Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Chapter Text

Task Force Gauntlet was now two and half hours out from the Longlax-Teko system, trailing the first wave of Tholian ships by two hours.

The meeting had reconvened on the ship’s more spacious recreation deck, as the briefing room had proved too confining for the growing number of officers involved in mission planning and task force coordination.

A large conference table had been established here, twice the size of their typical briefing table. The portable consoles crammed into the briefing room had been relocated as well, spaced farther apart in this more forgiving environment.

Rachel Garrett stepped up to a dais in front of a crowd of a dozen senior officers and science specialists, to include Trujillo and Commander Davula. Her briefing would be transmitted to all twenty-four ships comprising both task forces. She activated the large viewer set into the second story bulkhead above their heads, calling up the previous image of the ring of spheres in close orbit of the orange star.

“Thank you for joining us. This report is the combined product of personnel from across Task Forces Gauntlet and Alamo, with input from the Federation Science Directorate.”

Garrett inclined her head towards Trujillo. “Commodore, it is our collective assessment that the spheres are generating a very powerful subspace field between them. This field, in turn, is creating a gravitational lensing effect. That lensing effect is focusing and modulating the star’s natural energy emissions into a coherent subspace signal of enormous power.”

Trujillo stood, arms crossed, her chin braced on her right hand in a thoughtful posture as she absorbed Garrett’s report.

“That signal is being broadcast deep into Tholian territory and appears to intersect what we believe to likely be their home star system.”

“The purpose of this signal?” Trujillo inquired.

“Unknown, sir. It doesn’t appear to carry any message or code that we can divine, only a specific energy signature, amplified immensely.”

Trujillo asked, “If this broadcast is so powerful, how is it that we’re only now becoming aware of it?”

“The subspace frequency modulation is very high into the G-Level bands, not a frequency range any known species utilizes for communications. It’s not something we would typically scan for, sir.”

Lt. Commander Kura-Ka, Reykjavík’s Zaranite chief engineer, had been requested to attend the briefing. The man rarely left the confines of his engineering decks and eschewed most social contact with his fellows. He turned his fleshy head towards Trujillo, speaking through the facemask which provided him a steady stream of fluorine-rich gas. The mask gave his voice an oddly artificial quality.

“Sir, it might help to think of the subspace realm as a layered barrier, the energetic boundary between dimensions. We utilize some of these nearer layers to convey faster-than-light communications, and other layers can be thought of as the tractive surface upon which our warp drives anchor in order to bend space around our vessels for propulsion. Many of the deeper bands of subspace frequencies are garbled by the natural background radiation emissions of stellar bodies and our universe itself. Our sensors are calibrated to filter out this ‘noise’ or they would be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the energies translated through those media. The sphere-amplified signal broadcast by this star is within that deeper range, and was thus invisible to us until we deliberately searched it out.”

Trujillo, over twenty years on from her Academy subspace physics courses, nodded appreciatively. “Thank you, Commander.” She realized that with the ship’s recent turnover of senior officers, only Kura-Ka was comfortable enough with her to have explained it in such a simplified way. Someone as junior as Garrett dared not for fear of causing offense.

“Any theories as to how these spheres suddenly appeared in a Federation controlled system without anyone noticing their construction?”

“The reports from the twenty-second century Enterprise indicate that several of the Delphic Expanse spheres they encountered were capable of cloaking themselves. The scans we’ve received from the Shar’ar Array suggest that these spheres are in the vicinity of twelve-hundred years old, meaning that they may have been built at the same time as those in the Delphic Expanse.”

Trujillo mulled that over, not liking the taste of it. “So, we could conceivably have had dozens of cloaked spheres the size of moons hiding in this system for over a thousand years, and we’ve just been blissfully unaware?”

Garrett swallowed, discomfited by Trujillo’s growing intensity. “Yes, sir. That’s quite possible… probable, in fact.”

“And now to the Tholians,” Trujillo said. “Do we know any more about what they’re doing, or why?”

“We have no firm answers, sir, only a handful of theories. The most popular hypothesis among the participating science personnel is that this energy transmission somehow interacts on some fundamental level with Tholian biology. Lt. Commander Stavek from Excalibur has just completed some modeling utilizing a crystalline lattice that mimics what little we know of Tholian neural pathways. It appears that the frequency might create a resonance within their neural structures that could potentially lead to aberrant neurological activity.”

Trujillo’s eyes widened fractionally at this. “You’re suggesting it might affect their neuro-cognitive functioning?

“Correct, sir.”

“So the unusual behavior the Tholians have been demonstrating with this incursion might simply be a physiological or psychological reaction to this massive energy broadcast?”

Garrett nodded. “Possibly, sir.” She inclined her head towards where the bullish Titus Helvia stood, dwarfing his portable console. “As Lt. Helvia posited sir, moths to a flame.”

Trujillo blew out a long breath as the weight of that premise settled over her.

“Sir,” Davula interjected, pausing to wait for Trujillo’s nod of approval before continuing. “I had a passing interest in the Delphic Expanse as a cadet, and there were many rumors regarding their creation and purpose. Oddly, many of the mission records from those sphere encounters, the entire Delphic Expanse expedition itself, actually, are still classified. A mission that predates the founding of the Federation, mind you.

“One of the most prominent claims was that whoever built them did so as a prelude to invasion, essentially spatially terraforming entire sectors to be more compatible with their physical forms. The Xindi were supposed to have been agents of this group, trying to disrupt any cohesion among the regional spacefaring powers to prevent their invasion plans from being thwarted.”

Helvia’s reaction to this statement was a disconsolate grunt of skepticism.

“I’m not sure I’m prepared to entertain temporal conspiracies on top of all of this,” Trujillo rejoined, waving a hand expansively in the general direction of the approaching star system. “But are you implying that these spheres are beaming this signal into Tholian space intentionally as a way of sparking a war between ourselves and the Assembly?”

