From: "Xtreme Psycho" Newsgroups: alt.startrek.vs.starwars Subject: [Fanfic] Star Trek: Fallen Angels Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 06:04:40 -0400 Star Trek: Fallen Angels Chapter 1 ONBOARD THE BRIDGE OF THE U.S.S. STINGRAY "Fire!" yelled Captain Rutherford to his security chief. From the Intimidator class starship, a huge volley of tri-cobalt torpedos and phaser fire lanced out towards the leading pirate cap ship. About half of the torpedos struck home and the phaser beams found their mark. The pirate ship' s fired back with a volley of it's own but it was shot down by the U.S.S. Stingray's point defence system. "Direct hit on their forward shields. It is down to 4%," Said the security chief. "Switch to Quantum torpedos Lieutenant, and aim for the bridge." Ordered Cpt. Rutherford. "Aye. Aye! Switching to Quantum torpedos." "Fire!" Again a volley of torpedos launched from their bays and struck the shields and the bridge of the pirate cap ship. Despite the explosion from the bridge and some secondary explosions throughout the hull, the cap ship remained intact. Drifting helplessly but nevertheless intact. "Damage report!" ordered the captain, clearly showing frustration on his face. His first officer looked at the console on the arm of her chair and said, "Negligible captain. No damage to the ship and the shields are at 95% and regenerating. Another pathetic battle." "You've got that right Dana. How's the Enterprise doing? I hope they were keeping up with us." The captain joked. "Considering that the captain onboard the Enterprise is the direct descendant of the legendary Jean Luc Picard, I believe they'll manage." The commander checked her console again and then continued, "Well it seemed they 've finished off the pirate command ship ten minutes ago and have reintegrated. Captain Picard sent us a message saying that you owe him twenty credits." "Yeah well send a reply saying that he was cheating by splitting up his ship and that next time I'll get the pirate command ship first." "Aye sir. And may I say that we qualify for that bonus from Starfleet if we destroyed over a hundred pirate capital ships." "You're right. Remind HQ about that and relay all proof to them immediately." After a few of taps on the console the messages were sent. "Both messages sent captain." Said Commander Vreetok. "So quickly? Oh well, what are you going to do with your bonus?" queried the captain "Me sir? I guess I'll invest them into R&D corporations. Maybe Valiant Weapons or the Star Search Consortium. Both seem promising. Valiant is researching on a new type of beam weapon that'll work in the Q-slipstream and the SSC are almost ready in producing a prototype cloaking device. According to some rumours that this cloaking device when used not only cloaks the intended object from every known sensors but it actually removes the object from this continuum. Should be fascinating." "It sure sounds like it. Me, I'm going to spend the bonus the usual way: women, weapons and booze." "Really? You know you'd save money if you used the holodeck." "Nah. I want my women real, not a bunch of photons and forcefields." "Whatever you say sir. It's your credits." "They sure are." Just as the captain was about to continue to say something the console in front of the security chief beeped. The lieutenant tapped on the console and said, "Captain, there is a priority transmission from Admiral Vanderbilt. Coded Alpha, Alpha, Alpha." "Damn." Came the reply. "It seems that we'll party later Commander. You have the conn. Lieutenant Vorsh, I take it in my office." "Aye sir." The captain stood up, stretched his muscles and proceeded to go to his office. CAPTAIN'S OFFICE While sitting on his chair, Captain Rutherford contemplated on what would the Admiral wanted to say to him. Whenever there was a triple Alpha transmission it was always horrible news. What could it be? Borg invasion? Nah, it couldn't be. The Borg were badly beaten by the Federation when the Borg then decided to invade the Federation en masse. Species 8472? Can't be them, since they retreated back to their fluidic space after the Conquest Wars. After drawing a blank, the captain decided to hear the Admiral out. "Computer. Decrypted and decode transmission. Priority Jonathan Rutherford Alpha, Omega, Alpha." "Transmission decrypted and decoded." The captain activated the terminal and said, "Greetings Admiral! How are things at HQ?" "Cut the crap Jonathan. Things have gone horribly wrong." "What has gone horribly wrong?" "The Fallen have returned." When the Admiral uttered that sentence, all colour from the captain's face was drained. "It can't be." He whispered. End of chapter 1. Chapter 2 "It can't be." he whispered. "It's true. Not only that, but they're pissed off. It seems that they want both you and Jeff dead besides eliminating the Federation." The admiral groused. The news was like a low blow to him. It seem that it was only yesterday that Jeff and him helped the Federation into victory against the Fallen. But it was at great cost. The Klingons once again lost their homeworld and were forced to relocate. Relations with them were soured as they blamed the Federation for the destruction of Q'onos citing that the Federation failed to support them in their hour of greatest need. But still victory was achieved and the alpha quadrant was never the same again. