Story: Star Trek: Futures: Season One: Episode Four

Near Epsilon Eridani: Leo NX-08, 2162.

The Leo is returning home in order to learn of her next mission. In the mean time Captain Wales decided to goto his room to relax. Earlier both he and his crew destroyed some Xindi renegades, saved a long lost colony of once thought to be extinct Xindi, and meet an alien who seemed to be older than the galaxy itself. Overall it was a rough first mission. Just then Jennifer’s voice came over the intercom system while Wales was on his bed trying to get a nap. “Sir?” Said Jennifer. “Sir?” Wales rolled at the sound of her voice with no reason of wanting to get up, but in the end he did.

“Jay here, what is it Jennifer?” Said Wales yawning a little.

“Sir I have a message from Starfleet command.” Said Jennifer.

“Alright patch it into my quarters.” Said Jay.

“Patching in sir.” Said Jennifer as Wales turned towards his desk to see his friend Admiral Heiliclyne be there.

“Admiral! How is it?” Said Wales while Heiliclyne kind of had a smirk on his face too.

“Good, I take it that the renegades were no match for you huh?” Said Heiliclyne.

“I think Starfleet did a great job building this ship. She took quite a pounding at some times.” Said Wales standing up from his bed and walking over to the wall to give a light tap.

“Well you know that it’s not just the ship that is good, it’s also it’s captain and its crew.” Said Heiliclyne.

“So what is going on? I take it that this is not meant to be a formal call.” Said Wales sitting down at his desk after walking back over from the wall.

“No, I’m afraid not. Starfleet has cut your crew…how do I put this…’off the leash’ I believe you would say it. Your free to explore with the ship and crew and Starfleet Command has begun to receive word from the America of both of the star systems you found as well as your secret message about the undiscovered Xindi sphere incident. You have Starfleet’s word that no science team or colony will step foot on that planet for five years, nor any other race since the planet has been quarantined for that time duration.” Said Heiliclyne.

“Best news I’ve heard all day. I hate to rush you but is there anything else you have on your mind Admiral?” Said Wales.

“A suggestion. Epsilon Eridani, it’s a nice simple system that your crew could check out for some practice or R and R. In the meantime…safe travels my friend.” Said Heiliclyne.

“You too, Wales out.” Said Jay as he turned off the communication screen. He then pressed a button nearby and Jennifer’s voice came back up.

“Captain?” Said Jennifer.

“Helm set course for Epsilon Eridani. We’re gonna check it out.” Said Wales.

“Aye sir setting course.” Said Crestiouf in the background of the intercom.

“Bridge out.” Said Jennifer. Wales then stood up from his desk and prepared to get ready for the day. He then made his way to the bridge but once inside Crestiouf spoke up.

"Sir we are now approaching Epsilon Eridani." Said Crestiouf as he dropped the ship from warp and piloted it towards the nearest planet which seemed to be class M so far. Wales was just setting down in it when Crestiouf said the end of his sentence and after the somewhat short silence between it.

"Good uh, Jennifer." Said Wales as Jennifer was ready for her orders. "Contact Starfleet that we are in the Epsilon Eridani system and are awaiting our next orders." Jennifer nodded and began to send out the message. Wales was, for the first time since taking command of the Leo, relaxing. Until Jennifer spoke up.

"Sir I have an Admiral hailing us sir shall I put it on screen?"

"By all means." Said Wales thinking it was Admiral Heiliclyne again. As a young male around his thirties wearing an admiral’s uniform came on the screen. "Admiral, what can we do for you today?"

“Captain I have a little problem.” Said the Admiral.

“What is it?”

“Well about a hundred years ago a probe was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Earth. This probe went beyond what it could do. We received a transmission from it. Now I know that this is your first command and this crew is just in basics but this mission that I am assigning to your ship is strictly confidential. Meaning that Starfleet does not know about it. This also brings up another problem."

"Yes sir?"

"This is not to be discussed if you succeed in this mission. If you fail this mission, I may be forced to tell Starfleet about why you vanished as well as what I planned on. For this Starfleet might place both me and your ship with crew as renegades."

