Author's Note

This story is a cross over with Travis Anderson's Special Investigations Division.  I do not no how I should contact him regarding permissions and such.  I tried to be as faithful to his original characters and stories as possible, and I did not make any permanent changes to his characters (At least none that did not "Un-Happen" after a change in the timeline).  On a side note, you may notice that some of my characters are similar to his, I guarantee that, although I read his stories religiously, I came up with the basic characters before even hearing about Travis's stories, or Brin Macen, or the SID or anything about them, and only used his as a reference for certain character traits.  I acknowledge that the characters, events, vessels, and planets, contained within Special Investigations Division, are the intellectual property of Travis Anderson, with the exception of those elements also contained in any other "Star Trek^TM" Media, which are property of CBS-Paramount and other respective authors.  As I have stated elsewhere on this site, if an author object to any of their material on this site, I will gladly remove it upon emailed request (see Contact the Author at left.)

Episode Eight

Star Trek New Order

Episode 008

“Gateway to Armageddon”

Captain’s Log; Star Date 57047.1; we will shortly be leaving Earth Space Dock to join the third fleet for exercises in the Wolf 359 system.  But before we leave I am to take aboard an old friend who will be transferring to the Enterprise when we join the fleet.

Hunt stood in the transporter room awaiting the arrival of his passenger.  The Transporter Operator reported that Space Dock Control was ready for transport, and Hunt gave him a nod in the positive.  Within seconds a figure began to materialize on the pad through a shroud of swirling light.  Shortly after, a dark skinned woman, wearing a large Purple hat and a matching sweater, stepped off the pad and towards Hunt.

“Hello Guinan,” Hunt said, holding out his hand.  Guinan ignored it and embraced him in a big bear hug.

“Well, Jon Hunt, I haven’t seen you since you were a little kid,” Guinan greeted.

“Guinan, we talked a few years ago,” Hunt answered.

“Hun, when you are several hundred years old, everybody’s a kid,” she retorted, “How’s A’Cillia?”

Hunt looked off into space for a moment, “we broke up a few months ago.”

Guinan Apologized, then tried to change the subject, “it’s been a while since I’ve been on a Galaxy class,” She said, “It looks different than I remember.”

“Such is the price of war,” Hunt answered, “Probably reminds you more of the Enterprise-E.  We only just began a series of refits meant to bring her back to a more peaceful configuration.  Why don’t I show you Ten Forward?”  The two of them walked out of the Transporter room and walked towards the crew lounge at the bow of the ship.

                        *                                  *                                  *

Meanwhile, on Berrinor, Commander Brin Macen was enjoying a rare moment of quiet.  Admiral Drake had asked his team to look into a Section 31 operation led by former Commander Martin Madden.  Brin elected to send the rest of his team under cover to investigate the matter, while he and T’Kir remained behind to research the reports of encounters with this most secretive group. 

Being married to T’Kir was not easy.  This particular Vulcan was no ordinary Vulcan.  Brin decided that it was in his best interest to spur off her advances for the time being so that he could concentrate on the material displayed on his terminal. 

What would he want with someone who can sense time ripples? Brin thought as he read the latest report.

“How the Frinx should I know!” T’Kir yelled from the next room.

I wasn’t talking to you, Brin thought loudly

“I heard that!”

Brin closed his eyes and began to spread his mind out, following the ribbons of time and trying to find an explanation.  Something in space disturbed him; some sort of distortion flooded his senses.  Brin opened his eyes with a start and pounded the comm. panel on his desk.  He had to mobilize what team members he could, and join the fleet at Wolf 359.

                        *                                  *                                  *

Captain Hunt landed on the mat with a thud.  He flexed his abs to flip himself to his feet and readied himself for Dergos’ next move.  The ship was still hours away from the fleet and Hunt took the opportunity to brush up on his martial arts.  Dergos threw another punch at Hunt, which he quickly blocked, before faking a right hook and launching into a roundhouse kick.

Dergos caught the kick, and threw him aside.  Hunt pulled himself back to his feet and Dergos threw another punch, landing on Hunts jaw.

