Star Trek: Phoenix-X / The Unreliable's Light
“Convergencies, Part III”
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.
The creature shifted into the form Breezie mentioned when she first brought up the Hiss. “Oh, you’re here... I see you’ve brought a little friend. Too bad this is where you’ll both die—” The Hiss teased before getting blasted by a shot from one of the Unreliable’s railguns, making both sets of tentacles recoil from the ships due to the shot blasting through many of them.
“Devoid, I hope you’ve got a good trigger finger, we’re gonna have to be quick with this! I don’t particularly want the ship to be stabbed with those tentacles! Andy, evasive manoeuvres, pattern omega twelve,” Breezie stated, looking over at the hedgehog.
“You don’t need to tell me twice! Let's see how the Hiss likes torpedoes to the face!” Devoid replied, firing four torpedoes right in the face of the Hiss as the ship began evading the tentacles attempting to stab them.
—
The Hiss was so focused on the Unreliable, that it gave the Phoenix-X a chance to devise a quick plan.
“Commander, it’s rare for me to suggest this, but I believe our only way of defeating the Hiss might be to split the ship. We could overwhelm it with a four-way attack before the chroniton beams,” Tong offered, clenching his energized fists.
Hachi turned from the chaos unravelling on the viewscreen. “It does make sense. We’d be practically doubling our forces.”
“Right!” Seifer snapped. “All hands, prepare to initiate multi-vector assault mode. Tong, you have Vector Beta. Briggs, Vector Gamma. Oh, and get me some badass rock music while we do it.”
Veker checked the database. “All we have are Beastie Boys. Nothing but Beastie Boys!”
“Damn. Forgot about that Starfleet mandate. Please submit Refutation Forms 4.47 for AC/DC and Crush 40 and have them notarized.” He sat up as the crew also reconfigured and the passing Phoenix-X split into three vectors, swarming the Hiss. “By the way, how great is it that we found her so fast? For a second, I thought we’d be liberating creatures left and right. Freedom is tricky, apparently.”
The Hiss turned her head, taking notice of each Phoenix-X vector, careening around and firing phasers and torpedoes into her. She flung a tentacle and hit Phoenix-X Vector Gamma, before Vector Alpha passed on another trajectory and vapourized the appendage.
“She is reading as the source for the same high-level dark energy intensity that scans show as being woven through the creatures themselves,” Veker reported, mid-combat. “It is likely said-assault could affect everything here as we see it now, perhaps freeing them.”
Seifer nodded. “So, we possibly have stakes at both microcosm and macrocosm levels? Nice. In that case, prepare all deflectors with chroniton beams! I mean, we were already going to do that, but now there’s that extra umph.”
—
As they revved up, Phoenix-X Vector Alpha ducked a tentacle whilst firing into the darkened ground. Dark chunks of environmental material shot up from her feet, momentarily obscuring her vision while both Phoenix-X Vectors Beta and Gamma used the disorientation for clear chroniton beam hits against her.
The Unreliable craned around, noticing the Hiss get weaker before she clenched her fists and reconstituted the forced temporal energies into, instead, giving her strength.
“What in the blue hell is she doing?!” Breezie said, astounded at the Hiss’ actions.
“I don’t know, but this feeding off our Chroniton attacks seems to lower her defences. If we’re gonna get hits in, we can do it now while her guard is down,” Alex suggested.
“Devoid, fire everything,” Breezie commanded, standing up.
“Did you say everything?” Devoid asked, a bit confused.
“EVERYTHING!” Breezie shouted, turning to the hedgehog.
Devoid briefly got scared of the captain, pressing everything he could on the tactical console.
The Unreliable began firing all its weaponry, phasers, torpedoes, railguns, all pointed at the unguarded Hiss, causing quite a bit of damage… and she didn’t like that.
The Hiss turned to the Unreliable, clenching one of her hands into a fist and attempting to smash the ship into the ground.
