Dust To Dust

Posted on Mon 20th Apr, 2026 @ 2:15pm by Captain Gordon Francis & Commander Heriah Rex & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide & Lieutenant Victor Delling MD & Captain Izwyx 'Lo & Commander Damion Ildaran & Alidade (Computer)

7,795 words; about a 39 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] From The Ashes
Location: SB109
Timeline: After "Ashes to Ashes"

{Continued from "Ashes to Ashes"}

(IBEX)

"Ildaran to Francis," Damion said from the IBEX, "We have 105 passengers. We can take 30 more before time runs out."

Reggie had to add, "The White Room can only accommodate those who are able to conceive of it. We can't put people in there without preparation it's out of the question, and our meager life support won't hold them for long, we all have hours at best and those people have to leave or this ship becomes toxic!"

Makoto chimed in, "We can mask transport signatures to the Ehtevau, if they wont notice the extra people we can sneak them onto there. The Ferengi freighters are also an option, but they are straining their limits as is..."

Kolor made a chiding sound, "Romulans seek the answers to any mystery. It would reveal us. I recommend the Freighters."

I'm going to smack that hologram, one of these days, Damion thought from the "pool table" as Reggie spoke. He stifled his temper and replied. "Reggie, the time to have told me that was six minutes ago. I was able to handle the White Room without warning or preparation. These people can handle a few minutes of it if the alternative is death. Makoto, we can't just beam unexpected passengers to another ship with no permission--Cold Equations. Use our Denobulan yacht identity to request space for these passengers from the Ehtevau. I see they've got plenty of space for 135. If Ehtevau's space is already spoken for, seven empty freighters just came into the vicinity."

Makoto looked pleasantly surprised, comparing this man to the captain who had come before. Alex had fewer qualms, but his end had come violently. Damion was different and she appreciated him for saying so. She replied in an even tone, "Aye sir. masking signature will take a moment, sending requests.... now."

Reggie began to speak, "Belay that order, we cannot reveal ourselves-" but Kolor hit a command on his board and Reggie dissolved.

With a Sheepish grin, Kolor muttered, "Oops, sorry looks like the hologrid has energy surges from the power phasing. Very hard to regulate power right now sir. Shall I begin transport to the Ehtevau?"

"Thanks, Makoto. Kolor, may the gods of Cardassia bless you; you've saved my sanity. If Ehtevau grants permission, transport once they send coordinates," Damion said.

(RWS Ehtevau)

Another message came through the communications system. This is the Rose of Denobula to Romulan vessel Ehtevau. Requesting permission to emergency beam-over 135 evacuees to your vessel. An entire bank of our O2 scrubbers has malfunctioned, and we cannot keep the passengers on our ship without risking partial life support failure. Can you assist?

=/\=We can assist, and there is room for you as well Ambassador. Please stand by.=/\= the voice of Verelan cut through the anxiety with its calm and precise speech. She was proficient in standard, but not as practiced as she would like.

Not an ambassador; just a Denobulan. Thank you very much, Ma'am. Jolan tru. Rose of Denobula out, came the reply. Moments later, groups of 15 people at a time were beamed to the Ehtevau until nine groups had been beamed over.

***************************

{Second Star- Bridge}

Quinton saw their numbers hit max and keep going, Kas put a stop to it before it was allowed to go over their redlines. Their stately vessel, an Excelsior class ship refit for a second life in merchant service found itself at the aid of Starbase 109 once again.

"Captain, we can't take on more. Five thousand about does it-"

Quinton cut her off, "Got it, what else can we do to help?"

Judah responded over ships comms, the disembodied boy was always listening, "SO MUCH, whoa. Ahhh, there is a ships intelligence over there on the Thunderchild makes me afraid to say hi you know? Looks like its about to fire on the station but chatter supports this is a planned event.... They need power, apparently main powers been cut off and the stations on batteries and draining fast."

Othor concurred, he was the man in the seat, where Judah was the head in the clouds. "We can't help with power, but if we opened our leased decks we could squeeze three hundred more evacuees."

Fala Gaz yelled from her office, the conference room aft of the bridge. "Already spoken for!"

Sheepishly Othor gave the universal shrug of "I dont know."

Vicente saw something and spoke up, "Hey we could extend our shields into their containment systems, bolster whatever they're protecting the rest of the station from."

Quinton loved the sound of it, but had to ask, "If we are worried of an explosion won't this leave us exposed?"

Kas shook her head as Judah said "No sir."

