Star Trek: Phoenix-X
"Triple Phoenix, Part III"
The senescent and long-in-the-tooth Prometheus-class U.S.S. Phoenix-X sat in the nearly dissipated Ordek Nebula as its Discovery-class counterpart, the U.S.S. Phoenix-J, had approached. Seifer and Tong met its commanding officer in her Ready Room.
"This can't be real. Two Phoenix-ships at the same time? I'm seeing double!" reacted an eye-testing Captain Daphne Armstrong as she looked out at the other vessel from her window.
Seifer deadpanned her. "It's only in name and we're completely different classes. Never mind. The concept of simultaneously named ships is as new and repulsive to me as it is to you. For, you see, apparently there are others like us all functioning in operational silos."
"Starfleet isn't even cognizant of this, are they?" the Tyrakhean Captain realized before shaking her head out of it. "It's our cliché, special operations status. It's been so done to death, they wouldn't even want to know. Which explains why our mission details to recall a Federation starship, here, were mired in redacted black marker."
Tong glanced through her episode PADD. "It's weird how they can't just delete typed text? Anyway, it's more obvious you were after the Phoenix-H, who was on their own mission to acquire a Tkon energy-siphoning battery, to drain the Xeenar's power core."
"It's admirals working against admirals," came the sudden revelation from Fleet Admiral Rebola stepping out of a shadowy corner. "Being promoted to our level is an automatic conflicting of higher-ups."
Armstrong jumped in pure shock. "Ahh! Admiral Rebola? You were on my ship the whole time??"
"I've been over-the-top side-questing with your lower deckers all day," Rebola admitted. "Also, it was I who previously coordinated and reassigned all launched Phoenix-ships to every corner of Starfleet on orders to engage in non-exploratory, Federation-protecting missions. But, the years since the attack on Mars, when Starfleet pulled its virtuous ambitions, Phoenix-ships have become redundant in a way the admirals in charge have been upping their malfeasance just to make them make sense."
Seifer double-taked. "So, we're all just in a constant state of justification??"
"For the admiral overseeing the Phoenix-H, yes, as his intent was for Captain Navarro to rip open the galactic barrier and force all of us to explore the extragalactic void," she added. "And, as I said, exploration is no longer a Federation mission. Don't you dare seek out new life and new civilizations. I'm warning you!"
Armstrong nodded. "According to Seifer, that other Captain's crew has become possessed by the Xeenar, so machinations of galactic destruction should be as null as desired."
"Then, I've got bad news for you guys," Tong sighed. "As I was once endowed heightened Esper power from said-galactic barrier, Muko now desires the same type for himself. Long-range sensors indicate he's headed in the direction of said-barrier."
"Technically, since the barrier surrounds the galaxy, all ships head in the direction of the barrier," Seifer calculated. "Also, that barrier makes no sense. I thought we were ignoring it?"
Rebola snapped. "Shut up!" Then, calming, "We need to catch up with that Omni. Does the Phoenix-X still have those extra transwarp coils from that one time you supported the Unreliable?"
"They're in a half-torn cardboard box in the corridor behind my Bridge," Seifer recalled. "We'll send one over to the Phoenix-J so you guys can follow us into a conduit. But, be forewarned, we left them near a radiator, so they may be hot."
---
Later, with both the Phoenix-X and Phoenix-J speeding through a transwarp conduit, Seifer found Tong fitting himself into an EV suit in the Armory.
"Oh, no you don't," the Commander denounced. "You think you're going out into cold space to stop that obsessed Muko, hand-to-hand, don't you?"
Tong put his gloves on, more certain than ever. "Hell yes, Commander. That specific Omni represents everything I hate about over-powered people: The superior, opportunistic power-mongering grin-fest that comes with a side of smirk. My own pure, revenge-based ambition will re-up the power I've lost enough to defeat him."
"Re-upping is great," Seifer momentarily conceded. "But you're attempting to accelerate through years of growth as much as Muko is, just to stop him? It was Lao Tzu who said that nature does not hurry."
The human clenched his fist. "Sir, you tried ascending to Captaincy with every best natural intention and virtue possible, only to be maligned by your own Seifer symbiont. If that has taught me anything, it's that we need to fortify our strength from within to fight from without."
