Chapter 13: Inertia

Posted: December 30, 2020


Admirals Bullock and Burke stood in the command center of the Jonas' mock Starfleet HQ, patiently waiting for their respective seconds-in-command to arrive. They never did.

"Locate Shin and Archer," demanded Bullock. The terrasphere shook slightly as another explosion rocked it from the inside. There appeared to be no incoming fire from any enemy ships in the area. If the terrasphere was being attacked, they were being sabotaged by a traitor.

"They are….. no longer on the terrasphere," announced Bullock's science officer.

"What?!" demanded Bullock. "They were being beamed directly here from the Smallville section of the terrasphere."

"Affirmative," said Bullock's security chief. "But they were…. Intercepted somehow…."

"By who? Are they on one of the ships in Burke's fleet?"

"Negative. Negative," said on of Burke's Starfleet officers. "They've…. Disappeared."


Val woke up a little slumped in the captain's chair of a ship he did not recognize. After blinking a few times and getting his bearings, he surmised he was on a Federation starship of some kind. He didn't recognize the exact configuration though. Next to him was Vice Captain Valerie Archer, who remained unconscious in her chair. The lights were dimmed a little bit and the condition indication lights notified him that the ship was on blue alert.

Val tapped him combadge.

"Shin to Burke," he said. No answer.

"Captain Shin to any Starfleet officer," he said. No answer.

Val walked around the bridge to attempt to gather more information. He first went to the navigator's console, then to operations. Both of the consoles were locked out. He tried to take the turbolift closest to the operations station, but to his surprise, it was not a turbolift. The doors opened straight to the ship's doctor's office. There was only one biobed and a chair and desk for the doctor. Val stepped back out to the bridge and tried another turbolift. Again, to his surprise, he found that when the doors opened, they did not lead to a turbolift. This one, instead, lead him into a mess hall. Part of him was amused. Putting two and two together, he hypothesized that he was on a training ship or just some other area of the Jonas Terrasphere. There were mock-ups of certain sections of the ship, but they didn't need the turbolifts. Val walked over to the door which would lead him to the captain's office, wondering whether he would walk right into engineering. This time, the door lead to the correct destination. He sat in the captain's comfy chair and spun the computer around. This one was locked out as well. No matter. He waited for Ms. Archer to awaken.

After about half an hour, Val decided to return to the bridge. Archer was still fast asleep. He considered waking her, but decided against it. He stood staring at the blank viewscreen when two humans beamed onto the bridge. At least… he thought hey were humans. They could've been 8271 like Valerie Archer was and disguised as human in preparation to invade Earth. When the two humans beamed in, Archer started to stir from her sleep.

"Val," said Archer. "What's going on?" she was still a little groggy.

"I'm not quite sure…" responded Val.

Archer studied the other two humans on the bridge. They were wearing what appeared to be Starfleet uniforms, but were differently styled. Their entire uniform was black but only the right shoulder had a different color code which continued onto the right sleeve. The older human had a purplish-blue shoulder and had four rank insignia, which were horizontal chevrons instead of circular pips. The younger one had aolive-grey shoulder with two rank insignia. Their combadges were similar to the Federation Starfleet, but were rotated 90 degrees to point to the left.

On the right side of the chest, they both had name tag embroidered onto their uniforms. The younger one was "Duquesne" and the older one was "Braxton."

"They're not ours," said Archer, telling Val that she didn't think the two humans were part of the complement from Terrasphere 6. "But they do look familiar."

Archer stared for a few seconds at the younger one.

"Lieutenant…. Du-kes-nee?" asked Archer.

"Du-kane," said the young officer. "Rhymes with brain. It's a French thing."

"I see," said Archer.

"We have never met," said Duquesne.

"My mistake," said Archer. "A lot of you humans look alike to me."

None of the three humans appeared insulted.

"Who are you?" asked Val. "Where are we? What are we doing here?"


"Admiral Bullock," said his science officer. "One of the trainee ships is moving out of formation. I show two bio-signs on board. Confirming that they are Archer and Shin."

"On screen."

Bullock and Burke watched as a bioship in a line of roughly ten bioships started moving out of the column formation.

"Which one?" asked Bullock, not that it mattered that much.

The 8471 science officer punched up a list and read through the names.

"Endeavour, Enterprise, Excalibur, Excelsior…. It's the Exeter, sir."

"Open a channel," said Bullock.

"Channel open."

"Bullock to Archer, what are you doing?!"

"No response," said Bullock's comms officer.

"Are there intruders on that ship? Saboteurs?" asked Bullock.

"Does not appear so."

"Give me tractors, hold that ship."

"Unavailable."

"Send another bioship to intercept."

"All bioships are down."

"Down? What do you mean, down?"

"Non-responsive. None of the pilots are responding…."

The several officers in the command center watched as a single bioship sped away and increasingly became a tiny dot.

"They're gone," reported Bullock's tactical officer.

A visibly annoyed Bullock threw a pad onto his desk. Maximus Burke tapped his combadge.

"Burke to Solstice, report operational status."