His expectant look prompted Kas to explain, "We have two shield grids and a redundant micro polarizer in critical spots reinforcing sections with full plating."

He got it, "We would just be pushed away, but second shield catches us then. Send word to their engineers we have buckets and tools ready to go, any specialists for energy systems and bombs go to top of the list, and can we send workers to Ticonderoga?

Kas acknowledged, "If we settle into orbit, we can broadcast our..." She stopped to consider the name of this new innovation, "We can throw our blanket and settle into an orbit as a satellite. If we delineate a certain deck we could even isolate the explosion to the immediacy and mitigate further spread. It'd save the top two-thirds from catastrophic damage."

Othor mentioned as well, "If we are shedding our crew, and Fala is looking to fill the Leased Decks, we should consider taking on the Station's Senior staff. We have officer wards, hookups, legal authority..."

Indeed Fala was listening, and entered the bridge this time to say, "I've put together an enticing package for the Station to consider. Send this to Commander Rex, and Captain Francis, along with my message as stated: The Second Star charter compels us to duty in regards to the safety of Starfleet officers and Federation civilians. Though we have taken on many of the refugees from your station, we retain a suite of offices, labs and board rooms for the senior staff of this station to use freely and congregate into. We offer a space for a temporary Operations center on board our ship."

She sent her offer to Vicente, "We can accommodate this, you will need to oversee the process."

Quinton, Othor and Kas all looked it over, with Kas adding a whistle.

Fala was beaming, "I think I like the Win/Win outcome the most don't you agree?"

****
{Station Comms- Habitat Ring}

Leslie Mack was in fine form, sweating in a profane way from the litany of abuses the vile man self-imposed via vitriolic bile spewing forth in his weekly segment on Station news. The viewership had declined greatly over the last few years, his brand of paranoid fear mongering finding less appeal in an age of cooperation and new expansion.

“AND you get to pay them for the privilege. Starfleet’s involvement in the Hobus event was the perfect entry point for thousands of Romulans into Federation spaces. The Tal Shiar have perfected chemical warfare utilizing activated Orion pheromones, it's turning the cetaceans gay!”

Across from Leslie was a co-host that had been picked for her sass and verve, but also because as a Minaran she was mute. Tracy spoke through a Voder, so Leslie always had control over her volumes. She was allowed to say anything she wanted, it was great when she got a zinger in, but Leslie had the louder microphone and endless hot air.

With her voder, Tracy intoned, “There is no evidence of any changes in gender expression-”

Leslie was red in the face, balding, with a neck swallowing the head whole, as he shouted through gritted teeth, “Like we can trust any reports out of the established science circles?! The Vulcan Science Directorate used a Jellyfish configuration probe to insert RED Matter into the Hobus star. Supernovas don’t just happen.”

She knew her role was the simpleton, not dumb but not knowledgeable, but something within her com “The Hobus event was a subspace shockwave that collapsed tertiary wave forms-”

She stopped as Leslie cut to station newsfeed, once the cameras were off he turned to his cohost, “Tracy, get the hell out of here with that nonsense. Tershey Forms my Tushy.”

Tracy just deep sighed, not even bothering to respond.

Leslie dabbed his brow, his voice raw from the screaming, sweat glistening the rotund cranium bulging with a roadmap of veins.

The feeds were active and the signal was going, Leslie took a deep breath.

“FOLKS, YOU WONT BELIEVE-”

Power cut off to everything but basic lights and life support in an instant. A loudspeaker announcement said the station was being evacuated, and in that very moment Leslie became invisible. Tracy dropped any semblance of civility with Leslie and just left her co host without a word. She had nothing to say to him. Her focus was getting to her family, a cousin and her niece who would be terrified.

The staff had fled and he was alone. Not one soul to even ask if he needed anything. His egotistical brain broke under the weight of realization that he had brokered no peace, earned any trust, or made a single friend.

“Folks?” He spoke the phantom into its last moment of existence, a bubble of fame and delusion gone in an instant.

He dared to venture into the Promenade above the main Habitat ring and saw throngs of “folks“ heading to airlocks. The density of the crowd provoked immediate anxiety and he shrunk back inside. The drama of the moment reduced him in stature yet again as he realized how much had just evaporated from underneath his feet.

The timer announced every minute, and Leslie dared to go farther outside the studio. The crowds were still thick but less of an issue than before. Leslie felt he had to move now or be left behind. A part of him just knew it was Romulans that had to be responsible for this. Another part of him wondered why though. It wasn’t a very loud part, the clamoring survivor persona was at the wheel.