"I may be crippled by rank-based self-corruption, but we can't let those things define our intentions," Seifer countered. "Within is the right approach, but I won't join hubris just to defeat it. You're deep-ending pretension without temperament. As your commanding officer, I order you to stand down so we may proceed with a crew approach."
Tong thought for a moment. "You know I'll have your back, sir. But I have to do this."
But, before Seifer could respond, the Phoenix-X suddenly shook from phaser fire after it and the Phoenix-J dropped transwarp to normal space.
---
There, the two vessels were confronted with the Phoenix-H, whom was in view of several broken planetary chunks, cracked and half-clustered into the highly, negatively energized galactic barrier. Seifer entered the Bridge of the Phoenix-X.
"It appears a rogue planet has collided and become stuck at the edges of the energy field," Veker reported in awe from Science. "Detecting traces of charged iron and silicon materials. Surface-level, its mineral composition matches that of the Ordek Nebula?"
Suddenly, a hail broke through from the Phoenix-H, showing the Xeenar-possessed Captain Navarro. "What the hell? Did you not listen to my orders to not-interfere? Unless you are a Wogneer creature, I do not want to see you." He licked his lips. "Oh, those guys are tasty, no matter what Picard said that one time."
"Ew. Also, you do know we have an order-based architecture, but within our own ranks only, right?" Seifer levelled. "As part of that, I've ordered my crew to collectively feel terrible about what Starfleet and the Omni did through robbing you of your energy core."
Navarro-Xeenar replied, "After possessing this crew, I've come to know all about your Phoenix Operations and its intermittent contradictions within your Starfleet. It's this whole redundant thing! Like, how many covert espionage groups do you need? And don't get me started on your Section 31."
"Yeah, we're in our clandestine-obsessed era with dark lighting for emphasis," the Commander shrugged. "It's dark for darks sakes, but that doesn't mean we can't back-track to our ethical, moral-based roots. What I'm saying is, if you unpossess the Phoenix-H, we can work together to stop Muko."
The possessed Tiburonian scoffed. "Unfortunately, unpossessing without a sufficient power source would dissipate my consciousness entirely. I must transform that Omni or, even better, generate a new source from the convergence. Your people will be fine. Well, Pike-in-a-wheelchair-fine." He then looked away. "It's poetic we're here, actually, as this world used to orbit the Ordek system before the supernova. We were a good people before the Tkon."
"Wait. What!?"
Navarro-Xeenar snapped out his reverie. "Well, that's enough of your traditional expositioning. Xeenar out!"
The screen clicked off to an external view of everything and they watched the Phoenix-H impulse into the chaos of intersecting planetary debris. "Okay, I have soooo many questions," Seifer blinked. "Not the least of which is that apparently this intersection is a more tantalizing source of omnipotent power?"
"That's the gist of it, Commander," Briggs approached with a PADD. "In fact, my hippie-teens-in-a-van-style sleuthing has produced evidence Tong was brought here, before, under something classified called Project Esper. They threw their subjects into the barrier's modified energy field."
Seifer gritted his teeth. "Damn. He never wanted to talk about how he got those powers, and now we learn it's because Starfleet did this to him all along."
"Not just any Starfleet," Briggs added as he motioned to the Phoenix-J suddenly impulsing itself toward the chaos as well; its deflector powering up for a particle expulsion. "The project was under Admiral Rebola. She's hard-forcing all kinds of dangerous exploration."
BOB approached in shared realization. "Rebola trickled down her orders to the Phoenix-H to have the Omni/Xeenar-powered Tkon artifact tear open the barrier. Being the barrier expert, she must've been stowing on the Phoenix-J in case someone like us interfered."
"It would appear we are a wrench in some kind of evil cog," Veker added. "To that end, I believe if we begin a flood of the converging parts of the Ordek planet with positive energy, based on inversing Arloff generator calculations, and from highly charged phasers, we will enact a chain reaction of cauterizing the ethereal tear."
Seifer nodded in understanding. "Thereby ending its power availability to Muko and Xeenar and its simultaneous tear-open-potential to Rebola."
"The first two I get but, in the Admiral's case, don't we want to be explorers?" Hachi turned, confused.
The Commander calmed. "Ships have gotten through the barrier before, including us, but hers and Phoenix Operations have proven reckless thus far with the Omni and Xeenar, and this is no different. We should be informed by science, not selfishness. That being said, we have to split vectors to slow both Phoenix-ships' approach while mending said convergence."
"What about that Omni guy?" Briggs remembered.
