The Protagonist System

By the time I finished configuring the ward stones and Chappel graciously offered to use her immense processing power to help me figure out the proper placement for full coverage, we were done three hours later and I activated it, not thinking about the ramifications of doing so.

The magic pulse was so strong that it slammed into the ship and literally pushed us out of the solar system that the dead star was in the center of. The ship immediately went offline and it blew every electrical panel in the entire ship. The reactor went offline as the magical EMP tore through the rest of the ship and the warp core automatically ejected.

Both Chappel and I were grateful for that, because the dilithium crystals in the main warp core chamber had been overcharged by absorbing a lot of the magic backlash and glowed like a small sun... for about ten seconds... then it blew up in a spectacularly bright blue explosion that lit up a good portion of the space around the black hole.

We held on to our chairs as the ship tumbled away from the explosion and it accelerated the Defiant for almost a full minute before the reactor reinitialized and the inertial dampeners kicked back in. Having the systems automated had made all the difference and it had been worth the time and effort to do it. The ship righted itself and the artificial gravity turned back on.

“Chappel, are you okay?” I asked and there was no response. I tapped my comm badge and tried again. “Chappel, are you okay?”

“If I didn't have an android body, I'd be paste on the ceiling.” Chappel's strained voice answered.

“What? How did that happen?” I asked, surprised.

“The chair's bolts on the floor were not rated for my weight being added to centrifugal force.” Chappel said, her voice flat.

“Damn, I didn't even think of that. Sorry, Christine.” I said, sadly.

Chappel chuckled and there wasn't a hint of humor in it. “You didn't plan for us to tumble through space without power or gravity? For shame, Tom. For shame.”

I took her words to heart. “I'll give you a more secure seat after we fix the ship.”

“Why?” Chappel asked. “This place is nearly completely ruined.”

“I wouldn't say that.” I responded, even if I didn't believe it myself.

“We have no warp core, the reactor is barely giving power to essential systems, the battery backups have melted, and I haven't tried to look outside to see what's left of the ship's saucer section after the ward activated. I also doubt we even have nacelles after the warp core explosion kicked the ship so hard in the ass.” Chappel told me. “I just know it's going to be bad and that's all I really need to know.”

I had to admit she was right. “So, do we try repairing things or should we scuttle what's left and start over?”

“Start over? Screw you, Tom.” Chappel said and actually laughed. “Pull out a shuttlecraft or something and we can get the hell out of here before half the races in the Alpha Quadrant come here to investigate the massive energy spike they probably detected back on Earth.”

“Dammit, you have a point.” I said with a sigh. “A shuttlecraft won't have the firepower for us to survive, so we need something a little bigger.”

“It's too bad you didn't copy the Defiant after we made all the changes to automate it.” Chappel commented.

“The Defiant?” I asked and then laughed. “You know what, why not? Meet me in main engineering and we can rig the place to blow before we board the USS Defiant and get out of here.”

“I'm on my way.” Chappel said and was silent for a moment. “Hold on, I thought you didn't copy it?”

“I didn't.” I said and kicked the lab door open and went to sickbay, stored the Tholian bodies, and went to the Jefferies Tube entrance and flew down to the engineering deck and kicked those doors open, too.

“Then how are we boarding a ship you didn't copy?” Chappel asked me as she came out of the Jefferies Tube.

I gave her a knowing smile. “It's not this Defiant I copied.”

Chappel looked surprised and then laughed. “Please tell me it's the one before the refit that gutted its weapons and power systems.”

“No, it's better. It's one I fixed up in my spare time.”

“Oh, thank god.” Chappel said and patted my arm as she walked by and entered engineering. “This place is a mess.”

I entered behind her and everything was trashed. Even if we wanted to fix the place, everything would need to be replaced. Instead of saying that, I brought out enough materials to simulate a warp core explosion and we attached it to the reactor. I set the timer and we went to the main cargo bay. Well, we tried to. Half of the lower hull was gone and only the stubs of the pylons that used to hold the nacelles were there.