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and composed himself. "D-do you have any evidence of this? This could just be a prank to scare us." The admiral looked at Jonathan square in the eye and said, "Two days ago, we received an emergency transmission from our base on Ferenginar. It was choppy and it was in audio only. All the message said that the planet was disintegrating. Starfleet sent out the U.S.S. Magellan and the Santa Cruz to investigate. When they got there, they found a cloud of dust where Ferenginar used to be and floating debris of what used to be Starbase F34." The admiral paused for a moment and studied Jonathan's face. He knew that his thoughts and emotions betrayed his calm demeanor, but Vanderbilt wasn't finished. "Before you can ask me how this relates to you and Jeff, let me continue. When the ships scanned the debris, they found an inscription on all of them. On it said, 'Jonathan Rutherford and Jeffrey must die. The Federation must pay. We shall have our justice! The Farshuakar Empire shall reign over it's enemies.' Jonathan, I cannot stress how to you angry they are for losing to us in our previous encounter. You should know, both you and Picard helped bring them down. They are back and nastier than ever. Mark my words, when they return, all hell will break loose." The news wasn't doing Jonathan any good. Again his face was drained of colour. Sweat poured from his forehead. Wiping off the sweat with the back of his hand he said, "W-what am I t-to do Admiral? What is Starfleet doing?" "Get yourself together man! The universe isn't coming to an end! Starfleet is doing something. As of this moment you are to head to Starbase 247, where you and your crew are to be reassigned to the U.S.S. Defender." Agian Jonathan gathered himself and took a deep breath. "Reassigned sir? The U.S.S. Stingray is one of Starfleet's most advanced starship next to the Enterprise. Should the Fallen attack, my crew and I are most capable of defending ourselves." That wasn't the only reason for not giving up his ship. His family had always served onboard the U.S.S. Stingray in its various incarnation for over two hundred years. The name had a glorious past much like the Enterprise and he didn't want to give it up. "Look Jon, you may be able to defeat at least one of their mid sized warships but anything larger and you're toast. They've learned their lesson the last time and they're not about to repeat it. I know you are reluctant to relinquish command over your ship so I've been authorized to do this: I'll switch ship names and registry, allright? We can have it done when you get there. I'll be at Starbase 247 within the day, so I expect you to be there. So we have a deal?" Jonathan knew that he didn't have much of a choice but still he didn't like it. What other ship can compare against the likes of the Stingray and Enterprise? He'll find out about it soon enough. "Aye admiral. We'll be there as soon as possible." "Good to hear that. Now I've got to tell Picard the same thing." "I bet he'll hate it more than I do sir." "I'm sure. Take care, Vanderbilt out." The transmission was terminated and Jonathan reached out and deactivated the terminal. /Man o man./ He thought to himself. /I haven't done anything wrong and I still get into trouble./ He sighed, got up and straightened his uniform. All he had left to do was break the news to his crew. Chapter 3 "WHAT!!!" his Number One exclaimed to the news of the reassignment. "By the rotting corpses of my ancestors! Why are they reassigning us? Don't they know that we have one of Starfleet's most powerful ships in existence?" "Clam down commander. The admiral must have a good reason to assign us a new ship. He did tell me that our ship isn't up to the task. Besides, we're not the only ones being reassigned. Captain Picard has also been reassigned to a new ship and he'll also keep the Enterprise name and registry. Look, I know all of you don't like this arrangement but we have no choice. It is settled then. Lieutenant Williams, plot a course to Starbase 247 and engage transwarp on my mark." The helmsman responded, "Aye sir. Course laid in and the transwarp coils are online." "Good." Jonathan was about to give the go ahead when he was interrupted by his tactical officer. "Captain. We are being hailed by the Enterprise." growled the tactical officer. "Onscreen." The field of stars on the viewscreen was replaced withthe bridge of the Enterprise. "So Jonathan, it seems that we'll be relocating." "I know old friend. I'd like to find out why does our reassignment have to do with the Fallen. I do not by the reasoning from the admiral that our ships are not powerful enough to fight them." replied Captain Rutherford as he sat back down into his command chair. "But we don't have time to chat about this Jeff. Vanderbilt expects us to be there before him and he doesn't like to wait." "I know. I know." sighed Picard. For a moment he gazed vacantly at the floor, then he sighed again, looked up and smiled. "Race you to the starbase. The bet is two hundred creds. What do you say?" Jonathan raised and eyebrow at him and said, "You're kidding right? I already owe you two hundred creds and I'm not about to lose another two hundred. Anyways, even if I agree, you'd probably find a way to cheat." Jeffrey made a mock gesture of being offended. "Moi? The legendary Picard, a cheater? Never! Then how about this, I nullify our last wager so now we are even. How aboutit then?" The wager became more appealing to Jonathan but hedecided to sweeten the pot. "You've got me interested but how about this. Instead of two hundred creds, the loser buys the winner a trip to Risa on a luxury cruise." This surprised Picard, for he didn't expect Jonathan to raise the wager that high. But he didn't have to think twice before saying, "You are on." "Good. I'll launch a torpedo. It'll detonate ten seconds afterwards. When it explodes we race. Got it?" "Got it." "Let's