Chapter Text
Star Trek: Phoenix-X / The Unreliable's Light
“Convergencies, Part III”
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Tong was busy assisting with repairs on the Phoenix-X, running systems-correcting commands from the Bridge. He stopped tapping at the side console when the strangest voice echoed from out of nowhere.
“She is relentless… She is of the lost… She is of the void……”
Noticing Tong’s disturbed lack of focus, Elly walked over. “Hey, man. You look like a Nagilum’s death experiment.”
“Yeah, it’s that kinesthetic feeling from earlier.” Tong shook his head out of it. “It’s becoming voices now. I think I’m hearing someone, or many someones from the other side of that portal.”
The Orion shook her head. “I do not envy you for having that Galactic Barrier/Esper augmentation. Except for the increased combat skills.”
“Not worth it,” the human of Chinese descent deadpanned. “It’s a mixed bag on which abilities become more prominent than others, and the telepathic one is not my strong suit.” He clenched his fist, momentarily energizing it. “On the other hand, give me something to punch.”
She nodded. “You’re the tactical officer. I’m the security chief. Whatever this is, we’ll handle it together. I’ll take your station if need be.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Tong nodded to her. “I should report this to Commander Seifer and Captain McKormic. Oh, and the tactical access code is Delta Marco Polo.” He looked at her perplexed expression. “It’s not a history thing. I was into Archer-level water sports at one point.”
—
A few decks below in a Jefferies tube junction, Devoid and Fiora were analysing a problem that had developed in one of the Phoenix-X’s nacelles. “Yknow, it’s good to know that despite all the fancy features a ship gets, it’s still the same parts powering it.” Fiora says as she opens a panel, finding a burnt out warp coil.
“Yep… Just seems to get easier to break such parts. I swear, what is this, a warp coil or an oven coil?” Devoid replied, looking at the rather charred warp coil.
Fiora laughed, carefully extracting the charred warp coil as the two heard something faintly, as if something was whispering in the rooms nearby.
“Your efforts are pointless… The void will break you… She will break you…”
Devoid & Fiora looked around, confused. “You hear that?” Devoid asked, baffled out of his mind.
“That’s weird… I heard that same voice in a dream,” Fiora uttered, seeming astounded. “I don’t remember what it said… But it wasn’t that.”
Devoid’s face became one of concern as he tapped his combadge. “Devoid to Alex, have there been any cases of hearing weird voices on the Unreliable? Me and Fiora heard something whisper and Fiora seemed to recognise it.” Devoid asks as Fiora finishes extracting the burnt out warp coil.
“Hm… Sally, Andy and a few of our guests from the Phoenix-X have mentioned hearing something out of nowhere. I’ll look into it, see what’s going on,” Alex said through Devoid’s combadge.
“Keep me updated, Devoid out,” Devoid replied, tapping his combadge again.
“Perhaps it’s from the tear?” Fiora asked.
“We can run a scan once we put this new warp coil in,” Devoid answered, holding the new warp coil.
—
Alex sat there in the captain’s chair. His blindfold wrapped around his head ever still… how long has it been… how long has it been on? 6 years? 7? Yeah, 7 years. It’s been quite a ride so far… He had replaced some of the fabric over the years… to hide his eyes or lack thereof. He looked up for a moment, looking into the distance. He slumped a bit after a moment…
“You know you cannot win, child of flesh… It be wise you start ru—”
“From the name of Azathoth’s consciousness, I rebuke thee from these passages of steel, to back whence you came.”
“Oh, SHI—”
Alex smiled… he may have limited power… but sometimes it’s not psychic or cosmic, but sorcery and eldridge.
“Grand-nephew would be proud. If he gave a shit about the things that inhabit his world, and if the others woke up already… not you father, you are fine. Sleep well.” Alex thought to himself before getting up and looking around the rather barren bridge. “How do I prove who I think this voice is?” Alex said, walking around. He brushed his hand against the many consoles nonchalantly before stopping and looking at the science console. Wally wasn’t there, he was helping the rest of the crew down in Engineering. “It’s worth a shot,” Alex said to himself, sitting down and beginning to scan for where this voice might be coming from. Alex took a deep breath and began scanning.
-Scan started…
--ERROR: Signal not identified
-Expanding signal radius…
--Expanding to 20%
--Expanding to 50%
Alex was initially frustrated with the lack of any results, but thought he could find something if he kept expanding the range.
-Expanding to 80%
-Expanding to 100%
--Rerouting 90% of main power power to signal scanner
--Reroute successful
As power was rerouted to the sensors, the ship began to shake. 100% Range still wasn’t enough. Alex wasn’t going to give up now and began pushing the sensors further. He had to find something. He just had to find the source of this voice!
