First Contact

 Between them and the main viewer, a wisp of smoke appeared. It quickly grew like a tornado of dark swirling fog at the center became a pitch black sphere of nothingness, so dark it almost drank the light out of the entire bridge of the Alsea.

Before even Syntron could make sense of it, the hole in space dimmed and became a tridimensional image surrounded by the swirling grey-black fog. It showed something like a pedestal of red metal ringed by curving pillars of pulsating colored lights, mostly blue  bur with a few green and the occasional red. then they realized it was not an image but a space; a space they could step through. And from the shadows beyond that column-ringed pedestal came the voice all but Kheren could hear.

''Let us meet and talk of the future together.''

The stoic Vulcan vigilantly studied the wavering darkened construct which eerily appeared on the bridge of their starship as words from these strangers were formed in his mind.

"This manifestation is a gateway," Syntron noted as he moved closer with his tricorder to the pulsating, ominous opening.

"It would seem that we have been invited to step through its threshold."

Jureth looked at the gateway but was apprehensive "What about the ship?" he asked to the bridge in general "If we all depart and the Horizon shows up, or worse whatever else Starfleet is sending this way, they could seize the Alsea and we'd have no way of stopping them."

Rogers, contemplating what Captain Jureth just spoke, glanced apprehensively at the portal swirling between him and the main viewer. With a resigned sigh, he voiced an opinion.

"Sir, I will remain on the ship. She's practically fully automated and one can handle her in a crisis almost as well as us five."

He didn't need to mention that he had already solo'd an automated, and commandeered, Diamond Star. He glanced once at his counterpart across the bridge.

"This meeting certainly doesn't need two engineers! And besides, I am not a diplomat by nature."

Sorripto looked down at his hands sarcastically and then felt his neck scales and forehead. After finishing his verification Sorripto retorted.

"You know I am Cardassian right?" Sorripto said gesturing to his face.

"Not exactly a history of diplomacy here. Plus last time I made unauthorized contact with a group I ended up destroying an entire cult single handedly and taking down a bunch of traitors inside the Federation."

Sorripto sighed.

"But I suppose you called it. A human custom I learned on Mars known as dibs."

Sorripto then reached behind the helm station and removed a phaser pistol no one was entirely sure when he had time to hide there. He checked a setting on it, holstered it and then grabbed the engineering kit on the floor next to his station. Sorripto then walked over to the portal and nodded to Captain Jureth.

Syntron stood up from his console again, repositioned his portable tricorder, then relocated near the Cardassian who appeared to be brimming with anticipation beside the brink of the wavering gateway.

"I volunteer to join this summit as well," the Vulcan declared as he ran his tricorder near the wavering portal.  As new readings began to emerge,  an eyebrow slightly elevated. He crossed referenced several of the inherent signatures again before divulging what he had found.

"This may seem in error, but the sensors are finding traces that correlate to antiquated Iconioan records." He gazed with a twinge of puzzlement at his counterparts. "Could these intruders somehow be the remnants of a lost civilization?"

Kheren's antennae wobbled.

''Stranger things have been known to occur. Were they not called ''deomons of air and darkness'' because they could move between stars instantly? Your hypothesis, if proven, would explain a great many things.''

He faced Jureth.

''Captain; whoever they are, they seem oblivious to my presence. That might work to our advantage if something... untowards happen. I can manage the ship and remain on an encrypted open frrequency with you, while Mister Rogers here maintain a constant skeketal lock on you with the transporters. At the first sign of a problem, we can yank you back here. They don't have any shielding to block our transporter beam anyway; but if anything pops up, the skeletal lock should solve the problem.''

Antennae, eyes and voice lowered.

''And I will keep watch for our... friend out there.''

Jureth nodded, Kheren's logic was sound and after serving under the Andorian he knew that the former captain was quite possibly one of the best officers Starfleet had ever had. 

"Very well, Mister Syntron, Mister Sorripto; let's go to a meeting." 

