Story:Star Trek: Pioneer/On a Knife Edge/Chapter 5

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Chapter 5
21 June 2598 USS Renaissance, Ogat, Klingon space

It had been a long, tedious, but ultimately successful time of scientific research into of the strangest stars in existence. Ogat sat in space, glaring out at passing ships and spewing out a wide variety of matter, from solar flares to dangerously high amounts of radiation. It had taken months to authorise this project. As the Klingons hadn't been so scientific with their original approach, the Renaissance had become the first Federation ship to study this star. A star which, unexpectedly, orbited another star, M'Char, 0.6 light years away. The orbiting time of this star was an incredible 18 years, based on their calculations. Captain Timms found himself thankful that there were no planets in orbit of Ogat, or the possibility of a collision between them and the planets already orbiting M'Char.

Timms wandered over to the large science station, which was manned by three occupants, each of whom were still staggered by their findings. The console directly in front of him told him that Ogat was now giving off large amounts of radiation, going nowhere in particular.

"You almost done?" he asked a lieutenant at the aft station.

"Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out one last detail. There's an abnormal shift in solar activity in the lower corona. It wasn't there before."

Timms nodded and headed back to his seat. After five months of analysis, there was nothing that could have surprised him. This however, did. Was the star somehow sentient, asking them to stay and study a while longer? Did it have more secrets that they had missed? He was about to find out.

The lieutenant's face suddenly became confused. "Sir, long range sensors are picking up an enormous fleet of unidentified ships, proceeding at low warp toward Federation territory. And I'm also picking up an energy signature emanating from the corona. It might be a ship."

"How is that possible? We've been here all this time and not detected it?"

"Is it possible that the vessel was cloaked, and then decloaked as it was entering the corona?"

"I don't think so, I haven't read any reports on ships that can do that, at least, not yet. Transmit your findings to Starfleet, they may have an idea."

The lieutenant operated her console, but Timms noted the error sounds that came from it moments later.

"All transmissions have been jammed, sir," she declared. "I've cycled through all the channels."

It only took a moment for Timms to realise the predicament he was in.

"Red alert! Shields up!" he bellowed, as the ship was struck hard, catching most people off-guard.

"Evasive manoeuvres! Return fire!" he shouted to his lieutenant.

The Renaissance darted manically from side to side, up and down, trying to confound its mysterious attacker. Phasers were fired in all directions, but to no avail. The attacker fired again and again, pounding the Renaissance with tremendous force. Recognising the fact that his ship might not last for much longer, Timms gave a new order.

"Put all of our data, ship's and personal logs into an emergency buoy, quickly! Send it deeper into Klingon space if you have to!" His crew followed his orders, and Timms watched as the buoy was released, hopefully taking over five months' worth of invaluable data to Starfleet. That is, if the Klingons don't destroy it. Finally, some good news arrived. No, he thought, it's not good.

"Captain, sensors are showing me that the vessel that is attacking us is of the same configuration as the one which attacked Earth."

So that was who was attacking them. The Saer'nar. Now it made all made sense.

"Lieutenant, are any of those ships in the fleet also of the same configuration as this one?"

"Confirmed. At least 12 ships are the same."

"I don't know how you'll get this message through to Starfleet, but tell them that the Saer'nar are on their way and we will be heavily outnumbered. Now I wonder if surrender is an option?"

His bridge crew looked baffled by the suggestion, but Timms made himself clear amongst the shots.

"We've taken heavy damage, there's not much else we can do. I doubt they'll listen to reason, so I have a backup plan. We destroy this ship. Ram it into them, at least we could cause some damage."

His crew seemed defeated by that. "Do you really think we'll get out of this alive?"

"What about the escape pods? Surely it's worth a try."

Timms considered it, thinking of the pros and cons. We could live, we could get killed. If we stay on this ship... we'll be killed anyway. "Alright. Who's coming?"

The crew moved into action, as a new klaxon tore through the ship. Timms set the self-destruct for two minutes. With luck, that'll be all the time we need. He also set auto-navigation so that the Renaissance would stay as close as possible to the Saer'nar ship when it exploded. He just hoped he would be far away by that point.

Climbing into the last escape pod, Timms quickly surveyed the bridge. This ship and he had been through a lot together, and he felt himself welling up inside. "Thank you," he murmured, before shutting the door of the pod and sealing it. Within seconds, he felt the pod hurtle away from the ship, and into the great unknown. And then he watched as the Renaissance shattered, debris breaking off like broken glass from a mirror, and then it was gone.