“Andy, full reverse! Now!” Breezie yelled to her helmsman.
Andy made the Unreliable reverse away from the incoming fist just in time, the edge of the saucer mere inches away from impact.
Sally thought briefly. “Yknow, if the Hiss is gaining power from the energy, perhaps we could overload her? Like how a balloon pops if you put too much air in.”
The rest of the Unreliable’s crew turned to Sally, mixed emotions on their faces.
“Is this toon logic or something?” Alex asked, confused.
“There is always such a thing as too much… I just hope this works. Relay the plan to the Phoenix-X,” Breezie said.
—
Meanwhile, Seifer dropped to his knees upon the Bridge of Phoenix-X Vector Alpha at the sight of the Hiss gaining an advantage from their deflector dish attacks. He gripped his sweaty face, Commodore Matt Decker style.
“Nnnnnooooo! All our Starfleet miracle-working, principles and using science and reason for the survival of our species and, for what? Misstep? Temporary lapse? Momentary oversight??” He continued to grip his face until he was carried up to his feet by Veker.
The Kelpien deadpanned him. “If you’re doing a Decker thing, you should know his status as a hero has always been precarious. Also, the Unreliable suggests we overload the Hiss with chronitons and firepower, as it is likely there is a containment threshold.”
“Wow. I try to have a pure character moment of learning and all I get is criticism and judgement,” Seifer countered. “Very well. Seifer to Tong and Briggs, up the fire and chroniton intensity and match our attacks!”
Tong replied over comms from Vector Beta. “Like putting too much air in a celebratory rubbery containment oval.”
“Yup. That’s one of the officially approved analogies,” Seifer confirmed, checking a PADD. “What is this transwarp one about a bullet in a bullet and a horse? Do better, Starfleet.”
—
All three Phoenix-X vectors coordinated around with the Unreliable and opened beams onto the abnormally large Hiss. She took wave after wave of pulsating white beams, from all angles, illuminating her entire transformative matrix until she began sending painful antichoniton particle light rays out of her eyes and mouth.
The fantastical and strange enslaved dark creatures nearby then saw what was happening and began piling their own attacks at her… but not without notice.
“The natives of the Lost Void… They’re starting to rebel!” Wally stated, looking at the science console.
“She must’ve had some sort of mind control thing on them… And we just broke it. Perhaps we’ve almost got her!” Alex proposed.
“No time to celebrate just yet. Let’s keep fighting. Devoid, fire a spread of torpedoes right in her face! It’ll likely disrupt the rays,” Breezie commanded.
The Unreliable launched a spread of torpedoes right in the Hiss’ face, causing it to scream in unearthly agony.
The Hiss’ flesh began to rip open as light shone through, her body trying to hold the energy. The Voidlings began to run, fear running through their veins. She looked at the ships around her, and smiled deviously. She looked at the Unreliable…
We’ll meet soon, Alex Noll Brine.
… and exploded in a cacophony of heat, energy, and flesh. The Hiss was gone… and the Voidlings come out, fearful and shivering. They looked at the ships with stress in their eyes.
“Are they… Scared?” Andy asked, turning to the captain.
“Perhaps we should go down and meet them,” Devoid suggested, looking at both Andy and Breezie.
“Sounds like a plan. Contact the Phoenix-X. I guess it’s time for first contact,” Breezie responded, getting up and heading to the shuttle bay.
—
Two shuttles, a Type 7 from the Unreliable named Terrell and a Type 9 from the recently reintegrated Phoenix-X named Dracon, left their respective ships and touched down on the ground, making sure not to harm any Voidlings, all of them running away and hiding when they started coming their way.
The commanding officers of both ships left their respective shuttles, looking at the Voidlings hiding behind objects. “Do you really think we should be doing this? We don’t know if they’ve developed warp yet?” Seifer asked.
“They’ve seen us, it’s common decency that they should know us. Plus, it might give us a way out and you a way back home,” Breezie said before turning to the hiding Voidlings. “Hello. I’m Captain McKormic of the Unreliable, a representative of the United Federation of Planets. We bring you no harm.”
