THE Shatterer of Worlds

Posted on Jul 18, 2014 @ 12:49pm by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane
Edited on on Jul 19, 2014 @ 12:22am

Mission: All Our Yesterdays
Location: Various

"THE SHATTERER OF WORLDS, PART ONE"

(Continued from "Roundup")

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"Victory has a thousand fathers. But defeat is an orphan."
- John F. Kennedy

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Captain's Log, Supplemental - following our rescue of Commander Crichton, we are returning to the NILE's crash site. The high-oxygen environment is compounding our difficulties, as we only have two rebreathers between the three of us, and those are failing...

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Location: K-60-Alpha-Twelve
Stardate: [2.14] 0707.2145
Scene: Jungle canopy


Michael Turlogh Kane tried to ignore the wracking of his breathing as he staggered through the jungle. The three of them - Jake Crichton, Russ BaShen, and Kane - had thrown their arms over each other, had strung themselves into a line, and had been blundering their way through the trunks of the giant flower-trees for the past hour. When one would get tired, the other two would support him, half-carry him until his breath came back. They had been alternating like this as best they could - filthy, exhausted, and rapidly running out of air - but Kane knew that the moment of truth was approaching. The rebreather batteries were redline. When they died, the three men would not be far behind them. As the oxygen they would inhale flooded their bloodstreams, they would eventually pass out and die by suffocation.

It was an irony not lost on Kane as he helped Jake haul Russ along. The pilot's eyes were dazed and his words were slurred as the excessive o2 poisoned his blood.

Kane's rebreather beeped again. The warning signal - battery low. It had been doing that for the past half-hour.

"Don't want to go to school," smiled Russ like a drunk man. He chuckled to himself. "Want to go back to sleep."

"Sleep when you're dead, Lieutenant," said Kane grimly. "How are you faring, Mister Crichton?"

From behind his own critically-low rebreather, Jake's voice sounded robotic. "Fine, sir."

Kane knew he was lying. The engineer was in pain from the wounds the lizardine had caused him a few hours ago. Nothing was broken thankfully, but there were deep lacerations on Jake's chest and shoulders that were slowly crusting over. An atmosphere full of alien bacteria that were probably setting up a plague factory inside his body didn't bode well. Still, Kane appreciated the lie. "Good."

With a electronic burp, his rebreather died. Kane slapped it with his free hand to try to reactivate the airflow, but there was nothing. He tore it from his face and attached it to his belt pouch. It didn't weigh much, but he could feel it sitting there.

"Just a few more minutes for me, I think," said Jake. As the trio stepped over a tangling root, Jake took off his own rebreather and attached it to Russ's face. The pilot was too dazed to resist.

Kane's own vision began to swim. He tried to shake his head to clear it but only made himself dizzy. "Still nothing on the tricorder?"

Jake shook his head. "Localised readings only. Whatever the hell this moon is made of, it's killing both our sensors and our comms."

Kane stopped. He couldn't see clearly anymore. He rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Are you alright, Captain?" asked Jake. Beside them, Russ slumped down on the ground, filling his lungs with rebreather air.

"Can't see," said Kane. "Just colours."

"You've got too much oxygen in your blood. You're being poisoned," came Jake's voice somewhere to his left.

Kane felt at his belt for his phaser. Holding the weapon up to his face, he tried to focus, tried to impose his will on his rebelling eyes, tried to make the colours solidify into shapes. "Going... to shoot," he said. His breathing was coming slowly now.

The shape that he thought was Jake was moving in front of him. "I'm not really one for suicide, sir," he said.

Kane slumped down onto his knees. "Into... air," he said. It was no good. He was too dizzy. It was such a strange sensation. One moment he knew he was vertical, then it seemed like he had taken a gentle, easy turn on some inward axis, and now he was feeling the rough, rocky soil scrape his cheeks.

"Captain!" said Jake's voice from far away. "Captain! Wake up!"

Too sleepy. Very vaguely, and from a faraway, disinterested perspective, Kane felt himself dying. There was a bright flash of orange that quickly died away, and a dull buzzing in his ears. Too sleepy. No longer feeling. No longer thinking. Too tired. He watched the colours melt and flow in their lolling kaleidoscope. From somewhere in its depths, something distant beckoned. Kane felt his soul stirring, shuffling to follow. There was nothing else.

Michael Turlogh Kane watched the world disappear in a haze of cobalt blue.

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Location: USS CENTURY, high above
Scene: Sickbay


Kassandra Thytos felt her stomach lurch as the whine of the transporter beam engaged. As the shimmering cobalt matter stream solidified into three familiar forms, she watched Bonnie Reardon and her team seize the half-insensate body of the captain.

As S'Tanu and Adriana Wolsey worked on Jake and Russ, Bonnie took a quick scan of Kane. The captain's eyes were open but unseeing. Kass approached as closely as she dared.

[[Transport complete,]] came Stiles Orion's voice over the comms.

"We got them!" exclaimed Kass, turning to Bonnie. "Is he dead?"

