Star Trek - From the Ashes.

Helix Noir

I stepped through the portal, a shimmering vertical pool obscuring the entrance to the deep foreboding pit known as the labyrinth and I stood high up on a ledge, spread out far below me was a sprawling mess of corridors and tunnels.

I could see no way down, but the place beckoned me on, my sword pulsed in my hand and my heart thumped like the beat of a distant drum, there was only one way to go... down! I jumped...

The floor rushed up to greet me like an enraged charging Klingon, fast and furious, I hit hard, the world went black.

When I came too I sat up, My oldest friend, pain, said hello, as several cracked ribs screamed out in protest of my sudden movements, lay back they shouted, but I had a job to do this place had something I wanted and I wasn't going to stop, more bones joined the chorus of screaming agony as I scrambled to my feet, 'My Sword?' my eye's darted around the cavern, until they fell upon the gently glowing orange Tholian Crystalline Sword, It was my life line without it I would have fallen long ago on some distant world, I picked it up it felt heavier than usual I gave it a few swings until it felt right in my grip then pushed on, I needed medical attention I could feel my life force fading as I staggered through the dark like a drunk Cardassian, the sound of each footfall betraying my presence and rebounded loudly off the walls like the cacophony of a Tyrilian bat squawking in warning to its colony at the approach of an intruder.

If I fell here would I be missed, would any venture in this place deep beneath the surface of a dying world?

I stumbled into a chamber and tripped on some remains, the skeletal face of the owner stared accusingly at me through empty eyes, its uniform in tatters but still full of colour It was a human the deep red of the tunic and the remains of a strap indicated that it was starfleet from the late 23rd century, but I had no time to contemplate this macabre discovery I had to get up, I had to keep moving. To stop was to die and I still had shit to do, with bitter determination I gritted my teeth against the pain and rose to my feet, for over two centuries I had been a blight upon the galaxy and I intended to keep going for at least another two more. I used my years of mental training to push aside the pain and fixed my mind on the task ahead so far nothing had come to challenge me, were they scared, frightened to challenge me. A pulse of indignant, arrogant anger shot through me driving me on quelling the agony and silencing the protests of tired bone and muscle, the pain faded with each step, It was then I realised what was happening as conscious thought was shoved aside and the rage took me, A guttural raw built in my belly then raised through me and burst from my mouth, control... was lost.

I was vaguely aware of what was happening as I looked down on the scene unfolding beneath me strange creatures flitted about holding spears attempting to stop the invader one of them ventured to close and was cut in half, another thrust forward with its spear only to have the weapon pulled from it grasp and then turned on its comrades, another stood holding its head in agony then suddenly and unexpectedly it exploded. Objects swirled around the intruder smashing into the creatures as they were forced to join the whirlwind, the miniature storm gained intensity and the a brilliant pulse emanating from the intruder sent everything flying in all directions the creatures went splat, The intruder pushed on...

Time -I done know how much- passed as I watched the intruder the strange creatures would throw themselves in waves against him only to have each attack thrown aside, some fled the onslaught only to run into their own traps or to fall into deep sink holes that littered the place. The intruder continued on his path setting a stately pace as the world around him flexed and bent as he passed, a near constant globe of pure psionic power surrounded him and the debris that littered the floor where violently thrown aside or used as deadly accurate missiles against the creatures, Then I spotted the remains of the starfleet officer floating along behind him its bony fingers grasped around an ancient phaser pistol.

The intruder rounded a corner and came to a dead end a solid door between him and his goal, he stopped but the Federation corpse did not, it continued toward the door, it jammed its phaser into the lock and fired, the phaser exploded blowing the door off its hinges and throwing deadly shards of rock and bone in all directions, some of the fragments hit the psionic field and fell harmlessly to the floor, The intruder stepped over the remains of his long dead assistant then crossed the threshold into the chamber beyond, there floating above a pedestal was a small 6 inch wide sphere, The intruder raised his hand as if to beckon the object and it did as he had bid, it floated to him and he plucked it from the air then raised it triumphantly over head.

I awoke, Ham stood over me a worried look on her beautiful blue face "Sir are you all right?" she asked, I simply nodded, I was confused and disoriented 'where am I' I managed "You are in sick bay on bored the Warrior" I looked toward the voice my vision blurred from the movement I recognised the level emotionless tone my sight cleared then focused on T'Lar and for one brief moment I saw a glimmer of emotion on her face, no matter what they say, Vulcan's can love...

“Engineering to Bridge,” Vala spoke, “We're ready to bring the Singularity Core out of standby.”
“Proceed,” Bakara responded.
“Right, to your stations,” Vala called out. “Release safety locks on the rings and hope the repairs hold.” The crew watched there consoles closely and several other kept eyes in the core at the rings began to spin up. The ship slowly showed signs of life. Lighting began to restore itself, force fields came back online filling the gaps in the hull breaches. The rings reached their peak speeds and with that main power was restored.
“The Core is stable at 77% output, that's the best it'll do right now. Life support is restored, warp core coming back online, only 35% shields possible,” spoke the Ulrica's Head of Engineering.
“Very Well, Black Fang crew, lets get back to our shuttles,” Vala ordered.
On the bridge Bakara, wandered between a couple engineering consoles, double checking a few systems.
“Status on weapons,” she ordered as she took her seat.
“Forward heavies will be offline until the primary coil conduit is replaced. The fore and aft torpedoes are functional as well as the aft Tetryon beam banks,” SubCommander Isoos reported.
“Admiral Cora and her shuttle have lifted off from the dorsal hull, We are clear for lift off,” Subcommander Kaela announced. Before Bakara could say anymore Subcommander Hiven Ranek spoke up.
“Sir, we're being hailed.”
“On Screen.”
“Admiral Koren, I'm Commander Kort, Xo for the Black Fang. If you are going to launch now is the time. Our senors have just picked incoming hostiles, they will be here any-”
“Commander! Several Tal Shiar vessels have just exited warp. Their weapons are activated and are actively scanning,” T'lul called out.
“Have the shuttles returned?” Kort asked.
“Aye Sir.”
“Right, Summon the Admiral, Red alert, break orbit and Intercept to engage.” Kort looked back at the View screen. “Admiral, We'll distracted them. Signal for rendezvous when you're in space. I'll transmit transwarp coordinates, Black Fang out.”
The bridge crew hesitated for a second.
“Well you heard the man, get us in the air!,” Bakara barked. They crew snapped to light.
“Firing all thrusters, increasing Impulse power.”
“Life support back online, sealing all ports and bays, force fields in place, ship is pressurized, Artificial gravity operating at 89% of spec.”
“Calculating exit trajectory, Impulse engines answering full ahead.”
“Received Transwarp coordinates, inputting into computer. Charging Transwarp system, warp core reads green.” The large ship incline increased and began rolling as it gained altitude.
Within moments they were in space and came into view of the battle.
“Should we move to engage Sir? Tero Isoos asked.
“Negative, we can't take anymore hits. Signal the Fang,” Bakara answered.
They watched The lumbering cruiser began to break off. Beam arrays still firing away at the enemy. Four vessels had already been crippled or destroyed, and the remaining ones that attempted pursuit were met by multiple spreads of Quantum Torpedoes. The two ships slid into formation and then vanished into Transwarp.

Three Hours Later

“Okay Everyone I've been awake for 19 hours and on duty for most of that. I know how much we all hate these so I'm going to be brief,” Vala spoke to the room. “I've got good news and bad news from my little chat with Quinn. Bad news he is persistent about this mission, and must carry out the orders. More good news than bad however. Every bit of theory on the subject of Slipspace tears, even the Top Se cert stuff has been allotted for our use. I've also made a decision, this tear we have been mandated to open, will not be permanent. That's is just irresponsible, and will destroy future generations. So what I propose is that we figure out how to create a tear, find out what it needs to have to maintain stability, and create a device for just that and that can be remotely controlled, more importantly shut down, or able to cause the rift to become unstable and just close on its own. Then we simply bait the Undine and the Borg. This may be more feasible than trying Quinn's plan and would still complete the objectives. So that is our current goal, we figure that out and then go on working out the rest of the operation.” During this time, the realization hit Misha, that they were really going to have to go through with this operation. She didn't let that thought reflect on her face. However her hands slid under the table to her lap, her right hand rubbing her left, rubbing the remains of Borg indoctrination from a mission gone wrong. Vala had then same on her left hand, not to mention the piece of Borg tech attached above both of their left eyes.

“And that's not the best part. We're going to have a support fleet equal to half our fleet's firepower. Quinn is rounding this group as we speak. Including three Dreadnaught Class cruisers, four Defiant Retrofitted, and a slew of other cruiser and escort vessels. This group is being led spread headed by Captain Va'Kel Shon and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-F. Also I've put in enough requisition orders for anti-Borg weapons and enviro suits for every crew member of every ship that doesn't have them yet. We are going to be ready on every possible aspect. So that's all I have to say right now. If there are no questions, concerns or comments, dismissed.”