"All systems go," came Thomas Riker's voice over the intercom.

"Beam me up immediately and lay in a pursuit course following the Jonas bioship that just left."

"Aye," said Riker.

Before Burke beamed out, he assured Bullock that he would get Shin and Archer back.


"Two hours from now, a military scientific chief from a species calling themselves the Krenim Imperium will make an incursion into fluidic space. His name is Annorax and he is trying to restore the "greatness" of his species. His attempts will basically destroy the Jonas and the population of species 8471 will be reduced to roughly 5 percent of what they are now. We are notifying you so that you two can stop him," explained Captain Braxton.

"Why don't you guys do it yourselves?" wondered Val.

Braxton waved his hand "through" his first officer Duquesne.

"We're both holograms," explained Braxton. "We are physically sitting in our timeship, the U.S.S. Moebius, in the 29th century. While the Moebius has the tech to time-jump to your time, our officers risk suffering from temporal psychosis if we constantly jump back and forth. We've determined that the best way to proceed with operations is to recruit people in their own timelines, such as yourselves."

"What is it you want us to do?" asked Archer.

"Captain Shin's ship, the Vetara, has a unique ability to shield itself from the Krenim temporal weapons. Or, to be exact, it will have that ability. Inside one of the Vetara's cargo bays is an experimental shielding system that the Obsidian Order prototyped with input from Section 31 and the Tal Shiar. All three intelligence agencies had been working on a special type of cloaking device that was more advanced that your current Klingon and Romulan specs. In initial testing, there were uncontrolled side effects which led the experimental ships to phase through matter. In fact, this side effect will prove useful when the Krenim ship deploys its weapon. The Vetara, identified as "Component 052 Alpha" in the Krenim database, will remain unaffected by the weapon. More importantly, the Vetara's presence will throw off Annorax's calculations and his attempt to restore the Krenim empire will fall short."

"I'm not an engineer," said Shin. "I remember briefly reviewing the specs, I couldn't make heads or tails out of that device."

"You and Kejal have the next hour and a half to figure it out," said Duquesne. "At least now you know it's a cloaking device. That should help."

"Why don't you both beam over or holo-beam over or whatever to the Vetara and walk me through it?" asked Val.

"Can't," said Braxton. "Temporal prime directive, subsection 21(b). We can only interfere on a limited basis in these types of situations. I can give you hints but I can't walk you through."

Val must've given Braxton an angry look.

"It's stupid, I know. But I have to operate inside those parameters. I'm sure there's a good reason for it. If it makes you feel any better, I have the upmost confidence that you and your crew figure this all out."

Val was not a fan of people who follow rules which they themselves knew to be "stupid."

"In 3 minutes, the Solstice will catch up with you. They'll escort you back to the Terrasphere."


"I want that device on the Terrasphere, now!" demanded an irate Bullock.

"That's inadvisable," said Bullock's chief scientist. "The device was designed to link up to Cardassian tech. If it isn't compatible with our terrasphere's shielding, that means it'll be worthless. Then, if Captain Shin's future contact is correct, not only will the Terrasphere be pushed out of the space-time continuum and disappear, but the Vetara will as well, since it will not have the proper shielding. Then there will be nobody left to fight the Krenim."

"Prepare the senior staff, we are going to set up shop on the Vetara. Notify Burke and advise him to do the same. Before the Terrasphere and the Solstice are erased from history."

"Aye, admiral," said his executive officer.

Before any orders were given, the Terrasphere jumped to red alert again.

"The Krenim already?" wondered Bullock.

"Negative. We have twenty enemy faction bioships and one mothership approaching."

"Full shields, full weapons," said Bullock. "Deploy all forward bioships."

"Including training ships?" asked his tactical officer.

"Everything."


Val watched as Kejal studied the device specs and seemed to have deduced how to connect and activate it. He trusted her a great deal, but also knew that if anything went wrong, the entire ship and crew would go out of phase and basically "disappear" from the universe. That was not a pleasant thought.

As Kejal started making the final connections, the ship went to red alert.

"Captain to the bridge," came Sgt. Driver's voice.

"Acknowledged," said Val as he tapped his combadge.

"Do you have this?" asked Val.

Kejal nodded her head with a surprisingly goofy smile. Petty Officer Bonaventura was also there to assist.

Val ran off to the turbolift.


Bullock and Burke's allied forces easily outnumbered the enemy 8471 faction, however, they didn't want to take any chances. Their ships lined up in two rows and prepared to engage in combat. Burke was quite happy that the Hirogen didn't break ranks to "hunt" for trophies. Although they came into fluidic space knowing this was supposed to be a peacemaking mission, it took a lot of effort for them to suppress their nature. They were hunters. They were killers.

"Burke to Vetara, we're going to cover you. Move away from the Terrasphere and then warp to safety."

"Negative, Solstice," said Val. "We'll join you in the line."

"Negative!" said Burke. "If what the time travelers said is correct, your ship has to survive this engagement. You are the most important chess piece. Get to safety. If the timeline changes and the rest of the fleet disappears, you know what to do. We are counting on you to save us."

