D'ren – T.I.S. Ra'Quella, Caldos III
Ra'Quella's face appeared on a monitor by the captain's chair. “They're locking onto the Elysium with tractor beams!”
As D'ren stood up to examine the data on the main view screen, he replied, “Signal the Valdore to move to intercept the Klingons.”
As the Romulan warbird approached, the two Klingon Vor'chas moved away from the harmless transport and turned their attention on Donatra's ship.
---
Captain Oroku Seifer - Civilian Transport Elysium
Seifer attempted to go through a holo screen of ship's systems. The intensity of the situation hounded him. "What kind of weaponry does this thing have?"
"Nothing, sir," replied Edward. "It's a transport vessel."
Suddenly, they received a hail which was directed to the screen. A bald and green Orion appeared. "This is the Pirate ship Volocron. After hours of droning high warp, we have laid claim to your pathetic ship and all its contents therein."
"It's not supposed to be a comparable vessel!" Seifer countered, defensively. "And this is Federation space. You have no claims here!"
The Orion was too busy addressing his ship's controls and slave girl orders to indulge properly. "Our systems say otherwise! The Syndicate will have your ship, one way or the other. Prepare to be boarded."
As his screen clicked off, several Gorn soldiers beamed onto the ship, beginning to harass and attempt to control its passengers. Seifer attempted to kick one, who had appeared on the Bridge, but his leg was caught with one scaly hand. The Captain then pulled out a phaser and shot the large, reptilian alien down.
---
Captain Menchez - Earth Spacedock, Corridors
As the Klingon group sifted through the darkened decks, they aimed and readied themselves for any type of enemy they may come across.
"Sir, should we not have waited for word and orders of Starfleet assistance from the humans before we spread ourselves throughout this giant Earth stick?" Heghto asked.
Menchez rolled his eyes. "Well, of course not! We have honor we must reclaim, and mine is wearing thin. At this point, if I don't get something soon, I will have to evoke the hegh'bat on myself and anyone near me. Besides, those prissy, Starfleet perfect-hairs were taking too long to respond."
"Understood, sir," the other Klingon responded moments before they heard a noise in the dark.
All the Klingons turned toward it and fired mercilessly into the dark corridor. Upon completion, Menchez held a light up to illuminate their hard work. Instead of Ukoth and his men, they found several Starfleet engineers now crippled beyond functional movement.
"Ugghh," one of them moaned, injured and in pain. "Why...??"
Menchez aimed his disruptor rifle away. "We thought you were someone else. Fortunately, you have not experienced the stinging betrayal of Commander Ukoth. Anyway, carry on."
"Bloody Klingons," another groaned as they watched the group trot off.
---
Civilian Transport Elysium
The Gorn leader of the enemy party wore a device on his belt that caused phase weapons to temporarily malfunction. The bridge was just out of range of this device, but firing phasers in the crowded transport hold would not be a great idea anyway.
Eli stood up, as did Admiral Chekov. Daggers drawn, the Gorn moved in to quell the resistance and panic. A Gorn soldier said, “We will fetch a fair price for you in the Orion slave trade!”
As Krystal stood up between Eli and the Gorn officer, Eli leaped over his chair and into the second row behind his, shoving a Klingon over several seats. Eli then turned back to fight several Gorn with Krystal Jade, taking the fight to the Bridge before finishing them off.
Eli looked around at Seifer and the others. "Well?"
"Thank you," Seifer replied to both Elihu and Jade. "There's a Gorn and an Orion ship locked onto us. A Romulan ship appears to be taking care of the Klingons, and it looks like a prison ship and an Undine vessel are just sitting around. I'm going to be honest, I was not briefed as to why the Undine were here in Federation space to begin with. I'm sending out a distress call, but, in the meantime, if there's any way we can take these two pirate vessels out, without harming innocent lives, the planet or ourselves, we should give it a shot. We don't have weapons, but the transport is built with some of the Federation's more wide-spectrum beaming technology. We may be able to get through any weak points in their shields, while simultaneously transporting non-essential passengers to the surface."
Suddenly, a vent from above busted off from two feet and Captain Terry dropped down to join them. His eyes had a green hue, strands of energy flowed around him, and slithering worms of Sleri moved all throughout his body, under his skin. Terry approached Seifer in pure anger. "This is what I was built for. I'll take care of the Gorn ship, and then I'll come back for you."
"You were on board the whole time?? You can't go out there. You're in no condition to be doing anything!" Seifer replied in shock.