On the viewscreen Griffin watched the ship explode. A huge, silent warp core collapse. The debris bounced of her ships shields.

"Survivors?" she asked.
"Negative, sir. All hands lost."

Jen was speechless.

The USS Burnside had been her second command. She spent two years in command before she was promoted and she gave the ship to another Lieutenant and now that Lieutenant, and his crew, had died.

Jens attention was brought back to the present by an impact. The impact of Borg weaponry.

"Bring us about." she ordered. "Relay to the task force that they are to target the cube that hit the Burnside. I want nothing left bigger than a splinter."

In the silence of space six Federation starships closed on the Borg cube and hammered it with everything they had. It didn't take long before the cube broke apart, as dead as the Burnside. The remaining Borg ships, a few spheres and probes began to back off, maybe suprised at the force of the starships attack, but Griffins task force chased them down and utterly destroyed them with no further loss of Federation lives.

"Take us back to the Burnside. I want to recover as much as we can."

The task force returned to the slowly spinning wreckage of the USS Burnside. What hadn't been vapourised in the initial explosion was now floating in space, cold and dead.

"I want you to use the transporter to bring as much of her crew on board as possible. We'll give them a proper service. Let me know when it's done." Griffin stood and slowly walked to her ready room. "I'll be in here if you need me."

The first thing she did in her ready room was go to the replicator. "Double vodka, no ice." The hum of the replicator hadn't finished before she finished her drink. "Another." She took this one, sat at her desk and called up the personnel files for the crew of the Burnside.

Her career had come a long way since she had commanded the Burnside, but she always looked upon that ship as her gateway - the ship that had propelled her into the history books. The first ship that had allowed her to make a difference. She had used that ship to achieve so much. She and her crew had learnt so much while aboard her, gained so much experience. Admiral Quinn had tried to assign the Burnside to another fleet but Griffin had fought it, and with Stryders help had been allowed to keep it as part of her task force. Stryder had offered his support because he wanted Griffins task force to be nothing but firepower, the sledgehammer of the Draconian Wolf 5th Fleet. And that was just fine by Griffin. And so it was, six ships of Escort class or higher kitted out with the best equipment that Jen could get. And they were a sledgehammer. Jens task force had been requested at a number of engagements over the last few months, against Orions, Hirogen, Terran Empire and Klingons.

And now Stryder had seen fit to send Griffin and her ships to assist the Omega Force and to get some experience in fighting the Borg which Griffin admitted was probably a good idea. Things were going well. They'd had a few engagements and fared well. So well that they'd got sloppy. Todays lesson was that one should never, ever take it easy with the Borg. Today they'd paid the ultimate price and Griffin had lost a good ship and crew. Admiral Stryder was gonna be pissed.

The conn officer called to say that they'd recovered what they could from the wreckage, and Jen responded by ordering the task force to engage their transwarp and go to the Fleet base. Jen needed to regroup and talk to Stryder.

Outside the cabin window the stars blurred as the ship entered transwarp space.

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Stryder sat at his desk reading the report that Griffin had filed. Her task force had already arrived and she had commed him to say that she'd be with him in 15 minutes and that he better read the report before she got there. So he read. The report covered all the engagements and was quite comprehensive. He finished just as his door chimed.

"Come in." He called. The doors opened and Jen walked in. She didn't look good. "You ok?" he asked.
"No, I'm bloody not ok. I'm pretty fucking far from ok, thanks." she shot back, glaring at Stryder. "You've read my report?"
"Yes. I just finished. You did well."
"I did WELL?" raged Griffin. "I lost a ship with ALL HANDS, dammit! That's not well. I should be demoted."
"Demoted? Really?"
"Don't patronise me. Yea, I should be demoted."
"First of all, remember who you're talking to. Secondly, get over yourself. You think you're the first Admiral to loose lives in Borg engagements? The only admiral to go more than three rounds with the Borg and not lose any ships was Admiral Falks, and he had to shuffle crew around to get the ships home again. And when he was attacked on his way home he lost his first ship in the first five minutes. These are the things that happen when you fight the Borg. It's why I am the way I am."
"Things were going so well."
"Yes, and you took you eye of the ball and you got hit in the face. Welcome to the club. All the other admirals here are members, we've all lost people and ships. You were the only one that hadn't and you needed to. You may hate me for it, and I understand that, but it's an experience you had to have before we're on the other side of the galaxy facing insurmountable odds and I can't have you folding in on yourself because things start to go wrong."
Griffin stared at Stryder for a few moments, then said "Yes, sir."
"You have twenty-four hours to sort your shit out then you will return to the Omega Force and finish what you started."
Jens mouth opened in shock, then closed and said again "Yessir" and she stood to leave. Bob stood and walked around his desk, and placed his hand in Jens shoulders.
"I know that this is a difficult thing, and it will change you. But people like us have to change, we have to become these stone hearted destroyers because if we don't humanity will be exterminated. But you won't be alone. Falks, the Cora's and myself will all be here when you get back, and we will help you toast the people you loose, we'll share your pain until we're all to drunk to talk." He looked into Jen's eyes and saw the pain. "I'm sorry." he said, and kissed her on the forehead. Then he walked back around to his chair and said "Dismissed."
Jen spun around and left the office.

The comm chime woke Admiral Stryder from another dream about assimilation, futile resistance, pain and loss. The night terrors weren't getting any worse but they weren't going away either. He rolled over in bed and swatted the bedside console a few times until he hit the comm button by luck.

"Stryder. What?" Being awoken from a nightmare at three in the morning did not make for a polite Admiral Stryder.
"Sir. Lieutenant Gray from Starbase operations. Sorry to disturb you sir." came the reply.
"Don't apologise. Just tell me why you've woken me up."
"Sorry sir. Admiral Griffins task force has just returned through the warp gate."
"I see. Roughly when she said she'd be back. Please get to the point."
"Sir, I really think you need to see what I'm seeing. I'll patch the image through to your wallscreen." On the wall in the living area of his quarters a screen came to life. Unfortunately Bob couldn't see it from his bedroom.
"Ok. I'll take a look. Stryder out." He pressed the comm button again to close the connection and turned the lights on. Truth be told, he wasn't that bothered about being woken up from that particular dream. It always ended the same way, with him powerless to stop himself from assimilating everyone he knew. That particular dream started after a morbid conversation between Vala Cora, Helix Falks and himself in which they discussed what would happen if one of the three of them got assimilated. They ran through various scenarios and each time was the same. Starfleet and the Federation would probably survive, but the Wolves wouldn't.

He got out of bed, put yesterdays shirt on and wandered into the living area via the replicator.
"Tea, English breakfast, milk no sugar. In my Helix mug." The replicator hummed, Bob grabbed his tea and went over to the screen. He could see the six ships on the screen, Griffins Chimera destroyer taking point followed by the four escorts and the carrier. Notable by its absence was the Burnside. Still, it didn't look right.
"Computer, magnify." he said. "Close in on the Ventnor." The image flicked and the screen filled with the USS Ventnor. It was in a bad way. A nacelle was missing, there were long rents down one side of the engineering section and a hole punched through the saucer section. Long thin scorch marks covered the rest of the vessel. Bob moved to his desk and studied the rest of the task force. The Ventnor was in the worst condition but not by much. All the ships were missing chunks, all were using emergency forcefields to keep atmosphere in and all were very badly scorched. This debrief was not going to go well. He hit the comm again.

"Helix, it's Bob. Please could you get to my office in the Wolf Den?"
"Why?" asked Falks. Bob would've sworn an oath that he could her a woman giggle in the background, closely followed by the unmistakable sound of a pillow hitting a face. Helix didn't sound like he'd been sleeping.
"Jens task force is back. Take a look." There was silence for a few moments, then "Ah. Yea. See you in ten with a bottle."

"Vala, it's Bob."
"Right?"
"Sorry to wake you. Check your monitor." Another moments silence.
"Your office in fifteen?"
"Cheers. Bring a bottle."

Three hours later the four of them were still in Bobs office, with strict instructions not to be disturbed. After Stryder had sent Griffin back to Gamma Orionis things had not really improved for her task force. She had been involved in a further three confrontations and, although she'd not lost any more ships, there was still a high death toll and the damage was going to take weeks to repair. The nacelle would take eighteen days to fabricate if they could get the resources quick enough. Repair crews had already started shoring up the holes, replacing bulkheads and making the ships structurally sound.

They were all drunk, although Jen was far and away the worst. She'd started by telling them about the battles, then as they'd all got drunker they'd all told stories of battles they'd been in, of people and ships they'd lost. There were tears, fits of anger, support, recriminations and blame. The blame was mostly leveled at Admiral Quinn. By the time they all got back to bed at 0730 they all felt cleansed. They knew that the four of them would be the ones to carry the burden for what they needed to do in the future.