I waved a hand and dropped a copy of the USS Defiant beside this one. It was the NX-74205, designed as a warship to fight the Borg. It was tiny and quite overpowered for a ship that small. It was so powerful that it was in danger of exploding if it went all out using its engines and weapons. Well, it used to be. Now it was a fully functional warship without any problems, except for needing a small crew.

“We can make it work.” Chappel said and hit the airlock release. She grabbed my arm and pulled me inside and then kicked open the outer door into space.

We were blown out into space as the ship decompressed and it flung us right towards the Defiant. She landed on the hull and grabbed a handhold, then walked us around to the airlock and cycled us through.

“That was fun!” Chappel said happily and I followed her to the bridge. She noted the differences on the way and nodded at me for expanding the spaces inside to make it more livable, with a science lab and a full medical bay.

“Do you want a couple more of yourself to help?” I asked.

“No, I want this time to be mine.” Chappel said and sat down at the navigation console. “It's going to take more work to fix this place up like the last ship, since these systems are nowhere near as simple to rig up like on the Constitution class. But, we're in this together and we can enjoy it like a vacation away from our other lives.”

I laughed and sat at the helm. “You think this is a vacation? Were your circuits fried during that EMP?”

Chappel shook her head. “You did too good of a job building me, Tom. You're not getting rid of me that easily.”

I reached over and took her hand, gave her a nod, and let her hand go to work on how to use the tractor beam to tow the larger ship back to the black hole. As soon as it was behind the ignore me wards, it could explode and no one would ever find the parts or think to look for them there.

“We need to hunt down any parts that might have blown off the ship.” Chappel said and turned on the main viewscreen. “Holy crap!”

I looked up from my console and let out a low whistle at seeing what the remains of the Constitution class ship looked like. The front of the saucer section was crushed and bent up, almost in half, and the lower hull was pretty much gone.

“I'll prep the tractor beam for scouring any debris from the space around us as we haul that thing back to the black hole.” I said and Chappel nodded as she used the sensors to show me the best place to anchor the main tractor beam to the larger ship's hull. I connected it without trouble and the much more powerful smaller ship easily moved the larger ship, since about half of the thing's mass was gone.

We worked together to pinpoint the pieces that actually did survive the explosion and we spent another hour bringing everything back to settle them inside the wards. Once they were secured, we whipped our much smaller ship around and took off at full Impulse for only a moment, just enough to get us far enough away from the black hole, then we jumped to warp.

*

Unlike the humans in the Terran Empire that thought a Tholian weapon was a threat to them, the slave races that had been conquered by them thought it could be used to free them from their oppression.

The rebel forces among those races, the blue skinned Andorians with antennae, their albino cousins the Aenar, the green skinned Orions, the brown skinned and hairy pig-like Tellerites, and finally the pale skinned with a green tint Vulcans, all assigned a ship to head into Tholian space to investigate the reports.

They all knew that if they allowed the Terran Empire to acquire a new and most likely powerful weapon, their rebellion could be slowed down or even stopped for decades, or possibly centuries. They had lived under humanity's rule for far too long already and wanted it to end.

A new weapon under their control could guarantee that, since the humans ruling over them had started to become shaky. There were not enough of them to police all of the worlds they controlled and more and more people joined the rebel faction. All they needed was something to finally tip the balance and they could be free from a future where their children could only look forward to living a second class life if they were lucky.

Four independent ships carefully approached the space near the border of Tholian space. Each of them had come from a different direction and had stopped their advance when they detected a massive exotic energy spike that spread out in a wave they easily calculated had originated from a very specific location.

Rapid encoded communications passed back and forth between all four ships and they discussed what they were going to do. If the weapon could create that huge of an energy spike from so far away, what were their smaller ships going to do to defend themselves against it? Could they possibly survive if that weapon was used on them?