Bonnie shook her head. "Hell no," she said grimly. "He's just stoned out of his mind." She applied a hypo to Kane's neck. As the drug injected with a hiss, Kane's eyes flashed open and his pupils dilated dangerously. A great whooshing breath rattled out of his chest like a blacksmith's bellows. "Captain Kane!" said Bonnie, pinching his cheek with her fingers to get his attention. "Can you hear me? Can you see me?"

Kane's mad eyes locked on her. Without warning his arms jerked upward, seizing the doctor by the throat. He lurched up at the waist, throttling her as hard as he could.

"Captain!" yelled Kass. He leaped forward and grasped Kane's fingers to try to break his strangehold, but his hands were like iron. "Captain, stop! We're on the Century! We beamed you back from the moon!" Desperately, she beat his forearms while Bonnie choked and gasped for air beside her. "Look around you! You're not on the moon! You're on the Century!"

Rationale returned to Kane's eyes as reality asserted itself on him. Shocked, he pulled his hands away from Bonnie's throat, looking around him in bewilderment. "I thought I was dead," he said hoarsely. "Saw the Century sickbay. My life was flashing before my eyes - "

"You were fucking stoned is all!" yelled Kass into his face, making him focus. "We beamed you here! Get your head straight, Captain!"

Kane shook his head. "I'm sorry, Doctor." He looked around at everyone. On the other biobeds, Jake and Russ were also coming around. "How did we get here?"

"For the third goddamn time, we beamed you up," said Kass. "Most of the crew are here aboard the Century. We're using thruster power to part-activate critical systems. When we detected Commander Crichton's phaser shot on the surface we were able to pin-point your position through the interference."

Kane nodded. "The others on the Nile?"

"We got them several minutes ago. Locating the crash site was easy. Why did you three idiots head into the jungle anyway?"

Kane shook his head and rubbed his neck. "I can't remember." He looked at Bonnie and Kass accusingly. "Why are you two here?"

"We have seen the error of our ways, Captain Kane," said Bonnie, rubbing her throat gingerly. The red marks of Kane's fingers were coming up on her skin. "Stonn was going to maroon everyone on the moon's surface and leave them to die. We managed to get almost everyone off the Discovery."

"Almost?"

Kass bit her lip. "We focused on freeing the engineers first, then the medics and scientists. Most of security are Neo-Essentialists. We didn't get any of the flight control or a lot of the ops people. We think there may be around thirty of our people still over there in captivity."

Kane got off the biobed. Kass watched him - he was suddenly the captain again. "Commander Crichton, get to Engineering and assess the situation. Major Thytos, Lieutenant BaShen - you're both with me. Let's get to the bridge."

Kass smiled inwardly. It was working. So far, it was working. She fell into the step behind Kane and Russ as they left sickbay, sharing a glance with the pilot. There might be a way out of this yet.

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Scene: Engineering


When Jake Crichton got to Engineering, he was expecting it to be bad. It wasn't. A lot of his crew were here. He saw many familiar faces - Cindy Rochemonte, Johnathan Maynell, Enuki - but there were many more that weren't. His heart sank when he realised just how many Neo-Essentialists had been aboard the ship, waiting for their moment to strike.

The Century's engineering deck was worn, but it was still serviceable. Cindy and Enuki were at the warp core while the other engineers were working feverishly at various control stations. The size of the place was impressive - a Century-class battlecruiser was much larger than the Investigator-class Discovery and had a crew complement several hundred more - but seemed much emptier as the forty or so engineers from the Discovery did not take up so much space. They were ranged in groups of two or three at all major systems, conferring with each other in hushed, but frantic, tones.

The Exocomp buzzed up him out of nowhere. It chimed a series of electronic tones in greeting.

“Hey, buddy,” he said. “You miss me?”

“Jake!” exclaimed Cindy, hearing his voice and turning around. “We got you back!”

“Hi, Specs,” smiled Jake, looking around at his crew. “You guys don’t get rid of me that easily. Report.”

Cindy showed him the main power distribution monitor. “When we beamed over here, we had to figure out a way to get systems restored as quickly as possible. We activated the thrusters and diverted their power into critical systems like life support. We got the transporters working and brought the main computer online. We’ve also managed to temporarily activate the cloaking device. It’s the only thing keeping us safe from the Discovery.”

Hearing that last phrase hurt Jake’s ears. “That’s got to be eating up a hell of a lot of juice.”

“Yes,” nodded Cindy. “We estimate less than fifteen minutes before thrusters overload and we have shipwide systems failures again.”

Enuki’s mandibles clicked in response. The Kaferian’s cerulean carapace and soulless compound eyes seemed to swallowing up the ambient light. It took a moment for the universal translator on his chest to translate and intone words the two Humans could understand. Maddeningly, the translator had a perfect upper-crust British accent, if not perfect grammar. {{We havehave trying warp field creating being. Nono stable stability. Engine coldcold fusion not done in many hatchingtime being. Deathfear we not success we.}}

“Alright,” Jake nodded. “Specs, you and I are going to try to manually restart the warp engines.”

“We’re going to what?” exclaimed Cindy incredulously. “We’ll all be killed! Violently!”