With the two officers behind him Jureth stepped forward and into the portal.

They felt absolutely nothing. The only sign they had crossed a treshold was the smoke and darkness suddenly lifting and the sudden change of scenery before their very eyes. The foggy, somber opening silently closed behind them, cutting off the image of the Alsea's command deck.

From the bridge of the Alsea, they had stepped into a dark chamber of indeterminate shape and size, walls and ceiling lost in haze and darkness. The floor was a slightly domed surface of brightly blue-lined, dark-grey hexagons leading to a six sided platform within a crown of spine-looking pillars of violet metal slowly pulsating like vertical-mounted consoles. The platform also had been shrouded in purple fog that lifted as they approached it.

They saw no one but they knew they were not alone.

"Uhh...Hello" Sorripto greeted the empty room.

Every sense in his Cardassian being told him they were being watched, but he saw and heard nothing to indicate a presence in the room with them.

On the other side of the platform, the purple haze coalesced into a tall, vaguely humanoid shape that remained like a shadow of some very tall humanoid of slender proportions, but with a massive head, tall and elongated, with what appeared as antlers or antennae on each side of a flat, featureless face; except for two rows of superposed orbs emitting some soft amber light.

If the strange presence spoke they could only guess, as it was alone. Yet it's voice came from every dorections at once with eerie echos like many talking at once, uncomfortably reminescent of the Borg if not for it's slow, deliberate softness and the definite emotion felt in each inflexion.

''You have come. So have we.''

Jureth took in the scene before him, the being appeared to be standing in front of them, but the spoken words were heard as if there were more than one speaker. He could make no recollection of any such encounter being recorded either from his academy history classes or anywhere else. The Bajoran wondered exactly what they had walked into and for the first time since they'd left Starbase Lotus he wondered if they'd made the right decision when they chose to come alone.

"We have come," Jureth responded "I am Captain Oseno Jureth of the United Federation of Planets." 

The voices spoke again as one.

'' In your thoughts, we are known as the Iconians; we are those among them who escaped extinction by reaching out to the nearest galaxy, long before your species were born. You are of this galaxy. So were we, eons past. Death and destruction we fled then. And so do we again. But this time, it follows us. We cannot stand against it. Neither can you. But together we might.''

There was an image forming between them and the strange apparition. It was like a piece of the cosmos right before their eyes. Then it became a dark void in which three slivers of matter alone moved. Then the image closed in on them and focused on their elongated, cone-shaped scaled bodies and their gaping maw pulsing with blueish, cold energy.

''They are the last of their kind. They will destroy all life in your galaxy; as they did in ours.''

It was fascinating that  a member of a long lost civilization could communicate with them at this point in time yet disconcerting due to the extenuating circumstances they were facing, the Vulcan pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Who is it that that threatens us all and how is it that we will be able to counter this force of annihilation together?" Syntron inquired directly, not comprehending who or what they were facing or what exactly this specter was implying. 

The Iconian boomed in it's peculiar multiple voice.

''They called themselves, the Kelvans. They called us invaders and vowed to bring forth our extinction. They do not exist anymore. But their last death machines are still out there, destroying... coming to the Point of Origin.''

Oseno looked at the images and believed that he recognized them for what they were. "Those look like the planet killers from our briefing." he said looking at Syntron "but they seem different from Kirk's recorded encounter." 

Syntron could sense the level of tension increase as the Bajoran spoke.

"If those are indeed doomsday devices, how are we to deter one let alone three?" Syntron asked almost rhetorically. "It was recorded that they utilized a pure antiproton beam to carve planets up into rubble. It was noted that any vessel in range of such a device would be subjected to heavy subspace interference, subsequently rendering long-range communications null,"

The Vulcan added data from memory.