“You telling me that we are to go on a mission that could mean all of us on the Leo could get imprisoned for? I cannot do that Admiral. This crew is too young and it’s against everything that Starfleet and the Federation stand for. But just out of curiosity where did you want us to go?” Said Wales.

“I want you to travel to the Centauri System this is the last recorded area the probe was found in. Now it would be up to you Captain you can go find the probe and bring her back, or you can take this ship and travel the cosmos just waiting until something happens, it would be your choice.”

“Hmm then I guess we have to take the chance of being kicked out of Starfleet in order to find a lost probe, doesn’t seem to difficult. If I may ask what is so important about this probe?” Said Captain Wales after taking in some thought.

“It exceeded all that we hoped for, unfortunately the designs we used for the next probe did not go beyond the original specifications. This is what it looks like,” the Admiral held up a pad that showed a vessel with two spheres linked together by a small rod with nacelles going off form the rod in a V pattern, “so will you look for it?” Said the Admiral while Wales nodded in agreement.

“Yes, we will do it. Come hell or high water, rain, sleet, snow, spacial anomalies, or what have you we, “ raising with his fist up in the air while standing up from his seat, “shall find and return this lost probe of yours. Good day Admiral, my crew has work.” Said Captain Wales.

“Very well I shall get off this channel. Good Day Captain, just remember we hope that you do return. Also before I forget in case it comes to push or shove I may also have to report that neither you, your crew, nor your ship has existed. If you find the probe you will understand why but I also think it would be better than a court marshal.” Said the Admiral while the main view screen clicked off.

“Crew take you positions, helm prepare to take us out.” Said the Captain as he was taking the center seat again.

“Yes sir, what is our destination?” Said the Helmsman. While speaking on the comm. To inform the ship. “To go to the Centauri System and find a lost Starfleet probe. Also this mission is top secret, so according to the Admiral I just spoke to if we fail, this vessel, this crew will have two choices; to be court marshaled or to never have existed with all of our files erased. So, we know the consequences.” Said Wales.

“Yes…sir, laying in a course to Centauri, “ while Crestiouf did this everyone in the room looked around and accepted what the captain said on the loud speaker. Then the Leo began to move slowly out of orbit of a M class planet under impulse power. Once clear the ships Warp five engines came to life and the ship began to move fast out of the solar system. “Sir we are clear of the final planet. Going to full warp sir.” Mack at this time however started to walk to the turbolift to go to the science labs below deck.

“Okay engage.” Said Wales.

“Yes sir!" Said Crestiouf.

“Yes sir warp 1…warp…2. Holding at warp two sir.“ Said Crestiouf as the Leo went to warp to Alpha Centauri.

While in the warp tunnel Captain Wales speaks. "Helm what is our position?"

"We are now nearing Centauri. Shall I exit out of warp?" Said Ensign Crestiouf.

"Yes do so now, we need to see what is out there. According to that Admiral he said that this is where we needed to start looking. The Centauri system.” Said Captain Wales as the Leo dropped from warp in the Centauri system. The view was not really special but Alpha, Beta, and Proxima Centauri suns were on the main view screen. Mean while Mack Bruiser was down below decks in the science stations just fidgeting with what looked like a tricorder combined with a phasor. When he pressed two parts together the thing fell apart.

“Ah great.” Said Mack when one of his partners walked in. She seemed to have seen what happened and walked over to him.

“Sir?” Said the assistant.

“Oh,” said Mack turning around to look at her, “didn’t hear ya come in. May I ask who you are?”

“Ensign Crestia Jocevit.” Said the female, now more seen, Vulcan. “Why might you ask?”

“Just wondering.” Said Mack.

“What are you working on?” Said Crestia looking at his attempted invention.

“Well I was trying to see if I could combine the properties of a tricorder into a phasor, or a phasor into a tricorder.” Said Mack.

“To what purpose would that serve?” Said Crestia.

“Well think of it for a moment. Say you lose your phasor for some reason and you need one fast. With this a phasor is always handy to the user. Came up with the idea on our last mission. Thought it may be useful but as you can see…it just falls apart on me.” Said Mack.