Leslie found a terminal and punched in his access codes, the evacuation orders rising immediately to the top over any other message. The berth was not far, but the crowd was very thick. At a gentle run he could, but the years of sitting and living in stress had taken their toll. He knew he’d never make it in time. He utterly despaired, as it dawned on him how awful it was to need a soul in his corner to help him and not have one.

He tried to make motions in the crowd, but his bluster paled to the real crushing need of the people to move to their shuttles. After a stumble to the ground nearly got him trampled, Leslie found a benchrow on a curved wall where a small space existed free of the crowd. He sat, and panicked, unsure what else to do.

In a moment of surprising stillness, it was here that he noticed the small Calico kitten seeking refuge that mewed to call him. Leslie felt a curious cessation of panic, and the din all around him lowered into a buzz. This fixation cured him of all other concerns, and his heart beat for the first time with someone else on the brain.

“Hey fella, PSPSPSPS.” He made the Universal sound to summon cats, it worked like a charm. He picked up the orange creature and felt his heart beat faster.

Suddenly, the cat was his sole focus, and he knelt down to it. The nuzzling action and infant mewling locked it in.

“Heyyoulooaktchuigotchu.”

It mewed back, and Leslie came to the swift conclusion he would do anything to protect this little gift. He had only a chance to look up again, before a transporter beam claimed his existence.

{Ehtevau}

Leslie Mack appeared in the cargo hull of a strange place. He couldn’t place the tones, but there was a green hue to the lighting. He wasn’t alone, voices compelled him as part of a crowd to move and he didn't resist. It only took a moment to see they were being herded as a group of station crew. There was really only a sense of their rescuers wanting to help, but he still felt undeniable chills now he knew the ones doing the pointing and ordering were distinctly Romulan

In a huff, Leslie hesitated before moving at the guards prompt and said only, “Fuuu…”

"Dr. i'hartelhai, we have another one." Called out a guard, to someone not visible from the line of people.

Makila came around the corner, in a federation lab coat, her curls a riot around her face, secured by a ribbon that was askew. "Never been on a Romulan ship before?" She asked, bubbling over with enthusiasm, as if the idea of boarding a a Romulan ship happened every day, instead of once in a lifetime. She was going to be incredibly exhausted when this is over.

Leslie Mack stared ahead with the eyes of a prey animal in a stun. While it is true that the repugnant, narcissistic, propagandistic, blustering xenophobe had made a living off of blaming everything on parasites and Romulans, he wasn't a fool. Playing one on TV had paid off, but the act was no longer a viable tactic to stay alive. As it was often with spineless single celled racist paramecium, he evolved, to fit the environment he was in.

"Wow, what a place, Jo-Laahn Trooo, and Aefvadh." He had taken on the most beamish of smiles, and the sweat in his hands was making droplets. His accent was atrocious but the enunciation was surprisingly eloquent, as if the man was commandeering a language rather than speaking it.

He almost offered his hand to shake but caught that before it happened. Romulans didnt touch without intimacy. Instead, he did a mild bow and pressed into the next formal questions.

With utterly no sincerity he rambled out, "...Veisa vihroi? Veisa notht? Ekhesai, Viduus au paeti, Rhanne na docgae Rihannsu. Vikra oiius?"

(Welcome, How are you, what is your name , pleased to meet you, I dont speak Romulan/ speak slowly, where is the bathroom?)

Makila giggled and made a soothing gesture with both hands. "Theres no need for that. My name is Makila, Im a doctor and you are safe here. Everyone speaks standard, and you dont have to speak Rihan unless you want to practice."


{Thunderchild}

Her life was power regulation, her breathing was Plasma, and her heartbeat matched the thrum of the warp core. Captain Izwyx oversaw the linkage operation in equal parts awe and carefully managed terror. Thunderchild was about to fire into the station, a gutsy move by Alidade's ingenuity to give the station the time it needed to be saved. Ticonderoga was making miraculous progress, making a safe chain of power lines snaking through space directly to the systems and bypassing the cursed Fusion Core.

Sufai had been a godsend, Alidade an Angel. They both had given good news, a plan to buy time, and a way to do it without blowing up the station they wanted to save.

"Alidade, Ticonderoga is on their two feet by now, we can re-dedicate to your tactic. Prepare all stations and take over controls with my blessing. Maintain Life support, but otherwise power the station as long as we can, buy the Ticonderoga as much time as you can."