race!" And so it went. After one nerve wracking minute, the torpedo was launched. It flew off into deep space where it detonated ten seconds later. Without hesitation both ships were off. At first it was the Enterprise that had the lead, warping at 8.5. Then it was the Stingray that gained the lead by overtaking the Enterprise at warp 9.9. Then it was Enterprise at 9.99 then Stingray at 9.995, Enterprise at 9.999. But after that it got dirty. When the Stingray used it's emergency warp power to overtake the Enterprise and was about to engage it's transwarp drive when all of a sudden the ship rocked violently and immediately dropped out of warp. The sudden deceleration strained the inertial dampeners to the point that it failed for a few seconds. The deceleration also threw everyone onboard everywhere. "Damage report!" the irate captain yelled out as he staggered to his feet. An ensign replied, "Sir, we had a plasma leak from one of the nacelles, but it has since repaired itself. Warp drive is offline and so are the transwarp and the quantum slipstream drives. No casualties reported but there are a few cases of light to moderate injuries. We still have phasers and torpedos but the targetting system system and long range sensors are offline." "Any hull breaches?" "No sir. Other than the damage to the nacelles there have been no breaches in the hull." "Now that is out of the way. CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" Captain Rutherford bellowed to his crew. Commander Vreetok shook the cobwebs from her head and limped to her chair. She cursed as she sat down and then checked the sensor logs. Again she cursed, this time from the information she gathered. "Well?" the captain asked impatiently. "The sensor logs show that the nacelle on the right side was hit by a phaser blast. It looks like the Enterprise took a potshot at us." "DAMN IT! I knew he was going to cheat, but I didn't expect him to go as low as to do this." The captain paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and looked around. /Noone was badly hurt./he thought to himself./But Dana and Trezt needs to be looked after./ Jonathan tapped his combadge, "Doctor White, you are needed on the bridge." "Sorry captain, but I am busy down here." The doctor answered back. "I have two of my crew that needs to be looked after." "I'm sorry captain but that still doesn't change anything. I cannot help you at the moment. What I *can* do is send you the EMH. It'll be able to help you." "Thank you doctor. Rutherford out." Less than ten seconds later the EMH materialized on the bridge. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." the EMH queried. "That is what you are here to find out and to fix it." the captain replied. The EMH pulled out a tricorder and scanned the captain. "I do not need to be scanned." Jonathan objected. "I'm fine. Just some scratches and bruises." "And a fractured rib." added the EMH. "If you would just stand still, I can heal that rib and instead of fusing your lungs to your stomach." "Fine! But make it quick!" The EMH took out some medical tool and proceeded to heal the fractured rib. What seemed like an eternity, the procedure was done. "There! Your rib is as good as new. But I do suggest that you take it easy." The captain felt his left side and winced a bit when he touched the sore spot. Without looking back the EMH said," I recommend that you do not do that." "Duly noted." the captain grumbled in reply, still wincing from the pain. Commander Vreetok argued with the EMH the whole time while she was being treated. Lt. Commander Norsh didn't complain or say anything at all, mainly because he was unconscious, upside down and draped over the captain's chair. The EMH scanned the unconscious cyborg and transported him to sickbay. As the EMH went on to tend to the rest of the crew Rutherford paged the chief engineer. "Rutherford to Richardson." "Lieutenant Commander Samantha Richardson reporting." came a cold and emotionless answer. "How long until all of the drives back online?" There was a brief pause and then, "The warp and transwarp are back online. Unfortunately captain, the warp drive is functioning at fifty four percent efficiency and it is quite fragile at the moment. I can give you only warp six at the moment." "Thank you lieutenant commander. I need you to keep an eye on the warp core because I will be trying something that hasn't been safely done before." "Aye captain. I will try to improve warp efficiency." "Good. Rutherford out." Without pausing the captain sat on his chair and ordered the helmsman saying,"Resume course and on my mark engage the transwarp." "Aye sir. Resuming course to starbase two four seven. Transwarp is standing by." "Engage." The ship accelerated until it entered transwarp. /This race isn't over yet Jeff./ thought Jonathan./I still have a chance./ "Helmsman." "Aye captain?" "I want you to enagage warp drive at maximum available warp." "Sir?" the lieutenant said in surprise. "Are you sure captain? Won't this be dangerous?" Irritated and impatient, the captain snapped in reply, "I have no time for this. I want the ship going at warp while in transwarp not your mouth going in warp speed. Either do as you are ordered or you will breathe vacuum. Understand?" "Y-yes sir!" the helmsman stammered. The expression on his face was like that of a deer caught in the headlights of an incoming car. Silence fell over the bridge as everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the captain. "Back to your duties!." He bellowed to his crew. In only a matter of moments, the U.S.S. Stingray went into warp within the tranwarp conduit in hopes of winning the race.