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Bob had been studying reports that had been filed of Borg actions that had been filed by different fleets while they were waiting for Griffins task force to be repaired. He was sitting with Falks in the Warriors ready room.
"Have you been reading the Borg reports?" he asked.
"Yes I have." said Falks.
"Have you been noticing a few things?"
"Like the fact that the other fleets performance is less than 25% of our own?"
"Yea." Stryder nodded then sipped his tea.
"Do you have to use that mug?"
"It's a good mug. I like the picture of your ship."
"So do I. It's the picture of me that I find off-putting."
"Deal with it. The other fleets go through a lot of hardware as well." said Bob, returning to the subject. "Especially the older fleets. A couple of the fleets that have become very top heavy with Admirals, and I'm talking over a hundred, are losing a catastrophic number of ships. Here, look at this." He tapped his PADD and Helix's desk panel lit up with a report of a single battle.
"Look, in one battle that fleet put 105 ships into the arena, against five cubes, twenty spheres and assorted probes. They won the battle but limped away with fifteen ships. Fifteen!" He scrolled down the screen and pointed at something else. "And in the report summary they said that of the fifteen ships, seven were beyond repair. Out of 105 ships, they had eight left. Against a force that we'd take out with no losses."
"Hmph." said Helix, who was looking at the report. "That battle was the last of a campaign. They started the campaign with over 1,000 ships and support craft and finished with eight. In nine battles they lost over a thousand ships."
"I wonder how many of the ships and personnel were assimilated?"
"Dunno." sighed Helix. "Enough to replace all the Borg that were killed in the battles?"
"Probably."
"So we're saying that the whole campaign was won by the Borg?"
"Seems that way doesn't it?" said Bob, with another mouthful of tea. Bob's comm chimed. He hit his comm badge.
"Stryder."
"Bob, it's Jen."
"Hey Jen. What's up?"
"Just though you should know that all the repairs are complete. The fleet is now a full readiness for the Borg mission."
"Ok, thanks. Does Admiral Cora know?"
"Yes. I think she want to call one last meeting to go over final details before we depart."
"I'll wait for her comm then, thanks. Stryder out." He looked at Falks.
"It's getting closer. I assume your backup plan is ready?"
Helix winked.

Commander Milly Kaziroe walked along the corridor of the admirals offices on the Wolf Den. She was ... concerned. It had fallen to her to give her direct superior some news that was going to throw the proverbial spanner in the works of the mission. She stopped outside Admiral Bob Stryders office, decided on her tactics, took a deep breath to compose herself and pressed the buzzer.

Admiral Robert M. Stryder sat at his cluttered desk. The only thing he actually wanted on his desk was his mug, preferably containing tea. Along with his currently empty mug were piles of PADDs, each one with a different report on it. To be fair most of the reports were about Griffins task force and the extensive repairs her ships had recently undergone. The repairs had cost a fortune, and Bob had needed to give Jen a lot of credits to make sure she didn't end up broke. Arguably he was indirectly responsible for the damage in the first place, sending her task force to fight the Borg. He'd just made the decision to refill his mug when the door buzzer chimed. Bob sighed.

"Come in." he called. The door slid open and Commander Kaziroe stepped into his office. Bob hadn't seen much of Milly since the meeting with her, Kelata and himself where he laid down the rules of the two commanders alliance. She'd been very busy getting her ship ready for the Borg mission and the only real contact he'd had with her had been her bi-daily progress reports. If he was brutally honest with himself he was prepared to admit that he only had the vaguest idea about what Milly was actually doing as the science went way above his head. He had asked Vala Cora if he could forward the reports to Misha who had a much better understanding of the science involved. Misha had looked at the reports and said that things were coming along nicely.

"Commander Kaziroe, good to see you again." said Bob with a smile. "Please sit down. Tea?"
"Thank you sir," said Milly sitting down, "No tea thank you. I've never developed a taste for it."
"Admiral Falks did."
"Admiral Falks makes his own rules in life. He's one of the more exceptional examples of our society."
"Don't tell him that's how you feel, for Gods sake. He thinks rather too highly of himself as it is." Bob smiled at his own joke, went over to his replicator and plopped his empty mug into the slot.
"The usual." he said, and a stream of tea appeared from nowhere to fill the mug. He took it and sat down.
"So what brings you from the bowels of your ship to my office for the first time in a month?"
"I need a promotion." replied Milly with no trace of emotion. Bob swallowed the tea in his mouth and slowly placed his mug back on the coaster that had Vala Coras face on.
"Thanks for not beating around the bush." he said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. "Why would you come to me with that request now? Although I have a feeling I may not want to know."
"My ship isn't up to it. I've looked at all the other ships available at my current rank and none are suitable."
"You know that the USS Stone is a modified Galaxy class design don't you? It may be fifty years old but that's still a bloody powerful ship. Can we upgrade the engines to give more punch?"
"It's not about power, it's about hardpoints. Specifically having enough hardpoints to deliver as much power as required at a stable frequency. The Stone doesn't have enough hardpoints, and if we add more which we can, the stability of the frequency drops off as you approach just three quarters of the power we need." said Milly. Bob had dropped his head into his hands, but the engineer in him knew she was right. He'd seen the power specs of what she wanted to do and he was more than aware of the USS Stones hardware. It wouldn't do it. They could strip out all the power systems and upgrade the lot, but that was a six month layover in drydock and ridiculously expensive.

"I know I'm as much to blame as anyone for not spotting this glaring oversight, but it's a bit late in the day to be coming to me demanding a promotion and new ship because of a problem that should have been apparent three weeks ago."
"We discovered the problem quite a while ago but we believed we could just add the extra hardpoints and an extra impulse reactor to control the frequency. In the simulations it ran perfectly every time. There's a factor at work here that we just couldn't predict, plus we're dealing with a type of device we don't have any experience with."
"Ok. Even so, you've left it a little late."
"My team and I honestly thought we could overcome it. We can't and we're sorry for that but we still have time. A newer ship..."
"Yes, a newer ship and a promotion. You said." Bob lent back in his chair and took a mouthful of tea. Jesus, what a screwup. After everybody's making final preparations as well. Bollocks.
"Why can't I install the device in my ship? The Thames is less than a year old."
"The Thames is a good ship but it's an escort. This device needs a fine control only a science vessel could provide."
"Ok Milly, you've given me the facts. Leave it with me."
"Sir, I..."
"I said leave it with me Commander. Dismissed."
"Yes sir." Milly stood, saluted smartly and left Bobs office. Bob sighed and tapped his comm badge.
"Stryder to Griffin."
"Griffin here. What's up, Bob?"
"You busy?"
"Not really. Finally got time to tidy my quarters."
"Could you swing by my office please? It's kinda urgent."
"Be there in five. Put the kettle on."

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"So what are you gonna do?" asked Griffin after Bob had told her of the Milly situation.
"She's an exceptional officer, and she always has been. Something about their species I think. They're all overachievers."
"Like Admiral Falks?"
Bob nodded. "Yup. Just like ol' Falksie." He grabbed their mugs and refilled them from the replicator.
"I can't just cave to Millys request. I've got a certain amount of credibility to uphold. Truth be told, she is due a promotion to Captain. I really can't fault anything she's done recently apart from todays oversight, and that doesn't land entirely in her lap, I can think of at least seven people who should've seen this problem a mile off, myself and Admiral Quinn among them." Bob spent a few moments looking out of his window. The whole local area was busy, almost all the fleets ships were here. Some were hard docked to the Wolf Den but most were keeping station within five hundred kilometers or so. Support craft were flitting about, doubtlessly performing important tasks. He turned from the window and sat down at his desk again.
"I can't just promote her." he said with finality.
"Why not?"
"Like I said, there's a certain amount of credibility involved. And pride. And people will hear about it and I'll start getting 'do this or you'll regret it' type requests. So like I say, I need another option."
"What about installing Kaziroes device in another ship? Like Misha Coras? She's got a couple of tricked out ships that'll do the job."
"Yea. Or I could just get Milly back here now and punch her in the face physically. Because that's what that'll be like."
Griffin smiled.
"It's not that drastic." she said.
"I couldn't do that to her." replied Bob. "There has to be another option."
"What about a field commision? Temporarily promote her to Captain and give her the ship she needs for the mission. When it's all over you can either bump her back to commander and dump her back in the USS Stone, or you can make the promotion permanent. Especially if the mission's a success. Although cancelling the promotion would be a bit harsh."
"That's a good idea. We'll do that." said Bob, who was visibly relieved. "All I need to do now is find a ship."
"What are the options for a Captains science vessel?" asked Griffin. "If memory serves it's not a huge selection."
"It's not." answered Bob. "There are four to choose from. The Intrepid class, Cochrane class, Discovery class or the Bellerophon class."
Griffin wrinkled her nose.
"You can't have an Intrepid. That design's only slightly younger than the Nebula class she's got at the moment. You're really going to need the Discovery or the Bellerophon."
"I've put out a request on the exchange to see what I can find. Give a few hours and I'll find something."
Griffin stood.
"Ok, well if you need me just buzz me. I'm gonna rack some shut eye." and she turned and left Bobs office. Bob fired up his console and began trawling through the exchange. After ninety minutes he'd found loads of vessels but had to discount them for various reasons. Some were to far away, some were in really bad states of repair but most were seriously overpriced. People really took the piss out of the exchange at times. Eventually though he stumbled across a gem. A Bellerophon class science vessel in fully operational condition only two years in service. And it was a bargain!

