The Protagonist System

Chappel and I worked tirelessly for an ungodly amount of time... for an android. Apparently, the systems were so simple that automating them barely took an hour to complete. Since the connections were already there to the bridge, we had time to go to each department to automate them as well. They weren't as involved as the engine room, so we were back on the bridge half an hour later.
We then rewired the main forward console, that was supposed to only be for the Helmsman and Navigator, into an all around console that handled everything from the engines to weapons to communications. Because it was so simple, we didn't have ti dismantle the other stations, we just ran extra connections to them.
“That was surprisingly fun and disappointing at the same time.” Chappel commented and sat on the right chair to take control of the navigation, scanner, communications, and weapons.
I had to laugh at that. “You're not going to complain it was too easy, are you? That's just asking for trouble.”
Chappel gave me a crooked smile. “Do you really think us sitting still right next to that interphasic field, isn't going to draw a lot of attention?”
“Damn, that's a good point.” I said and sat in the other seat to handle the helm, engineering, and transporters. “There's no way we can rig up a partial Caretaker energy system to a ship this old to take care of all that energy, not that entering it and making myself go crazy is in any way a valid option anyway.”
Chappel looked thoughtful for a few seconds. “We could try to detonate in inverse tricobalt device to try and seal the breach.”
“With the interphase energy already there? Any detonation would cause it to grow bigger.” I said and thought about it as well. “We'd need something to suck it up, like my Black Hole power, only there's no way I'm getting close enough to use it.”
“No, you're right. Having you go crazy with your powers would be a disaster.” Chappel said. “What about building a device to simulate one? Would that work?”
“It's possible. I'm just worried anything physically sent in there would slowly disappear like this ship must have to appear here like it did.” I said and leaned forward to check through the engineering database. “I doubt an energy shield would work... but, maybe... if it was already exploding before it entered...”
“Can you delay things like that?” Chappel asked.
“If I'm close enough without being in danger, or charge it enough with my chronomancy power.” I said and frowned. “Maybe? I never tried anything like that before.”
*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*
“Well, there's no time to worry about that now.” Chappel said and looked down at her scanner. “Three... no, six Tholian warships just dropped out of warp and are approaching us at high Impulse.”
I cursed and thought about what to do. “Try hailing them. If they respond favorably, tell them we were just passing through.”
Chappel snorted and sent the hail. “You're an even bigger optimist than I thought you were if you think a confrontational race like them would respond...”
The hailing channel opened and many screeches and clicks came out of the thing.
“...favorably. They just ordered us to surrender before they destroy our weird looking ship.” Chappel said.
“I heard.” I said and she gave me raised eyebrows. “I have a universal translator as well.”
Chappel nodded and checked the scanner again. “They're already starting to form an electrical barrier around us. As soon as it's complete in 30 seconds, we'll be captured and then crushed into atoms.”
“Warn them away and then give them a warning shot.” I said and she looked surprised. “By blowing one of them up.”
“Ohhh, that kind of warning shot.” Chappel said with a chuckle and charged phasers as she loaded two photon torpedoes. “Sending... there's no response. Firing.”
I turned on the viewscreen and watched as the Tholian Web was half formed, then the phaser cut through one of the much smaller Tholian ship's shields and two photon torpedoes slammed into it and it exploded in a bright and very brief fireball. Unless it was a result of a chemical reaction, a normal fire did not expand or propagate in airless space.
That ship's energy string contribution to the trap was lost and it would take that much longer for the other five ships to finish constructing the trap. Chappel sent the warning again and they didn't respond or stopped trying to complete the trap to capture us.
I nodded to her and she targeted all five ships. Since they had surrounded us, they thought they were safe with the ship in front of us destroyed. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know that we had weapons in front and in back that reached in a 360 degree arc around the Defiant.
A single phaser shot tore through the shields of each of the five ships in a row and only a single torpedo each was needed to destroy them. The two she had used earlier had been excessive overkill for the tiny ship.
“Yep, we definitely underestimated how much defensive technology advanced over the next two hundred years.” I commented as the web trap faded away with the sources of the energy strings gone.
“No life signs.” Chappel said as she scanned the area.
“Did you account for the temperature change of the Tholians? They're excessively hot blooded.” I said and she turned a little knob on the device and looked again.
“Still no life signs.” Chappel said and hit a few buttons to change the viewscreen to show the space in front of the Defiant. A human-sized bug floated by, its limbs twitching and its lava-like blood floated around it, both frozen.
“Massive exothermic reaction caused by the endothermic environment?” I asked and she nodded. “Enter it into the logs and I can transport the bodies into sickbay if you want to examine them later.”
Chappel smiled and nodded, then she used the scanners to give me the coordinates and I used the transporter to put them into a pile in sickbay. I'd pop by there to cast stasis on them on my way to the science labs to build the device I needed to try and close the interphase rift.
“I'll keep watch.” Chappel said. “Keep your comm badge on and let me know when you're ready to try to close the rift.”
“Right, it might take a couple of tries. I'll make the device and then copy it, so I can tweak the details and try again.” I said and stood. I placed a hand on her shoulder. “If you're worried about the lives you just took... all you need to do is remember how this ship got here and what they wanted to do with it.”