“That’s the spirit,” smiled Jake. The memory of the moon was fading now. “Let’s get to the intermix chamber and get started.”

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Scene: Bridge


The turbolift doors hissed open and Kane stepped on to the Century’s bridge for the first time in eleven years. The emotional shock of it rolled over him like a wave. For a moment, he fought to stay on his feet, seeing ghosts everywhere. He had spent three years on this ship, working his way up the junior ranks, first as a hopelessly naive assistant Science chief, then as the ship’s SecTac. Many of the formative experiences of his early career - the Thal attack on Ocu’ranes Prime, the battle with the Klingon pirates led by Targon, the shuttle malfunction that saw him almost roasted alive in the corona of the Taramp star, and that savage night in the storm-lashed genetic lab on Elcaro learning about the horrific Harbinger experiments - had taken place here on this bridge. It was like coming back to the place where you were born and finding it has been deserted for years.

He closed his eyes. Stop, he reminded himself. You’re a long time gone. That was another life. That brash young man died a long time ago. He faded away one day at a time until he disappeared forever. You’re all that’s left.

“Captain?” It was Kassandra Thytos’s voice. “Are you alright?”

Centred, Kane opened his eyes again. When he spoke, his voice was so hard he could have driven nails with it. “I’m fine, Major. Assume the Tactical station. Mister BaShen, take the conn, if you please.” He looked around the bridge, seeing everyone looking at him, feeling the weight of their expectations. Russ, Byte and Kass were looking to him for leadership, for direction. “Let’s take back our ship. Status report, all systems.”

As one, they moved to their tasks.

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Scene: Engineering


“Jake, have you gone insane?” asked Cindy, twirling her right index finger in circles next to her head. “I know it’s been done before, but a cold fusion start of a warp engine is still at all points theoretical!”

“So theorise, Specs! It’s been done on starships one hundred and fifty years ago! It’s been done on starships fifty years ago! What do we need to do? Because if you have any better ideas as to how to generate a stable warp field without the controlled annihilation and matter and anti-matter then I’m all ears!” Jake activated the intermix chamber monitor as the Exocomp hovered at his shoulder. The system was online but the interior of the warp core was dark, cold and inert.

Cindy’s brow creased as she thought furiously. “I don’t have any better ideas. Well, theoretically, we can open the matter and antimatter chambers and manually use the injector ports to shunt them into the intermix chamber. That will kick-start the warp reaction and generate a warp field. But, Jake, there’s so many things that could go wrong! If one of the injectors malfunctions, if you and I are not incredibly careful with our intermix ratios, if there is even a monofilamental crack in the intermix chamber itself -”

“That’s a lot of ifs, Specs.”

“Jake!” Cindy was practically yelling at him. “How the hell can you be so calm?”

Jake activated the injectors. “Believe me, I’m well aware of what we’re attempting, Cindy. But this is desperation. We’re right on the edge. We’ve been right on the edge all damn day. I got beamed up from that moon as I was about to choke out my last breath in that overgrown garden down there. I feel good about riding my luck a bit farther. Understood?” He looked at his assistant and saw she was smiling back at him. “What?”

“You called me Cindy,” she said. “Not Specs. Cindy.”

“I did, didn’t I? Come on, let’s get this thing prepped. Specs.”

The Exocomp looked on.

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Scene: Bridge


Kane listened intently as various departmental reports came in. They had around ten minutes of power left before the thrusters were totally drained. In ten minutes without a cold start of the warp engines, the cloak would drop, life support would cease, and the Discovery would pinpoint their location and obliterate them.

“Notify the bridge when you’re about to begin your attempt, Commander Crichton,” said Kane.

[[Understood, Captain. Engineering out.]]

Kane stood up. “Position of the Discovery?”

Byte was poring over the sensor data stream on its monitor. The android’s brow was furrowed as it concentrated. {{She is eighteen miles above us, holding position at the apex of all three gravity wells. Sensors indicate that she is encountering severe turbulence now. She is scanning the surface of the moon.}}

What are you doing, Stonn? thought Kane. Get the Discovery out of here before you critically damage her. The Discovery had already been hit by one of the asteroids that swirled around this densely-populated system, taking the upper port nacelle offline for a time. Despite himself, Kane grew angry at Stonn’s persistence. The Discovery was Kane’s ship, not Stonn’s, and he wanted her back.

It was all to further the agenda of the Neo-Essentialists. Nine years ago, Admiral Edmund Dupree, the leader of the Neo-Essentialists, stole the USS Century from Starbase 86 and took her here, to this system. A short time later they were joined by the USS Valhalla, under the command of the then-Captain Richard Edgerton. Whatever rendevous had occurred, it had not been a pleasant one for the crew of the Century. Someone using the Century’s own command codes had introduced new commands to her systems, commands that shut down life support and vented her atmosphere into space, killing all aboard her, including Edmund Dupree.