One of the hiding groups sent an ambassador out, and when I say that I mean they push him out of hiding while they make a run for it. This Voidling looked like a child, albeit with simple shapes and designs. His glowing eyes spread down to tear streaks as he looked at the two officers, shivering in fear… still and motionless otherwise.
Commander Seifer crouched down and held out his hand, hoping the Voidling would shake it. But the small void creature backed away, even more scared as it hunched in a kind of foetal position.
Devoid and Briggs exited their respective shuttles, looking at the afraid Voidling. “I don’t think he’s ready to be an ambassador,” Briggs stated, looking at the afraid Voidling.
Sally exited the Terrell shuttle and got to the group. “Oh come on folks, he’s like a wild animal right now. He’s so freaked out because he thinks we are here to hurt him. Here, let me show you how ya should do this.” She approached the Voidling, it covered its head and curled up more to protect itself. Sally tenderly reached out to the Voidling, not as a handshake, but as an offer. Her palm up, and cupped slightly. The Voidling looked at it still in a defensive stance but a bit more calm now. It reached out its own hand, and held Sally’s. She didn’t grip or squeeze, she let it do that.
The Voidling looked at everyone around it, as others came to peek their heads out, some brave enough to come out of hiding. It sent an image to the minds of all the crew members there, an image of the two different combadge styles with a scribble between both.
“What is that? Did they put a thought into my head?” Commander Seifer asked, confused beyond all belief.
“I got it too… What does this mean?” Sally asked.
“Perhaps they’re trying to ask a question? This might be how they communicate.” Devoid proposed.
“Maybe so. Perhaps they’re confused about who we are?” Briggs asked.
Another image from the Voidling comes, an image of everyone there all connected by another scribble.
“That might explain it. They are confused,” Commander Seifer stated.
“Alright, I’ll handle this,” Devoid responded, cracking his knuckles and dusting off to look somewhat presentable. “We are part of an interplanetary union who’s only goals are to discover the great unknowns of the galaxy. We mean no harm and we certainly won’t kill needlessly. If you see that symbol on someone, you can trust them not to harm you. If someone does, then they don’t stand for what it means. We are here to discover and keep peace throughout the galaxy, not to conquer needlessly and exploit what we find.”
The Voidling backs up again, and sends an image to Devoid. Images of the Hiss, enslaving and ripping apart Voidlings connected to the image of a combadge by a scribble.
“That… Thing isn’t of us. We wouldn’t dare have a part in such a horrid creature. That's why we destroyed her. The Federation exists to spread peace, not despair,” Devoid responded with disgust.
Other Voidlings approached, not all of them humanoid, but they came with curiosity. They touch, poke, and feel the crew. They do not know who these strangers are, or why they do not attack… this is fascinating to them. One, a rabbit humanoid, walks up to Seifer with a curious look. He touched the commander’s thigh, for he wasn’t tall, but small in comparison to most of the others.
“This is… odd,” Briggs stated, looking at the Voidlings touching him and the others.
“Maybe this is how they find out who new visitors are? These are some rather eager beavers!” Sally responds, looking at the Voidlings.
“Well, we should be getting to our home Universe. We could interdimension some Cali-class ships here for some classic Second Contact shenanigans. Wait. How do we even leave this place?” Commander Seifer queried.
The Child Voidling looked to the distance. A few minutes passed, and a contraption began to be used, a harpoon reached onto two sides of the ever repeating landscape before attempting to pull everything together. The consequence of it being two rips in time space. The Void Child looked at the crews before sending them two images. One, if both ships enter different rips to their own house structures, the rips indicated by shape. The second, was a ship with one of the crew’s on board coming through a rift, highlighted by a scribble.
“They seem to indicate that we’ll be led back home due to them… and likely a desire for us to come back,” Breezie said, tapping her combadge. “Breezie to Alex, could you check the energy signatures of the rips to show what one leads where?”
