Chapter Text
“Captain’s Log Supplemental: The away mission to Columbia ended in disaster. One of our crew members, Devoid, has been knocked unconscious and his brain has a parasite around it. While we have been able to push him into a semi-conscious state, we still don’t know much about this parasite we found on Columbia. Thankfully, Sally is compiling a document with the help of her memories and Wally, the expert she brought aboard. If possible, we should be able to download the last recorded logs of the NX-02 from Starfleet's database at a starbase to find out how they managed to catch that parasite. I can only hope we can purge it from Devoid’s brain soon.”
Sally & Wally were in the mess hall, compiling what they know about the parasite.
“I honestly thought Devoid and I just… Destroyed it when we caused that explosion.” Wally laments.
“Same here. I never knew the crew of Columbia also found it.” Sally replies.
“What form did it take when it attacked Devoid? I could try and find a match on the crew complement of the NX-02.” Wally asks.
“Well, I wasn't there until I had to save Devoid. You'd have to ask Sutaba or Breezie.” Sally answers, seeming saddened about the situation.
Right on cue though, Breezie arrived in the mess hall.
“Oh, Breezie! I've managed to get up the crew list for the NX-02… Perhaps we can go through it until we find a match?” Wally asks, approaching Breezie.
Breezie looked down at Wally… Clearly he had a plan. “I guess… I'm planning on making the ship head to a Starbase to download the logs of the NX-02 to find out how they caught that parasite.” Breezie answered.
As Wally and Breezie talked, Sally sat, sighing. She was devastated that Devoid was unconscious. She felt horrible that he is in danger and she can't do anything. Sally got up and left the mess hall, Breezie watching with concern as Wally talked.
“I worry for her, Wally.” Breezie says, her hand on her chin.
“I get it… She's likely worried about Devoid and such.” Wally replies as an officer profile for the NX-02 appears. Commander Xavier Bolton.
Breezie snapped her fingers as Xavier's picture appeared. “THAT! That's the fucker who attacked Devoid!” Breezie shouts while remembering what happened on the NX-02.
Wally looked and smiled. “Great! We're closer to solving it!” Wally says.
Just then, a voice came from Breezie’s combadge. “Alex to Breezie… we're here. We'll need you on the bridge.” Alex says.
“I'm on my way.” Breezie replies, hurrying to the nearest turbolift and heading to the bridge.
As Breezie walked onto the bridge, the starbase was in sight. Starbase 523. 9 other starships nearby acting as guards. “Hail them. See if we can board and access their database.” Breezie commands, with Fiora temporarily manning the comms console.
The Unreliable hails Starbase 523 and waits.
“This is Starbase 523, how can we help?” A voice says over subspace.
“This is Captain McKormic of the Unreliable. I'd like to board and search through the database. I need to find something.” Breezie responds, standing on the bridge.
Silence echoes briefly before Starbase 523 responds. “Unreliable, you are cleared for docking. Enjoy your time at Starbase 523.” The voice says once more before they mutually cut off communications.
The Unreliable heads inside Starbase 523 as the docking bay doors open. The Unreliable soon docks, with Breezie, Fiora & Andy heading off the bridge and into the shuttle bay. The trio take a type 4 shuttle named Equiano and go from the Unreliable’s shuttle bay to the Starbase’s shuttle bay.
As the 3 of them left the shuttle, they saw a Male Bolian Starfleet Lieutenant in a gold uniform in the shuttle bay.
He looked up at Breezie. “Ah, welcome. You must be Captain McKormic. I'm Lieutenant Motra, I'm just visiting here from the USS Hotama, I assume you need access to the database?” the Lieutenant says.
“Yeah, we need to download the logs of the NX-02. Specifically during late 2155.” Breezie explains.
“Makes sense… People are curious about the pre-Federation days. Follow me.” Lieutenant Motra says. Lieutenant Motra leads the trio through corridors. They soon arrive at a terminal with a keyboard. “This is one of many terminals used to search through our large database.” Lieutenant Motra says.
“Thanks, I’ll just be… Looking through.” Breezie replies, heading to the terminal and looking up the logs of the NX-02. From its launch on November 30th, 2154, to its last logs just under a year later. Breezie selected the logs from May until August 2156, which seemed to be the final few, and sent them over to the docked Unreliable.
Unfortunately, the Starbase got another visitor… The NX-02 itself.
Lieutenant Motra looks over at the monitor displaying ships near the starbase. “Hm, that’s odd… The NX-02 is right here-” Lieutenant Motra says before the Starbase begins shaking. The NX-02 was trying to attack.
“Wait, the NX-02 is here?!” Andy says, sounding rather uncomfortable.
Fiora rushes to the window, seeing the NX-02 sitting there, firing its pulsed phase cannons at the starbase… Surprisingly doing damage. “I think that parasite has done a lot more than take over the crew!” Fiora yells.
Lieutenant Motra rushes over to the window too, seeing all the other ships rush in to try and fight against the NX-02, including his own ship, the Niagara class USS Hotama, followed soon after by the Centaur Class USS Mikliff.
“No time for sightseeing! We have to evacuate the Starbase!” Breezie commands as Andy rushes out of the door. Breezie soon does so too with Lieutenant Motra & Fiora following soon after.
As the 4 of them rushed to the shuttle, 8 of the 9 ships rushed to try and fight against the NX-02, while the 9th, the Swornfree Class USS Lynimick, seemed to be guarding the bay where the Unreliable is docked.
On the Lynimick, tensions were high. Lieutenant Commander Chester Hodges sat at the helm, his heart beating out of his chest as he watched the fleet fight against the NX-02.
Commander Shyllias Shi was also concerned. “When do you think the ship in the starbase will get out, Captain?” Commander Shi asks, looking towards Captain Charlie Centrair.
Captain Centrair put their hand on their chin and thought. “I’m not sure, try and hail-” Captain Centrair commanded as the ship got rocked by a nearby explosion.
“Captain! The USS Inestar has been destroyed!” Commander Voltaire Rtis shouted as the crew watched the burning wreckage of the Lynimick’s sister ship drift away.
The battle outside was turning in the favour of the NX-02 fast.
The Ambassador class USS Rillomi & the USS Hotama tried to blast the NX-02 with torpedoes, only for the NX-02 to fire phasers and detonate the torpedoes while they’re inside the torpedo tubes, causing immense damage for both ships.
The Stratos class USS Coliess goes ahead and tries to wreck the NX-02’s deflector dish, only for the NX-02 to blow up one of the USS Coliess’ warp nacelles, before firing phasers at the USS Coliess’ own deflector dish, splitting the ship into 2 flaming halves.
As the USS Shineron attempts to disable the impulse engines of the NX-02, getting its own hull torn apart in the process, the Unreliable leaves the dock and immediately goes to get out of there.
Captain Centrair, watching many of the ships going into battle get torn to shreds, commanded Lieutenant Commander Hodges to follow the Unreliable, as the 2 ships warped away, the remaining ships that were guarding Starbase 523 fought hard, but were all destroyed by the NX-02.
The 2 ships dropped out of warp far from Starbase 523… Both shaken and only with their crews being witness to one of the most brutal battles seen within that decade. Both Breezie & Captain Centrair knew what to do to try and stop Columbia from tearing apart not just Starfleet, but every other power in the galaxy. They had to team up.