Almost as an afterthought, the remnant energy from a warp core explosion reached them as well. That really set off some fierce arguing between the bridge crews, because the Vulcans had detected it had a similar signature to a Terran Empire ship. None of them knew what it meant. Did the Tholians blow up an Earth ship? Did the earthlings beat everyone else there somehow and paid the price for it?

Before any definitive decision was made about one or all of them entering the restricted territorial space of the Tholian Conclave, another ship dropped out of warp nearby and caused another panic. It was the ISS Enterprise, the flagship of the Terran Empire. The people on the other ships knew they were in deep trouble if word of them being there without permission made it back to the empire.

None of them hesitated to turn their ships around and opened fire on Enterprise with their weapons. This was both the right thing to do and a mistake, because it already had its armor charged and the weapons ready. The phase canons deployed and started firing right back at the more dangerous of the alien vessels, the militaristic Andorians. They had weapons nearly on par with Enterprise and had to be taken out first.

A fierce battle started and each of the ships tried to use their advantages to take the upper hand in the fight, only the restrictions the Terran Empire had imposed on their ships made it a futile attempt. Even a four on one fight against Enterprise that gave them a severe beating, their larger hull, better armor, and more powerful weapons let them come out on top.

Because everyone had been so focused on the fight and trying to win with everything they had, only the Vulcan science officer on the Vulcan ship had bothered to keep an eye on the local space and noticed that another ship had dropped out of warp just outside the border to Tholian space.

He opened his mouth to warn his captain about it and the ship gave him a feeling of mild surprise when it opened fire with odd beam weapon he had never seen before. Five glowing orange beams were emitted from different parts of the ship and one hit each rebel ship and Enterprise at the same time, which was specifically targeted on their weapons systems.

He knew that because his ship hadn't blown up and the weapons officer cursed at a Vulcan deity for denying him a perfect shot at Enterprise's deflector dish. The science officer felt mild surprise again when their ship's communication's console lit up and an authoritative voice came out of it.

“All ships, stand down.” The male voice ordered. “I wasn't going to interrupt whatever is going on here, then my first officer pointed out who each of you are.”

The science officer turned around from his station and saw the same look of slight surprise on the face of his captain.

“So, I'm going to contact each of you in turn to get the story, starting with Enterprise.” This update ıs available on novel·fıre·net

The Vulcan weapons officer cursed again.

“If you try to lie to me, there will be... penalties.”

No one on any of the ships thought that meant anything but the worst possible thing they could think of. Since some of them had suffered through a lot of very bad things when refusing the orders of authority figures, most of them would comply with little protest.

However, the humans on Enterprise reacted in a much different way to the threat.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” A hard male voice spat. “We are the flagship of the Terran Empire! What right do you have to question us?”

A bright orange beam slashed out across space from the unidentified ship and carved a long straight line down the side of the left nacelle of Enterprise. It shook the ship slightly and the lights flickered all along that side of the ship as the glow from the engine died.

“I'm the one with detailed schematics of your ship, Johnathan Archer.” The authoritative voice said, his voice low, almost with a hint of a growl. “Don't test my patience again.”

The Vulcan science officer was still looking at his surprised captain as the man's face changed to show a smile.

“He hates Archer?” The captain asked in a whisper and put his hand on his chest. “I can... feel something?”

“Yes, sir. As do I.” The Vulcan science officer said and smiled as well. “I think it's called hope, sir.”

“Please sit quietly as I conduct an investigation. If you try to run, I'll disable your engines.” The voice said in a tone that almost seemed happy. “Your patience in this matter will be appreciated. Thank you.”

The Vulcan science officer sat back down and it didn't even cross his mind to try and scan the new ship. That was just asking for trouble and the last thing he wanted to do was cause trouble with what he fully suspected was the weapon the Tholians had supposedly tested themselves against.

*

“You enjoyed that way too much.” Chappel said after shutting off the easy hacks she made into the comms of the other ships. Remotely using them was even easier than rewiring the Constitution's comm system for automation.