The half-Human, half-Sleri grinned as he activated the transporter systems. In a few seconds he was gone.
"I have to go after him," Seifer said. "I lost my fighting teacher, Master Chivaul. He was like a father to me. The only way for me to come to terms with that is by not allowing myself to lose anyone else under me, present or past. That includes Terry."
"This is Lesset of the Volocron. We have your piece of junk garbage scow. We'll be salvaging what we want from it now," came the hail and growl of the Orion Captain.
Seifer smirked. "Your boarding party was easily defeated, Lesset. You're next."
"You insolent fools! You think your precious Federation's in control here? You're just puppets, being managed by a vast interstellar shadow group! You're pathetic!! Prepare for another boarding party!" He clicked off communications.
Oroku turned to Krystal Jade and, by-extension, Elihu. "Captain, clearly you and Elihu have got some skill here. Take that Orion ship down how you see fit. Edward, transport everyone we don't need to the Starfleet base on surface, and me to the Gorn ship."
"Do you really think you stand a chance against Gorn?" Edward asked as she turned to him.
Seifer shook his head. "It's the Gorn who doesn't stand a chance. Terry was bio-engineered as some kind of weirdly, worm-filled ultimate weapon by a maddeningly perverse Undine geneticist. If I don't get through to him, the extent of his transformation could go far enough to kill him and any innocent lives therein."
"Understood," Edward nodded, activating the transporters.
---
Captain Aeris - Biobase Vokughvegh
As promised, all the thousands of Starfleet officers were transported back, through universes, using the anti-Undine devices aboard Earth Spacedock as a proxy, back to Earth Spacedock. With the chamber empty, a pinned Winry and a released Captain Aeris were all that were left.
Kohogeth approached her and nearly put his slimy hands on her chin. "You are as beautiful as I remember."
"You're absolutely not what I remember. You're not the man I fell in love with," Aeris replied.
The Undine nodded. "I was in human form when you and I were together. But, does not your adversity look passed physical appearances? We are all the same inside, yes?"
"It's not about how you look, Kohogeth! You presented yourself as a decent human being aboard the Zephyra. You may have acquiesce to returning those people, but your base-self is that of a lair. Back then, you were just luring mine and Captain Terry's crew to your facility."
Kohogeth nodded. "Yes, but I have changed since then. Let me show you what experiments I have done."
---
D'ren - T.I.S. Ra'Quella, Bridge
Ra'Quella's image appeared on a small screen to his right. "Most of the Gorn, Klingons, and Orions are from a colony on the other side of the Beta Quadrant. G'arto Prime. It's about the size of Earth, with a population of 4 billion."
D'ren inhaled deeply, closing his eyes, already regretting what he was about to do. "Execute."
In the space between the Ra'Quella and the battle-damaged Elysium, D'ren had fired a single black hole torpedo, which opened a wormhole, and then vanished into it; the wormhole vanished as well.
---
Captain Menchez - Earth Spacedock, Operations
Menchez and his away team found Ukoth and his two warriors in the Operations center, attempting to hack the command ring. The lights returned all throughout Spacedock and Starfleet officers were re-appeared everywhere. When the Klingons raised their disruptors, the enemy was forced to take notice.
"Oh, you old fool. Do you not see how pathetic this Federation is? Rumour is they can't operate on their own without a baby-sitter," Ukoth argued.
The Captain nearly squeezed his trigger. "I do not care what you are speaking of, Ukoth. I'm just here to reclaim my honor and protect this base!"
"You can reclaim that by joining me. Never mind. You're too far gone as a Federation-sympathizer. That war we partook in was a complete farce! We should have joined the Iconians instead of allowing ourselves to be led around by that incompetent Kagran! Well, I've seen to it we gained T'Ket's trust."
Heghto's device went off. "Captain, my data extrapolation of that portal is complete. It was emitting a massive radius of triquantum waves, at warp, through subspace."
"Large enough for our own personal transwarp conduit," Ukoth smirked. "A little experiment we were happy to attempt. You see, the real Klingon war is only beginning! Now if you'll excuse me, but we must test out our new tunnel."
Suddenly he and his two dishonorable men disappeared in a red transporter effect. Outside the window, the Negh'Var-class Mogholegh and two accompanying Birds of Prey decloaked.
"Those jerks!" came the annoyed reaction of Commander Allura. She then turned to Menchez and his team. "Need a boost to that ship?"