There was proof of that rendevous, but it was no longer aboard the Century. The Discovery’s engineers had found it and brought back the relevant computer files, despite Stonn’s attempts to sabotage their mission. It was what had triggered the Neo-Essentialists aboard the Discovery to reveal themselves, to take over the ship. Now, the remaining Starfleet personnel who had escaped to the Century were in terrible danger. The Neo-Essentialists, led by Stonn, were determined to use the Discovery to kill them all. No witnesses, no survivors, nobody to reveal the truth that the Starfleet Chief of Staff was probably a secret Neo-Essentialist.

Suddenly, two red balls of light burst forth from the Discovery’s forward torpedo bay. They spiralled down towards the moon, missing the Century by several miles, before impacting on the surface of the moon with dull explosions.

“What happened?” Kane asked.

{{The Nile crash-site has been hit,}} said the android. {{The Nile has been destroyed and everything with ten square miles has been obliterated.}}

Kane’s jaw set angrily. “He thinks he’s killed us, that he’s destroying more evidence. Let’s show him that he hasn’t. Open hailing frequencies, Major. Audio only.”

Kass inputted the command. “Open.”

“Stonn,” said Kane, “it didn’t work. We’re still alive.We’re still here.”

Nothing. The silence of eternity.

{{The Discovery is sweeping the area with sensors,}} reported Byte. {{The cloaking device is still functioning. We have not been detected.}}

“It must be frustrating, Stonn,” said Kane, watching the silvery hull of the Discovery through the viewscreen. “You try your damnedest to sabotage our mission and it just doesn’t seem to work. You dishonour the Discovery’s name by filling it up with your traitorous comrades, by trying to shred the Century’s distress call received by the Suvin listening post, and then you personally attack Commander Crichton to stop him learning the truth. But none of it works. We’re still here. We’ve got you beat, Stonn.”

That did it. The Vulcan’s maddeningly calm voice came back from the ether. [[Captain Kane. Since you are hardly speaking to me from beyond the grave, it is logical to assume you have escaped to the Century. I see you have been successful in activating the cloaking device.]]

“That’s not all we’ve been successful in activating, Stonn. Leave this system or I will train the full weight of a Century-class battlecruiser’s weapons on you.”

[[I think not, Captain Kane. Your bravado is illogical. The Discovery may be slightly damaged from our traverse of the asteroid belt, but we are more than capable of delivering fatal damage to you. In any case, you cannot fight. You would destroy your own ship, and twenty-eight of your innocent crew who I have detained here? I do not think that even you -]]

“I annihilated twenty thousand Calnarians on Byss by flicking a switch,” said Kane. “Don’t forget that.”

[[Enemy aliens. You did the right thing, Captain. You protected your own. You would be an asset to the Neo-Essentialist movement if you did not already know too much. Surely you, the great naval tactician, must see that your position here is hopeless?]]

“Why don’t you tell me how hopeless it is, Stonn?”

[[We cannot detect a warp signature. Therefore you are unable to activate the Century’s warp engines. It is logical to conclude that you are relying on thrusters to power your cloaking device. I need only wait until that power is exhausted and you become visible again. When you are, I will destroy the Century and everyone aboard her and preserve the secrets of what happened in this system nine years ago.]]

“We’ll fight you -”

[[I do not think you will, Captain Kane. Remember, there are twenty-eight of your crew still locked in their quarters aboard the Discovery. I will make a bargain with you. If you drop your cloak now, I give you my word that they will not be harmed. I will return them to Starfleet for debriefing. They may have their suspicions about what has happened here in system K-60, but this encounter in a Beta Quadrant star system will be covered up quietly. They will return to their careers none the wiser. But they will not be harmed.]]

Kane thought about it. “And my crew here aboard the Century?”

There was a pause. When he spoke, Stonn almost sounded doleful. [[I am afraid your fates are set, Captain. None of you are leaving this system alive.]]
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"I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds."
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, misquoting the Bhagavad Gita

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Location: USS CENTURY
Stardate: [2.14]0707.2150
Scene: Engineering


As the Exocomp hovered above them, Jake and Cindy took up their positions on either side of the intermix chamber's control panel. So much was riding on this, he knew. Cindy was right - there was a chance that something would go drastically wrong and the warp core would annihilate itself, taking the Century apart in a fireball that might well consume the Discovery with her. There was also a chance that nothing would happen - that the matter and anti-matter in the intermix chamber would dissipate, cancel each other out with no untoward effects. There was also - and this was the outcome he hoped for - that the warp reaction would spark and enflame, would light up the engineering deck with the thrum of a new warp field.

Jake had been economical with the truth when he told Cindy this had been done before. In the three-and-a-half centuries since Humans had invented warp drive, a cold fusion start of a warp engine had only ever been successfully accomplished twice. There were no records indicating how often it had been attempted, because the explosions that failed attempts caused left nothing in their wake except silence.

{{Fivefive time units reaching failure shipdeath,}} reported Enuki from the main power distribution network.

From the anti-matter controls, Jake nodded. "Engineering to bridge. We're starting our attempt."

[[Good luck, Commander.]] Kane's voice filtered down through the decks. [[All our lives are in your hands.]]

"No pressure then," murmured Jake. "You ready, Specs?"

"As I'll ever be," Cindy said.