Bob put in an offer which was ten percent over the asking price and it was accepted within five minutes. He arranged to collect it and decided that, as he'd spent all day in his office, he'd go and find Milly to give her the good news.

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As anyone might have guessed, Commander Kaziroe was less than impressed with her field promotion.
"A temporary Captaincy?" she asked with a faint look of disgust on her face.
"You started the game by demanding a promotion. You backed me into a corner and that's not the way I play ball. You got your promotion. Enjoy it while it lasts." said Bob. The audacity of the woman! Milly looked at Bob for a few seconds, then dropped her gaze slightly.
"You're absolutely right, sir. I forgot myself." she raised her eyes again. "Thank you for dealing with my request so promptly."
"No problem. Now get a skeleton crew aboard Kelatas ship and go and get your new ship. She's called the USS Hastings and she's a Bellerophon class science vessel in bloody good nick. Don't scratch it." He handed her a PADD. "Details are here."
"Thank you sir."

It took two days to collect the ship and another week to install the device. Captain Kaziroe sent Bob a message reporting that they were ready to leave, final testing and configuration could be competed en-route.

Bob sent a message to all the Wolves Admirals.

"We're ready to face the Borg."

Helix stood his arms folded across his chest, his face was set in a permanent frown, the view screen was filled with the fleet at warp and his twin hearts where beating rapidly as T'Lar periodically called out the remaining time to their destination.

'A chance for some revenge' he thought to himself as he tried to think of good reasons for this task but was it revenge the collective was made up of victims no one to his knowledge willingly joined the collective how many innocent people would he be sending to their death today?

"10 minutes" said T'Lar

Helix looked around most of the bridge staff were concentrating on their consoles one or two were looking at the view screen some were looking at him, he nodded to them when his gaze fell on them and they turned back to what ever they were doing, Helix's thoughts returned to the question, was it all worth it?

Bob thought so, so did Vala so Helix agreed to the plan after all the plan stood a better chance of succeeding with him on the team he always made a good distraction right?

"5 minutes"

Helix turned to T'Lar "its time you know what to do?" he said
T'Lar nodded, Helix returned the nod and started toward the Turbo lift as he reached the door he turned back and looked over the crew again "Commander T'Lar, you have the con"
"aye aye sir" she said adding "Admiral, Live long and prosper"
Helix smiled made two fists and crossed them across his chest bowed forward and said "May you win a thousand battles and walk on calm shores when you pass over" The door to the lift opened behind him he went to go through then tuned again "Give them Hell"

Helix walked quickly although the world around him seemed to be moving in slow motion marines ran toward their stations, It gave Helix great pleasure knowing how well trained his marines were they would protect his crew everyone had been issued arms of some kind or another and all had a transphasic device ready to remodulate their weapons on the spot.

"2 minutes"

Helix entered the transporter room as the ship exited warp, he stepped up onto the pad and turned to face T' Paano and nodded "Energise"

Helix stood high up on a Borg structure stretching in every direction were similar buildings, he closed his eyes and centred himself drawing his sword from his back he opened them again and jumped.

=============================================================================================================================================

The fleet was fully engaged Stryder's assault ships assaulted Helix's Cruisers soaked up the damage Varla's ships did what Varla's ships did the Romulans attacked with vicious tenacity the Borg didn't know what had happend but that would not last the plan was unfolding.

=============================================================================================================================================

Helix ran through what he could only call streets so far the Borg had ignored him, their mistake, a lone federation Admiral charging across your planet may not have seemed threatening but this Admiral had a purpose, odds are he'd die but he WOULD succeed, screw the odds.

His target was fast approaching on his left and thus he banked sharply and let his sword swing out wide from the momentum decapitating a curious Borg and then brought is round and plunged it squarely into the chest of another using his momentum to push the dying creature back and then he stopped suddenly and the Borg slid off his sword to lay lifeless upon the floor, other Borg were beginning to take note of him now!

He placed the explosive onto the structure, which he had been assured was a central power nexus. He spun away carving his way through the now fully animated Borg troops, his next objective was in sight he went in, speed was on his side he could move much faster than them pound for pound he was as strong as them too but he could use his mind, If the Borg learned anything from this day he hopped it was don't mess with the Corali.

If motivated a Corali could become a near unstoppable weapon if one such as he were to cut loose they became much more devastating, This was something he knew from his peoples History a few thousand years ago his people had fought a civil war that they called the Psi wars where powerful Psionics laid waste to entire cities and slaughtered thousands of their fellow sentience until one stood up, just one, his name was Baythen Falks he was Helix's great-grandfather and he fought for the weak he turned his civilization around, he was a hero and he paid the ultimate price, Death but a death that ended a war.

Helix never considered himself a Hero but he knew others did, he saw it in their eyes and their smiles when they met him for the first time, he saw admiration in the eyes of those who knew him even Stryder looked at him in that way, well sometimes after he'd done something stupid otherwise known as a heroic act.

But now his second target had become a smouldering crater five hundred meters behind him as he raced on dodging, cutting, hacking and slaughtering his way toward his final target.

The last Nexus had a force field around it and a platoon of Borg guarding it, stood among them was a single female Borg when she saw him she smiled.

"Vice Admiral Helix Falks" she said
"Ah! you have heard of me then, good that will make what happens next so much easier"
"What do you think you will achieve here, surely your 'Wolves' can't think they will win, more ships are coming of that you can be certain, all those people dying just to get you here, Killing me will not stop the Borg"
"No, but it'll make me feel better"
"Do you recognise these Borg?" she said gesturing to her guards "They are assimilated Wolves every one of them, this one" she moved next to one of the bigger ones "this is Commander Verger he served under Vice Admiral Varla Cora and this one, Ensign Carth Hendrics was on your crew at the Battle of Wolf 359, before this day is over we will add Varla, Patrick and Misha Cora, Robert M. Stryder, Jennyfur K. Griffin, Milly A. Kaziroe and most importantly Gianna Alexandria Falks"

Helix's gaze became icy and his lips tightened into a tight thin smile and the wind blew across him blowing loose strands of his hair, the Borg queen looked around her 'where was the wind coming from' she thought, Helix looked down on himself from above he perceived the roar before he heard it, if he had been anyone else his blood may have chilled several degrees he didn't know if the Borg Queen felt fear but even the emotionless Vulcans would have been making plans to be elsewhere around about now, perhaps Ursa Minor that was in the Local group and it was a few galaxies over perhaps the weather would be nice?

Helix had cut loose he held no remorse she had threatened his friends and family, that, was a mistake.

Helix watched as his body "liberated" his fellow Wolves from their Borgyfied prisons, the forcefield didn't stop him he passed strait through it, more Borg entered the melee more Borg fell the Queen backed away, there it was, fear, he sent an impulse along the thin silvery strand that tethered him to his body and it finished off the last Borg and began to stride menacingly toward the queen, by the time it reached her she was flat against the Nexus wall then she was pinned to it Helix's beloved sword though her chest.

As the light in her eyes began to fade he forced himself back into himself now he spoke not to her but into her eyes "Its time you started running" with that he twisted the Blade and the Queen slumped forward, He pulled the sword free and held up a small sphere then slammed it into the side of the Nexus.

=============================================================================================================================================

"Commander the planet its, its gone?"
T'Lar got up and rushed over to the console "That's impossible, put it on the view screen"

Where the planet had been was nothing but a few corpses floating freely in space.

"Scan the area find the Admirals com-badge"
"Nothing sir, he's gone"
T'Lar returned to the captains seat and slumped down onto it, she didn't know what to do there was a profound emptiness inside her so she did the only thing she could she ordered the Portsmouth about and through it against the Borg...

