

Quite alright, GAT. Good work, now keep it up.

[Peregrin Toker]

This is truly a good story - exciting from the start, although the theme "Wormhole connects one sci-fi setting to another" has been done many times before.



I've noticed following typo, though:

They may just cut threw the hull, but its worth a try.

Should be "through" the hull, although you've probably noticed that.



BTW - Julan Varle? Is that guy's name a reference to a certain Jules Verne?[/i]

[Darth Phoenix]

Very good, keep it up.