"Copy," said Val, a little reluctantly. "Plotting coordinates."


Vice Captain Valerie Archer stepped onto the Vetara's bridge.

"Archer. What the hell are you doing here?" asked Val, who was seated at the pilot's console, his fingers flying across the controls.

"Bullock wanted me onboard this ship in case the timeline changed and you needed a liaison with the resulting Jonas in the other multiverse."

Val nodded. It made sense.

Archer took a seat in the captain's chair. Master Sergeant Driver seemed visibly annoyed. He was a second away from physically removing her from "Val's" chair but Val told him it was okay. For now.


Onboard the U.S.S. Solstice, Admiral Max Burke stared at the front viewscreen and watched the enemy fleet with patience. The enemy 8471 faction held position but did not attack. Curious.

Ensign Noah Lessing: Admiral, there is a spatial distortion heading toward us. Whatever it is, it's huge. Five light years across and it's expanding.

Lieutenant Sito: It appears to be a massive build-up of temporal energy. Some kind of space-time shock wave.

Burke knew what this was. It was the weapon that Val's visitors from the future had warned about. Within seconds, the shock wave passed through the Solstice, the Terrasphere, and all the allied ships in the region. They all disappeared except for the Vetera.


"Sir, we are approaching target," said Obrist, a young-looking Krenim colonel who was two hundred years older than he looked.

"Set temporal coordinates. Activate the lance to full power," said Annorax, the commander of the Krenim temporal weapon ship.

"Temporal incursion is in progress," said Obrist.

"Trace elements?"

"Diminishing."

"Counter indications?"

"None so far. Organisms and structures are being eradicated."

"Track the wavefront as it passes through the system. I want to monitor every change in the timeline as it occurs."

"Yes, sir."

Annorax sat down in his chair and played with a small glass pyramid that was laying next to his chair. The pyramid had a lock of his wife's hair. It was the only trace of her left after an accidental side effect of one of Annorax's first missions eliminated the planet on which she was born. He had been trying to undo that mistake ever since.

"Temporal incursion is complete. All organisms and man-made objects have been eradicated."

"Excellent. Probe the continuum. Has our target event been achieved?"

"Negative. Negative target event."

Obrist now seemed a little panicked and his fingers frantically flew across his computer console.

"Something went terribly wrong. The entire Krenim Imperium has reverted back to our pre-Republic days," said Obrist.

"That's not possible. Our calculations couldn't have been that off," said an annoyed Annorax.

"I may have found the explanation," said Obrist. "There is an intermittent anomalous temporal reading twenty light years from here. It is coming from a vessel. Component zero five two alpha. A foreign ship named Vetara."

"That ship was classified as an inert component. It shouldn't be generating a temporal field!" insisted Annorax.

"But now it is. Something must have changed in the recent hours. It was enough to throw off our calculations by a wide margin. In addition, the ship seems to be appearing and disappearing off of our sensors. One second it is there, then it is gone the next."

"Navigations controller," said Annorax. "Take me to them."


Captain Val Shin and his crew watched silently as a behemoth of a ship slowly approached their location. They held their breaths, thinking that even the slight sound of their inhaling could give their position away. Val felt like he was in one of the old timey submarine movies when submarines located each other by listening for sounds on sonar.

"They do not appear to be aware of us," said Corporal Samantha Logan. She had been doing a little bit of cross training and had some understanding of the sensor systems. "They appear to be running a random search pattern."

"How is the cloak holding up?" asked Val.

"It's at maximum efficiency," said Kejal. "We are fully out-phased."

Val would have to get used to that term. Out phased.


"I don't understand. It should be right here," said Obrist. His sensors were trying to find the alien ship Vetara, but to no avail.

"These were its last registered coordinates," said the Krenim navigations controller. "It seems to have…. disappeared."

Annorax was part annoyed and part amused. He was usually the one to make things disappear. This new nemesis might prove to be… interesting.

"Wait. There it is!" said an excited Obrist. But before he could enter any commands, the contact disappeared once again from his sensor screens. His finger didn't even make contact with the screen yet. He punched the console with his fist. He checked his logs and saw that the contact only appeared for two tenths of a second.

"Relax Obrist," said a smiling Annorax. "We have all the time in the world."


After an hour of sitting patiently, Val decided to slowly move his ship away from the Krenim timeship. He had some concern that any movement might cause some type of detectable trace, but he wasn't going to just sit there forever. He engaged his engines at one-third impulse and hoped for the best.


"There! I've got you!" exclaimed a triumphant Obrist.

"You know the drill," said Annorax. "Collect two lifeforms and ten merchant boxes of the hull."

Obrist had re-calibrated his sensors to make sure that he wouldn't "lose" his sensor contact. It was traveling very slowly, no doubt attempting to avoid detection. However, he found himself foiled once again. Even though he could track his target, he found that he could not acquire any lifeforms with his site-to-site materializer. Nor could his ship's cutting laser make contact with the Vetara. The beam simply sliced right through the Vetara as if there was nothing there.