"In terms of composition, it was reported that the device's hull was made of solid neutronium, and was therefore impervious to attack from a single ship. Phaser beams and similar energy weapons would merely bounce off the dense exterior of the planet killer. They determined that the menace would have to be destroyed from within. The initial explosion was from a Class F shuttlecraft commandeered by Commodore Matt Decker, who perished in the incident as it exploded soon after entering inside. This was later followed by the disabled USS Constellation, manned by Captain James T. Kirk. Following the methodology of Commodore Decker, he steered the starship directly into the pathway of the  Doomsday device, whose internal tractor beams drew it straight into the maw of the entity. Kirk barely escaped as a  97.835 megatons explosion from the ship's self-destruction sequence occurred from within and thus deactivated the menace on stardate 4202.1."

The Vulcan turned to face the Bajoran.

"Are we to undertake a similar approach with three of these devices?"

"We have three." Sorripto said.

"With the right power modifications I could rig the primary hull of the Alsea to detonate and we could take the other two sections and provide support."

Syntron glanced with perplexity at the Cardassian.

"You are suggesting that we sacrifice our primary hull to nullify one doomsday device?" he queried. "Even if this approach was successful, afterwards we would be facing two more voracious adversaries with only two remaining vectors."

"Of course not." Sorripto replied.

"I am saying that if we run out of options we have one final idea which we know will work. The humans I worked with on Mars called it a hail Mary."

The Vulcan then turn toward the Bajoran.

"Perhaps working in conjunction with our Iconian allies, we could formulate an alternative plan that could significantly increase our odds of success in nullifying all three threats."  

Jureth listened to the Cardassian and Vulcan exchange ideas, and looked at the apparition of the Iconian in front of him.

"You propose that we form an alliance to defeat our common enemy. We are open to that proposal. Do you have a solution to disable to destroy the devices?"

The voice that was many took a moment to respond.

''Had we known how to destroy them, they would never have come this far. We have resources in technology, sensory,  energy, transportation; but we are a peaceful people. We survived only because our enemies destroyed themselves with their own aggressive impulses. But you, you are a violent, savage child-civilization, just like the one that killed itself with these. You proved it already. You would know. That is our last hope to save your galaxy, our birthplace.''

The Bajoran captain blinked trying to process the arrogance and condescension coming from these aliens. He had seen the same thing when dealing with the Undine, the superiority complex, and he knew from that experience that threats and bravado were not the right approach so he changed his line of questioning.

"In the only recorded encounter my people have with one of these devices an explosion from a starship engine core was the only thing that stopped it. Your technology is clearly superior to our own. Could you duplicate such and explosion without sacrificing an actual starship?"

''Our weaponry is graviton-based. No explosion can occur with our technology unless we damage our actual power source. That would not be a desirable outcome. However, you have detonating devices of considerable magnitude. Nevertheless, all your armament used at the same time on the same focal point and even adding your vessel's power source would not penetrate the hull of one of these machines. Even if we ourselves detonated our own power source, it would ravage the structure of spacetime in a wide area; yet, not even that would damage their outer shell.''

Jureth nodded "You are correct. The machine encountered by Captain Kirk was destroyed by "feeding" it an already disabled starship. That is, the ship was flown down the maw of the beast and the explosion triggered from inside. So Kirk destroyed it from the inside.  I would be willing to sacrifice my vessel if I knew that would stop them, but at most the method used by Kirk would only eliminate one of the devices." 

He turned to Syntron and Sorripto "Gentleman, we are short on starships it seems, we need an alternative...or more ships." 

There was a perceptible moment of perplexed silence before the Iconians spoke.

''Your other vessel will not join our alliance?''

"Other vessel?" Jureth asked puzzled before it dawned on him what they were talking about "The Achilles..." The Bajoran trailed off trying to figure out how to explain the nature of that particular ship to the Iconians. 

"The Achilles, the other vessel, is...a complicated matter. The ship is not controlled by any of our people. A sentient, and insane, computer program controls that ship. If we wish to add it to our alliance we will have to seize control of it from the computer program. Do you know the name Khan Noonien Singh?" 