Seifer this time motioned to the screen showing a man in an environmental suit power-leaping through space and pushing off Ordek planetary rock after rock. "Tong is on it."
---
With the Phoenix-X splitting into three vectors, Tong continued on in chase of Muko, both revving up their powers the closer they got to the energized rocks.
"I'm impressed, Starfleet, that you've made this unsuspecting Esper power so tantalizing," Muko touted in cold space on a frequency picked up by Tong's comms. "As Omni powers are Q-based, we have little appreciation for foreign types. They basically tell us to abhor the Travelers."
The enemy picked up a chunk of rock and threw it behind him at Tong, prompting Tong to dodge in mid-jump and throw one back. "Your attempts at ascension are despicable, Muko. How does insincerity even open the doors to divination? Isn't god-hood merit-based?"
"Ha! The natural universe does not respond to good or evil as you mortals see it," Muko gawked as they both landed on a large planetary rock, with its midsection lit up by its convergence with the edge of the barrier energies. "Those concepts are mortal constructs in that anyone with enough neural apotheosis can achieve a transcendent state. Just look at that Will Decker guy! Ugh."
Tong energized himself and sped toward Muko, close range, prompting them to exchange block after kick after deflection after punch. "No! I refuse to believe even my own power-transgression would qualify as prosperity."
"Every achiever knows it doesn't matter how you succeed, as long as you Khan your way into your shall haves," Muko gritted as his forearm crossed Tong's and Muko power-blasted the contact. "So, join me in our Continuum, Mr. Tong. You would be more welcome than a Kes hopped up on Badgeys!"
---
Nearby, Phoenix-X Vector Beta was chasing and phasering the Gagarin-class Phoenix-H as they both passed several large rock structures. Briggs stood at Battle Bridge Beta during all the chaos.
"Dear possessive Xeenar entity, you must release your hostages and cease this attempt at siphoning the barrier convergence," the Silver Blood pleaded. "Trust me, bro. I get it. You think this unlimited power excrement will make up for lost endeavours."
The Phoenix-H returned aft phasers as they sped along a line of one of many intersections of giant planetary rocks, half-stuck out of the barrier energy. "You assume too much, creature! But, yeah, spot on, and just exactly the right amount. Indeed, we were a civilization to be held and after we were enveloped by that supernova, its strange energies caused everyone's consciousnesses to become me."
"So, now you think having a more powerful core will compensate said loss," Briggs finished. "The Arloffians over-cybernetified themselves in the face of the Omni only to nearly become unrecognizable. Also, I over-played my hand in No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker once."
With the Gagarin-class ship moving along, it dodged a torpedo and then snapped a transfer beam from its deflector into the barrier energy, beginning its acquisition of ethereal energy. "Those are all excellent examples, but I had this vessel's Starfleet engineers confirm a new, more powerful core would re-individualize the Ordek civilization back again! I'll just need more people to overwrite. You in? You... you want in on this?"
---
At the same time, the Discovery-class Phoenix-J was parallel-speeding with Phoenix-X Vector Alpha; the two, trading phaser fire, front, back and centre.
"This is madness, Admiral," Seifer declared upon his Bridge. "You don't honestly think it's safe to tear open the galactic barrier for exploration of the extragalactic void? It's full of nothing??"
The Phoenix-J dodged fire and sliced its own charged deflector beam into the crevices of the energized rocks. The tears in the barrier began to open wider. "I didn't jump-start Phoenix Operations just to redundant itself into boring defensive patrols. Our continuing mission is to seek out new special reconnaissances and new foreign counterterrorisms. To boldly insurgence where no warfare has infiltrated before!"
"By the twang of McCoy's southern accent, you're forcing inter-galactic conflict over this spatial event so Starfleet has more special operations," Seifer realized. "Like, some kind of Georgiou/Reed fanatic, nose-deep in Luther Sloan."
As Phoenix-X Vector Alpha hit a photon onto the side of the Phoenix-J, the jerking forced Admiral Rebola to brace her seat. "This isn't just about justifying our existence, Commander. This is who we are. We're an exploratory, military hybrid with a side of subterfuge!"
---
Nearby, Phoenix-X Vector Gamma swooped in from afar where it had been mending the energy convergences with its positively charged phaser beams and taking readings. Lieutenant Commander Veker took command on Battle Bridge Gamma.