"Let's do it." Jake keyed in the controls to open the injector ports. "We're going for an intermix ratio to twenty-five to one. That's enough to generate a stable warp field without blowing out half the ship's relays."

Cindy keyed in the command. From the vents in the floor of the warp core, a tubal opening spiralled open and a billowing white cloud appeared, rising slowly upward like a smoky genie in a bottle. "Matter released," she reported. "Intermix chamber flooded."

Gingerly, Jake keyed in the command to open the anti-matter injector port. The system defaulted to the standard opening width of twenty centimetres, but Jake hastily keyed in new commands to restrict the spiral opening to just one centimetre. He looked up into the intermix chamber, but there was nothing to see. The anti-matter was invisible.

The effect was not. The smoky genie recoiled like it had been bitten, swirling into crazy shapes and angrily lashing against the transparent walls of the intermix chamber. The dilithium crystals embedded in the warp core glowed as they began to regulate the reaction. Tiny blue sparks, like miniscule firecrackers, fizzed and popped in the depths of the genie.

"It's working!" called Cindy. "Electro-plasma reaction proceeding!"

Jake's heart leapt. "Bring the plasma conduits online." If this worked, the electro-plasma created from the matter-antimatter reaction would be drawn down the plasma conduits into the ship's nacelles, where a series of warp coils would ignite and generate the warp field. They would have all the power they needed to bring the ship fully online.

A series of warning chimes sounded from Enuki's station, and the Kaferian turned on his spindly legs, mandibles clicking with alarm. {{Crichtonhivequeen! Failbreak cloaking tool! Deathfail system!}}

"The cloak's gone!" yelled Cindy as the blue firecrackers inside the intermix chambers reached a crescendo. "System overload!"

"Let it go!" called Jake. "We just need a few more seconds!"

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Scene: Outside


System K-60 is mostly empty. In the unimaginable distance, the yellow binary suns give off what heat and light they can through the cold dark. Nothing exists in the vast gulf of space between them and the orange gas giant that is this system's enormous lone planet. While not able to break free from their grasp, the gas giant is so far away from its parent stars that it has a gravity well of its own, and it is this gravitational field that has drawn in rocks and asteroids to form a beautiful ring of asteroids and rocks along its vertical axis. There are moons too, thirteen of them, and over millions of years, one of them has evolved life.

See the distant stars hanging in the night, sparkling like bauble against the velvet black cloth of eternity. See their huge orange child, surrounded by its toys. Now zoom down, down past suns and gas worlds and asteroids and life-bearing satellites, down into the atmosphere of the moon where giant flowers grow like trees and lizardine predators hunt small animals through its garden jungles.

There is a silvery-hulled vessel there, a saucer surrounded by four struts, small and infinitesimal against the girth of the gas giant. It is rocking and shuddering in the gravity wells of three bodies - the suns, the gas world, the moon it orbits. But something is happening. It is not alone. Space writhes and snarls nearby as a second vessel is dragged screaming into the light. Much larger, with its angular profile leaning downward to two huge nacelles, this new starship is pitched at a bad angle, listing to one side, all dark and flickering as opposed to bright, silvery hulled vessel above it.

Like a spider scuttling forward to brutalise the butterfly, the small ship darts for the larger.

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Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Bridge


{{Cloaking device offline,}} reported Byte.

Kane leaped to his feet. "Evasive maneuvers!" he yelled, but it was too late. On the main viewer, the Discovery unleashed her entire offensive armament at them - lances of orange phasers and a spread of three red photon torpedoes exploded from her forward arrays.

Russ BaShen was frantically working at his control panel. "We've got no chance on thrusters!" he yelled.

"Brace for impact!" yelled Kane, collapsing back into the centre seat and hanging on for dear life. The shockwave hit hard, slamming stress waves up and down the ship. Kassandra Thytos fell onto her knees behind him as Kane held himself down in his seat. It was different than on the Discovery - here on the Century it was harder to feel damage thanks to the larger size. Kane was not sure he liked not knowing how badly they'd been hurt. "Damage report!" he called.

{{Unable to make report!}} yelled Byte over the hubbub. {{Sensors indicate we have suffered direct hits to our superstructure. Hull integrity compromised on several decks, but unable to record particulars due to multiple system failures!}}

Kane got to his feet again. "Bridge to Engineering! We need warp power or we're all dead!"

[[Standby, captain!]]

"I can't standby, Mister Crichton!"

{{Thrusters offline!}} called Byte. {{All systems failing!}}

"We're dead in the fucking water!" yelled Kass from the tactical station.

[[Engineering to bridge! All remaining power diverted to thrusters! Life support now offline! Warp field generation is underway, just give us a few more seconds! You've only got one chance, Captain!]]

On the main viewer, the Discovery opened fire again. Phasers and torpedoes screamed down through the atmosphere of the moon. If there was any air in space, it would have ignited in flames.

"Course, sir?" asked Russ.

"Evasive! Pilot's discretion!" yelled Kane, watching the torpedoes inexorably spiral toward them on the main viewer.

