Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Divine Intervention

Has God been found?!

Chapter One
Lianna Young is awoken by a call from the Enterprise. Shield says that she needs to come to the Bridge immediately. Once there, she switches over to main viewer and receives the news.

The Federation science vessel, the USS Dawkins, was raided and destroyed by Orion pirates. But a transmission was sent out to all ships in the area, coded as top priortiy. The transmission read only this:


 * God has been found. We were wrong.

Meanwhile, Station Frontier has picked up the emergency transmission from the Dawkins. Picard dismisses it as the frantic ramblings of a desperate bastard who, with no escape from an Orion trap, sent out his dying fears hoping for some consolation. Tristan Marshal, however, says that the USS Dawkins was sent into Orion space to investigate abnormal energy readings from the nebula. Picard says that it's probably nothing more than a solar flare, but Marshal insists that he be allowed to investigate personally. Picard tells Marshal that all of Earth's religions were abolished by the United Earth Government in the late 21st Century for the "greater good", and that religion, God and Jesus Christ are a joke that, if taken seriously, would destroy the peace held by the Federation and plunge humanity into another dark age. Picard once again asserts that the captain of the USS Dawkins had fallen insane in the last days of his life, despite the fact that Marshal found no psychiatric file on him.

Picard says that it's a closed case, because mankind no longer needs Gods since, according to him, man is god and has no need of a "shepherd." Furthermore, he says that any investigation of the demise of the Dawkins will be considered as aiding the New Insurrection, since he has received intelligence that their ships have made for the Orion system. He warns Tristan from pursuing this, since he says that he comes dangerously close to crossing a dangerous line. Marshal says that he doesn't intend to cross any line, simply to seek out the truth, which is what science is all about.

As he leaves, Picard orders Drake to keep an eye on his friend and report any of his actions to him.