Menchez nodded to the blind Aenar woman. "That would be most appreciated. We must stop whatever damage they intend to do."
"Leave it to me," she replied as she accessed the command ring holo consoles. She overloaded Spacedock's safe mode phaser banks and fired into the shields of the lead ship. Menchez and his away team were then beamed aboard it before the ship and its two companions entered the transwarp conduit.
---
Civilian Transport Elysium
Eli perked a brow at Seifer. "I would not doubt that once the Gorn and Klingons beamed aboard the Elysium, they raised their shields again immediately."
"Like I said," Seifer replied. "These transports are built with some of the Federation's more wide-spectrum beaming technology. If you boost one of their annular confinement beams, hot enough, you could get through the weak points of lower-grade shields, like the Orions and Gorn. I suspect the Dominion have the same principles in their technology, and that Terry, moving quickly, enacted on the same procedures. Wait. Why am I continuing to explain everything in some kind of ongoing exposition dump and not transporting?"
Edward turned from her chair. "Looks like Terry overloaded the transporters with whatever bio-electric energy source he's become. Elihu was right. There's no chance in transporting anyone, anywhere."
She went to the control deck to try to work things out. As she did so, bright flashes could be seen through the windows of the Gorn vessel, while all the ships stopped their actions from watching the projections. In a matter of a minute, large explosions began to blow from out the Gorn ship's sides and its tractor hold disappeared. The Volocron and the Elysium moved out of range as the Gorn were destroyed. Large chunks entered the planet's atmosphere.
"No!" Seifer's jaw dropped. "Captain Terry??"
Lieutenant Edward covered her eyes from the flash. "He may have gotten off yet. We know we can't detect him with sensors."
"An explosion like that? There's no way," the Captain replied.
A transwarp conduit opened nearby and the Mogholegh went spinning out, with two of its accompanying Birds of Prey exiting as well.
The Ra'Quella projected a hologram of the planet G'arto Prime between the two parties. The Valdore, severely damaged, stopped fighting to watch. All of the enemy ships did the same.
The black hole torpedo exited the wormhole, which promptly collapsed behind it, and then went straight for G'arto's sun. The sun slowly started to be sucked into the black hole formed by the projectile.
An announcement from D'ren went out over every comm channel: "Cease. Or die."
"This is Captain Menchez, taking command of the Mogholegh," came a call to the Elysium. "We do not know what is going on, but our business with Iconians brings us here."
Seifer took the helm seat and tapped its controls. "Menchez! Standby. There's a large space-projection indicating a disaster at G'arto Prime."
Eli and Krystal made their way back to their seats. After the pirates transported back to their respective vessels, the small fleet limped away, though the Gorn ship had been destroyed by Terry.
Admiral Chekov stood at the front of the transport. "May we please go to our memorial now? We're over an hour late."
"This is insane," Seifer got up and turned to Chekov while everyone else meandered over to their seats, nonchalantly. "That decloaked ship just committed mass genocide, and, if my hunch is correct, it's by the same man Lydia said runs the galaxy behind the scenes."
Menchez replied over view screen, "That is some serious case of over-power. Like, overly-serious."
"Wait. You two know each other?" Edward asked, interrupting her own work.
Seifer was caught off-guard. "Huh? Oh, yeah, we both shared a horrifying situation of being undead from the Calibus VII virus, once upon a time. It's a long story."
"What the Gre'thor? Are you telling people about that??" Menchez erupted.
The Captain waved him off. "Forget that! I'm changing course for G'arto Prime to help save as many people as I can from that doomed planet before it's too late."
"Transporters are dead, sir," reported Edward. "And there's not even a chance we would get there in time?"
Seifer nodded, understanding. "We have to at least try, Lieutenant. Complacency is the mother of death." He turned to the screen. "Menchez, will you accommodate?"
"Seeing as we destroyed this specific conduit section leading to Earth, stopping the Klingon-Iconian threat and recovering my losses, I am currently free to assist. An entire world left to die is a grave dishonor, tenfold. There may be several other conduits that we can take."
The Captain stepped into an open space on the Bridge. After a moment of hesitation, Edward joined him, as did Aramaki. He addressed Chekov. "If you all can live with letting The Infamous get away with mass murder, time and time again, and go about your daily lives, then you're no better than him. His blood is on your hands, as well. The least you could do is try to clean them once in a while." At that, the three were beamed off the Elysium and onto the Mogholegh. The Klingon ship turned and entered another conduit.
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