“What do you mean the planet is gone?!” Vala demanded.
“That... that isn't all, Captain,” Liazana stated and then hesitated.
“Well Lieutenant, what is it?” Vala asked.
“I lost Vice-Admiral Falks com-badge single,” she spoke, her voice uneven, “It vanished as the planet did.” The whole bridge fell silent for a moment.
“Captain! The Portsmouth is charging a Borg Tactical Cube... solo,” T'paal called out.
“Full Impulse, bare in on that cube. Ready full torpedo spreads, all tubes,” Vala ordered. When they came into firing range, the Portsmouth was already engaging the cube. The Black Fang unleashed all its antiproton array, followed by Quantum torpedoes. As the Fang came about to fire its rear torpedo tubes, a Heavy Plasma Torpedo struck a warp Nacelle, throwing the ship of her course. T'Lul how ever was still able to maneuver the ship to align the torpedo tubes. They fired and hit pay dirt, crippling the combat effectiveness of the Cube.
“Damage report!,” Vala shouted.
“Serious damage to the starboard nacelle, Plasma leak on the main lines, Ma'am permission to shut the main eps conduit and reroute the flow?” Commander Lowana reported directly from engineering.
“Do it.”
“Aye, aye, leak contained, auxiliary lines holding stable. However, that nacelle is now only operating at 47% efficiency, best we can manage, Lowana out.”
Vala surveyed her tactical readouts. Each battle group has lost at least half of its combat effectiveness, a handful of ships lost, multiple shuttecraft and life pods were floating about the field of battle. There was still hope though, the destruction of the planet had thrown the Borg into disarray, some ships became unresponsive all together. “Dammit,” she thought to herself, “Where is the Enterprise!?” Quinn had promised they would be here with a battle group, they were late. Her readouts then indicated a cube and a couple sphere's were forming up nearby, “Can't allow that, Kort, signal nearby by vessels to form up on the fang, we aren't going to let these Borg get into a formation.”
“Aye Capetian,” he responded. “The Portsmouth, Alpha Wolf, Thames, Ventor and Blade have responded.”
“Good, Lt Commander T'Paal, intercept and engage,” Vala ordered. Returning to her inner monolog, “We have to hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive. We must-”

“Admiral, I'm picking up multiple vessels inbound at high warp,” Ensign Stevels announced.
“More Borg?”
“Negative, I'm picking up nearly two dozen Federation signals! Can't tell beyond that though, all the weapon discharges and damaged warp cores are interfering with long range sensors.”
“Well its about time,” Vala smirked, hope renewed. “Eta Ensign?”
“Less then 10 seconds now,” she said, eye gleaming. The fleet exited warp, It was the Enterprise and the other ships Quinn had gathered, in fact more than he said. “The Enterprise is Hailing us.”
“On-Screen... Captain Shon, you're late,” Vala scolded.
“My apologies Admiral, we had to stop to pick up a few more friends. Take point Admiral, we're here to back you up this time. Shon Out.”
“Receiving another hail Captain, putting it on screen.”
“This is Vice-Admiral Thomas Patrick Teauge of the U.S.S. Amber Lynn. I heard you needed some assistance, So we tagged along with Shon,” the elderly man explained. “Can't you three ever stay out of trouble?” Vala was stunned for a moment. Of all people to show up, it had to be Patrick's, Misha's, and her's grandfather.”
“Not a chance there, we learned from the best,” Vala said with a grin.
“Well Lead the way, V. Teauge out.”
“Open all hailing frequencies,” she waited a moment before speaking again, “Attention Wolves, this is the Black Fang, All Combat effective ships, form up on me! The Borg are still in disarray, And I'll be damned if we let this chance go to waste. Helix gave us this, this is the last push. Now all ships, Ahead full!” The entire fleet seemed to have new life breathed into it. All ships that could move under their own power, and still had functioning shields and weapons formed up. It wasn't a pretty sight. Missing nacelles, hull breaches, scorched hulls, running lights flickering, and a couple trailing warp plasma. There were even shuttle craft, runabouts and delta flying joining up. They would work to their advantage. Vala issued orders to the small craft to focus on shooting down heavy plasma torpedoes and covering weapon arc blind spots of the more damaged ships. For a total of roughly 50 ships and around 30 small craft.
“The Borg lines are faltering!” T'Paal excitedly shouted.
“Good, keep pushing forward!” Vala responded. “All ships, Focus fire on that Unimatrix!” There was a brief moment as the fleet maneuvered into clear lanes of fire, the spinal lance of the Unimatrix lashed out at the Fang. Thanks to T'Lul's fast reaction time, sent the Fang into a Rolling dive, the lance glanced the rear of the saucer section, leveling the upper shields and scorching the hull. T'Paal then took over righting the ship and triggered all operation arrays and torpedo tubes, as the rest of the fleet did. That unimatix never stood a chance. Explosions rippling down its hull, it went up with a bright green flash. More Borg became inactive, the rest fled.

Vala slumped into her chair and sighed deeply. They had won, but at a heavy cost. “Kort... launch all our available shuttles and runabouts, instructed all ships to do the same and to begin rescue and recovery operations. Tell ships with damaged engines to prioritize their repairs on them. We're taking as many home with us that we can. And... Have all task force captains meet me in the conferee room and get me the casualty reports. Stand down to Yellow alert. You have the conn.” She slowly stood, suddenly feeling older than she was. This was this largest battle in DW5th's history, the largest that she'd ever commanded at that.
She looked around her bridge, it was in the sorriest state she'd ever seen. Blown out consoles, smoking circuits, areas of dead lighting, most of the bridge crew had some kind of injury. “And get a couple medics up here too, Get yourself and the others patched up.”
“Aye Aye,” Kort nodded.

Griffin sat in the centre chair on the bridge of the USS Ventnor, listening to the damage reports from her task force. All things considered they had gotten away lightly with all ships still able to fight. She put it down to the task forces very recent engagements with the Borg at Gamma Orionis, none of her crews had mustered out yet. Looking at the sensor readouts most ships had sustained heavy damage of some sort, with some starships destroyed completely.

"Have we got rescue and recovery under way?" she asked.
"Yes sir." replied Nirel, her XO. "We're beaming aboard every life form we find. Cargo bays one through three have been designated triage centres which we're beaming the injured to. Enkra is there coordinating things. Cargo bay four has had a permanent stasis field set up and any Borg we collect are being transferred there. We can deal with them later."
"Excellent, well done." said Griffin. "I've asked Captain Kaziroe to use her ships finer sensors to check the wreckage for anything we can salvage. Instruct the rest of the task force that after they've collected the injured and dead they need to collect whatever Kaziroe tags as interesting or important."
"Aye sir." acknowledged Nirel.
"I've been called to the Black Fang to report. Call me if you need me."
"Aye."

======================================================================

Rear Admiral Bob Stryder adjusted the bandage wrapped around is head so that he could see better. He'd been knocked sideways by a falling girder which had scored a glancing blow to the side of his head, leaving a deep gash. He let the medics attend to the more severely wounded, but he did accept an injection of painkiller to dial down his headache a bit. Anyway, all the girls find a scar attractive, right?

"Sir." said Shelana who was waving to get his attention.
"Yes, number one, what is it?"
"There are no more injured or bodies in our immediate vicinity. Captain Kaziroe has begun tagging items for retrieval, some interesting and some important. We've seen at least four partially intact computer cores from our ships and numerous items of Borg origin that we should collect and study. That should keep the task force busy for a few hours."
"We may not have a few hours." said Stryder, trying to run his hand through his hair and failing because blood had matted it. "The Borg may be sending reinforcements as we speak and in this fleets condition we'd only put up a token resistance at best." He looked around the damaged bridge. The damaged consoles had stopped throwing off sparks and smoke, an engineering team had begun to restore power to the helm station but his chair was still hanging sideways. He sighed. "If you need me I'll be in my ready room. Someone somewhere will be wanting a report so I might as well get started."
He started to walk across the bridge towards his ready room, as he passed the comms station it beeped for an incoming transmission. Bob looked down at the ensign who should be manning the station, she was receiving medical attention.
"Don't worry," said Bob, "I got this."
"Yessir. Thank you sir."
Stryder punched the open channel button.
"USS Thames, Admiral Stryder."
"Admiral Stryder, this is commander Kort on the Black Fang."
"Hello commander. How's things?"
"Honestly sir we've been in better shape." replied Kort.
"I know what you mean." said Bob, glancing around his bridge again. "To what do I owe the honor of your call, Mr Kort?"
"Admiral Cora has asked for all the Task Force commanders to present their reports on the 'Fang." Bob rolled his eyes.
"Now, Mr Kort? Right now?" he asked.
"Yes sir."
"We're busy."
"I know sir, just passing on orders."
"Very well, orders acknowledged. Stryder out." He jabbed the close channel button a little harder than he intended and cracked the screen.
"Oh, bloody hell." he cursed. "Still, everything else is knackered." He turned and called across the bridge.
"Number One, I've been summoned to the Fang. Call me if you need me."
"Aye sir."