The waves crashed over the promenade, sending the seagulls away in one go, whilst gaining applause from some of the younger children standing well clear with their relatives. Apart from the seagulls sounding their annoyance at losing their food to the sea, and the sea itself moving up and down the beach, the only sound Mantree could hear was the gentle whistling of the wind. There was a genuine sense of calm he got from sitting up on the hill, slowly breathing in the sea breeze, letting the stresses of his job just disappear with the wind.

Mantree heard the sound of the holodeck's doors open and close, and eventually heard the soft sounding footsteps coming from behind him.

"Am I interrupting?"

Mantree looked up at his visitor. "No, not at all. Have a seat, Commander."

His Romulan executive officer sat down on the hillside, keenly gazing at the spectacle. "I don't believe I have seen this program before. Does it serve a special purpose?"

Mantree nodded. "There are a few thousand holoprograms, this one is listed amongst my personal favourites. Pointing to the large cluster of buildings below, he continued. "This is the town of Aberystwyth, on Earth. It has been here for a few hundred years, expanding and becoming a port of commerce. I asked the computer to set it to the early 21st century, as you can't see technology like you can on a starship. I come here often, mainly to relax. No special purpose."

"Why this place? There are many other towns and cities, not just on Earth, that would offer the same experience."

"I'm not sure really. I picked it at random from a list of places one of my close friends said I should visit." His face became solemn. "I don't suppose I'll be able to visit the real Aberystwyth or any other Earth town or city now." He paused, letting the feeling sink in, then turned to Lhaihtrha. "Anyway, what can I do for you?"

"I came to inform you that we are about six hours from the Tholian border. We haven't detected any 'missing planets' yet, but we did receive a distress call from a Cardassian freighter."

"Oh?"

"Unfortunately it had already been destroyed. I ordered that the ship carry on, in the hopes of finding Anaura."

"Did the Cardassians mention anything in their distress call as to who attacked them?"

"Unfortunately not, sir. Their beacon was automated."

Mantree sighed, letting himself take in a last breath of the sea breeze. He stood up, signaling for his first officer to do the same.

"Computer, end program and show exit."

The two men began walking out of the double doors that parted before them, turning into the corridor beyond, as the vista behind them disappeared, leaving only the yellow lines and grey slats of the hologrid visible.

"So," began Mantree. "Has Starfleet sent us the authorisation codes to enter Tholian space yet?"

"Ensign O'Connell is decrypting them now. He is finding some of the new algorithms quite complex – obviously that was the plan."

"Starfleet has to be cautious now anyway. We barely have enough ships to fight a war. A lot has changed in the past few months, and we need to recover quickly. Very quickly, in fact. Past experience has taught me that there's always a new threat just around the corner, ready to take over."

They entered Stellar Cartography, a large, round room with a small platform in the middle and a walkway extending up to it. Mantree often felt like he was floating in space in an EV suit as you could see all the stars around you.

"Where are we now, in relation to our heading?"

Lhaihtrha brought up an image of a lesser populated region of Federation space, which showed a thin and meandering blue line between different stars and planets. On one side it was blue, signifying Federation territory, and the other side was a light shade of orange, representing Tholian space. There were no planets on the Tholian border, at least not for 15 light years. Wise precaution, thought Mantree. It gives the Tholians time to intercept any uninvited guests. A thick yellow line appeared on the far wall, denoting the progress the Pioneer had made. There was a dotted yellow line after it, showing the route that the ship had yet to take. Mantree looked over at Tholian space. It appeared as though it was a large blob of paint drawn on a map. Apart from the centre, the remaining sections were like branches, stretching out as far as the Tholians could take them. The search for Anaura could take longer than expected. Unless of course the Tholians knew where it was...

"We will arrive at the border in five hours and 41 minutes, sir. The Federation Council requested that a vessel be sent to escort us through their space. I am somewhat confused by the necessity for such an occurrence though."

"Well, there are two reasons really. First of all, the Tholians aren't likely to just let us search their space for a planet that may or may not be there are they? Secondly, the president feels that it may help to strengthen the relationship between our governments. I can certainly understand that. Have you been able to come up with a search grid yet?"

"With the data available, it is difficult to make an accurate guess as to the extent of space controlled by the Tholian Assembly, but from what we've gathered, it will take around seven to eight weeks."

Great, thought Mantree. As if it couldn't be hard enough already. The Tholians were still quite xenophobic, but times were changing, and they were beginning to accept (albeit vigilantly) that other species were willing to give aid to them. They still didn't allow many ships to venture outside of their borders, but mutual co-operation was forming, and the Federation was more than enthusiastic to accept them as allies.

"Let me know when we've arrived at the border," Mantree said, and headed off to his quarters.

Chapter 6