''Your provided data does not contain information relevant to this term, '' the Iconian answered.

Syntron swiftly gathered all available information regarding the dangerous augment that seized control of the Achilles, organized them into a file, then sent it to the awaiting Iconians. He then submitted a rather unorthodox proposal to all listening.

"If the Iconians could formulate a methodology to wrest control of either the augment or the Achilles itself, it would add a much needed advantage to our options when confronting the trio of doomsday devices enroute."

Bridge: USS Alsea

Rogers watched as the trio were engulfed by the glowing portal and faded from sight. Then, silently, the pulsing, glowing doorway began to shrink into nothingness. In seconds the bridge of the Alsea had returned to its normalcy, leaving Rogers staring again at the main viewer where moments before the alien pathway had swallowed his comrades.

Looking across the bridge to the tall Andorian, Rogers thought that Kheren seemed to be staring at the nothing that had just been an entrance. David hoped it was also an exit. With a slight cough to clear his slightly restricted throat, David posed a recurring thought toward the Alsea's only other occupant.

"So, who is this ... 'friend out there' ... you mentioned?", David said as he turned and made his way toward the ops station.

''The USS Achilles, first of the class of siege heavy destroyers the Federation and Klingon Empire launched, at the closing of the Dominion War, '' Kheren answered with a somber tone. ''And this one is possibly back under the command of Khan Noonien Singh, the revived 20th century Tyrant superman; or his holographic ghost, rather.''

All the while, Kheren was listening to the exchange between the Iconians and his comrades, puzzling much over what all of it meant. But when the discussion over there came to the exact same subject as to the one he was having with Rogers, his typical Andorian pattern-awareness cicked in and his strategic mind did the rest in an instant.

He didn't need to tap his combadge to contact Jureth and the others.

''Captain; there may be a way to deal with those planet-killers if we do, more or less, what you just suggested.''

Jureth hadn't realized that Kheren had kept a line open, but he was thankful for the Andorian's alert thinking as always.

"We are listening Kheren," the Bajoran replied though it was decidedly still awkward for him to not add captain before Kheren's name.

The voice of the Andorian reverberated around them.

''The Achilles out there is one of only two Starfleet designs to ever come with a very unique tactical feature; torpedo broadsides. She can drown each of those monsters in torpedo salvos down their throat without having to stay more than a second in the line of fire of their planet-cutting beams; especially if the Alsea's three modules distract them with cover fire... and even better, manage to corral them into a nice shooting line.''

He paused before finishing.

''While the rest of you would fly the Alsea in multivector assault mode, Commander Rogers and I would commandeer the Achilles.''

Jureth didn't respond for a moment as he considered the Andorian's plan, but quickly came to the realization that it was the best option given the resources they had on hand. He turned to the others standing with him including the "apparition" of the Iconians.

"Any objections? Additions?"

“I can quickly configure all navigation and tactical controls to coordinate the attack.” Sorripto added.

“It is a streamlined version of our earlier plan and should make each segment much easier to control with only…” Sorripto quickly counted on his fingers before continuing “One of us on each one”.

Generally, the proposal coincided with what the Vulcan had in mind as well yet there was no mention of the major obstacle that could potentially thwart their strategy. He minced no words in getting to the point.

"How will we effectively contend with the holographic augment if it still controls the vessel?" 

Kheren's voice answered them.

''Well for one, I am among the very few who can match him physically. This avatar of the egomaniacal superman knows this... and that my crew and I bested him not once but twice already. I should manage to cause enough of a distraction for our ressourceful Commander Rogers to deal with him technically.''

There was another pause before he added the full extent of his thoughts.

''Judging by the attack on our intergalactic friends, indeed he still has control over the warship; but not always, if his surprising lack of aggressiveness against us would tell us anything. This means to me that we may still have our... ally on board; the hologram of Admiral Neil Stanley Redding.''