“May I help you then?” Said Crestia. Mack looked at her with a kind of half smile.

“Sure, could use some new parts and maybe a cutter from that tool chest over by the wall.” Said Mack pointing to a kind of corner with some drawers in it. She began to walk over with a rare, very rare, thought in her mind. She felt happy for one nano-second. Back on the bridge Wales had ordered Crestiouf to fly around a little while as Dorsal scanned the star system. G'Sal had at some point had something to say.

"We are wasting our time here Captain as you can see I see nothing here worth our time besides the suns and the Federation colony nearby." Looking at the view screen that showed the three stars and a small planet nearby...as well as an odd object. "What is that?"

"Move us closer to that object helm and bring up a light on it. The science station may also want to look at this." Jennifer nodded as she pressed a button that connected her to the science teams below deck. What the rest of the crew were looking at however was a vessel that had "claws" on the front and had a slick metallic design that seemed to curve in a football shape except in the rear of the ship there was a hole, or more precise a well, with pointed ends "flaming" back beyond the hole. The vessel also has a type of pod located on top to it that seemed to be a type of cannon. "What is this?" Said Wales.

Science Officer Mack Bruiser spoke upon the bridge from the back as he just came off the turbolift. "I know that it is a ship but I am not reading anything from it. Also this ship was never here when humans first came to Centauri." Said Mack before something blipped on his console scanner. "Odd I am detecting some kind of signature coming from the inside of this ship."

"What kind of signature Mr. Bruiser?" Said Captain Wales.

"Hmm it appears to be, a life form of some kind. But I am only detecting one so far."

"Crew I am ordering us to investigate that ship,” while he stood up from his chair, "and find that life form. Said Wales. “Can we beam over there?” Dorsal then looked at him.

“Sir there seems to be some kind of unknown alloy surrounding the ship that, even though it’s hard to believe, seems to exist but not exist.” Said Dorsal.

“Explain.” Said G’Sal.

“Well, I can’t…Mack?” said Dorsal as everyone looked at Mack who was looking at his screen in the back.

“It seems Dorsal is right sir. We can’t beam in since the scans show that the ship isn’t there.”

“But it is there! I see it!” Said Jennifer.

“Well then I think a shuttle pod would suffice for now." Clicking a small button on his chair Wales calls the shuttle bay. "Shuttle bay prepare Shuttle Pod Two immediately."

"Yes sir we’re on it." Said a crewmember there who was Stoven.

"G'Sal, Bruiser, and," Wales then pressed the comm button on his chair again, "Mr. Cragin go to the shuttle bay and meet the rest of the away team there I want you to go with the team to look at an alien ship." Said Wales.

"Aye sir on my way." Said Cragin from the sick bay. A MACO officer was standing in the back kind of fidgeting. Wales heard him.

“Do you want to do something mr.?” The MACO officer then looked at Wales.

“Christopher Xaoium Sir I would like to join the away team.” Said Christopher.

“Very well.” Wales nodded to the rest of the team to go so they nodded back and went to the shuttle bay.

By this time G'Sal, Cragin, and Bruiser with Christopher made their way to the shuttle bay. A little while later Bruiser opened a comm link on Shuttlepod Two to speak with the Captain. "Were already to go Captain just say the word."

"Ok then, shuttle bay open pod doors and launch the shuttle."

"Opening doors sir, good luck away team!" Said a crew member at the bay controls who was, again, Stoven. Just then if you looked below the ship you would see one of four doors sliding open and a small craft emerge from the Leo. As soon as it was clear the small shuttlepod came to life and headed towards the alien ship once it’s winglets folded down and the impulse engines started up. When they were close to the alien ship the shuttle aligned itself with a small opening on the vessel that appeared to be a blast mark of some kind and lowered a transport tube to link with the ship's presumed bridge where the life form was detected. Soon the away team moved to the alien ship with environmental suits on and was quickly inside it.

"Ok let’s get it right this ship may have that probe where looking for so get in, look around, talk to the alien, find our probe, and get off." Said G'Sal in a logical voice.