Davula’s expression was as earnest as Trujillo’s was incredulous.

“Yes, sir. Think of the engineering and logistics effort necessary to build and presumably hide these massive machines. It can’t be simple coincidence that this signal was directed into the heart of Tholian space at the specific moment most of Starfleet was busy shoring up our border with the Klingons.”

Trujillo shook her head. “I’m sorry, Commander, but I’m not there yet. We’re trying to discern the motivations of someone who built these structures over a millennia ago. Believing that their intent was to spark a war between two powers who wouldn’t rise for another thousand years is too much a stretch for me.”

Shukla raised a hand, speaking only after the commodore’s tacit acknowledgment. He stood from his seat, the polished Starfleet arrowhead emblem on his turban catching the light.

“Sir, regardless of whether the signal broadcast was intentional or not, now that we’re theorizing that the Tholians might be reacting reflexively to it, what is our moral obligation in these circumstances? Is it appropriate to open fire on beings who’s cognitive functioning may have been compromised?”

Trujillo dipped her head for a moment before looking back to Shukla. “That, Lieutenant, is an excellent question. Seeing as we’ve now strayed into the area of command purview, I’m going to have to ask everyone but Commander Davula to clear the compartment.”

As the assembled personnel exchanged glances and began collecting their belongings and heading for the exits, Trujillo turned to the audio/visual pickup transmitting the briefing to their respective task forces. “Captains, please do the same. I’m calling a meeting with all of us and our XO’s in fifteen minutes to discuss where we go from here.”

Confirmations from the other starships began to filter in and Trujillo muted the channel, reaching out a hand to grab Garrett gently by the upper arm as she moved for the exit.

“Nice work, Rachel. My thanks to you and your team for a tremendous effort in an extreme time crunch.”

Garrett smiled, touching a hand to her new lieutenant’s insignia on her shoulder flash. “Thank you, sir. Seeing as you’d just promoted me, I didn’t want you rescinding these.”

Trujillo chuckled, swatting her shoulder playfully. “Off with you.”

Her combadge chirped three times, notifying her of an incoming comm, coded private. Trujillo moved to an isolated sitting alcove with a computer interface, routing the transmission there.

Captain Marshall looked at her from the star system her task force was currently passing, his expression pinched.

“Yes, Captain?”

“Is this a democracy now, Commodore? Are we putting this to a vote?”

Trujillo took a moment to center herself before replying, not wanting to upbraid Marshall for something she herself might have taken exception to under different circumstances.

“I’d like the opinion of the other commanding officers available to me. The final decision will be mine.”

“And if you stand down and I disagree?” Marshall asked icily. “I still have eight ships, and if the Tholians are compromised as your science officer suggests, they might not be able to put up much of a fight.”

“If that’s the case, Captain, I would issue orders for you and your task force to stand down as well.”

“You’re in command of Gauntlet, I retain command over Alamo. I don’t recognize your authority to order me to do anything in such circumstances. While I respect the fact that you do outrank me, I think you're making the wrong decision on this one. Gather the information, stick to the facts, and make the call based on that, Commodore. Too many opinions can get in the way of good judgement.”

Trujillo cocked her head. “In that case, I’ll confer with Admiral Saavik and she’ll order you to stand down. If I have to go over your head to snap you into line, I’ll do just that. I’m not interested in having a pissing contest in a potential war zone, Marshall.”

“I'm not interested in having a pissing contest either, Commodore. We don't have time for that. However, this could all be a ruse for the Tholians to get their hands on those spheres. They barge in here, deliberately acting against type to confuse us and delay our response, with their government playing dumb. Meanwhile, while we’re wringing our hands, they get a firm foothold in a Federation system and have the chance to study those spheres and their advanced technology firsthand. That should be us getting our hands on that technology.”

“That may well be the case, Captain. Alternately, we could wipe out the Tholian formations and start a war when it becomes apparent to their government that their soldiers weren’t in control of their faculties and were unable to defend themselves. We don’t know enough yet, and I haven’t made any final decisions as to our next steps. I do want to hear the counsel of my fellow captains, seeing as they’ve got skin in the game, too. Either way, Saavik will back my play.”

“Like she backed Markopoulos?” he retorted. “You carried out his plan with the Klingons flawlessly, and she still put him out to pasture because of the political blowback. Now she’s pulling your strings, and she’ll either make you dance to her tune, or she’ll cut those strings and watch you fall. There are admirals above her, too. Consider that, Commodore. Some of them happen to be friends of mine, and I'm not afraid to go above your head either. Either way we are at an impasse.” He paused to take a deep breath to cool off. "Now, I suggest we let bygones be bygones, and find a way to work together on this one. It's not going to do either of our taskforces any good if we can't."

Trujillo nodded grimly. “Politics is the price of promotion. Ultimately, we’re all expendable in that respect. I’m not filtering my decisions about taking the Federation to war through the prism of career longevity. I’ll make the call the circumstances dictate, and you’ll either follow my lead or I’ll have you replaced as Alamo-Actual.”

Marshall bit back a heated reply, taking a moment to collect himself. “Understood, Commodore. Excalibur, out.”

The screen reverted to the Starfleet logo and Trujillo stood and took a series of deep, cleansing breaths of her own.

Her combadge chirped again.

“Bridge to Commodore Trujillo, the Tholian formation designated TF-1 has just entered the Longlax-Teko system.”

“Understood,” she replied. “I’ll be sending Lt. Shukla topside to take the conn until we’re done with the command conference.”

“Yes, sir.”

She deactivated her combadge.

“Goddamn starship captains,” she muttered to herself. “Is this what it was like dealing with me?”

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