======================================================================

The task force commanders arrived in twos and threes to the conference room on the Black Fang. Admiral Cora sat at the head of the table with a coffee and a PADD which beeped quietly every so often as a new report was uploaded. Griffin grabbed two mugs of tea from the replicator and sat next to Stryder. The seat next to Stryder was empty. Vala Cora called the meeting to order and asked each commander for a brief report on the status of the ships under their command. Listening to the reports Bob realised that the fleet wasn't in as bad shape as was first thought, a whole load of cosmetic damage and a few of the ships did have substantial engine and substructure damage. In one case just going to impulse would crush the ship like an egg. The fleet would probably be able to move off in fairly short order, maybe a day if the crews pulled all nighters. The Enterprises Captain Shron had the best news.
"We've brought along five combat tenders. They'll double our ability to manufacture spares and repair the damaged nacelles." he said. "I've asked the crews to focus on mobility for the moment. Once all the ships are mobile we'll start on the weapons and shields.
"Good." said Cora "Anything else?"
"I think we should load all the wounded and dead onto one of the functional science vessels and ship them home." said Stryder. "They don't need to be here now, and we don't need as many science vessels now." He glanced at Vala, who nodded. That was all Bob needed. "Unless one of the science department can tell me where Admiral Falks is?"
There were a few frowns and the science captains glanced at each other.
"Sir, there are no indications as to Admiral Falks location, or the planet." said Kaziroe.
"You said there would be." said Bob, leaning forwards in his seat. "As a collective department you looked at the devices that Falks was to use and said that there would be residual traces after the event."
The science people began to look uncomfortable. Stryder continued.
"We sat around the desk on the Wolf Den and I specifically asked the question. At that time there was no doubt. No issues were raised. The recovery of Admiral Falks would not be hugely problematic." Stryder realised that his voice was getting louder. He paused for a second to regain his composure.
"It's an alien technology to us." said Misha Cora. "We couldn't be totally sure."
"So why weren't the commanding officers notified that you weren't sure?" asked Vala Cora, looking at her sister. Misha looked at Milly Kaziroe who said
"We were ordered not to."
Bob groaned. "Falks ordered you not to didn't he?"
Milly nodded. "Yes sir."
"He's my best friend. Why wouldn't he have told me?" he asked nobody in particular.
"Because he knows that you'd have punched him in the face and gone yourself." said Griffin. "He knows you too well."
Vala Cora stood up. "The science vessels have a day to scan for any anomalies. Find out where Falks went and begin making retrieval plans. The rest of you patch up your ships. Dismissed." The group began to stand.
"Bob." said Vala. Bob looked over and raised his eyebrows.
"Wash your hair. It's disgusting."
"Aye."


=============================================================================

Gianna was sat at her desk when Subadmiral Terona,

"Commander Falks, I have been instructed to take over command of Admiral Falks' fleet" Terona said
"You are the superior officer ma'am"
"Indeed, Then Why have you disobeyed orders to form up with the rest of the task force"
"I have my orders and they came from a higher authority than you"
"Oh! and whom would that be?"
"Before Vice Admiral Falks left he gave me very specific orders, which I am carrying out as we speak"
"May I see these orders?"

Gianna looked up from her work for the first time, leaned over and pulled out a data pad and slid it across the desk. Terona stepped forward and stopped the bad moments before it fell to the floor then picked it up and began to read.

"You have acceded the mandate of these orders Commander"
"Do you see my father here Subadmiral?"
"That is beside the point It clearly states that your search should have ended when we established an ETA on Borg reinforcements which we did two hours ago"
"I was informed of the Borg's movements we still have twelve hours before they arrive I intend to use that time to continue searching for a way to bring my farther back"
"I am sorry about the lose of your father he was a good man, but I can see you are emotionally compromised and leave me no choice, I am forced to replace you as commander of this ship"

Terona spun on the spot and walked out of the room, Gianna stood and followed her, this she had to see.

Terona spun to face the crew of the Longsword she had 4 of her crew with her.

"I have relieved commander Falks of Command or the Longsword"

No sooner than she had finished that sentence most of the Longsword's crew were armed and pointing weapons at her.

"Not as easy as you thought" Gianna said from the door way of her office
Terona looked round "We shall see what Admiral Stryder thinks shall we"

A few moments later Bob Stryder stepped onto the bridge of the Longsword his hands behind his back he wondered briefly how long the Romulans would last if he shouted boo, he stepped sideways and slid up next to one of the Romulans "wouldn't want to be you mate" he said in hushed tones, "Right you have had your fun put your weapons away"

The crew of the Longsword put their weapons away and returned to their duties like nothing had happened, Stryder looked at the 4 romulans "best be off fellas" he said nodding at the door then stepped around them and looked at Terona and Gianna "Right then, In" he said pointing at the ready room door. The two women turned and walked in to the room, Stryder followed.

"You" he said looking at Gianna "Chair" he pointed at the chair behind her desk, "You, lounge" he said pointing at Terona then the Lounger along the wall, He walked over to the Desk and put his fists on the desktop and leaned in "Now how do we get him back?"

=============================================================================================================================================

Helix awoke laying on his back, he got up and looked around, the sky was bright white and floor was matt black he stepped forward and fell, he landed on wooden planking there was a fight going on around him now and he was on a boat a familiar looking man was bunching the air and turning people to ice while an old man and a guy that looked allot like Stryder were fighting some others, Then out of nowhere someone landed in front of him and knocked him over the side of the boat and he fell again, this time landing in snow.

He grumbled as he got up, there was a huge battle going on above him, fighters criss-crossed the sky shooting each other down. One came down not to far away he started walking toward it and fell.

"I'm starting to see a pattern here" he said to himself out loud
"Indeed that's what happens when you smash an odd little orb"

He looked up he was in some kind of lab, an old man was wandering about looking at consoles and pressing buttons.
"Where am I" he said standing up
"try not to move, the more you move about the more you agitate the fabric of space and the sooner it'll kick you out" said the old man
"What?"
"You are bouncing around the multi verse and every time you enter one universe it recoils if you move around it agitates it and it boots you onto the next"
"I don't understand"
The old man sighed "You are travelling through parallel dimensions, you don't belong in them so the fabric gets all stretched out the tears and you fall through to the next parallel"
"Right okay but if I stand still it wont know I'm here?"
"no, no that's not what I said was it? If you stand still you wont agitate the fabric as much so it will take longer to tear and the closer you get to your own dimension the longer you can stay the further away the shorter"
"So how do I get back to my dimension?"
"ah ha that's the trick because you are also moving through time"
"Great so I could be back in my own dimension but years before or after the point that I left"
"Well yes that could happen"

Helix fell, the old man sighed walked over to a stool and sat down "I'll give him half an hour then I'm off down the pub"

Helix was stood on barren earth in the distance he could see the ruins of a large city some where to the south came a large explosion then a thundering noise like sound of thousands of giant feet he ran forwards and fell.

"Ah you're back" said the old man
"I just met several versions of myself"
"Yes you are like a magnet as are the other versions of you and those related to you"
"Gianna"
"Clever man, yes your daughter is your link back to your own home"
"Wait who are you?"
"I am an old friend, in both sense of the word"
"Bob?" Helix said stepping forward.

The old man smiled and Helix fell.

The brig doors on the USS Thames slid open with the traditional hiss. Rear Admiral Stryder stepped through the doors and looked around. He was followed by his XO, Shelana and his Betazoid counsellor. The Officer on Duty saw the group enter and walked over to them.
“Where is he?” Stryder asked the OOD.
“He’s in cell one, sir. We put him in an interview cell, we figured you may want a word with him.”
“You figured right. Let’s go.” The group walked over the shimmering force field of the interview cell.
“Sorry it’s opaque sir, we turned it up full. We don’t want him escaping.” said the OOD
“Quite.” said Bob. He tried to peer through the haze, but could only make out a fuzzy humanoid shape stood in the corner of the room. “Any idea why he asked for Jen?”
“No sir.” replied Shelana. “He was beamed into cargo bay two which is where the rescued Starfleet personnel were being sent, and when he appeared one of the medical staff saw what he was and jabbed him with a hypo full of sedative and raised the alarm. As he fell to the floor he said admiral Griffins name so he was shipped here and you were alerted.”
“Ok,” said Bob. He raised his eyebrows, took a deep breath, puffed out his cheeks, blew out heavily and then said “Open her up.”

The haze disappeared and the group looked into the white interview cell. Three meters square and with a small white table and chairs in the middle. In the corner of the room was a figure standing to attention, the figures skin the unmistakeable colour of assimilation.  Stryder glanced at the table and saw six gunmetal grey devices lined neatly across the centre. Borg implants. He turned his attention back to the Borg and noted the places the Borg had removed his implants from, one of them bleeding from the depth of the device. One device remained over the figures eye, the green operational lights blinking.
“You missed one.” said Stryder indicating the remaining implant. The Borg slowly raised his hand and fingered the device.
“Sorry Sir.” it said. “I actually still have three implants. The one you can see and two inside me, one attached to my heart and one by my right kidney. The two inside me are keeping me alive, my heart and kidneys have been damaged beyond repair and this one helps me to see.” It indicated the device over its eye.
“Ok.” said Stryder, unsure what to make of this Borg referring to itself in the first person. Start simple, Bob he thought to himself.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“My designation while I was a Borg was Two of Twelve. My name before I was assimilated was Lieutenant Commander Mark Ryan.”
Stryders counsellor turned to the OOD and asked her to fetch him a PADD.
“What happened out there?” he asked Ryan.
“During your attack one of your ships fired a tachyon pulse at the sphere I was on. I just happened to be walking toward an existing hull breach to shore it up and your pulse came straight through the breach and hit me full in the face.”
“The engineer in me can see where this is going.” said Stryder.
“Probably sir. The pulse scrambled all the higher functioning implants, severed my connection to the collective and I found myself free of the Borg. It’s a good feeling sir.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I looked out of the breach again and saw a quantum torpedo heading straight for me. I turned to one side and started to run but the impact sent me flying. I remember floating in space for a bit, I think the implants kept me alive. Then I remember being injected by your medic and collapsing.”
“Do you remember saying Jen Griffins name?”
“No sir.”
“Ok. Sit down before you fall down. We’re going outside for a chat.”
“Yessir.” said Ryan, taking a seat. Stryder and the others stepped outside and reactivated the force field.