“You’re loosing your touch, Captain,” Dergos said pulling Hunt up.

“Something isn’t right,” Hunt replied as he wiped a trickle of blood from his lip, “I can’t say what it is.”  Hunt used the opportunity to take Dergos’ balance and throw him to the ground.  Suddenly, the intercom chirped.  Hunt answered.

“Captain, this is Guinan,” he heard over the intercom, “can I talk to you a moment,” Guinan asked, “It is very important.”

“Ok, I’ll meet you in my ready room in ten minutes,” Hunt bowed to Dergos and then grabbed his duty jacket, as he ran out.

When Hunt arrived in his ready room, Guinan was already seated on his couch.  Hunt sat down next to her.  “Something isn’t right,” Guinan explained.  Hunt agreed with her, he felt it too, since the gymnasium.  “I talked to Brin, he is on his way to meet us at Wolf 359,” Guinan continued, “You know how our people have a unique perception of time?”  Hunt nodded, “I can feel something out there that is not of our time.”  Hunt thought for a moment, and then ordered the bridge to increase speed.

Within minutes the Beliskner arrived at the edge of the Wolf 359 system.  The ship glided past the wrecks of the Melbourne, and the Kyushu, two of the vessels lost in battle against a Borg cube thirteen years earlier.  As she moved towards the inner part of the system, the Beliskner was flanked by the other members of the fleet. 

“Captain,” Jean Luc Picard said on the viewscreen, “What, is it that brings you here in such a hurry?”  Hunt and Guinan explained their strange feelings to Picard.  “Well, Guinan, I have never doubted your intuition before, when Captain Macen, and the Obsidian, arrives we might have a better idea of what is going on.”

                        *                                  *                                  *

Brin Macen stood up and paced around the Beliskner’s conference room.  “While searching the 31 files I came across references to the Tkon Empire, the Nexus Ribbon and the research of the Guardian of Forever,” Brin explained.

“And, you think that this may have something to do with your, intuition?” Picard inquired.

“When I was trying to find the connection I reached out and I could see something wrong with the flow of time, don’t ask me how,” Brin answered.

“Alright, but we need more evidence than this,” Picard pointed out, just then Chavin chimed in on the intercom.

“Captains, to the bridge please; we are getting some pretty strange readings on sensors.”  Everyone stood up and ran out to the bridge.   Chavin sat with Brin’s science specialist, Lisea Danan, at the aft science station.  Captain Picard looked at the two gold uniformed Trills and his mind flooded with images of his former android crewmate, Data, whose sacrifice saved the entire ship not two years ago, sitting at that very bridge station on the former Enterprise-D.

“Report, Commander,” Picard ordered.

“We detected some unusual temporal readings near Planet Gateway,” Danan reported.

“Gateway?” Hunt asked, “That was one of the things Section 31 was researching.”

“Lees,” Brin requested, “where is the nexus ribbon in relation to Gateway?”  On his request, a star map appeared on the viewscreen, at the center was a dot representing the sun of the gateway system.  The map zoomed in and a representation of the ribbon appeared just departing the system.

“Now overlay our data on the boarders of the Tkon Empire,” Picard asked.  The map zoomed out and a line representing the boarder appeared between their position and Gateway.

“Dergos signal the fleet, we’re going to find out what’s going on at the City on the Edge of Forever,” Hunt ordered.

                        *                                  *                                  *

The fleet dropped out of warp at the edge of the system and slowly proceeded towards Planet Gateway.  For several tense minutes they navigated through the temporal distortions.

“Captain, I am detecting a vessel ahead,” Reported Dergos, “It appears to be heavily damaged.”  Dergos displayed the derelict on the main viewscreen.  It was a Romulan Warbird, but now it was a tumbling hulk.

“Romulans,” uttered the helmsman, “Why are they here?”

“I don’t know,” Hunt said, “But something must have been very powerful to do that to a warbird.”

“Perhaps we should board her, and find out what happened,” Suggested Tertian.