“They wanted to wipe out the humanoids they hate.” Chappel said, since we had talked wile automating the ship and I filled her in on everything. “Is that enough to justify killing so many of them?”
I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “We warned them three times and they were still going to kill us.”
Chappel sighed and nodded. She knew it was better for them to die than for her to lose her life, even if she was a copy. Her life mattered just as much as their own did.
“At least we're not going overboard by travelling to their homeworld and wiping them all out.” I said and walked over to the turnbolift. “By the way, I can see almost all of your ass while you're sitting down.”
Chappel looked down at her lap to see the short skirt only covered her bottom if she was standing. Sitting down? It was little more than a frilly belt. She let out a little laugh and waved to me as I stepped into the turbo lift. My distraction from her thoughts of death was accepted in the spirit it was given.
“Deck three.” I said as I grabbed one of the handles on the wall.
The ride didn't take long and I entered one of the many labs onboard. I thought about streamlining them as well, since I really didn't need 14 labs on a single starship, when it was only myself and Chappel here. Unlike my other ship, I wasn't going to flood the place with Chappels to run everything. Their talents and intelligence would be wasted on a ship this old.
I mentally shrugged and used a few local parts and let my Tinkering power out to create a black hole bomb, similar to what my own power did, only with less consequences. I didn't want to make the dead star collapse into an actual black hole, so I tweaked the results to only suck in and absorb interphasic energy. Once it was gone, the artificial black hole would collapse. I also made a remote detonator, just in case.
When the bomb was done, I stored it and made a copy, then used my chronomancy power to alter the thing's time gradient. I could turn it on and let it go, and it would work at only ten percent of the local time. It's timer was for three seconds, so ten times that should be enough to toss it through a one-way portal and reduce my own exposure to the interphase radiation.
Just because I had my own mind protected, that didn't mean I couldn't absorb the radiation and make others around me freak out and go crazy.
I tapped my comm badge to get Chappel's attention. “Riker to Chappel. I'm ready to do the first test.”
“Chappel here. I've oriented the ship to face away from the center of the energy field and I've set the ship to jump to warp, just in case Impulse engines aren't strong enough to escape the pull.”
“Excellent! I'll send the first one off right now.” I said and activated the bomb, then briefly opened a portal and threw it hard. Since there was no air resistance in space, those thirty seconds lasted a long time. In fact, it lasted way too long as I looked with my X-Ray Vision. The device entered the field and slowly started to fade. I hit the remote detonator and nothing happened.
“I assume that didn't work?” Chappel asked.
“No, and I can only hope it went to wherever this ship came from.” I said and took out another bomb. “With luck, it'll explode on the other side and suck up all the interphase radiation on that side of the space fracture.”
“You can make it that specific to only suck in radiation?” Chappel asked, clearly surprised.
“Apparently. I didn't try it until now.” I said.
“Then reduce whatever you did to make it explode slowly and try again.” Chappel encouraged me.
“Thanks, Christine.” I said and only charged it to operate at fifty percent of the local time. I threw it through the portal and after six seconds, it exploded and the black energy slowly spread out, then it shrunk back down and disappeared.
I tried to not feel frustrated at it not working right away and did it again, varying the chronomancy exposure while keeping the same power of my throw and the position of the opened portal. Two more ties and I finally managed to find the right time gradient to reach the field without the bomb exploding prematurely.
At thirty-five percent the local time, the bomb reached the very edge of the energy field and then exploded. Since the artificial black hole had plenty to eat, it grew and spread very, very fast.
“Jumping to warp speed!” Chappel gasped and the ship shuddered as we jumped away from what was becoming a massive black hole. She swung the ship around to face the area that the dead star was, which took more time than a much smaller and nimble ship could do it.
I dropped my X-Ray Vision and had to use my clairvoyance power to look at it. Apparently, I had severely underestimated how much interphasic radiation had been inside the space fracture. The black hole had grown to cover the entire gravity field around the dead star and it didn't look like it was going to go away soon.
“Um, is it supposed to be that large?” Chappel asked.
“No, it should have stayed the size of a grapefruit.” I said and frowned at it. “The only explanation I can give is that it's somehow surviving off of all the interphase radiation that would be needed to create the breach between dimensions... oh, shit.”
Chappel sucked in a sharp breath. “Tom, that's nearly a hundred years worth of radiation that's pierced through dimensions. If the first one you used actually did make it through the rift and exploded...”
“Yeah, the two black holes somehow connected and won't go away until they're done eating.” I said and sighed. “I can't go over there and fix it, either. All we can do is set up a barrier or something like a warning system. It could be here for only hours or it could stay around for as long as the time periods are apart.”
“Which is a hundred years or forever, since the two points in time will always be a hundred years apart.” Chappel responded.
“I'm going to need some time to set up a barrier big enough to set an ignore me ward to stop anyone from coming here to investigate. I haven't done something this massive before.”
“I wouldn't feel right leaving this thing behind unguarded, so take all the time you need.” Chappel said.
