Unwelcome Guests
Posted on Sat Feb 15th, 2025 @ 4:06am by Captain M'Raz & Lieutenant Commander Jason Reeves & Lieutenant Vereyn Kiiz & Lieutenant Elias McEntyre & Lieutenant H'iri & Lieutenant Richard Pierce MD
2,604 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Resistance is Necessary
Location: USS Jane Addams | Deck 1 | Bridge
Timeline: MD001 - 1030
"Bridge to Captain," Ronan said. While certified for bridge duty, as was everyone in the department, his primary function was ship's quartermaster. A job that came with alternating periods of frantic activity and almost no activity at all. With the Jane Addams heading toward home and everyone getting their ducks in a row, in preparation for a two-week shore leave, Ronan had volunteered. His ducks were perfectly groomed and entirely lined up and that left him the time. "We're approaching Sol system, Sir. ETA to Saturn station ... five minutes."
"Very good," Raz said. "Notify the First Officer to join me on the Bridge. I'll be there directly." He sat with one hand wrapped around a mug of coffee, his claws extended just far enough that he could tap out a beat on the side as he spoke. "Captain out."
"Bridge to Commander Reeves," Ronan said. "We're approaching Sol system, Sir. ETA to Saturn Station ... about four minutes. Captain has asked you to join him on the Bridge."
"I'm on my way," Reeves replied.
Raz stepped onto the Bridge from his Ready Room and crossed over to his seat in the command area. "Hail Utopia Planitia. Give them our arrival time."
“Aye, Sir. Hailing now” McKnight nods as he opens a channel to the massive shipyard control tower. “Control tower is reading, Sir.”
The turbolift opened as Jason entered the bridge. He quickly took a seat next to the Captain. "I can taste this vacation already."
“It’ll be good to be on solid ground. All systems on standby, Captain. We’re prepped for docking,” the burly chief of Security said from his post.
Raz nodded and while a Caitian didn't exactly smile, there was still a lift to the corner of the lips and a bit of a warm grunt. "I can imagine half the crew's already packed and lining up outside the transporter room."
The Commander leaned over toward the Captain. "Hopefully they can at least keep working until we dock. Even though I get their eagerness to exit."
[Main Engineering]
"Alright folks! Start wrapping up and prepare for docking," the Trill said with a smile. He moved to the main engineering console and started to look at the status of the engines. He would miss the hum of the core, but it would be good to be on solid ground again. Looking up at an ensign at another console, "Ensign. Go help Lieutenant Jacoby prepare the core for shutdown procedures."
"Aye sir," she said as she moved towards the warp core control station.
Dr. Richard 'Popeye' Pierce tapped his commbadge as he leaned back in his chair, boots propped up on his desk, a half-empty cup of replicated coffee balanced precariously on a stack of unread medical reports.
"Medical to Bridge," he said in his usual gravelly drawl, a hint of amusement in his tone. "Just a friendly reminder that if anyone breaks something in their mad rush to shore leave, I will personally make them regret it. Let’s keep the trampling injuries to a minimum this time, yeah?"
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face before reaching for his coffee. "That being said, if you need me, I'll be right here, enjoying the last few moments of peace before half the crew stumbles back in with food poisoning, hangovers, and at least one regrettable tattoo. Pierce out."
Ronan listened and, after the ship's Chief Medical Officer signed off, without waiting for whatever response may have come his way, he turned toward the Captain. "Doctor Pierce says he'll be in Sickbay if needed, Sir."
Raz made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a grunt. "I'll bet," he said.
[Bridge]
It was relative calm while the ship maneuvered towards the yard assignments, like before a storm. McKnight was running one last preapproach scan to the dry dock, when something caught his eye. The comm panel was lighting up. Tilting his head, he put the small ear receiver into his ear, listening in. His eyes widened, his sensors lit up with a massive object that appeared near the Yards.
"Sir! Sensors have a new contact, close aboard, broad on the Starboard Bow," McKnight reported, tapping furiously at his control panel. "Its..It's...Massive."
Commander Reeves stood from his seat in shock of what he was seeing on the viewer. "McKnight magnify on that thing."
McKnight typed again at his panel, the screen enlarging to show the sheer scale of the approaching object. "Sensors measure the object as...Cube Like, equal dimensions of 3037 meters length width and height. That...That's larger than anything on record, Sirs."