"Aye, sir," said Alidade, then she added, "ma'am. Making preparations." In the span of less than a quarter-second, Alidade redirected power from all known systems except for Life Support. Phasers, torpedoes, even shielding went offline. She diverted half of the power from inertial dampeners, shut down the holodecks, and took half from the replicator system. All that power was sent to the front array dish. And, performing one last scan to ensure there were no lifeforms within the Fatal Radius of where she was aiming the array, a bright beam of energy shot forth from the Thunderchild, impacting SB109 via an exposed engineering bay. Panelling immediately melted and conduits ruptured but the power that was being shot forth did its thing and ventured to where it was needed, powering 109's primary systems only a fraction but enough to give them that little bit of extra time to evacuate.

The energy beam was enough to force the Thunderchild to begin reverse movement. The pilot at the helm was already compensating just as Alidade was about to.

"Thank you," her face appeared on his screen. "I had not expected that."

"Power transfer underway, Captain," Alidade said to Izwyx.

Izwyx'lo of the Thunderchild and formerly of the Ticonderoga carried the fates of two vessels and the lives of all the evacuees for the next few hours.

"Alidade, monitor closely, this is all fly by seat of the pants stuff and something is bound to go amiss. Conn maintain positions as needed, Sciences... are already working on projects, OPS on power, Tactical teams assisting refguees..." She recounted the impossible things, remembering Lewis Carrol for some reason ,"Six impossible things before breakfast..." and giggling internally. Everyone was doing their job, now time merely had to pass.

She moved to the Tactical module rear of bridge and began looking into the power hookups. "We are in good shape here, I will continue working with Ticonderoga, keep all monitors active on power transfer."

Ticonderoga needed five hours, and batteries wouldn't last that long with the containment on the explosive device. Sufai had already disconnected all access to the station's energy grid to stop the bomb from charging, but there was no restoring power internally. This beam gave them another hour, but at some point either Thunderchild would burn out, or the Station's taps would melt, and the EPS transfer became an EPS weapon. She stopped at a horrific thought, what if the device detonates? Ambient energies abounded, the device was likely still charging!

She looked over her schematics and saw it right away, a multi spectral neutrino dish.

"Captain Izwyx Lo to Station OPS, relay to Captain Francis. Thunderchild's beam is charging explosive device. We didnt have a lot of time left on that clock already sir its getting close. That device must be removed before it detonates inside the Station!"

***********
{Garden District}

Renato had become desperate, The Garden District was huge, and sensors were dodgy amongst the abundant life and energetic technology. They had looked everywhere. Where were Lexy and Haskin?

Kya was holding back panic, "Rennie...." She was starting to lose that self control, and so was he. They had run three decks, searched anything that made sense, scanned even. Renato had held her hand as they ran up stair cases, behind partitioned walls, in tech rooms which had busted locks.

When Main Power cut off, she yelped as Renato took her badge and his, throwing them to the ground. They dissolved into light instantly.

She knew why, and loved him for it. He knew there was someone giving them to the last second but without the kids, there was no point in going back.

"We will find them, they wouldn't go somewhere unfamiliar..." His voice trailed. Lexy was the only one who knew what happened to her father. She knew why it had to happen, and she had never said a word.

"Kya..." Renato gulped hard, "I have another place to look."

She could hear the weight of his words, but the importance of them took precedence, "Where?" was all she cared enough to ask about.

"321-M."

Kya's eyes flashed, in the Brown Sector an occasional body came about, or the signs of where one soul had met its end and no body to prove it. The mystery of the body found in 321-M had gone undiscovered, the sensor blinds created by the torpedo racks nearby made it an ideal spot for black market deals. Kya had told her children to stay far away from many such places, it was unconscionable to think Lexy could be there. But, if Hasskin knew of the place as a place to hide..

A brief run to the stairs saw them to 320-B, and a ring out eleven blocks away from the place Kya never wanted her children to see. Memories by the thousands, not all of them welcome ones but to her great joy was the sight of both her children, huddled against a wall as she and she ran to them.

Lexy jumped to her feet, "Momma!"

Haskin did too, and all three held a tight embrace, Kya pulled Renato in, and at the touch of his skin to theirs he got a dose of their telepathic being. They were all emoting pure love, Kya the mother, the children as innocent souls, it made Renato dizzy.

He pulled them to their feet, "Theres no station power, life support will fail soon. We have to get to a badge or station panel and..."

Explosions far away in the station rocked them nearly off their feet. EPS consoles abounded and blew out, sending shrapnel flying from anywhere nearby their sudden power surging. The four of them ran from the small wardroom into the open. There was chaos everywhere, but amidst the bedlam, greenhouse domes showed small areas free of spark and glass. Kya recalled the greenhouse glass was rated for micro meteroids and wordlessly made the the choice for all of them. They ran.