"Calling all extraneous Phoenix-X vectors. The configurations are confirmed to be reversing the barrier damage," the Kelpien reported as waves of god energy erupted from the beams and dissipated into nothingness. "Science! Also, just don't get any of that Gary Mitchell in your eyes."
One of the dissipating waves hit the Phoenix-H as it and a chasing Phoenix-X Vector Beta passed, angling the Phoenix-H's aft port quarter thrusters to be phasered out, sending it suddenly spinning into a large chunk of rock. "My eyes see nothing but arrogance against the Ordek existence! You're getting a terrible one-star review from me, Starfleet," cursed the Navarro-Xeenar hybrid over comms. "And no tip!"
"If you're talking hubris, we Omni are owed as such, for ascension is a dish best served nonsensically," a tired Muko cried as several of his lasting punch redirects were circumvented by a force-palming Tong until Muko was sent ricocheting off the hull of said-stopped-Phoenix-H and into the hull of the passing Phoenix-X Vector Alpha.
The impact of the energized Muko unto the dorsal saucer of the Prometheus-class top-third caused its phasers to surge, mid-fire, upon the Phoenix-J, effectively disabling both vessels to Admiral Rebola's surprise. "Such predomination was deemed for Starfleet to lead the galaxy as a whole," she ranted. "We were to be exploratory gods! In theme!"
---
"Report!" Seifer called as lights flickered to dim and sparks flew in chaos over the Bridge of Phoenix-X Vector Alpha. "And would everyone please cease their maddening climbs of immediate supremacy??"
Elly grasped the edges of a hybrid console. "Shields, weapons and main power are down. Backup systems in effect." She looked up. "On the plus, Mr. Veker says he's mended the last of the barrier tears, effectively rendering future supremacies inert."
"Don't you dare pacify me, Lieutenant," Seifer warned. "Ensign Dan bajoran trove'd my symbiont once and it was this whole badly paced thing."
Suddenly, unable to self-control the revved Esper power within him, a glowy-eyed Tong leapt off his asteroid and propelled himself toward the slowly waking, hull-embedded Muko. BLAM!! The force of the impact punctured Phoenix-X Vector Alpha and the roof of the Bridge until both men landed to the floor, before Commander Seifer's boots.
"What in the name of Janeway turns??" the Trill double-taked as emergency forcefields quickly band-aided the ceiling from the vacuum of space. "Talk about badly paced things. The climax was over, Mr. Tong! You are ordered to stand down from this culminative action rehash."
Instead, a nearly-unawares, energy-flowing Lieutenant Commander Tong gritted his teeth over Muko and began chain punching faster than Muko could redirect. Tong spoke in a haunting chorus, "The Q and their Omni mules are nothing compared to Espers!!"
"Bad, tactical officer. Bad!" Seifer scolded while intercepting his-self to forearm-block between Tong and Muko causing him to suddenly absorb several tendrils of bridged omnipotent energy from the two demigods. Seifer, acting as a ground, then broke the energy bridge and unintentionally regurgitated a gravitic shockwave against them.
Tong and Muko were knocked back from a collapsing Seifer as their heightened energy flows then died down. "If it were me, I would have started with a phaser," Elly deadpanned as she ran over and checked on Tong. "Or a Klingon painstick? We still have a lot of those."
"Speaking of pain, the Commander is stable," Xyrenia observed after entering the Bridge, scanning and administering a hypo to Seifer. "But his Trill symbiont isn't giving off any significant readings."
After regaining self-awareness, Tong sat up and rubbed his head. "Oh, crap. I fell into a state of reckless omnipotent megalomania but, somehow, discovered it can reach levels higher than the Q? Dare I live out the American Dream?"
"You know very well that concept was deemed a hoax in the mid-2020s," Seifer scolded as he struggled to his feet and several security officers apprehended a weakened Muko. "They also proved inflated patriotism was the result of widespread tapeworms."
The screen then clicked on to a forced-hail from the Phoenix-H and its roughed up Xeenar-Navarro commanding officer. "Soooo, this is awkward. I'd like to go back to my original plan of restoring my Muko-stolen life core, please. I kind of got caught up in the whole accelerated ambition thing."
"Briggs reported you were going to permanently overwrite millions of people! Never mind. All Tongs considered, we get misguided initiatives." Seifer nodded to the security officers to send Muko over. "But, later, you're taking the longest Picard speech on body control ever. It has soooo many Troi possession references."