At that moment, way too many questions were through Jason's mind. But the main question was where the hell did this thing come from. Through the main viewer, they could see several ships on an intercept course. "Get as many scans as we can?" The Commander then turned his attention to the Captain for further orders. His first instinct was the join the other ships, but it clearly wasn't his place to give that order.
"Red alert," Raz said as he leaned forward, taking in the shear size of it. "Shields to maximum. Continuous sensor readings. Look for weaknesses. And get me Starfleet command."
"Aye Sir!" McKnight nods, keying the systems to Red Alert.
"Red Alert, All Hands: Man Your battle stations!!"
McKnight returned to his console. "Sir, Starfleet is reporting that the Object has broken through the Mars Defense perimeter, on direct course for Earth. It'll assume Earth Orbit inside of 15 minutes."
Raz watched as the first Starfleet vessel took a run at the ship, unloading a combination of torpedoes and phaser fire. The cube seemed unaffected. "Is that thing shielded?"
McKnight stood stunned for a moment, watching ships being destroyed like flies before he responded. "Sensors are unable to confirm shielding. The Object is at such a scale and emitting a large EM field that detailed scans are not registering."
[SIckbay]
Popeye Pierce let out a long, tired sigh as the Red Alert klaxons blared through Sickbay. He reached for his coffee, now cold, and took a resigned sip.
"Told you lot we wouldn't make it to shore leave without incident," he muttered to no one in particular.
Tapping his commbadge, he spoke in his usual gravelly drawl, though with a sharp edge of professionalism now. "Medical to Bridge. I'm prepping Sickbay for casualties. Let’s try to keep the number of incoming patients under triple digits this time, yeah?"
He swung his legs off the desk, already barking orders to his staff. "Triage stations up, trauma teams on standby, and someone make sure the dermal regenerators are charged—because I have a bad feeling we're gonna need every damn one of them."
[Bridge]
"Our ships are having no effect at all," Raz said with a slight shake of his head. "Put us between Earth and that cube. Bring us into line with the other ships." He turned toward his XO. "Maybe if we can concentrate fire on one spot. Might have a better effect."
"Agreed," Reeves cosigned. "Perhaps coordinate with a few other ships to do the same."
As the helm officer complied, bringing the ship smoothly into line with every available ship in the system, Raz ordered, "ship to ship. I want to speak to all of them at once. Find me a spot on that thing, I don't care where and transmit coordinates. Fire on my mark."
The tactical console trilled as the phasers locked on to it's target. "Phasers ready, Captain!" McKnight reported.
"Focus firing. Sending you coordinates now." As the ships acknowledged and readied, Raz said, "Fire."
McKnight palmed the fire controls, orange beams lashing out from the ship. "Phaser's firing!"
"Sensor report," Raz asked, his attention focused on the viewscreen. "Any damage?"
"None...Phasers had no effect. The object is just too massive," McKnight reported from his station.
The cube responded almost at once, firing its main weapons at each of the ships. The Jane Addams absorbed the first blows, dropping the shields to minimal before the first volley had finished firing. "Fire torpedoes," Raz barked.
"Torpedoes away," Mcknight called out; as he slammed his palm on the torpedo firing array. bolts of orange rushing from the tubes and towards the Cube.
A comm channel to the cube opened and a wide broadcast went out, received by everyone at the same time.
Resistance is futile.
You will be assimilated.
The broadcast cut off and Raz said, "Hail them back on the same frequency."
"Channel Opened" McKnight reported.
"This is Captain M'Raz of the USS ..." But whatever he was going to say was cut off as the message repeated.
Resistance is futile.
You will be assimilated.
"Cut that off," Raz ordered.
The First Officer sat at his seat, pulling up his computer. Counting the Janes Addams there were eleven ships going at this ship and they didn't even put a dent in the damn thing yet. "Captain we have five more ships en route. Arrival in seven minutes."
"We can try a focused torpedo barrage," Raz growled. "Maybe that will make a dent. Notify the other ships. Focused torpedo barrage. Give them everything we have. On my mark." He paused a second, giving the ships a chance to respond, and then said. "Fire."
"Aye, Firing!" McKnight fired torpedoes again, watching as they raced once more towards the massive Borg Cube.
[SIckbay]
Dr. Pierce would let out a long sigh, rubbing his temples as he listened to the ominous transmission.
"Because of course something had to go wrong," he muttered.
Tapping his commbadge again, he spoke with the same gravelly drawl, but now with an edge of urgency. "Medical to Bridge—whatever the hell that thing is, let’s assume it’s not here to shake hands. We’re setting up overflow in cargo bay two. If this goes sideways, I’ll need authorization to replicate additional emergency medical supplies now, because I’d rather not start stitching people up with dental floss."
