Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 3: Yours Is No Disgrace
Scene 9: Shatter
3.9
Shatter
“We had our probes go to station keeping, passive scanning, stealth protocol.”
The U.S.S. Beagle’s Dean of Ship, Sakura Nakamura Holland, was addressing the three captains, General Krank, Trader Pel and several others from the U.S.S. Beagle’s large conference room. All of the Beagle’s department heads were present. Commodore Yui Song and Captain Rhonda Carter were attending virtually from the bridges of their respective ships, the U.S.S. Mako and the U.S.S. Escort.
All parties were staggered by the images being transmitted by the two probes. A vast ship-building project was underway inside a binary star system.
Warships.
Lots of them.
“Analysis of their engine systems indicates these are based on a slip-drive technology,” said the masked Commander Dutch Holland. “Those engines are designed to shatter normal spacetime and create a vent into subspace. Inefficient, unhealthy and very damaging to local spacetime. If that armada were to exit that star system - even if only a quarter of them were to exit - it would change the orbits of all the planets in the system, even alter the orbit of the red dwarf orbiting the main sequence star at the far edge of the system.”
“Evidently these people do not have any intention of coming back home,” said Falok, the Astrophysics team leader from the Vulcan Science Academy. “Subspace disruption on that scale would mean they will not have a habitable planet left to come home to.”
“There are no people on those ships,” said General Krank.
“That is correct,” said Dutch Holland. “But how did you know?”
All eyes in the room turned to the elderly klingon general.
Krank touched the holographic control on the console in front of him. In response, all of the display systems focused in on a green, gold and blue planet. “The 8th planet from the primary star. That is the habitable planet. The original home of these machines. War machines. War machines created by at least one culture on that world to put a final end to at least one other culture on that world. My people barely survived this more than a thousand years ago. The machines have a hard time distinguishing their creators' enemies from their creators. If there are any people left alive down there, the machines will complete their extermination when they leave this system.”
“Leave it to do what?” Commodore Yui Song could already predict the general’s answer.
“To follow their directive" opined the ancient klingon. "To kill all the enemies of their creators. All life. Everywhere. As efficiently as they possibly can.”
“How can you be certain?” asked Captain Skip Howard.
“I can’t be,” General Krank admitted. “But we have all heard Captain Carter, Lieutenant Kresid and Trader Pel’s accounts of their experiences. Your probes have detected the ruins of what appears to be a technologically advanced humanoid civilization that covered most of the surface of the 8th planet. You see the armada of machines gathered. What other explanations do you have?”
“Skip,” said Sakura Nakamura Holland, “We have readings that indicate some of those people might still be alive down on that planet. If even only a few of those ships leave that system, they probably will not survive.”
“The prime directive applies,” answered Commodore Yui Song. “They are not a superluminal species.”
“They may not be,” mused Skip Howard. “But their machines are. Commodore, this,” Howard gestured toward the display with both hands. “This is why we are out here. This is a first contact situation with an intelligence that is on the verge of superluminal travel.”
Captain Rhonda Carter was shaking her head. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this… I’ve had these creatures in my head - or something like that. If we walk up and say hello, they’re going to start shooting. They’re made to kill. It’s in their souls.”
Dr. Lucius Moorman, who was seated next to Commodore Yui on the Mako’s bridge, shook his head. “Machines have souls?”
“These machines do,” General Krank answered.
Trader Pel followed his thought. “They don’t want to kill. They were made to kill. It’s in their nature - built into everything they are.”
“Do we really need to worry about them?” asked Commander Jason Bates, Mako's first officer, who was also present on the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako. “Slip drive through subspace is superluminal, but it is a very limited way to travel. They can only move between areas of subspace instability, and the travel through subspace would be very slow - not much faster than the speed of light.”
“And the first place those machines would go would be the nearest fracture in subspace,” said the Beagle’s masked director of engineering.
“Which would be Dolnok Nor,” his wife continued. “Where they will learn all about warp drive, photonic weapons, cloaking devices, micro-singularity drive…”
Dutch Holland followed up his wife’s thought: “Even if we were to destroy all the technology the cardassians and romulans left behind at Dolnok Nor, sooner or later those machines would just discover another trove of FTL technology. No matter what mechanism you use to get around the speed of light, FTL is inherently unstable. Intelligent superluminal travel is by far the leading cause of subspace instability.”
There was a minute of silence as the import of Commander Holland’s conclusion sank in.
Captain Skip Howard took a deep breath. Then:
“If General Krank and our astral dreamers are correct, and these machines truly are inimical to life, we have to stop them here.”
3.9