After delivery, the Phoenix-H worked to reboot itself. Next, the viewer blinked to a split-screen of Admiral Vincent Cloud's long-range Starbase 55 hail on the left and the disheveled Admiral Rebola's near-disabled Phoenix-J hail on the right.
"Where the hell are you?? I had to string this call through the MIDAS array, off thirteen pulsars and into a bunch of Hirogen rifles Jury-rigged into a single relay," Cloud complained. "I'm calling to tell you the Arloffians are inviting cohabitation with the Omni, as penance for their aggressiveness, if we agree to deliver their stolen Tkon artifact to the Arloff Museum."
Rebola perked. "So they can venerate the ancient civilization responsible for the Ordek Nebula, the Xeenar and this planet? Well, I guess so."
"Admiral Rebola? You weren't utilizing Phoenix Operations to rip open the galactic barrier, were you?" Cloud realized. "You know there are evil entities trying to get in!"
The woman just waved him off. "Oh, like the Milky Way doesn't have enough of its own god-people who could handle them; my own projects notwithstanding. Get yourself an imagination, Vincent." Then, turning to Seifer, she said, "Pleasure doing business with you again. We'll keep in touch." Rebola then clicked off and the Phoenix-J regained its power before jumping to warp.
"I'll be ignoring her calls. Also, you knew about her illicit endeavours of other Phoenix-ships in simultaneous, blasphemous service and didn't tell me, didn't you?" Seifer deadpanned to Admiral Cloud. "Not that it matters now since my symbiont demoted me from those clearance levels."
Xyrenia approached. "Actually, my readings suggest the Seifer symbiont is now locked in a frozen state since you intercepted that Esper/Q energy convergence. It should revert on its own but, in a week, in several years; it's impossible to know."
"That explains why I can't remember any of my past host's fraud and anti-Union labour transgressions," the Trill realized. "It's like I'm one of those one-lifers the Dax symbiont used to go on about."
Cloud sat up. "Wait a minute. If it was your symbiont preventing your rank-up, this frozen situation could allow you to retain said Captain status. With it out of commission, it can't stop you— That is, until such time the Seifer symbiont unfreezes."
"Fascinating work around," Seifer pondered along. "Maybe the time I spend as Captain, even temporarily, could curtail any future repellant."
Suddenly, an unkempt Klingon exchange officer, Lieutenant Kortos, beamed onto the Bridge and aimed a KDF disruptor right at Seifer's neck. Unprovoked, he aggressively fired a rank pip into the Trill's collar, sending Seifer to the floor. "Congratulations, Captain," Kortos said before slinging his rifle against his shoulder and strolling off to the turbolift.
"I set that up with him," Cloud admitted. "He was adamant the pip came from a previous casualty. Anyway, if you ever see any other Phoenix-letter'd ships out there, you are to purge all scans and medically erase its knowledge from all your minds. Phoenix ships are to remain in mysterious compartmentalized silos!"
---
Later, as a reassembled Phoenix-X and a coiled Phoenix-H were at transwarp, Captain Seifer was alone, staring out a darkened Conference room window until Lieutenant Commander Tong entered.
"Sir, I'm turning myself in for disobeying direct orders and engaging in enviable powered-person combat," Tong started. "Also, that whole thing I did to your symbiont. Are you sure you don't want me to try to reverse it?"
The temporary Captain held up a halting palm. "Doctor Xyrenia says any ethereal tampering could inverse me into a giant slug with the host on the inside. Besides, your accelerated leap into Zeus-dom actually helped me, despite looking aggrandizingly ostentatious."
"I knew defeating Muko and becoming better would be at a cost but hadn't anticipated my ambitions as a threat to others," Tong appended. "Sometimes, our sacrifices are more reckless than we realize."
Seifer looked stern. "Admiral Rebola wouldn't let you achieve it any other way. Seeing yourself through that was the real power. Also, on behalf of the crew, we're glad to have you back." Then he took a breath. "So, what say you we put a nebula entity back into its Ordek home?"
"I can wave my hands and fan him out like this," Tong demonstrated to an agreeing Captain. "We just have to be careful not to inhale him."
Seifer snapped his fingers. "Nose plugs!" Nodding, the two left for the Bridge as both the Phoenix-X and Phoenix-H dropped back out into normal space and approached the Ordek Nebula.