A frustrated Obrist found consolation in one thing. His superior computer hacking skills meant he was somehow able to download the Vetera's complete navigation data logs, plus an extra surprise.

"Unable to aquire lifeforms," said Obrist. "However, we copied and pasted two artificial intelligence programs. Looks to be the captain's aides. We'll run the programs in suite 16."

"Very well," said Annorax.

Obrist left his ship's command center with two subordinates in tow.


"They're slicing right through us," said Corporal Logan. "Clarification: not through as in they're cutting through us. Through as in they are missing us."

"Understood," said Val. He punched a few new commands into his navigator's console. No need in crawling like a turtle now that they've been discovered. He wouldn't drop the phase cloak but he'd certainly jump to warp. With a little bit of further study, he found that due to the Krenim vessel's large mass, their propulsion systems couldn't push past warp six. Val immediately pushed the Vetara to warp seven. After putting significant distance between them, Val slowed his ship down to warp six. He sat back and sighed a sigh of relief.

With a little bit of downtime, Val studied his sensor readings from the engagement. He wasn't as well versed in the readings as a typical science officer, but he surmised that the entire Krenim vessel was in temporal flux. It was as if the Krenim vessel existed outside of the space-time continuum. He tried to figure out if there was any way to use that to his advantage.

"Is that it? We're just going to run from them?" asked Archer.

"It's called a tactical withdrawal," said Val. "You saw that behemoth. We need to gather some allies and regroup. Come over here, please." Val waved his hand to signal her to walk over to the navigator's console.

Archer stepped up from the captain's chair and looked over Val's shoulder at the screen.

"Where should we go?" asked Val.

After studying the display for a few minutes, Archer punched in a set of coordinates.

"It'll be a while until we reach the colony," said Archer. "I hope you have a fun novel to read."


One week later.

"We've been transmitting on all of our frequencies for hours," said Archer. "I don't think anyone is out there."

Captain Val Shin was disappointed. It appeared that the time traveling Braxton and Duquesne were correct. There were very few, if any, members of Species 8471 left in Fluidic Space.

"Captain, I think…. there might be somebody out there after all," said Corporal Logan. She had continued to pull double duty as a MARCO and the ship's sensors operator. She linked her sensor screen to the front viewscreen to allow the rest of the command crew to see.

"Looks…. Borg?" said Val as he squinted to make out the information. The sensor information indicated it was a relatively small reconnaissance sphere. Val weighed whether he should stay out of the Borg's radar.

"They are… transmitting a distress code," said Petty Officer Bonaventura, who was helping Logan. "It's a Starfleet freak." She used a slang abbreviation for frequency.

"Message is in text," said Logan. "Message reads: Any Federation or allied starship, please assist. We have been attacked." The text was also duplicated in Vulcan, Romulan, French, and what looks to be Chinese or Japanese.

"It could be a trap," said Master Sergeant Driver.

"Yea. Could be," said Driver in a low voice. He tapped in coordinates and the Vetara sped toward the Borg sphere.


Annorax was quite impressed with his most recent guests. The two Cardassian artificial intelligence programs were actually smarter than he expected. Unfortunately for him, they didn't possess any knowledge or insight into their captain that he could use. Even if they had, Annorax suspected that they would be loyal to their captain. Another surprise for him: he had never expected artificial intelligence programs to possess a character trait such as loyalty.

"There's something about you two that makes us the same," said Annorax. "In a sense, time has very little meaning for us."

In the roughly one week since Obrist first activated the two holographic artificial intelligence aide programs, Annorax had on occasion observed how fast the two programs absorbed information. At first, he wasn't sure how well they actually understood what they were absorbing. Even if you remember the words of a book backwards and forwards, it doesn't necessarily mean the reader actually understood what the words meant. Annorax determined that these two Cardassian programs had a pretty good handle of the information they read. Although both programs were intelligent, Annorax felt that the male hologram was more of an "intellectual." They were had curiosity, but the male Cardassian came up with theories and then played them through.

"I never studied temporal theory back on Cardassia," said the duplicate hologram of Crell Moset. "It's quite fascinating."

Annorax could tell that the hologram wasn't being completely truthful. Yet another character trait he would not have believed possible for a computer program. Annorax would later learn that the original hologram Zet had indeed discussed temporal mechanics briefly with his captain Val Shin during one of their casual conversations. They had only touched upon the concept of temporal paradoxes.


Val Shin carefully evaluated the tactical strength of the Borg sphere. He didn't want to get into a firefight that the Vetara couldn't handle.

"So…. what's the verdict?" asked Master Sergeant Driver.

"Looks like the ship is heavily damaged. Weapons and shields are inoperative," said Val. He tapped in a few commands and the Vetara slowly approached closer.

After moving the Vetara into beaming, Val disengaged his ship's cloak and immediately hailed the Borg ship.

It took a few seconds for the Borg to respond, but Val was soon treated with two bemused looking Borg on the viewscreen.

"Starfleet," said the Romulan. "Thank goodness you are here. We need to be beamed aboard immediately."