I sighed and brought out a ward stone. “Thanks, I'm going to need it.”
The large ward stone was similar to the ones I used to protect Yasaka's dimension from the Hero Faction trying to break in to kidnap her precious little daughter. It could be easily adapted to connect to the many copies of it I would have to make and form into a solid network that would need to be placed around the huge black hole to hide it.
How did you disguise a massive stellar phenomenon with a gravity well of a star? Very, very carefully. Working out the math for the placements was going to be a bitch and a half, too. That's what I get for trying to fix a problem I should have ignored. No one knew about the Tholian's experiment except them and I could have popped by their homeworld to delete any references to it from their computers.
Instead, I had to put safeguards in place to stop anyone from stumbling across a black hole that shouldn't be there. Why? Because the thing wasn't acting like a traditional black hole. It was only absorbing interphase radiation and nothing else, like light, matter, and every other kind of radiation that existed in the universe.
*
It didn't take long for word of the odd energy signatures and scans of the area to reach several other sectors of space. That wasn't surprising, since many of the races in the galaxy kept a close eye on the Tholians, in case they decided they needed more territory and expanded without warning.
One of the closest ships to receive the reports from their spies on other ships, was the ISS Enterprise, the flagship of the Terran Empire. They were a totalitarian regime and the humans from Earth had conquered and ruled over the other races with an iron fist.
“Sir, there have been several conflicting reports coming in that the Tholians have been scrambling their ships in their territory.” A very different looking Vulcan named T'Pol said from the OPS station.
“Any reason why?” Captain Forrest asked. The man had only just barely beat Archer in a one on one fight for the captaincy of the ship before they left Earth several years ago.
“It seems there was an altercation after some kind of weapons test.” T'Pol said and checked them again. “They lost several ships to whatever it was and are now forming a large force to deal with it.”
Captain Forrest stared at her for several moments as he thought about it. “What do you think?”
“I'm not sure my opinion matters, captain.” T'Pol answered and fought to not pull her long hair back from her face to tuck behind her pointed ear. The captain hated seeing her obviously alien features.
“It matters to me.” Forrest said.
“I think it's a hoax to try and draw their enemies in to pick them off.” T'Pol said.
“That was my first thought as well.” Forrest said with a nod. “They have a weapons test and then scramble their fleet? It seems a little too convenient for both things to happen so close together and for word of it to spread to us already.”
“Sir! I recommend we check it out immediately.” Commander Archer cut into their conversation. “We can't let an opportunity like this pass us by. If they are scrambling a fleet, then we need to call in our own ships and vassal states to help us fight against the Tholian threat.”
Captain Forrest gave him a brief look of disdain, mostly because he kept antagonizing him in front of the bridge crew every chance he could. “You do realize what this could mean if any of the reports are falsified, don't you?”
Archer didn't say anything and only frowned.
“T'Pol?” Forrest asked.
“It would reveal we have spies on other vessels and that we have eyes on the enemy.” T'Pol answered. “If the empire shows up in force, the Tholians will have the proof we are a threat to their territory and will react accordingly.”
Archer looked like he was restraining himself from lunging across the bridge to attack her. “Just because you are too afraid to act, that doesn't mean the rest of us are.”
Forrest barely stopped himself from rubbing his face in frustration. “Archer, that's enough.”
“But, captain...” Archer started to defend himself.
“I said enough!” Forrest said and stood up to glare at his first officer.
Archer closed his mouth and only glared at him for a moment before blanking his face.
Forrest held the glare and then sighed and turned to the communications station. “Hoshi, send work back to Starfleet. The flagship is investigating the unsubstantiated reports of Tholian weapon tests...”
“Yes!” Archer said and held up a closed fist in victory.
“...alone. No other assistance is needed at this time.” Forrest finished.
Archer dropped his fist and kept his face blank.
“Yes, sir. Sending now.” Hoshi said and smirked at Archer being put in his place by her lover.
“Helm, bring us to 214 mark 53. We have some enemy territory to check out.” Forrest said and sat back down. “Maximum safe warp.”
“Aye, sir. New heading entered and Warp 4 engaging.” Mayweather said and the ship jumped to warp.
T'Pol hid her trepidation over this development. If the Tholians did have a successful weapons test, then it could cause a disruption of her own efforts to subvert certain members of the crew, including the captain, into being more friendly with the lesser races in the Empire.
On the positive side of that, it was possible the Empire would ignore the actions of the rebels to concentrate on the threat of the Tholian's new weapon. T'Pol just had to decide if she wanted to plan around the unknown weapon being real or if she should plan for if it wasn't.
In either case, T'Pol needed to keep a closer eye on both Hoshi and Archer. They were dangerous for her, for different reasons. Hoshi because she was sneaky and devious, and Archer because he hated aliens more than he hated having to wait to advance his career. He was unhinged and could arbitrarily kill her for no reason, either in a fit of anger or because he could get away with it.
T'Pol would never admit she longed for the days before the Vulcans had made first contact with the humans. Once they found out there were aliens in space, it set them on the path of dominating the other races in the galaxy, just like they had on their own planet. All she wanted was peace once more and would do almost anything to get it.