                        *                                  *                                  *

Onboard the warbird, six space suited figures shimmered into existence.  They moved out to search the ship for clues.  Dr. Sorel, Chavin and Hunt moved towards the main bridge, while Tertian, Dergos and Taurik moved towards the remains of the engine room.  Outside the bridge, Hunt detected a dampening field inside of a bulkhead.  After cutting away the wall, they found a hidden compartment, protected by a force field.

“I can’t detect much, but, now that the bulkhead has been removed, I can say that this compartment does contain atmosphere,” Sorel reported.

“Is there a way I can get in there without depressurizing it?” Hunt asked.

“We may be able to generate a force field around your EV suit,” Chavin explained, “Then we can remodulate its frequency to match the field.”  Hunt authorized her plan and within minutes they had managed to modify a length of tritanium cable into a force field emitter.  Chavin scanned the field and matched its frequency, than activated Hunt’s field.  Hunt bent down and entered the hidden chamber.  The fields glowed for a moment, as he passed through.

Once on the inside, Hunt found that the fields had shorted out most of the systems on his suit.  Hunt shed the heavy environmental suit and pulled out a tricorder.  Scanning the chamber he could now detect a life sign ahead.  Hunt continued through the compartment, following the life sign.  Finally he came upon a pile of debris, scanning it he found that the life sign was underneath it.  He dug through the pile until he reached a human male at the bottom.  He looked at the tattered face and immediately recognized it.

                        *                                  *                                  *

Captain’s Log; Supplemental, Our guest is cooling in the brig; I intend to find out what they were doing here.  In the meantime, the Third fleet and the Titan will be joining us, to stop whatever destroyed that warbird.

“Well, if it isn’t Martin Madden, if that is your real name,” Hunt said staring through the force field.

Madden sat up, “you must leave now,” he said.

“That is why you were researching Tkon,” Hunt realized.

“We tried to bring one of their ships into the future so we could reverse engineer it,” Madden interrupted.

“It was too much for you to handle,” Hunt said, “Wasn’t it?”  Hunt was then called to the bridge.

Hunt walked on to the bridge.  The alert alarms were already blaring.

“What is it?” Hunt asked.

“We just detected something moving out from the southern lunar pole,” Chavin reported, “It is coming into visual range now.”  A massive, ring shaped vessel appeared on the viewscreen.

“What, in the name of the fire caves, is that thing?” Tertian exclaimed.

“It must be the size of a small starbase,” Dergos said.

“They must be the Tkon,” Hunt answered.  Suddenly the Tkon Vessel released a powerful energy beam from an emitter on its bow.

“Shields down to 47 percent,” Dergos announced as the bridge shook from the impact, “we won’t take another hit like that.”  Hunt ordered a return fire.  The Tkon merely shook off the phaser hits and kept on coming.  Hunt ordered a volley of quantum torpedoes, which had little more effect.

“Signal the fleet,” Hunt Ordered as the ship dodged another blast, “We’ll need some help with these guys.”  At his signal, the entire fleet moved forwards towards the Tkon vessel.

The fleet opened fire with photon and quantum torpedoes.  The sheer volume of fire power would have vaporized a small moon.  Unfortunately, the volley only did minor damage to the enemy’s hull.  In response the Tkon vessel unleashed another beam on the fleet.  As it carved a swath through the fleet, the less armored vessels did not stand a chance against the beam.

“The fleet can’t take much more of this,” Tertian reported.

“Dergos,” Hunt Ordered, “Arm a tricobalt device and target that ship.”

“Aye sir,” Dergos acknowledged, “Arming tricobalt device.”

“Captain,” Chavin reported, “The Titan has a warp core breach in progress.”

“Prepare to beam their crew aboard,” Hunt ordered.  A few seconds later the Titan exploded.

“I got one hundred and thirty of them,” Chavin reported.

“You only got one hundred thirty survivors, out of a crew of three hundred fifty?” Hunt asked, “what about Captain Riker?”  Chavin shook her head.

Then Captain Picard appeared on the viewscreen, “Captain, we managed to rescue the rest of the survivors from the Titan, their all right.”