"Can your ship be salvaged?" asked Val. He was interested in fixing up the sphere so that he could have another ship under his wing, so to speak, when he eventually decided to go after the Krenim timeship.

"Negative. Negative," said the female Borg in a hurried fashion. "There is still at least one intruder onboard. It will find us soon. We need to be evacuated. Now!"

Logan tapped away at the sensors station.

"Reading one other lifeform on the sphere. It is Jonas."

Vice Captain Archer's eyes lit up a little bit. She was glad to finally bump into one of her species. But Val Shin was less enthused. It appeared that even in this timeline, the Jonas and the Borg were at war with each other. It would take some skillful maneuvering to keep them at peace and possibly even unite them against the Krenim. The timeship appeared to have altered the timeline so that the Jonas were drastically weakened. That may have benefited the Borg to some extent. They might not be willing to go along with Val's plan to restore the timeline.

"Beaming them over," said Val. "Sergeant Driver, please have a team of MARCOs stand by in the Brig. I am beaming the two Borg directly into one of the cells, just in case."

"Kejal, you have the bridge. I am going down to meet our new visitors," said Val after he finished beaming the Borg over.

"Hey!" interjected Valerie Archer.

Val gave Archer a confused look.

"I should be next in command," insisted Archer. She pointed at the three pips on the collar of her uniform.

"With all due respect, ma'am," said Driver, saying the word ma'am a little bit sarcastically. "That's not a uniform you're wearing. It's a costume. You're an imposter. You're not a Starfleet officer. You're not even human."

Archer was a little bit annoyed.

"What does being human have to do with it?" asked Archer. "This isn't even a human ship. Plus, if you want to gain allies among the remaining Jonas, you will need me in charge."

Val was afraid something like this was going to happen. Though, he was originally more concerned with a possible flare-up between Driver and Kejal.

"This is all moot," said Val. "Ms. Archer is coming with me with me to meet our new friends.

"She is?' asked Driver.

"I am?" asked Archer.

"She is," said Val.

Nobody had any counter argument.


Annorax and two of his subordinates reached suite 16 and entered without warning.

"You must be out of your mind," said an annoyed Annorax.

A calm hologram duplicate of Crell Moset stared at Annorax with a look of curiosity.

"You think I should commit suicide?!" said Annorax as he waved his infoPad in the air. It contained Moset's theory on how Annorax could achieve his mission.

"Do you want to restore the Krenim Imperium or not?" asked Moset.

Annorax thought that the theory had some logical basis. Which made him even more furious.

"I suggest you find another way," demanded Annorax. "Or don't theorize at all. I will NOT eliminate my own self from the timeline."

Moset gave it some thought for a few minutes as Annorax glared at him.

"How about….. just the ship itself?" said Moset.

"Elaborate," said Annorax.

"You and your crew evacuate the ship on escape capsules, leaving you unprotected by changes in timeline. Set your ship's lance weapon to take itself out of the time-space continuum. When your ship disappears, everything should reboot."

Annorax thought about the idea. It wasn't bad. Taking the ship out of the time continuum now meant that it would disappear from all time frames: past, present and future. It could work, in theory. Annorax would want to make a few of his own calculations and run some of this own simulations.

"You will need to decide fast," said Moset. "I know you said earlier that time has no meaning for you. Maybe in this case it does. You should know that my captain will be hunting you."

"Your captain ran away from me like a coward," said an indignant Annorax.

"The humans. They never truly give up, even when they run. You can rest assured that even as we speak, they are planning a counter attack. Most likely, my captain is gathering allies. It's what the humans do. They are weak by themselves but they align themselves in alliances. Or federations. Most importantly, they are sharers. My captain will share his tech. They will come and eventually destroy your ship. Then what? You'll be destroyed in the present and for the future, but whatever you've done in the past might remain. You need to use your own temporal lance to push your ship out of the time continuum so that the ship won't exist in the past either. You know I'm right."

Annorax remain annoyed. He was very tempted to call his guest a "dumbass." He stormed out of Suite 16 with a lot on his mind.


Val Shin, Valerie Archer, and Nathan Driver had an interesting conversation with the two Borg in the Vetara's holding cells. The two drones had designations slightly different than the ones Val was used to. The female called herself "Fifty David 3" and the male called himself "Forty-two Baker." These designations were made up after the Borg Cube they were on somehow lost contact with the hive mind and they lost most of their memories. The most assertive drone decided on designations that mimicked ancient police callsigns on Earth. The first number was a "district" number corresponding to large sections of the cube. The second alphabet was a sector which was a smaller part of the district. The sectors went from "Adam, Baker, Charlie, David" to "Henry." If there were more than one Borg in the sector, then there was another number after the alphabet letter. While in Fluidic space, the Borg Cube was attacked by over a dozen Jonas bio-ships. The Cube was quickly disabled and several Jonas warriors beamed onto the Cube to dispatch their enemies in hand-to-hand combat.