“Right, bet you I’m the guy who got to shoot everything too.” Said Chris with a phasor rifle in his hands while walking within the ship.

"Wait! Let me write that down in a sec." Said Cragin. Once they had their suits on they descended into the ship. Once inside the ship looked slightly organic but the weirdest thing was that if the ship was attacked, where was the crew?

"Aw man I got...something on my boot!" Said Bruiser trying to see what it was. When he looked he felt like he didn’t want to. When he saw that it was a kind of dead insect that looked like a kind of cockroach he tried to scrape it off. On the Leo however Jennifer was listening into the conversations that was happening. Then something shocked her. She was trying different channels and stuff to find out what but it seemed to elude her.

“Sir I have something, strange.” Said Jennifer.

“What is it?” said Wales.

“A blip of some kind. I don’t know what it is though. Seems to appear on all channels.” Said Jennifer still trying the channels to identify it.

“Put it on speakers.” Said Wales as Jennifer did so. She was right it was just a slight pinging sound that also seemed to rise and fall in pitch every so often. Wales was deep in thought. Then over the speakers a kind of silence started and Jennifer was holding her ears tightly while also giving expressions of pain. Then everything went into slow motion as Wales looked around to see his entire bridge crew in the same pain then Wales felt the same way as his crew. Very painfully he spoke to Jennifer. “SSHHUUTT IITT DDOOWWNN!!” Jennifer did very quickly and everyone then returned to normal with Wales having a little blood dripping from his nose, one drop in fact.

“What was that?!” Said Ensign Smith who was once again in Dorsal’s place on the bridge.

“I don’t know but I want to find out now!” Said Wales.

“Yes sir. I’m tracking it now sir.” Said Jennifer scanning the area from her console. “Sir I’ve found the source but this doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?” Said Wales.

“The signal. It comes from the ship but it also comes from somewhere else that is nowhere.” Said Jennifer.

“A signal that come from nowhere. How original.” Said a Mexican Ensign in the back who was taking over Mack’s position.

“Cesco, wise up huh?” Said Ensign Smith looking at his friend.

“Is their anyway to shut off or block the signal?” Said Wales.

“I’m afraid not.” Said Jennifer.

“Then just keep an ear on our away team then.” Said Wales as she nodded. Back on the ship the away team was starting to feel lost.

"Let’s just keep going, we must find the life form, and the readings are coming from this room just ahead." Said G'Sal. The away team came to what looked like a door that had either a type of camera in it or something else that looked like a human eye. The team did not jump until the eye talked to them.

"See the light, find your way, close the prison, trap your shadows, protect your future." Said the door as it opened its eye thing to reveal an actual human like eye. Though once it did it closed again.

"What?" Said Galileo.

"This is highly odd since the life form reading...is the door." Said G'Sal.

"What do you mean 'it's the door' it can't be. A doors a door not a talking eyeball!" Said Bruiser.

"Away team to Leo, come in." Said G'Sal with his communicator out.

"This is your Captain what is it?"

"We have come and meet a door that spoke to us."

"A door? What did it say?"

"'See the light, find your way, close the prison, trap your shadows, and protect your future.' That is what it said Captain word for word."

"Well get right on it but....?" Just as the Captain was talking the alien ship came to life and lit up both inside and outside. The Captain finished by saying, "Leo to away team that ship just came to life you must return right now to the Leo!"

"Aye sir, G'Sal out.” Chris then spoke up.

”Ok we have to move let’s get back to the pod now!" Said Chris. As soon as this was said they ran back to the shuttlepod just as multiple doors began to shut saying the line over and over again. At the last second Bruiser managed to look back at one door as it just said something to him.

"Good luck on your mission." When the pod was moving away Bruiser wondered about what the door was talking about. At a safe distance G'Sal said, "We have a problem Leo we are reading multiple fluctuations around us. I think the alien ship may be causing it." On a transmission from the Leo that seemed garbled the Captain managed to say a few words.