Then Captain Riker walked over to the viewer, “Captain, we are detecting a tricobalt device hot and ready in your forward torpedo tube, I suggest you use it, quickly!”

“Launching tricobalt device,” Dergos Announced.  The weapon shot out of the launcher and impacted the Tkon ship.

“It looks like they were disabled sir,” Chavin reported, “We should try to finish them off now.”

“Load another device and prepare to fire Mr. Dergos,” Hunt commanded.

Captain,” Chavin shouted before Dergos could arm the weapon, “I am detecting a massive energy surge coming from the ribbon, something’s coming through!”

“Head for the Nexus, Captain,” Picard said on the viewscreen, “We’ll follow.”

“Where coming too,” Brin Macen cut in from the bridge of his ship the SS Obsidian.  Half the surviving fleet followed the Beliskner toward the Nexus Ribbon.  When they arrived they found that the rift had expanded.

“I am detecting multiple contacts emerging from the rift,” Dergos reported.

“Arm tricobalt weapons and prepare to fire!” Hunt demanded.  Five of the massive Tkon vessels come into view on the main viewscreen, and then they opened fire.

“Shields are down!” Tertian reported as the ship continued to shake.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta roll a hard six,” Chavin retorted

“Between the energy ribbon and these Tkon we can’t take much more of this,” Taurik announced.

“Beliskner hasn’t let us down yet commander,” Hunt replied, “I don’t think she’s ready to now.”

“One of the vessels is launching dozens of small objects,” Dergos reported.

“Raiders,” Chavin explained, “they are launching fighters.”

“Scramble ours.” Hunt ordered.  Chavin relayed his order to the aircrews.  Then the vessel shook from another explosion as the starboard warp nacelle was forcibly separated from it’s pylon by a sweep of a Tkon beam.

“I am sorry sir,” Taurik said, “but is appears that she is ready.”

“You’re relieved commander,” Hunt ordered, pointing towards the turbolift.  Before he reached it though, an energy tendril struck the ship and knocked him off his feet.  Before Taurik could pull himself up, another blast blew out the viewscreen.

“Sir,” Tertian argued, “Taurik is right.”

“Alright, Conn, prepare to retreat,” Hunt relented, “Prepare for emergency beam out.”  Then another energy tendril hit the bridge and easily passed through the force field where the viewscreen was.  Everyone was knocked off their feet.  When Tertian stood back up, he glanced around the bridge and noticed that the captain was nowhere in sight.

“We have a coolant leak!” Taurik announced as he crawled back to his station, “The warp core is going critical.”

“All hands abandon ship!” Tertian shouted above the din as he accepted the captain’s disappearance.  Then the Tkon unleashed another blast, and the world dissolved into a bright white explosion.

                        *                                  *                                  *

  Onboard the Obsidian, conditions were equally grim.  Brin was using the Nova class vessel to assist the remaining fighters against the Tkon craft.

“The Beliskner has been destroyed.” Rab Daggit, the team’s tactical specialist, reported.

“I can’t shake ‘em,” announced Hannah Grace from the conn, this was quite a statement, considering her enhanced, Kelvin, reflexes.

“We’re being painted,” T’kir announced, “They’ve got us.”  An explosion rocked the bridge, shorting out several consoles.  Then suddenly the Helm console exploded, throwing Hannah into the forward viewscreen.  Brin checked her and determined that she broke her neck, dying instantly.  Kort came to the bridge, complaining about the walking wounded inundating his sickbay.  When he saw Hannah’s body lying in the front of the bridge, he ran over and attempted to revive her.  Sure that Hannah was gone; he let out a blood curdling scream to warn the afterlife of her arrival.

T’kir attempted to transfer the helm control to her station but found it non functional.

“Shields are down,” Daggit reported, as the ship shook again, “Weapons are offline, we are a sitting duck”

So this is the end, Brin thought as the bridge fell apart around him, after 400 years, I survived the Borg, the Cardassians, the Dominion, the Omicron, I outwitted Section 31, and this is it, this is the end of Outbound Ventures, the end of Brin Macen, adrift and defenseless.  Then everything exploded.