The two Borg drones did not seem to be cognizant of the fact that Archer was actually a Jonas in disguise. They weren't sure what happened to the rest of their Borg crewmates, although they knew that the Cube was ultimately destroyed. At least four ancillary vessels like their sphere had escaped from the explosion, but there may have been Jonas onboard those escaped vessels just like on their sphere. Once the combatants came face to face, the typical Borg were no match for the Jonas. The Borg relied on technological superiority, which didn't seem to be effective against the Jonas. Biologically, the Borg were quite stiff. They lacked agility, finesse, and limb dexterity. They were easily dispatched. Luckily for the Borg on the disconnected Cube, once they disconnected from the hive mind, they began to feel human again, or feel more like whichever species they were originally. They moved with a little more ease and were more capable of running and hiding from the Jonas infiltrators.

"My MARCOs will escort you both to sickbay. We may be able to remove many of those Borg implants and maybe restore many parts of your human or Romulan anatomy.

The female Borg nodded and seemed to smile a little bit.

"If it's not too much trouble, can I request a Starfleet uniform to change into? It would feel nice to be back in one," requested Fifty David 3.

"Oh good, some of your memories are returning," said Val.

"Not quite. Very brief flashes. I do remember being a Starfleet officer on the U.S.S. Roosevelt. They nicknamed her "Big Teddy."

"Very well," said Val. "I'll ask one of my crewmembers to replicate a uniform for you."

Once the two Borg were escorted out of the Brig area, Val tapped his combadge.

"Shin to Logan, run a hyper-range sensor sweep and look for other Borg vessels. Small ones."

"Aye, captain," came Logan's voice over the intercom.

Next, Val gave Archer a mischievous look.

"What?" asked Archer.

"Ready for an adventure?"

Archer wasn't sure.

"You're beaming over to the sphere to find your compatriot and recruit her to our cause," Val said confidently.


Annorax sat at a conference table with his trusted second-in-command Obrist.

"Your thoughts, colonel?" asked Annorax.

"The theory is sound, professor," said Obrist.

They had been discussing Moset's theory for the past hour.

"He thinks me a madman," said Annorax. He was half saddened and half outraged.

"Who? The Cardassian hologram?" asked Obrist.

Annorax nodded.

"That thing about fire that his captain moralized? Or Electricity? It's nonsense. Don't take it seriously," said Obrist.

Annorax knew it was possible for geniuses to do more damage than good. In his heart, he knew it would've been better if he had simply diverted his intellect to other pursuits from the beginning.

"Regardless," said Annorax. "Prepare the crew to disembark on the scouting boats. I'll take the captain's yacht. You're welcome to join me or the officers as you'd like."

Obrist nodded.

"And let's draw up an incursion to time lance our ship out of the timestream," Annorax said with a small hint of sorrow. He touched one of the bulkheads and reminisced.

"She has served us for a long time," said Obrist.

"And served us well," said Annorax.


Three weeks ago.

Admirals Bullock and Burke stood in the command center of the Jonas' mock Starfleet HQ, patiently waiting for their respective seconds-in-command to arrive. It took a few moments longer than usual, but Val Shin and Valerie Archer soon materialized.

"What's up?" asked Val. There were red alert lights blinking everywhere.

"Internal sensors had registered an attack a minute ago, but now everything seems to be normal," said Burke. His officers were a little confused. As were Bullock's.

"There are no enemy ships in the area," reported Bullock's tactical officer.

"Hmmm…" wondered Burke.

"Stand down red alert," said Bullock.

Sergeant Driver walked up to Val with a cup of coffee.

"Hey boss, your fave coffee mix: French Vanilla," says Driver.

"Vanilla?" asks Archer, with a raised eyebrow.

Val took a sip. "Coffee is not milkshake," he said with a smile.

"Receiving an incoming message. Origin unknown," said Bullock's communications officer.

"Let's see it."

"Text only. It reads: Congratulations Captain Shin and Vice Captain Archer. Mission Accomplished. Signed Captain Braxton."

"Captain Braxton?" asked Burke.

Val shrugged.

Bullock gave both Burke and Val an inquisitive and somewhat accusatory look. He hoped that Val didn't sabotage anything on the Terrasphere.

Suddenly, the red alert lights flashed back on.

"Report," said Bullock.

"Multiple bioships from enemy faction are en route," reported his tactical officer. "As is a Borg Cube, not far behind."

"All hands to battle stations," ordered Bullock.


Author's Notes:

This current chapter (Chapter 13) is based off of elements of the Star Trek Voyager episodes Year of Hell, both parts, episodes 4x8 and 4x9 and Relativity, episode 5x24.

To the readers: Thanks for reading! I wish everyone a fantastic 2021!

Below is a bunch of information for reference only. It's not story, just more of a reference guide. It's all information that has appeared in the earlier chapters.

There have been quite a few questions asked about this sprawling fanfic since I started it many many years ago. I will attempt to answer some of the more common questions below:

What are the names of all of the MARCOs?

I haven't named all, or even most, of the MARCOs. Thus far, here are the named MARCOs:

Brevet Major Aaron Douglas – previous commanding officer of the MARCOs. Perished when the Caretaker Array brought Voyager to the Delta Quadrant. Aaron Douglas and Val Shin were quasi-teammates during training and also briefly reunited on an off-the-books diplomatic mission during the Federation-Cardassian wars.