"So are we...ein ship has produced something that...ry bad! Retu...now! (Beep)." The away team understood and quickly detached from the alien ship as well as to return safely but a bit of an extremely rough ride in the pod that the away team did not have time to get a foot out of the pod before the alien ship engaged an odd device from the presumed weapon on top of it. Dorsal was piloting the shuttle so that the safety systems will let him do a risky trick.

“What are you doing?” Said Chris.

“I’m opening the back doors to the Leo. We have one shot.” Said Dorsal as the Leo’s rear hanger doors opened. The shuttle was flying fast and the alien ship was slowly turning towards the Leo with a light in the barrel of its cannon. Then a voice came over.

“Leo to away team…where are you?!” Said Wales.

“On your back door step captain. NOW HANG ON!” Said Dorsal as he took the shuttle straight through the hanger doors just as then started to close. A safety net seemed to have caught the shuttlepod before it went into another shuttle pod. Then before Wales on the bridge could tell his helmsman to move the alien vessel fired a bright beam of energy at the Leo and it took both it and itself somewhere beyond space. Once they arrived where ever they are Captain Wales spoke to his crew or to whoever was awake. What he saw on his bridge was every one passed out while the view screen showed an NX Class ship but horribly altered, like something from Revelations, but in one second he saw a star with no planets as far as he could tell. In the back he saw the Galactic Barrier. "Mrs. Corigoski? Mr. Crestiouf? Anyone?" But the Captain heard someone talking...through the comm system.

"We hear you captain and we are pleased to say that you have been a major help. Now if you hold on this will not be painful." Just then an alien ship that looked like a large Christmas tree on Earth but more sleek in design appeared facing the Leo forwards but before Captain Wales passed out for some reason he saw the Centauri alien ship appear and fire on the Leo again right before the tree ship fired. In the blank second he saw this he also heard a voice in his head say, "You have a more important mission Leo." Then the United Earth/ Federation NX Class vessel Leo NX-08 vanished without a trace into what can only be described as a kind of subspace. Meanwhile the Centauri ship vanished with the Leo but instead vanished into time. On the tree ship which then began to configure itself into a more sleek design which it now looked like a pulled back Christmas tree with some spines coming out as well. On the bridge of the ship a large insect like creature sat in a chair looking at the screen.

"Ugh. Tell me you have it." Said the creature to a reptile like creature looking at a small screen just below the main view screen. The room was severely dark but some white and orange light beams were shining through the upper rafters.

"Yes Xeitomak we have the warp matter. But it is not enough." Said the reptilian.

"What do you mean Zer?" Said Xeitomak.

"Well we still have a lot more to go. Seventy Five percent more sir." Said Zer a little scared.

"No worries. We will collect more ships. We have waited this long but not much longer now. Is that probe still running?" Said Xeitomak.

"No sir once it crashed it was destroyed. So what else can we do?" Said Zer.

"Send one of our probes to the shift world. Make it send out a signal similar to the one from that probe." Said Xeitomak.

"But sir! The Shift World is unstable! It goes to almost every point in the galaxy once in almost fifty to one hundred years! I predict that it will end up in what the Earth humans call the Beta quadrant." Said Zer.

"How do you know this?" Said Xeitomak.

"While we stole the warp matter I also took information from their database." Said Zer.

"Good. So when you send the probe let us learn about what has happened since the probe arrived." Said Xeitomak.

"But what of the ship sir? Surely it did not vanish by itself!" Said Zer.

"I know. Another ship appeared behind us and sent the Earth ship to abovespace. Only one race can do that. The others." Said Xeitomak as Zer shook a little while a little hiss also came out.

"But they evolved how could their ship be here?" Said Zer.

"They did not. Remember Zer while looking at Aoli Fas Ika's many worlds we found one of their ships. Course you did not know that I repaired it and sent it to recover an Earth ship with the probe on board it. Ha ha ha ha ha! But why or how it saved it is a mystery to me." Said Xeitomak.

“Other’s ships are so, unique to us. Even though we are there other half we rarely get to see there technology.” Said Zer.

"Yes. Now let us wait for our next target because soon the great Reftyacon race shall rise again and return this universe to the way it was before life ever evolved within it."

''A new ship, crew, and captain set out to explore the unknown. Next time in Episode Five!''