                        *                                  *                                  *

Captain Picard sat in his chair on the bridge of the Enterprise as the bridge shook again; he engaged the chair’s restraints.

“We’ve lost the Obsidian,” announced Commander La Forge, Picard’s long time Chief Engineer and current first officer.  Another blast rocked the bridge.  The Helmsman, Lieutenant Kell Perim, began another series of violent evasive maneuvers.

“We have expended all photon and quantum torpedoes sir,” Commander Worf warned.  Another blast knocked Perim out of her chair at the helm; she knocked her head against the console and was rendered unconscious.  Wesley Crusher, who had beamed over from the Titan took her station.  The next hit disabled the shields.

“We are loosing hull integrity,” Captain Riker, who also survived the Titan, shouted.

“Mr. Crusher, prepare for a collision course,” Picard ordered, “Geordi, can you give me warp power.”  La Forge nodded.  “Good,” Picard said, “so, this is journey’s end?”  Picard unbuckled his restraint and initiated the self destruct, “Engage!”

                        *                                  *                                  *

“I do,” Chavin replied.

Hunt’s vision came into focus and he saw Chavin standing in front of him in an elegant wedding gown

“I now pronounce you man and wife; you may kiss the bride,” The minister announced.

“Oh Boy,” Hunt muttered.  Chavin leaned forward and lifted her veil.  Hunt came forward and kissed her on the lips.  Hunt looked around the room, in the crowd he caught a glimpse of both Guinan and Macen sitting next to each other on a pew.

After the ceremony, Hunt and Chavin boarded an air car.  Hunt was greeted by Macen sitting in the back seat.  After they pulled out of the driveway, Hunt asked Chavin to take the controls so that he could talk with Brin.

“This isn’t real,” Brin said, “You’re in the Nexus.”

“I know,” Hunt replied, “I like it here, I have a beautiful wife, and no worries.”

“She isn’t really Dranzian Chavin,” Brin said, “She is a figment of your imagination; a construct of the Nexus.”

“I don’t care.”

“Do you really want to stay here,” Brin answered, “while an unstoppable devil conquers the galaxy, and kills everyone you know?”

“What can I do?”

“You can stop it before it starts.”

Hunt thought for a second and then leaned forward and tapped his imaginary wife on the shoulder.

“Honey,” Hunt asked, “we need to close a temporal anomaly, what is the quickest way to do it?”

“This is our wedding day; do you have to talk shop?” Chavin said, kissing him on the cheek.

“This is important.”

“OK fine,” Chavin relented, “If you modify the Beliskner’s warp drive, to create a static warp bubble, it should repair the barrier between time periods.”  Hunt thanked her and stepped out of the air car.

                        *                                  *                                  *

Instead of falling a hundred feet to the ground, he walked out of the turbolift and on to the bridge.  The alert alarms were already blaring.

 “We just detected something moving out from the southern lunar pole,” Chavin reported, “It is coming into visual range now.”  A massive, ring shaped vessel appeared on the viewscreen.

“What, in the name of the fire caves, is that thing?” Tertian exclaimed.

“It must be the size of a small starbase,” Dergos said.

“Major,” Hunt ordered, “arm all the Tricobalt warheads and prepare to fire them at that thing!”

“All of them, sir?”

“You heard me Major,” Hunt replied, “every last one, set full yields!”

“Aye sir,” Dergos responded, a moment later, “Weapons armed.”

“Fire, now Mister Dergos,” Hunt shouted.  Dergos jammed his finger down on the Fire control.  Twelve glowing blue-white missiles shot out of the forward torpedo launcher and lanced out towards the Tkon cruiser.  The Tricobalt devices detonated on contact.  The first seven disabled the shields, the remaining devices slammed into the Hull before detonating, tearing the cruiser apart.

“Conn,” Hunt ordered next, “set a course for the ribbon.”

“Ja, Kapitan!” The helmsman ordered.  The ship flew towards the nexus ribbon at full impulse.

“We are entering the ribbon,” Chavin reported.

“Are you detecting any anomalous energy readings?” Hunt asked.