“What do we think?” asked Stryder.
“He’s telling the truth.” said the counsellor. “I recognised his name so I’ve looked him up.” He handed Stryder the PADD. “Read this.”
Stryder started to read.

Lieutenant Commander Mark Ryan was serving as an engineer on the USS Maracaibo during the time of the Borg invasion of the Vega colony. Ryan had been on the bridge running repairs to the tactical console when the Borg had attacked. After the initial attack Ryan had found himself the ranking officer on the bridge and instead of running he used the ship to help the then Ensign Griffin on the USS Aquarius turn the tide of the fight. He saved a lot of lives, including Griffins, when he lured the Borg from the colony. What happened next was taken from the ships black box. The ship had been found in a decaying orbit of one of the moons in the system, the only damage were to the shield generators. The crew had tried to scuttle the ship when the Borg had boarded and begun assimilating the crew, however the assimilated crews had stopped the destruction of the ship, assimilated all life and left.

“I remember Griffin telling me about this guy. I thought his name was familiar.” mused Stryder. “What are your thoughts?” he asked his councellor.
“Like I said, he’s telling the truth. I can’t sense any Borg about him and according to the ships scanners the remaining implants are passive. The one by his kidney is a blood filter, the one by his heart regulates his heartbeat and the one on his eye enhances his vision.  I’d advise a full medical and engineering scan, but I expect they’ll turn out ok.”
“It is possible that a high power tachyon pulse could have removed him from the collective without any physical damage.” said Shelana. “I’ll bet he’s got the mother of all headaches though.”

Stryder deactivated the force field, and went to sit opposite the bedraggled figure.
“Tell me what happened.” he said.
So Ryan did. He spoke for forty five minutes about the events leading up to Vega, the attack, assuming command of the Maracaibo, helping Griffin, and luring the Borg away to help win the battle. He then spent fifteen minutes outlining some of the things he’d done since being assimilated.
“It’s the worst thing you can imagine.” he said. “When you’re assimilated you’re still in there. The compulsion is overwhelming. You know it’s wrong. You know that the assimilation, the killing, even the problem solving is wrong. But you have to help, have to add yourself to the collective. Have to assimilate, kill.” He took a sip of water.
“Right.” said Bob. “How do you feel?”
“I’ve got a headache. Where the implants were hurts a bit, otherwise ok.”
“Who are you?”
Ryan looked a bit puzzled.
“Lieutenant Commander Mark Ryan, Star Fleet Engineering Core.”
“Who am I?”
“Rear Admiral Robert Stryder of the Draconian Wolf Fifth Fleet. Under the command of Rear Admiral Vala Cora.” replied Ryan.
“Do you accept me as your commanding officer?”
“Yes sir.”
Bob sat and looked at him for a few moments, pondering. There was a possibility here. He leaned forward in his seat.
“I want you to report to sickbay and have your wounds fixed. Commander Shelana will notify them of your arrival. You will be assigned temporary quarters so you can clean yourself up, you will replicate an appropriate uniform and rest until you hear from me.”
“Yes sir.” replied Ryan, who stood and made his shaky way from the room. Commander Shelana watched him go with raised eyebrows.
“Are you sure, sir?” she asked.
“Mostly.” replied Stryder. “Sometimes you have to speculate to assimilate.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob stepped out of the shower and began to dry himself. It had been an odd day so far and it wasn’t over yet. Three Borg fleets had been found at extreme sensor range in different directions, however they were motionless. This was either because they were holding off until more of their ships arrived, or the disappearance of their homeworld had shut all Borg down and the fleets would stay where they were until vacuum abrasion dissolved the fleets to sand. Either way, the conservative estimate was an ETA of twelve hours until they arrived and that was what the Wolves were working toward. Admiral Cora had sent some long range probes off in each fleets general direction, at least that would give the Wolves some advanced warning should the Borg begin to advance.
In the meantime the search for Admiral Falks was continuing with all ships not required for picket duties scanning their own areas for any clues. The search wasn’t going well, with nothing shown up so far. Just as he finished dressing his com chime sounded. He pressed the answer button next to his bed.

“Stryder.” He answered.
“Sir, this is Sub-Admiral Terona. We have a situation on the USS Longsword.”
Bob groaned inwardly. He’d known this was coming, he’d have to start managing Falks’s task force as well as his own.
“What’s the problem, Sub-Admiral?” he asked.
“I have found Commander Falks to be operating outside her orders, specifically those orders left standing by Admiral Falks. I have attempted to remove Commander Falks from command, however her crew are holding us at gunpoint.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” said Bob, fastening his jacket closed. He left his quarters and headed straight to the transporter room, advising Commander Shelana on his way.
“One to beam to the USS Longsword.” He advised the transporter chief.
“Aye sir.” And the room dissolved to white, then transformed to the transporter room on the Longsword. The transporter chief on duty looked up in surprise, saluted and asked if Admiral Stryder needed help.
“No, thank you chief. I’m going to the bridge.” replied Stryder, and went straight to the turbolift.

A few moments later the turbolift doors opened. Before he stepped out of the lift he could see three people with their weapons drawn and aimed at targets outside his vision. The fact that there were weapons on the bridge at all meant that Gianna was expecting trouble, either that or she was expecting to be boarded by the Borg if or when they attacked. He stepped out of the lift and glanced around. He couldn’t resist it, he stepped sideways and slid up next to one of the Romulans.
"Wouldn't wanna be you mate." he said in hushed tones, with half a smile on his face. “Five of you and eleven of them?” He raised his eyebrows and shook his head. This was silly.
"Right, you lot have had your fun, now put your weapons away." he said. Some of the crews looked at their respective commanding officers, other looked at each other hesitantly.
“I said LOWER YOUR WEAPONS!” bellowed Stryder. “I am your commanding officer and I will be obeyed, unless you all want to be thrown into your own brigs and I hand both your ships to other crews.”
Weapons were lowered, although numerous dirty looks were directed at various other parties. Inwardly Bob calmed himself down.
“Well done,” he said, “nobody’s going to prison today. Commander Falks’ crew please return to your stations and Sub-Admiral Terona’s crew please return to your vessel.” While Falks crew sat down and began working again, Teronas away team began to look to the sub-admiral for guidance.
“Don’t look at her, she’s in trouble and she’s gonna get a bollocking the same as commander Falks here. Do as you’re told and scoot.”
The four members of the away team tapped some buttons on their gauntlet controls and transported off. Bob looked at Terona and Gianna.
"Right then, in" he said pointing at the ready room door. The two women turned and walked in to the room, Stryder followed.

"You." he said pointing at Gianna. "Chair." He pointed at the chair behind her desk.
"You, lounger." he said pointing at Terona then the lounger along the wall. He walked over to the desk, put his fists on the desktop and leaned in.
“If I ever see an act like that on a federation starship again, or the bridge of any vessel in this fleet,” he glanced at Terona, “I will not hesitate to throw you and your command crews out of an airlock regardless of who your commanding officer is. Or your daddy. Clear?”
A couple of “Yes, sirs” were directed his way.
“Excellent.” he said. “Now, how do we get him back?”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The USS Hastings was holding station within the area that used to be planet. Captain Kaziroe had painstakingly moved her ship two meters away from the precise spot that the last of Admiral Falks’ orbs had been activated. She had then donned a combat environment suit and, along with her standard away team, had gone EVA with as much sensing equipment as they could move. And they took a lot.

They started by creating a sphere, one meter in diameter, of physically linked sensors. After an hour of joining cables together it was ready to switch on. The sphere looked a bit messy, but each sensor was looking for something slightly different. Whilst joining it all up Milly had wondered if any point in the universe had been examined as thoroughly as this small portion of existence. Not to her knowledge anyway. The sensor sphere was switched on and the sensing pattern developed by commanders Janud and T’Rus of her science team was loaded and executed.

“How long are we looking at?” asked Milly.
“If the program runs it’s full length then it should take about three hours.” replied Janud. “Although if the program finds anything of interest it’ll notify us immediately.”
“Ok.” said Milly. “So now we wait.”
“Anyone bring any food?” asked Bren.
“No, but there’s some wood in that crate over there. We could make a campfire.” answered R’Shee. Everybody chuckled apart from T’Rus who was just about to point out that, seeing as they were floating in space, making a campfire was logically impossible when the suits computers beeped, indicating the program had found something.