-Expanding to 105%
-Expanding to 115%
-Expanding to 130%
--Starting reserve power usage - 100%
The range expanded well beyond 100%, pushing the sensors closer and closer to their limits. Consoles began exploding and the lights around the bridge began flickering. Alex didn’t care though, he had to find the source, no matter what it took. One explosion was so close it knocked Alex off the chair and to the floor.
-Expanding to 145%
-Expanding to 149%
-Expanding to 150%
Suddenly, the shaking stopped… All seemed peaceful as if no damage had occurred minus a small bit of smoke that would soon disappear from the bridge within minutes. Alex lifted himself up, looking at the console he was once using.
-Scan: Successful
-ERROR: Could not find signal source
“Shit… Wait a minute,” Alex said to himself before looking a bit below the error message.
-Alternative directive = Pinpoint pulses detected from signal to create route/approximate location
-Alternate Directive: Active
-Sending data of recent signal pulse to all consoles
-Send data to nearby allied ship? Y/N
Alex typed in a ‘Y’ and hit ‘SEND’, sending the data of the scans to the Phoenix-X before promptly sighing in relief.
—
Back on the Phoenix-X, Seifer found himself in a turbolift with his chief engineer, Gewdeque, who was seemingly distracted.
“The voices?” Seifer queried. “I started getting them too. Spilled a raktajino into someone’s Vulcan mocha and caused an eruption likened to a clash of brains-versus-bronze.”
Gewdeque sighed. “I’ve done that, but it’s not just the voices. The stress of the whole situation at hand has given me hesitation. I’m balancing focus and impartiality but the terrain gets more treacherous as we go. Kugo wouldn’t have flinched.”
“She was an excellent chief engineer but, even under her command, you proved yourself ten times over, and with a flexibility no one else had,” Seifer reaffirmed. “Hesitation is your jumping-off point to certainty and we’ll all be right there jumping with you.”
The human of French-Canadian descent nodded in realization. “Thank you, sir,” she replied, now with confidence, as the turbolift doors opened and they both exited to the Bridge. Then, in an official tone for everyone, she reported the work that had been completed just prior to this, “Commander! Both the Unreliable and the Phoenix-X are now reinforced to handle the transition through that portal.”
“Oh, phew,” Seifer reprieved. “Because I was not opposed to harvesting ship parts from other aliens. Just throwing that out there.”
Veker turned from science. “The Unreliable’s confirmation and scans of the sentinel’s chroniton shielding has yielded replicated converters now installed on both our vessels.”
“Translation, we can feed a layer of our chroniton reserves over our own shields so we come off as sentinels too,” Briggs explained as he took operations. “We’ll be like sheep in wolf’s clothing.”
Seifer looked at him. “No. Why are we the sheep? Stop it.”
“Commander, we’re receiving a payload of data from the Unreliable,” Tong reported as an alert went off from tactical. “There are signal pulses, on the level of brainwaves, coming from the portal. The voices?” He read on. “The Lost Void.”
The Commander nodded. “Yeah. I heard that term in one of those moments of mind-bending, room-spinning madness. Amazing work. Seifer to Breezie.” He tapped his combadge. “Very impressive with the data crunch by your crew. If we weren’t sure before, we certainly are now. The Phoenix-X is ready to enter the portal with our shield modifications. We should both go in, slow, together. How are things on your end? Do you concur?”
—
Breezie was confused. “I don't think you should thank me, Alex was the only one on the bridge. I was down in Engineering helping with the modifications to our shields.” She stated, leaning on a chair in Engineering.
“Oh. Well, I'll tell Alex thanks once I'm done talking to you. Do you concur though?” Seifer replied.
“Yeah, I do. We'll get to the bridge ASAP. Breezie out,” Breezie said, tapping her combadge to terminate the connection.
“We sent out data about that tear?” Sally asked, confused.
“That might explain the shaking. I thought it was the chronitons threatening to rip the ship fresh off the bulkheads!” Devoid replied.
“Apparently Alex got the data… I must congratulate him on it when we get to the bridge,” Breezie stated.
As most of the crew went from Engineering to the bridge (except for Fiora who went to get another Vulcan Mocha in the mess hall after someone spilled a raktajino into it), they spotted Alex by the science console, who looked like he had seen better days.
“Alex, I see you managed to get some data on the tear and likely those voices considering those have gone quiet… What was it?” Breezie said.
“I think it might be the Hiss, using a sort of Neural Transmitter in order to send her voice into our brains. Thankfully I managed to scare her off.” Alex explained based on the minimal information he got.
“Well, I guess we're ready to go in. Everyone, at your stations. May the wind be at our backs.” Breezie commanded the crew to go to their respective stations with Alex moving to the navigation side of the helm console so Wally can sit at the science station.
Sally hailed the Phoenix-X, with the hail going through only seconds later.
“Unreliable to Phoenix-X. Are you ready?” Breezie asked, a sense of confidence in her voice.