“On it, wouldn’t want to end up in the wrong timeline. That Borg sounds like a nightmare!” Alex said, initiating a scan of the rips.
“He’s not wrong. The nightmares they induce give my nightmares nightmares. Not to mention, those nightmares being prone to assimilation,” Briggs suggested.
As the Unreliable scanned the rips, Breezie turned to Seifer. “So, I guess this is goodbye then. You get to go back home and do… whatever it was you were doing. Hope you get that extra pip on your collar too. I just hope Section 31 doesn’t decide to pry into my timeline, or I’ll be having a few words with them,” Breezie stated.
“How do you know about that? All data relating to Section 31 is heavily restricted?” Seifer blinked.
“A good captain always finds a way,” Breezie joked, tapping the side of her nose.
“Alex to Breezie, I’ve identified which is which. The one on the right is ours. The Phoenix-X is ready to head back to where they came from,” Alex spoke from Breezie’s combadge.
“You best get going, Commander. Home awaits,” Breezie said, smiling. ”We’ll make sure to return to this place, just keep a tear open for us.”
“Sounds good, Captain,” Seifer conceded. “Thank you for the exhibition of ingenuity and collaboration outside the exclusivity of Starfleet-uniformed crews. The form in which a group assembles is not as important as who they are together. A lesson, I’m confident, this civilization will also aggregate.”
He nodded to Breezie and then the Child Voidling before heading into the Dracon with Briggs. The Type 9 shuttle lifted up and flew back into the Phoenix-X as the starship was turning for the rift.
Breezie, Devoid and Sally watched as the Prometheus-class starship disappeared from view into the tear. “Good luck out there,” Breezie said as the ship flew away.
—
The Phoenix-X returned to normal space with a faint flash, right at the doorstep of Starbase 55 as if no interdimensional cracks ever happened.
“Phew! It’s good to be home,” Seifer exhaled in relief. “Now I get Voyager. Their whole struggle. The entire seven-year arc in just a few days. But, just to be sure— This isn’t some third, identical Universe of lens flares, Scotty side quests and adrenaline-running corridors on bulbous brewery-Engineered starships?”
Veker completed a submolecular scan of the space station. “The quantum signature checks out, as well the chronometer displays Stardate 70074.9. Also, there’s a Borg cube failing to assimilate a gormagander in the next sector.”
“Ohhh, yeah,” Seifer exhaled a second time, now truly relaxed. “That’s the stuff.” The crew watched as the data graphic displayed several gormagander icons teaming up and wrecking the Borg icon in retaliation.
Elly put her arm over Tong’s shoulder and leaned in whilst addressing the crew. “So, any suplimentary lessons beyond Starfleeting and teamwork? Perhaps observational impressions of the Multiverse?”
“Yes,” BOB cut in. “The regular overcoming of existential threats should not facilitate complacency. Perhaps our Universe is a balance for interdimensional peril. Are we a police Universe, or some kind of backwater Sherif Universe?”
Seifer tapped his chin. “Nahh. It should be something about giant amorphable transrealmable villians with incredibly large apparel. Like, what are their motivations? Or, where do they come from?” He pondered to a blinking crew, emanating beams of too-lateness at him. “Yeah, I may have missed a lot stuff for this one.”
“Engineering to Bridge. I’ve done a shipwide scan and everything we left with is accounted for. Well, everything, except for one disqualifying thing,” came Gewdeque’s call through-air. “We seem to have acquired a Type 4 shuttle and lost one of our Chaffee-types. It appears the Edward was lost.”
Tong looked at Seifer, who appeared to generate new Matt Decker style drops of sweat again. “Commander, I think we might know where Edward is. It’s on the Unreliable!”
“Yeah. No, that makes sense,” Seifer wide-eyed conceded out into the unending multiverse, somewhere where alternate versions of everyone existed. “Thanks, Breezie.”