"But," Jureth answered "if the ship came out phasers firing how can be sure that the Admiral's holographic personality is still in a condition to aid us? What if Khan has suppressed it as he had the Tess A.I.?" 

The Bajoran remembered reading the reports about the Redding hologram though when the events taken place he had been out of the action after going up against Khan himself. It was not a battle he liked to recall even after some therapy with Counselor Lyrya and the Starbase Lotus medical staff. 

Kheren's voice came back with typical Andorian firmness.

''A distinct possibility. Hence why I will need Commander Rogers to do the real work, the technical battle... while I tussle with the ghost of a genetic superman. And if all else fails, he can find the shield frequency number to allow you to beam us back in case of failure; or the prefix code to drop the Achilles' shields. Of course we will maintain open channels at all times. But I think the risk is worth it. The only other alternative would be to sacrifice the Alsea, each hull firing heads on all it's torpedoes, point blank and down the throat of each thing... as each discharge it's anti-proton planet-slicing beam.''

There was a pause before he finished with a cold tone.

''You are the captain. The decision is yours.''

Jureth didn't particularly relish the idea of sending anyone, even the battle hardened Andorian, up against Kahn again. He knew the battle would be difficult and could even result in the loss of the decorated former captain, but the galaxy as they knew it was at stake. This was not a time for timidity and having control of the Achilles would allow them much more flexibility in the coming battle. 

"Alright," the Alsea's CO replied after a moment "let's go hunt a ghost." 

As the confirming words of the Bajoran were spoken, Syntron gave instructions about reconfiguring long-range sensors to detect the unique signature the starship Achilles. He then turned toward Jureth.  

"If the Iconians have a record of their last encounter with the wayward vessel, it would provide a starting point for us to begin our pursuit."

The tall shadowy figure before them answered immediately with it's booming multi-voice.

''We are sending all of our relevant data to your vessel.''

The voice of Kheren replied a moment later.

''Confirmed. decrypting the Iconian data stream will require more than my standard-issue computing skills however. In the mean time, Commander Rogers will have Syntron's parameters input into the ship's computer for auto-recalibration of the sensors. We will then get ready for our boarding action as soon as you all return.''

Jureth faced their host..hosts? He wasn't really sure just how many beings he was actually speaking with. He pushed the thought away though, and addressed the entity in front of him. 

"If you don't mind, we will return to our ship and put together the final details of gaining control of the other vessel. We can signal you before we depart to seek it out or once we have found it unless you plan to come with us.”

The strange figure made a slight gesture between a nod or a bow. o r maybe it was just lowering it's gaze closer to them. but it's answer was unambigous.

''We will defer to your experience with such matters. Proceed as you best see fit. Define our role and we will fulfill it with all the resources at our disposal.''

Jureth nodded.

"Understood. If you could send us back then?" 

The Iconian gestured again and a portal identical to the one that had brought them from the Alsea materialized behind them. Jureth turned to Sorripto and Syntron.

"Gentlemen, let's get back to the ship and see about catching a madman." 

Jureth led the way through the portal and in less than a second found himself back on the bridge of the Alsea. Once the Vulcan and Cardassian were through the portal promptly disappeared.

"Well that was fun." Sorripto uttered before heading back to the helm. 

Repositioned back at the science station, Syntron prepared for departure from the intergalactic void. What they were going to attempt would indeed be a dangerous undertaking. Nevertheless, the valued gained in reacquiring the stolen vessel could prove to be pivotal in the even more treacherous mission awaiting them afterwards.

"Science department is ready to commence," the Vulcan stoically confirmed  as his eyes gazed toward the main viewscreen.

 Behind the tactical console, Kheren's antennae started to curve inward.

''Sensors recalibrated as per your instructions. Commander Rogers should be ready with some holographic harpoons. I'm here at the crow's nest all four eyes open.  With Lieutenant Commander Sorripto's firm hand on the rudder, we can start hunting for the White Whale.''