“Really?” asked R’Shee. “That quick?”
“Captain, the scan-sphere has picked up minute quantum tears in the particles within the scan area.” said T’Rus. Milly called up the scan results on her HUD in her suit.
“It’s a very specific quantum signature.” She said. “Not of this dimension, that much is clear.”
“It would appear that the Borg homeworld, and Admiral Falks, has been removed from this dimension.” said T’Rus.
“It certainly does.” said Milly. “The question is, can we replicate it?”
“Oh, we can replicate it, sir.” said Six. “Actually, I’m surprised how easy it’ll be. We shoot a tuned tachyon pulse and detonate a quantum torpedo inside the pulse. The opening won’t be big enough for a starship, but we could easily get a couple of Yellowstone Runabouts through.”
“And a runabout is equipped to get back again as well.” commented R’shee.
“Ok, we got us a plan.” said Milly. “Let’s get back aboard. We’ll leave the scan-sphere here in case it picks up anything else.” She checked her suits chronometer. “We’ve got eleven hours before we have to leave town.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tell me again why we can’t just scan for his com badge and then beam him back?” asked Griffin who was sat in the command chair of her runabout.
“Something to do with the quantum instabilities between dimensions, tearing fabrics and animal magnetism.” replied Gianna from the helm. “Or something.”
“Above our pay grade, huh?”
“More like outside it. You’re tactical and I’m engineering. Captain Kaziroe is your best bet for a detailed explanation.”
“Oh, she’s already given me a detailed explanation. I was hoping for a broken down version.”
“Yes, sir.” said Gianna with a smile. “All systems are green, admiral. We’re ready on your word.” Griffin tapped a button on the arm of her chair, opening a fleet wide channel.
“This is Admiral Griffin on the runabout Balboa. All our lights are green and we stand by for insertion. Please open the portal when ready.”
“This is Captain Kaziroe aboard the Hastings. All systems standing by, ready to engage on your mark.”
“This is Admiral Stryder. Captain Kaziroe, please begin.”
“Runabout Balboa, firing tachyon pulse.” A bright blue beam lanced out from the deflector dish of the USS Hastings. A few seconds later the Hastings fired a quantum torpedo which intersected the beam five kilometres in front of the Balboa and exploded in a silent white flash, creating a luminous blue circle roughly thirty meters in diameter.
“Initial scans indicate a positive stable portal.” reported Janud from the Hastings. “Duration of the portal is estimated to be thirty minutes, after that we’ll open another portal at the agreed coordinates.”
“Balboa, this is Stryder. You have a go for your mission. Godspeed.”
“Acknowledged. See you in a bit.” replied Griffin. She looked at Gianna. “Commander, take us in.”
“Aye sir.” said Gianna. “Approaching portal.”
From the bridge of the USS Thames, Stryder watched the runabout slide into the portal. He couldn’t help but feel he’d end up losing two friends today.

Bob Stryder was stood next to Helix as he opened his eyes. Helix looked around.
"Why am I taped to a chair?" he asked.
"Do you remember me saying don't move?" replied Bob. Helix nodded slowly. "I said don't move, because each time you move you flip between different dimensions and it makes things a real pain in the ass when I wanna talk to you when you keep falling over." Bob leaned over with a knife and freed Helix's right arm, then grabbed a mug of tea and put it in his freed hand.
"I've got some things to say to you and you really need to pay attention." Bob sipped his tea. "And not vanish."
"Bob, you look old." said Helix to his friend. "I thought you couldn't grow old? The accident with the Borg and all that?"
"Yea, turns out I am growing old, just damn slowly."
"So how old are you? How long have I been gone?"
"It's got to the point that we stopped counting. If I had to guess then I'd say we're around 4,500 to 5,000 years old."
"You've been around for 5,000 years? What've you been doing?"
"Oh, you know, doing what we do best. Saving people, planets, civilizations and galaxies. The advantage of living so long is that we could wage some properly extended campaigns, if you know what I mean." he grinned. Helix smiled back.
"You keep saying 'we'" he said.
"I do, don't I?" Bob sat back in his chair and stared at Helix for a few long moments. "You told me about this meeting. You didn't ever tell me what was said apart from two things. You told me to tell you that you're still alive. Helix 'n' Bob, running around and raising hell for fifty centuries." Helix raised his eyebrows.
"Sounds awesome. So are you going to tell me how to get out of here and back to where I'm supposed to be?" he asked.
"Nope." said Bob with a half smile. "That was the other thing you told me. I wasn't to tell you how to get back, although you did say that the getting back was quite easy. As you already know, Gianna is the key." Behind Bob a console beeped. He stood up, drained his cup and went to check the display.
"Ok Helix, a runabout has entered the quantum instability at exactly the point you did. This is your chance, I'll cut you free but you've got to think. You know the answer." he approached Helix and cut the tape off his arms and legs.
"Go!" said Bob. "You have a limited amount of time. Go!"
"Cheers Bob."

Helix fell.....

Helix opened his eyes as the vortex of time rushed around him "Gianna is the key" Bob had said. So Helix thought of Gianna, he remembered the day he first held her in his arms, how she looked up into his eyes with wonder, the day she first crawled, first walked, the smile on her face when she got into Star Fleet, the pride he felt when she graduated, he pictured her now in his minds eye, A brilliant, independent young woman with a zest for life and a talent for fixing things.

Helix had never been much of an Engineer he was old school he could fix things with diplomacy or if needs must his fists, Gianna on the other hand could build a warp reactor out of scraps, or turn her com badge into a small EMP grenade, when she was 14 she rewired Bobs com badge to emit fart noises every time he pressed it, that didn't go down well.

Helix reached out, his eyes closed, he envisioned his daughter in front of him, she seemed real, he could hear her voice calling him.

Helix opened his eyes.

"Dad!" Gianna said throwing her arms around Helix
"Don't let go I might fall"

Griffin dived onto the Helm and slammed the runabout into reverse and backed it out of the portal into normal space...

(semi short/short post just to keep things moving, don't get this chance much and you better like it, I could be grinding fleet marks in STO right now for the ship yard III lol)

"Say again Commander? Admiral Faulk's has been rescued?" asked a weary bewildered Fleet Admiral Vala.

"Aye Admiral, their runabout is docking now," Kort answered. She let out a noticeable sigh of relaxation.

"Good let us finish up here and return to the Star-" Red alert sirens once again sounded on the bridge. "Oh hell, what now, T'Paal report!"

"Admiral Borg fleets have started moving in system, eta is less than ten minutes, picking up new Borg unimatrix and Diamonds," she reported.

Vala trigger fleet comms, "ALL SHIPS RED ALERT, Borg have regrouped and are inbound, cease any salvage operations, focus on rescue and recoverly. All vessels that cannot make warp speed in the next 6 minutes are Hereby order to wipe your computer cores, abandon ship and initiate self destruct, General order 13 and Star fleet order 2005 are in effect."

"Admiral Cora, USS Moongazer reporting, Code 1-Alpha-Zero. We are evacuating, computer cores are being wiped as we speak. Full evac will be in 3 minutes, self destructing 60 seconds later."

"Understood captain, sending the USS Lobo to take in your crew." Vala replied.

-----------------------
6 minutes 27 seconds later
-----------------------

All crew of the Moongazer were recovered, now the vessel floats in Space, drifting off in random directions due to the extreme reaction of mixing of matter and antimatter.
"We've waited as long as we can... Kort... hail fleet."
7
"Aye aye, comms are active."
4
"Caption Shon, Draconian Wolf 5th fleet, plot course to Starbase DW5, max warp, transwarp if you can manage, have to get out of the borg's sensor range. We are simply out of time now, but main objectives are accomplished. All ships come about! Best speed out of system!"

------------------
6 hours later
-----------------

Work crews were already well under way with repairs, hull breaches were being patched, warp cores, nacelles, deflector dishes were being replaced, Admiral Quinn really pulled out all the stops, another 15 engineering focused vessels had shown up with extra crew, to assist with repairs. Dozens of freighters were arriving daily with the raw materials needed to rebuild the fleets ships, some of the older ones even getting on a full refit. The Enterprise and her battle group hung around in loose patrols around the Starbase, Captain Shon refuses to pull back, until at least 75% of the fleet was back at full operation, which Admiral Vala greatly apperciated. The Fang was more heavily damaged than originally thought, the main body frame was cracked at the ships neck. would take 3 months to fully restore, but by some epic commanding and thoughtful strategy, Admrial Vala was now officially promoted to Fleet Admiral Vala. and a tech 6 ship, once of the finest Star fleet could provide. The ship, reg number NX-1988-H would be Vala's new flag. boasting Mark XII equipment all alround.

"Captain Shon, I'm stepping off duty as well at the other admirals, and primary command crews are officially off duty, you have the conn. if you could, please send messages to dw5's leaders, tell them, to meet me in my private lounge, as a request, not an order, just tell them, 'in the absensce of light... darkness praviles."

"Aye Admriral," as Shon looked off screen, "Ensign, please note in the log I now have the conn of DW5th's star base region," ordered Shon. "You are in good hands Admiral, assuming conn, will notifiy you if anything comes up."

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