Staff Sergeant Nathan Driver: current highest ranking MARCO. Platoon sergeant. Within the story, Nathan is from upstate New York whereas Val Shin is from Long Island. Both were interested in joining the sea-going Navy and serving on submarines before eventually joining Starfleet and the MARCOs, respectively.

Sergeant Julie Hall: Squad leader, 1st squad. Each squad has three teams.

Sergeant Matthew "Matt" Raines: Squad leader, 2nd Squad.

Corporal Lorenzo "Zo" Rodriguez: team leader, fireteam Charlie, 1st squad. (each fireteam has one corporal and three privates). Cpl. Rodriguez initially comes into conflict with Val but eventually becomes quite loyal and protective of him. Cpl. Rodriguez's brother was a Starfleet crewman who was killed by the maquis during a raid.

Corporal Santiago (male)

Corporal Samantha Logan

Corporal Morris

Private First Class Hugh McCarter

Lucas van der Hoeven (rank unspecified): Corporal Rodriguez' roommate

Private Caitlyn Evans

What are the ranks in your fanfic alternate universe?

Starfleet Officers: (discussed in chapter 7)

Ensign

Junior Lieutenant (somewhat rare, reserved for only new doctors and prosecutors)

Lieutenant

Third Captain (extremely rare, only on very large starships)

Vice Captain

Captain

Admiral (multiple grades)

I specifically replaced the rank "Commander" and "Lieutenant Commander" with Vice Captain and Third Captain because many people are often confused as to why a commander ranks below a captain. For instance, in some police forces, a captain ranks directly below commander. In many navies other than the British and American navies, the lieutenant commander and commander ranks are modified captain ranks, with lieutenant commander often being "corvette captain" and commander being "frigate captain," with corvettes and frigates being smaller vessels than battleships.

Enlisted Starfleet ranks are numerous grades of Crewman and Petty Officers.

MARCO officers:

Cornet (equivalent to Starfleet Ensign), typically leads a platoon

Brevet Major (equivalent to Starfleet Lieutenant), typically commands a "company"

Major (rough equivalent to Starfleet Vice Captain), typically commands a battalion

Colonel (equivalent to Starfleet Captain), typically commands a brigade

General (equivalent to Admiral), various grades command divisions, or corps.,

I specifically avoided using the words lieutenant or captain in the MARCO ranks, to avoid confusion with Starfleet officer ranks.

MARCO soldiers:

Private

Private First Class

Corporal

Sergeant

Staff Sergeant

Master Sergeant

Krowtonan:

These ranks are tricky. Because nothing much is spelled out about the Krowtonan in the actual episode, these are my creations.

Mah: Rough equivalent of a Starfleet ensign (introduced in chapter 6)

Pow: Rough equivalent of a Starfleet lieutenant (introduced in chapter 4)

Char: Rough equivalent to a MARCO colonel/Starfleet captain (chapter 6)

Jang: Rough equivalent to a general/admiral

Shi: a Krowtonan civilian official, no Starfleet equivalent

I basically quasi copied these names from Chinese chess pieces.

Mah = Chinese for horse/knight

Pow = Chinese for "cannon/catapult" ("Pao")

Char = abbreviation for "chariot" ("Che" in Chinese)

Jang = Chinese for general ("Jiang")

As a sidenote: although there are some similarities between Chinese chess and western chess, the pieces do not behave in exactly the same ways.

Hirogen:

In universe, there appear to be only two Hirogen ranks: Alpha and Beta. I tried to expand on it a little bit.

In my fanfic: the Hirogen are often called the Hirogen Wolfpack. The entire race was often called the "Hirogen super-cluster" or the "Hirogen super-pack."

Supreme Alpha: leader of the entire Hirogen "super-cluster/super-pack"

High Alpha: leader of one of the three main Hirogen "clusters"

Alpha: leader of the one of the numerous Hirogen packs

Beta: second-in-command to an Alpha.

Gamma: a senior hunter. Sometimes called a "lone wolf," they often operated outside of a pack. They were often forward scouts hunting for new prey. They reported directly to an alpha, bypassing the beta.

Hunter/Wolf: the main bulk of the Hirogen

Omega: young hunters in training.

Which Voyager episodes does the Into the Field fanfic intersect with?

Probably…. a lot.

The major ones that come to mind:

Chapter 4 "In Bed With" first half (roughly) introduces the Krowtonan Guard, who were briefly mentioned in the episodes "Equinox" (season 5 episode 26 and season 6 episode 1). The U.S.S. Solstice in my fanfic is the alternate universe version of the U.S.S. Equinox. Admiral Maximus Orwell Burke is my fanfic's version of Lieutenant Maxwell Burke. Ensign Marlena Gilmore is my version of Ensign Marla Gilmore.