—
On the Bridge of the Phoenix-X, Seifer glanced to a nodding crew before replying, “Ready.” He looked to his Coridanite helmsmen who was momentarily entranced by the viewscreen. “Hachi, get us closer and then slow to half impulse.” Seifer turned to Briggs and Gewdeque. “Engage the camouflage.”
“Chroniton overcoat and adjustable hoodie in place,” Gewdeque confirmed as both the Phoenix-X and Unreliable moved toward the Lost Void portal, guarded by the remaining three cruiser-sized sentinel drones. “By the way, who turned the tensity up?”
Seifer smirked. “Tension is Starfleet standard, Lieutenant Commander. It can’t be modulated.”
“Nearing the portal now, Commander,” Hachi reported as the massive void grew bigger on the screen, which the sentinels had been occasionally snapping stabilisation beams into the sides of. “Remind me again why we’re going towards the danger?”
The Commander nodded. “To do what we always do, Lieutenant. We don’t run.” He paused. “I mean, we may hesitate Discovery-style, but only for humanization purposes.”
—
Both the Unreliable and the Phoenix-X reached the threshold of sentinels, so far, but not certain, undetected as threats. The two ships left normal space and entered the Lost Void.
The area was a pitch-black place, but everything had a white outline. Structures, streets, areas of land, all repeated into and out of themselves, infinitely. Beasts made of something pure black swam through the skies, sounds of communication and pain echoed through this land… the natives were like the beasts, coming in so many shapes and sizes that it would be too hard to describe them all in a finite length of time. All of them either worked until they were weak, or they were going to their next task… knowing that she was watching.
“We’re in, Breezie,” Wally said after the two ships passed through the tear.
“OK, we best keep going until we find the Hiss. Tell the Phoenix-X to keep close, I wouldn’t want an ambush happening. This place stinks of despair,” Breezie replied.
As the two ships traversed this unknown realm, a sense of dread seemed to be creeping up their backs.
“Any luck spotting the Hiss?” Alex asked, looking at Wally.
“I'm trying, but nothing seems to work,” Wally replied, a tad frustrated. “Have they got anything on the Phoenix-X?”
“I'll send a message to ask,” Sally said, sending a message to the Phoenix-X to ask if they've found anything relating to the Hiss.
“We haven't gotten anything on our end either, whoever this Hiss is, she's certainly rather elusive,” Commander Seifer answered.
“She's a damn pain in the ass too…” Breezie muttered, clearly getting tired of the Hiss’ shenanigans.
“Perhaps the route I got from the scans could help, it might lead us to her?” Alex suggested to Andy.
“It’s worth a shot…” Andy replied, adjusting the course to match the one obtained by the scans.
“Continue following, Phoenix-X, this should lead us to the Hiss,” Sally said, informing the Prometheus-class ship.
—
As the Phoenix-X moved slowly over an outlined, sombre, hint of land, passing creature after creature along Andy’s route, the crew found themselves agape at the desolate and foreboding murk incepted from outside to their very cells. Tong tensed up at tactical.
“Oh, she’s here,” he said in equal parts fear and anticipation as beads of sweat opened up. “Also, I’m going to need a face cloth or handkerchief?”
Elly, standing next to him, promptly handed one over. “I got you, bro.”
“This realm matches the dark energy/quantum signatures we detected when we first encountered those tears,” Veker reported. “These lifeforms are complex, made up of various types of biochemistries. I can’t make heads or tails of them.”
Seifer gritted. “Ugh. Hold on to your carbon.” He then noticed Briggs’ deadpan. “Oh, and your biomimetic deuterium, for those of you that applies to.”
“Commander, what the hell is that??” Hachi pointed from helm as they appeared to be nearing a large, pulsating red amorphous biomass with flinging tentacles, squirming on the ground. “It’s whipping those other creatures?”
Everyone watched as the shapeshifting form was surprisingly organized in its management of the dark creatures all around him, forcing them to mine and carry various types of hybrid-dark matter mass around. “Ah, slavery. You don’t not-recognize it in any form, in any Universe,” Seifer observed.
“I have so many questions,” the Ferengi, BOB blinked as he entered the Bridge to a crew who had no idea where he had been this whole time. “Oh. I was sampling that Andorian Cider from the Unreliable? Soooo good. Doctor Xyrenia hyposprayed me back to normal.”
Seifer nodded. “Nice. Can’t go wrong with Starfleet ingenuity. It’s gotten us out of so many scrapes. The Borg, the time-travelling Borg, the human-avatar Borg, the transwarp-hubbed Borg. Wow. I’m only now realizing how over-Borg’d we ever got. Computer, make note to divert all encounters to the Enterprise and Voyager.”
—
Suddenly, the tentacles from the large bulbous, red polymorphic creature flung out as both starships neared, phasing through their shields and gripping around their hulls. Red alert switched on as the Unreliable and Phoenix-X were held, stopped, in realm space in an apparent stand-off.
TO BE CONCLUDED