Without waiting for a response, he turned to his team. "Alright, people, you know the drill. Trauma teams, you’re on standby for the first wave of casualties. Triage stations, get those biobeds prepped. And someone make sure we’ve got enough body bags—just in case."
[Bridge]
The red alert woke the Chief Operations Officer, David Abrams, from a sound sleep. He had been looking forward to returning home to Earth to spend a shore leave with his son and wife. The last thing that he had been concerned about was a red alert on the way home. Yet, here it was.
Hurriedly, he threw on his uniform and rushed to the bridge just in time to hear the Borg's announcement. "Shit!" he declared as he approached Ronan. "You're relieved, Mr. Arende. I'll take it from here."
"Aye, Sir," Ronan said as he left the bridge position to the Chief and headed for the turbolift. In a crisis, there were always things that needed doing and he'd been on board long enough to know his duties well. He maintained his professional demeanor until the doors to the turbolift closed and as he sank back against the rear wall, he let out a shaky sigh. "Not good," he muttered, "not good." And then, straightening, told the turbolift where he wanted to go.
Vereyn was barking orders as the ship shook. "Clamp down that bulkhead!"... "Reroute power from the holodecks if you need too!"... "Secure the warp core! Make sure she stays stabilized." He ran from console to console. He looked across engineering to see the MSD that was on the wall. The shields were flashing yellow and red. "Get more power to the shields!" The Trill fell as the ship shook, smacking his head on one of the console. Forcing himself back to his feet, he felt the warm trickle of blood slowing dripping from his forehead.
Adams called out, "Shutting down power from holodecks and rerouting power. All unnecessary systems are being shut down, as well.""
The ship rocked under fire from the cube, sparks flying from consoles, as all around them, ships took heavy damage. Then two things happened. The first was a message from Starfleet, the Admiralty, broadcast in the clear.
We are under attack.
All Starfleet vessels are ordered to leave the Sol System at once.
Further instructions forthcoming.
Repeat. Do not engage the Borg.
Flee the system immediately.
That was the first thing. And then, without consultation, the captains acted. Some of the ships were barely functional, all but lost, those were the ones that turned toward the Borg. If phasers wouldn't work, if torpedoes wouldn't work, maybe their ships would. The rest, damaged but able to move, turned back toward Earth because when they left, they wouldn't go without saving as many as they could.
"Transporter rooms, begin beaming aboard as many refugees as you can. Verify that they are not Borg but take as many as you can. We're going to do one pass over Starfleet Headquarters and the Academy grounds, and then we're leaving," Raz said. "Number One, take Mr. Abrams and a security team, head down to the Cargo Bay to get things set up. I'll join you shortly."
A barely composed Abrams objected, "Captain, if we start beaming up people, we have to lower shield and we will be completely unprotected from those Borg things and we will be shot down! What good are we to anyone if we kill ourselves and more that we beam up here? We have to run now!"
Raz, tempted to order Abrams off the Bridge, moved forward instead, standing behind the Helm officer. "They're being distracted," Raz said as he leaned forward slightly. "Try to get the planet between us and the cube. Give us a bit of cover."
Abrams pushed some buttons and the ship began to move. He called out, "Shields down. Ready for transports."
Another phaser blast hit the ship; something dropped from overhead, Raz felt something hit has back but didn't move, protecting the helm officer as he brought the Jane Addams around and out of danger for the moment. "Transporter Rooms," Raz ordered, "Begin transporting. Make it quick. We don't have a lot of time."
McKnight had braced for the last hit, lifting himself up just in time to see another lance of energy heading for them.
"BRACE," he called out to the bridge as it slammed against the ship with a massive rock and an explosion of the Tactical and Security Console throwing the man hard into the back of the bridge before he slumped to the floor, a piece of shrapnel in his neck from the explosion.
"Medical to the Bridge," Raz shouted as he moved over to McKnight's body. From the amount of blood and the sightless gaze in the man's eyes, Raz doubted anything could be done but he paused a moment, eyes closed, before moving on to the next person. His young yeoman also dead having fallen against a piece of debris forcing his yeoman's head into an unnatural position.
Adams was sure that he heard "Brace." What he heard after that was an explosion. After that, he heard no more. The man that was David Abrams was no more, a beam having fallen on top of him, snapping his back in two.
To Be Continued
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