Chapter 4 "In Bed With" second half is based on the Voyager episode "Nothing Human" (Season 5 Episode 8). In that episode, a holographic Crell Moset is designed by the doctor and Ensign Harry Kim to help with an exobiology task. I flipped the "patient" by having Harry Kim be the patient instead of B'Ellanna Torres who was the patient in the original episode. I retained Tom Paris play a similar role in advocating for the use of the hologram to save the life of Torres/Kim. However, I reversed the ending and had Captain Shin retain the Cardassian hologram, with the hope that "Zet" could overcome his possibly callous nature and change for the better while still remaining an important medical advisor.

Chapter 4 also briefly mentions two characters, Crewman First Class William Telfer and Crewman Tal Celes, who are from the Voyager episode "Good Shepherd" (season 6, episode 20).

Chapter 8 "In the Stars" introduces "Evansworld," which is my story's version of the planet found by Voyager in the episode "the 37s" (season 2, episode 1). In the episode, this planet was settled by humans and led by John Evansville. In my version, the governor is named John Evans.

There is also a brief appearance by silverblood duplicates of Tom Paris and Harry Kim (nicknamed "London" and "Kimball.") These duplicates are from the episode "Course: Oblivion" (season 5, episode 18). The nicknames are a play on another episode in which Paris and Kim holographic alter egos were nicknamed "Marseilles" and "Kymble."

Other characters:

Vance Larkin: Evansworld interplanetary affairs minister. A bit of a "poindexter." His name is taken from the character U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin from the movie 1997 "Con Air." In the movie, Marshal Larkin is referred to as "thesaurus boy."

Military Chief Myles Duncan: highest ranked Evansworld uniformed military officer. His name is taken from the character DEA Agent Duncan Malloy, who is played in the movie Con Air by actor Colm Meaney, the same actor who plays Chief Miles O'Brien, the transporter chief from the U.S.S. Enterprise and later Chief of Operations of DS9.

Pilots Loco, Crash, and Cowgirl are members of Nova Squadron, from the Next Generation episode "The First Duty." They are, respectively: Nicholas Locarno, Wesley Crusher, and Jean Hejar.

As a sidenote: I've introduced the "EvansPad" as the standard for Val's handheld information device. It is a version of the real-world touchscreen Apple iPad, which I feel is more advanced than the Starfleet pads of Voyager days in the late 1990s.

Chapter 12 "In Disguise" is loosely based on the Voyager episode "In The Flesh" (season 5, episode 4). Valerie Archer and Admiral Bullock are species 8472 spies who are training to infiltrate Earth. However, in the original episode, the training ground, Terrasphere 8, is located in normal space, not fluidic space.

Where did you get your ship names from?

My fanfic's main ship is the Galor-class unmanned exploratory ship Vetara. This ship is my creation and inspired by the Voyager episode "Dreadnought" (season 2 episode 17). In that episode, a Cardassian self-guided missile (large enough to be comparable to a shuttlecraft in size) disappeared from the Alpha Quadrant and was found cruising through the Delta Quadrant. I expanded the missile into a full-blown ship. In addition, I built on the DS9 episode "Improbable Cause" which revealed an alliance between the Obsidian Order, Cardassia's intelligence agency, and the Tal Shiar, Romulus' intelligence agency. The objective of this alliance was to destroy the Founders in the Gamma Quadrant. Thus, I made the Vetara a ship belonging to the "secret" alliance, while also throwing in the human "Section 31/Bureau" into the mix as the third partner in the secret alliance. Section 31 was first introduced in DS9 and has appeared throughout several episodes/shows. The name Vetara was chosen by Gul Evek, of the Cardassian military. He was in charge of the unmanned experiment and named the ship as a variant of his own flagship, the Vetar.

U.S.S. Solstice – a Nova class science ship, alternate universe version of U.S.S. Equinox

U.S.S. Resolute – alternate universe version of the U.S.S. Dauntless, from the Voyager episode "Hope and Fear" (season 4, episode 26)

U.S.S. Moebius – a 29th century Wells-class timeship, alternate version of the USS Relativity. (season 5, episode 24)

The two Krowtonan frigates which Val often comes into contact with, the Yond and the Sullis, are named a little bit randomly. I happened to be looking at a bag with the "Bed, Bath, and Beyond" logo on it. Sullis is derived from the Latin name for the British city of Bath, which is Aquae Sulis.

Fictional organizations that I created:

MARCOs: the Marine Commandos division of the Federation military forces. I based them on the MACOs (Mobile Assault Combat Operations) from the Enterprise series. In the TNG/DS9/Voy timeframe, the MACOs had ceased to exist, but I brought them back in my alternate universe.

UFAID: United Federation Agency for Interplanetary Development. During one of Val Shin's earliest field assignments, he was an oversight officer for a humanitarian relief involving the UFAID. (This is discussed in a flashback in Chapter 3) I modeled the acronym after USAID, the United States Agency for International Development.

FBBI: the Federation Bureau of Biohazards Investigation. In Chapter 12, there is a civilian human character named Dr. Francis Lee Goodspeed of the FBBI. He is modeled after a character from the 1996 movie "The Rock" named Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, a chemical weapons specialist with the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation.)

"The Circle of High Coordinators" = the command authority of Species 8472.