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Scene: Outside


Slowly, groaning under her own weight and the pull of gravity, the Century's nose pitched to starboard, veering out of the deadly path of the incoming torpedoes. The phaser shots all landed, scarring her port hull, blackening it and sending showers of sparks into space, but by some miracle, the three torpedoes screamed under her ventral side, missing the saucer section and burning up in the moon's atmosphere below.

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Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Engineering


It was bedlam in Engineering. With no power, the remaining engineers huddled together in small groups, yelling in fear as each outside shot shook them like rats in the mouth of a dog. Foreboding metallic groans echoed through the decks of the tortured ship as she came apart, piece by piece.

Jake Crichton and Cindy Rochemonte remained at the last functioning piece of equipment on the entire ship. The intermix chamber was shining a brilliant blue light that shone out into the darkness of the engineering deck and eerily underlit their faces as the matter and anti-matter inside it annihilated each other. The thick smoke was clotting like blood, congealing into heavy globs of electro-plasma that was in turn being drawn by turns into the nacelles.

Jake swore he could feel it. There was nothing on the monitors, no indication that the warp reaction was proceeding apace. They were trying to watch a sub-atomic reaction with their eyes. "Anything?" he called to Cindy for the fourth time. For the fourth time, she shook her head.

"Come back to us!" Jake yelled, slamming his fist against the glass of the intermix chamber like a doctor punch-starting a patient's heart. "Don't you want to live?"

Like an angry god, the ship awoke. The nacelles flared into life, churning with nascent power, flooding the warp coils. The upsurge in energy flooded through the ship's power distribution systems - the main computer, life support, weapons. The warp core started its regular dull thumping, the ship's heartbeat come back from the grave. In a moment, the Century had gone from being inert to a living, breathing thing.

As the lights blinked on and the control panels everywhere winked into life, Jake Crichton stood solidly through the shitstorm and yelled in exultation. "It's alive!" he bellowed to Cindy as the electro-plasma surged and crackled like lightning. "It's alive!!"

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Scene: Bridge


{{Warp power activated,}} reported Byte.

Kane punched the air. "Yes!" he shouted in triumph. "All defensive systems online!"

"Shields up!" called Kass. "Phasers and photon torpedoes armed! My God, we're carrying a hell of a lot of firepower here! I read a dozen forward phaser arrays alone!"

"Break orbit!" Kane slapped Russ's shoulder. "Present our bow to the Discovery at all times, Mister BaShen! Engage!"

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Scene: Outside


The Century, straining at its leash, rose inexorably upward from the orbit of K-60-Alpha-Twelve. As soon as she cleared the atmosphere she left the sweet spot amidst the three competing gravity wells, and the turbulence began.

The Discovery spat fire at her, but the phaser shots were absorbed by the shields. The two torpedoes launched did nothing - one detonated prematurely due to the gravitic turbulence, and the other sheared away, missing completely.

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Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Bridge


"We're clear of the moon!" shouted Russ. In response to the awful shaking of the ship, the red alert klaxons blared into life. "Now navigating the asteroid field!"

"Position of the Discovery!" barked Kane.

{{The Discovery is in pursuit,}} reported Byte.

On the main viewer, the ocean of rocks yawned away in front of them, a wall separating the ship from open space. The Discovery had maneuvered through the field at minimal impulse when she had first entered the system several days ago. Now, both starships were speeding dangerously through it, careering heedlessly through the smaller ones, narrowly avoiding the larger ones.

Kane knew better than to speak right now. Russ BaShen looked like his head was going to explode as he maneuvered the Century through the field. The Century's controls might be a decade old, but they were still built on the same LCARS operating system that had been in use for fifty years, and pilot's fingers were moving around the display like maniac pianist.

Open space appeared ahead. The Century shook as the Discovery fired on her again, but it was nothing more than a flailing punch. Suddenly, the asteroids were gone. They were free and clear.

"Turn us around!" yelled Kane. "Standby phasers and photon torpedoes!"

As the Discovery broke clear of the asteroid belt and swept up behind them, he stood up, knowing full well what he was about to do. The Discovery had been home for four years - now he was going to order it to be fired upon. The thought of it wrenched his heart in his chest.

"Phasers locked!" called Kass.

The Discovery was on the main viewer now, slowing right down in preparation for combat. Kane knew that whoever was on Tactical over there would need a couple of seconds to lock the Discovery's weapons on the Century. He couldn't give them the chance.

"Fire," he said. The word left his mouth and he couldn't take it back.

***************************************************

Scene: Outside


The full forward armament of the Century belched forth from its myriad phaser arrays, streaking across the short distance to the Discovery, crashing with fire and death upon its superstructure. The century's phasers raked her dorsal saucer, while the torpedo spread spattered all over her forward hull.

The Discovery responded, and the space between the two starships was lit up as bright as sunshine as they opened fire on each other, joining battle.

***************************************************

Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Bridge


{{Direct hit on our forward shields!}} called Byte. {{Shields down to seventy-seven per cent!}}

A sinking feeling opened in Kane's stomach. The battle was at an impasse. He turned to Kassandra. "Arm a torpedo. Cover its launch with a phaser spread." The grabbed the centre seat's arm-rest as another phaser volley shook the Century.