I gave her a pointed look and then chuckled. “I would have enjoyed it if it was just Archer. Instead, the Enterprise is in the Terran Empire? I have to find out everything I can about what the hell happened here.”

Chappel patted her console. “It's not that difficult to connect to their computers. It's bridging the different formats and decoding the information that's going to take a while.”

“You've got as much time as it takes for me to call each ship and get their story.”

“So, hours?” Chappel asked with a grin.

“At least.” I said and stood. “I'll do it from the captain's quarters to give you some privacy.”

Chappel waved me away. “Just try to stay calm if Archer's the one you talk to again. Shooting them with a severely reduced phaser beam is taxing on the system.”

I chuckled and left the bridge to enter the captain's quarters. It was a fifty-fifty shot if I'd get Archer or someone else to talk to. He was obviously trying to anger me, for some reason, and I wanted to find out why. Was it because I restricted talking to voice only and he couldn't see who I was? I did attack him without warning, so maybe that scared him? It did disable his weapons in one shot, too.

I sat down at the console and thought about how I wanted to approach this. Again with voice only, or should I activate the viewscreen? When I thought I should ask for privacy as well, there were reasons for both to be valid. In public, they had witnesses to what they were saying. In private, they would be free to say what they wanted.

I just had to decide which version of the truth I wanted to hear. Should I let them deflect my questions or let them antagonize me, or should I be a hard person to deal with right from the start? My introduction gave me a good excuse to be difficult, so I spent a few seconds debating it.

A touch of my clairvoyance power showed me I would be speaking with T'Pol, except she wasn't the T'Pol I briefly knew. She had long blonde hair that covered her ears and she wore a uniform that a strip club might have deemed inappropriate. Her top barely covered her breasts and her pants were quite low hip-huggers, leaving her entire midriff bare, front and back.

It was sexy and also completely wrong for a Vulcan to wear. I looked around for a second and saw that all of the females wore the same outfit, no matter the rank or job they did, which meant I had a few more questions added to my list that I didn't realize I needed to ask.

I took a deep breath and let it out, then sent a basic hailing request. Since the protocols used in the future took a long time to work out and implement throughout the federation, the ones usually used wouldn't work to contact other ships in this time period. Their systems weren't advanced enough to handle such a simple thing and I needed to account for that.

Since Chappel decided to keep wearing the same uniform, I transfigured my civilian outfit into a male version in a similar style. I kept it blue to match hers and I had to admit that the thing was pretty comfortable.

The screen flicked to life and T'Pol's eyes widened briefly when she saw me on the little screen at her station. She didn't let her surprise throw her off, though. “Greetings and salutations. I am Commander T'Pol of the ISS Enterprise.”

“Greetings.” I said and avoided my own designation briefly. “Can I assume everyone on the bridge is eagerly listening in?”

T'Pol's eyes darted around briefly and looked back at me. “You would be right to assume so.”

“Then I have no reason to hide my own designation.” I said and smiled as I winked at her, which made her eyes go wide briefly again. “I am Admiral Thomas Riker and my ship is the USS Defiant.”

T'Pol's face lost some of its color and I could hear a lot of shouting and arguing in the background. She leaned towards the camera pickup and whispered. “Perhaps you should have kept that last part to yourself.”

I chuckled and she raised a single eyebrow at me. “It stands for United, in case you're wondering.”

T'Pol didn't say anything in response and instead gave me a very slight nod. She had gotten my point. I was not on a ship that was part of the Terran Empire, despite myself being human.

There was a sound of fists hitting flesh, then a scuffle, and a barked order from someone that wasn't Archer to put him in the brig. I had to smile warmly at that and T'Pol's face flushed slightly green with a blush.

“Carry on, commander.” That same voice ordered, only it was in a normal tone.

“Yes, sir.” T'Pol said and gave me a questioning look. “What would you like to know, Admiral Riker?”

“Everything, Commander.” I said and her eyebrow went up again. “Tell me everything.”