“Yes sir, I think more of those ships are trying to come through,” Chavin reported, “we might be able to seal the rift before they come through.”

“Yes.”

“We need to create a static warp shell and fly into the rift to repair it.”

“Your brilliant, Honey,” Hunt said kissing her on the forehead.  Chavin shook of the confusion as she stood up and moved aft to the engineering station to assist Taurik in generating the shell.  When Taurik and Chavin announced that they were ready, the ship moved into the rift.

“I am detecting an energy surge, they are coming through,” Chavin announced.  The ship shook from a blast coming through the rift from the past, “They’re firing at us, we are loosing shields,” Chavin reported.

“How much longer do you need?” Hunt asked.

“You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water,” Chavin quipped

“The barrier is reforming; it should only take a few more seconds.” Taurik responded.

 “The shields are buckling,” Dergos reported as the ship shook again.

“Here we go,” Chavin said, “That should seal it.”

“Take us out,” Hunt ordered.

“We appear to be trapped in the gravitational distortion.” The Helmsman reported.

“Dergos, fire a quantum torpedo, set it to detonate directly astern,” Hunt ordered.

“So the blast wave will knock us free,” Dergos acknowledged, “aye sir.”  Dergos fired and the torpedo detonated, disrupting the ribbon’s gravity field.

“Warp speed,” Hunt yelled, “now!”  The ship rocketed out of the ribbon.  Seconds later the warp field collapsed under the cumulative strain of the warp shell and the escape maneuver.

“The warp drive just gave up the ghost sir,” Chavin reported, still at the engineering station.  Then main power cut out as several EPS conduits blew.

“I am detecting several vessels approaching off our starboard bow,” Dergos said, “Sensors are damaged, I can’t tell who they are.”

“Arm phasers,” Hunt said, crawling back into his chair.

“Wait, their hailing us,” Chavin said.

Captain Picard appeared on the viewscreen, “Captain,” he said, “do you require assistance.”

“I am so glad to see you Jean Luc,” Hunt relented, “Assist away.”  Then the Enterprise moved in and locked a tractor beam onto the battered Galaxy class vessel.

                        *                                  *                                  *

“I hear you dealt with our little problem,” Madden said from inside the brig on the Obsidian.

“Yes,” Hunt replied from the other side of the force field.

“You can’t hold me,” Madden announced nonchalantly.

“We won’t have to,” Brin replied as he walked in, “We just arrived at Tantalus V penal colony.”  Dergos, Daggit and ten penal colony guards entered the room and lowered the force field to escort him to the transporter.  The whole journey from the brig to the transporter, Daggit had a Phaser rifle muzzle pressed into Madden’s back.  They soon arrived in the transporter room and Dergos shoved Madden onto the pad.

“Energize,” Hunt ordered.  Madden began to shimmer as he dematerialized.  Suddenly, the transporter shimmer changed color and he waved as he disappeared.

“Damn!” Hunt exclaimed.

“He’s gone,” T’kir announced from the transporter console, “Tantalus didn’t get him.”

“We’ll see him again,” Hunt predicted, “We haven’t seen the last of Martin Madden.”

“We’ll keep an eye out for him,” Brin said, placing his hand on Hunt’s shoulder, “In the meantime; you and Renny should be getting back to Beliskner.”

“Alright then,” Hunt said mockingly in the most fatherly tone he could, “Major, say goodbye to your friend and lets head home.”

“Come on,” Brin said, “the Idiot’s Delight is waiting in the shuttle bay.”

“Why did T’kir pick such an odd name anyway?” Hunt asked as they walked out.

Brin thought about it for a second and decided not to answer.

“I heard that!” T’kir yelled after them.  Dergos and Daggit finished talking about combat tactics and Dergos followed them out.

                        *                                  *                                  *

The Idiot’s Delight arrived at Starbase Eleven several hours later and swooped into orbit.

“Beliskner this is Hunt,” He said, “we’re back from Tantalus, how are the repairs coming.”

“Just fine sir,” Tertian reported over the comm. link, “We should be able to depart shortly.”

“Welcome home, honey,” Chavin cut in acerbically.