[[Engineering to bridge!]] Jake's frantic voice on the intercom. [[We can't keep this up forever! Several relay nodes are offline and the warp field is flickering!]]

Kane nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on Kassandra. "Understood, Commander! Ready, Major?"

Kass nodded. "What's the target?"

Kane thought back several days. When the Discovery initially passed through the asteroid field, she had been struck by one of the asteroids on her upper left nacelle. It had been a light hit, but it was enough to shatter the shield generator in that area. it was one of the curses of the Investigator-class - because of the enormous amount of power they put out, the Discovery's nacelles were the most heavily shielded parts of the ship and the design's only real weakness. When the Discovery had been reactivated earlier this year, one of the ways Starfleet had tried to circumvent this weakness was by reinforcing the nacelles with ablative armour, covering their signature blue shine with gunmetal plating. Now, the Discovery was no longer beautiful. She looked like a crazed militarist's idea of what a starship should look like. But the ablative armour on the upper left pylon was gone. The shield generator was gone. It was the weakest part of the ship.

Kane took a breath. Whatever she was, she was still the Discovery. She was an old ship now, with nearly twenty years continuous service behind her and plenty of history both as an intelligence platform and an explorator. Her four-year expedition into the wild unknown of the Beta Quadrant was Starfleet's first deep-space mission of exploration in nearly sixty years. It had been an honour to serve aboard her.

He hated himself for thinking of her in the past tense. There was a battle to be won, in the here and now. Then they could retake the Discovery and restore her legacy. "Your target is the upper left nacelle, Major," he said. "Concentrate all weapons on it. Fire when ready!"

"Firing!"

Kane watched in the main viewer as the orange phaser lances pummelled the Discovery. Then the torpedo launched, spiralling with deadly promise through space, honing in on its target with a murderous imperative.

He closed his eyes a moment before impact. He couldn't watch her wracked with pain.

{{Direct hit!}} called Byte. {{Sensors show multiple systems failures on the Discovery! Her weapons and shields are offline! Warp engines non-functional - she is maneuvering on impulse!}}

Kassandra let out a whoop from the Tactical station. "You got them, Captain!" she cried.

Kane rounded on her savagely. "Stow that!" he said, jabbing his finger at the marine. He was about to say more, but the bridge lights flickered. "Bridge to Engineering! What's going on?"

[[We've blown out our propulsion relays! We're unable to maneuver!]]

Kane set his jaw. "Have we still got warp power?"

[[All other systems functional! We can repair the blown relays, but it's going to take a few hours Captain!]]

"Get on it immediately, Commander!" said Kane. He wanted to curse their bad luck, but that was pointless. It was only by a miracle that they had been able to win this fight in the first place. They had been supremely lucky that nothing had blown out before this.

************************************************

Scene: Outside


The two starships lay spent, exhausted, and broken from their wounds. Silence settled over them like a shroud.

Then the Discovery moved. She limped forward, heading for interstellar space, seeking escape, to leave the Century far behind.

************************************************

Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Bridge


"What's she doing?" muttered Kass.

{{The Discovery is moving at half-impulse away from us,}} reported Byte.

"Makes sense," said Russ. "Live to fight another day. No doubt they're trying to repair their battle damage. When they get warp power online they'll be back."

"I don't think so," said Kane. "Stonn knows the Discovery is no match for the Century's firepower. He's heading for home. The sooner he arrives there ahead of us, the sooner Admiral Edgerton can figure out how to mitigate this mess."

"I can't wait to tell everyone the truth about our whiter-than-white Chief of Staff," snarled Kass bitterly, as the Discovery inched away on the main viewer.

"What truth?" said Kane, turning to her. "We don't have any proof. Stonn purged the Century's main computer. The only data we have is portable data, and we stored that on the Discovery. Stonn is moving to secure the best endgame he can win - return home with the proof of what happened here between Edgerton and Dupree. He's probably already destroyed that too if he's got any sense. Bridge to Engineering."

[[Crichton here, Captain.]]

"My compliments to your engineering team, Commander," said Kane. "You saved us all today. How soon until we can get underway at warp speed?"

[[At least five hours,]] said Jake apologetically. [[Not only do we have to repair propulsion, but there are numerous hull breaches that need to be patched up. We're not moving from this spot until then.]]

"Understood," said Kane. Like the others, he watched the Discovery moving slowly away.

"We're going to have a hell of a time convincing people of what we know when we get home," said Russ. "Who's going to believe us that Admiral Edgerton is a Neo-Essentialist? We'll have the Century, so that's something, but without proof - "

"We have no reason to lie!" exclaimed Kass. "It will depend on how far behind the Discovery we are."

Kane walked to the centre of the bridge, moving slowly and deliberately. His features were like granite. "Mister Byte," he said carefully, "how long before the Discovery is outside of torpedo range?"

Byte consulted its data. {{Sixty-three seconds and counting, Captain.}}

Kane nodded. He looked around at Russ, Byte and Kass, saw their expectant faces. Then he said it. "The Discovery cannot be allowed to return home."

*********************************************

Scene: Outside


The Century hangs there in space, guns primed. The Discovery crawls away on her belly, desperately seeking safety.

************************************************

Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Bridge


"What are you saying, Captain?" asked Russ in disbelief.

"You know what I'm saying, Mister BaShen," said Kane, looking around at them. "You all know what I'm saying. If the Discovery returns to Earth and Edgerton learns that we know he's a Neo-Essentialist, we'll never make it back alive. He'll divert whatever resources, whatever loyal starships he has, to intercept us. We won't be safe. Every Neo-Essentialist from here to Earth will be looking for the Century. We'll never see home again."

{{Fifty seconds until the Discovery is beyond weapons range,}} said Byte.

"Captain," said Russ, "in case you've forgotten, there are twenty-eight of our shipmates aboard the Discovery."

"I haven't forgotten," said Kane. "And neither will they be." His words hung heavy in the air.

"Captain," said Kassandra, "we could launch shuttles from the Century. We could board, we could try to take over the Discovery."

"Yes, Captain," nodded Russ. "We have access to the Century's marine weaponry. Rifles, grenades. We can make use of it."

Kane shook his head. "You want to launch a boarding action from the Century to the Discovery? You want our engineers and scientists to go up against Stonn's marines and security personnel? It's suicide. And even if we could win, there would be unmitigated bloodshed before it happens."

{{Forty seconds,}} said Byte.

"Captain," said Russ, "there has to be another way! We could take our chances trying to get home, we could call for help somewhere, we could just run for it -"

Kane looked at them all. "I'm through running. Aren't you? If any of you have any better ideas, then I'm listening."

Nobody said anything.

{{Thirty seconds,}} said Byte quietly.

"It's the Discovery," said Russ.

"I know," said Kane. He looked at Kass. "I'll do it." He walked up to the Tactical station, and she moved aside. Deliberately, he armed a torpedo and targetted it on the Discovery's engines. On the next display he could see that her shields were down, that this hit would in all likelihood cause a warp core breach.

{{Twenty seconds,}} said Byte.

Kane looked at them all again. "This is on my head, not yours," he said. "In my judgement there is no alternative to this course of action." He looked at the Discovery's outline in the main viewer, remembered the years he spent on her. Four good years, with a good crew. All sullied now.

"Goodbye," he said, but he was talking to the ship and the twenty-eight loyal Starfleet personnel aboard her.

Then, with the full cold knowledge of what he was doing, Michael Turlogh Kane fired the torpedo.

***************************************************

Scene: Outside


When the torpedo struck her amidships, the Discovery shuddered in agony. The impact explosion caught the damaged upper left nacelle in its fireball and it broke apart, spraying drive plasma into space. The drive plasma immediately ignited, and the cascade failure spread to the other nacelles, causing a feedback loop directly into the main warp reactor.

The USS DISCOVERY, NCC-12001, splashed fire in the void of space, detonating in a fireball that shattered her into a million pieces. The secondary explosions played over the broken parts of the hull that survived, incinerating them utterly in a rainbow of flame as the Discovery died in fire, died in pain, died in nothingness.

When the last part of the saucer section burned up, there was nothing at all of her left. And when the light of the explosion faded away, she was gone forever.

*****************************************************

Location: USS CENTURY
Scene: Bridge


There was no need for any words. The explosion faded, and she was gone.

Kane looked at Russ. "Plot a course home. As soon as Engineering restores power, get us underway."

Russ nodded. He had no words.

Kane looked at Kass. " See what you can do to help out in Engineering."

Kass nodded. She had no words.

"If anyone wants me, I'll be in the ready room," said Kane. "It better be important." He stalked away, leaving a silent bridge behind him.

****************************************************

Captain's Log, Supplemental -


My God.

What have I done.

******************************************************
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NRPG: The Discovery is gone - remember her! Now comes the voyage home. The Neo-Essentialists don't know we're coming, so it will be plain sailing back to Earth. Except it won't be the Discovery who comes back, but the Century, a ship stolen from Starbase 86 by Edmund Dupree to serve the Neo-Essentialists. There will be a reckoning of sorts when we get back - not only will Starfleet want to know what happened to the Discovery, but we will also be butting heads with the most powerful Admiral in the Federation. Until then, we have work to do. The Century needs to be repaired and needs to get underway. All of you should post at least once detailing your character's reactions (good, bad, or indifferent) to the events of the story and think about what we might be heading back to when we get back to Earth.

You can now change your subject line from USS DISCOVERY to USS CENTURY. When we return to Earth, I will be raising a discussion about our future as a unit on the boards. You'll want to have your say on that.

Finally, this ends our intro story "All Our Yesterdays". Thank YOU Shawn, Chris and Alix for making it a success! The fateful events of what happens on our homeworld will be covered in the next story, "Absolute Power", coming soon to a mailbox near you!


Jerome McKee
the Soul of Captain Michael Turlogh Kane
Commanding Officer
USS CENTURY


"He speaks an infinite deal of nothing!"
Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", Act 1, Scene 1.117