Inside the Greenhouse, they stacked plants, barricades against the glass, surrounding themselves in a layer of self defense. Whatever was going on out there, they held one another tight, silently praying for the moment to end.

****
(RRW Etehvau)

"Scanners are reading clusters of life forms in the Garden district. Many of them Undeveloped, likely children." Maieks voice was tight

"Use whatever means at your disposal to affect a rescue." Verelans eyes were a little wild, at the memories of a rescue from Romulus. "Get as many as you can."

"Au'e" his fingers flew over the keys and moments later the romulan ship was bringing over the un-tagged life signs..

Renato was draped over all of them, an Ullian body shield for the ones he loved most. Kya was screaming, and holding her kids as they materialized on the strange ship.

Kya knew, her instincts keen, that Renato was hurt. She knew they were free of the explosion, and gingerly pulled Lexy and Hasskin from under her own body. Small chips and pieces of debris had left her scratched but otherwise unharmed. Renato however, had taken a severe blow to the neck at the collapse of a beam. Her eyes didint register the Romulans, she just screamed for a doctor, a cry of emotion universally understood. Lexy was helping Hasskin, and Kya focused on the insensate man who had saved them.

Renato was breathing, and when she grabbed his hand to tell him to hang on, she felt a gentle squeeze. Her emotions and memories faded, a stupor passed over her cognition as the Ullian imparted his gift to Kya. She saw from his eyes, the world as he saw it. His eyes missed nothing, and Kya felt the burden of his knowledge, of seeing the pains and patterns of others. She saw his desire to uplift others, of having the energy to run miles to serve anyone but himself.

Most of all she felt his love, so she bent to his ear as the medics came whispering, "I love you, I'm here... I'm here..."


*****
{SB109- OPS}

Entaaro was still at his station, there was nowhere else to operate the communications of so many people as effectively. Once Main power was cut, he knew time was up. Lights dimmed in Ops once batteries kicked in, and he nearly signaled for beam out, but Engineering immediately revised their estimates downwards from moments before and sent an urgent call to Ops for orders. Entaaro sat again, reading the reports.

The Ticonderoga needed five hours, batteries were draining fast with containment on the explosive at maximum, and Captain Izwyx came over the speaker in his ear. "Ops, Can you get Captain Francis on the line, anyone there?"

Entaaro replied, "Aye, we are in transition I am the only one still here."

A hesitation made Entaaro start to worry and he knew he was right to do so. For as Captain Izwyx continued on, "We are continuing with Alidades power plan, not sure where the power went but we can maintain a direct fire solution for about 5 minutes, and it'll recharge batteries... a lot. Sorry this is all napkin math. If I can't get permission I'll make it myself once we hi-"

EPS relays on Thunderchild backblew under an anomalous power eddy disrupting frequency harmonization. The only two beings aware were Judah of the Second Star and Alidade of the Thunderchild.

In the first millionth of a second, Judah raised the alarm. The teenager was lightning in a bottle but Alidade was burning like the heat of a star, nonetheless he said hi.

"Alidade, I'm shifting power, there's an explosion underway, Thunderchild is receiving a resonance burstback from the Station, I'm trying to fortify my containment, you can match my containment frequencies, and vent excesses into the heat sink of the fusion core and auuuhhhhhh...!"

Alidade was reading the resonance burstback as she was given the report. In fact, she felt it. She had read up on the concept of feeling pain and felt she had understood it that much better. And if she was feeling it, certainly her crew was too or were not far from it.

She cut the beam herself and started backward movement of the ship. Without orders from her captain nor input from the bridge crew, Alidade was doing all this of her own will.

The second the beam ceased, the front array splintered and sparked with a few explosions sprinkled about. Debris drifted away as the Thunderchild was reversing. From the station came a violent report as overloaded conduits lit up and exploded, sending shockwaves in all directions. A wave of bright energized material struck the Thunderchild frying all forward sensors. Luckily, aft sensors were largely undamaged and Alidade used those as her eyes to continue backing away and avoiding other escaping vessels.

She was hearing many complaints within the ship, especially among the bridge crew, of radiation burns, dizziness, temporary blindness, etc.

Captain Izzy finally gave orders, "Get us to a safe distance, maximum shields, damage control teams to Forward Bow!'

****

{Primary EPS junction housing}

Bikram Auden was monitoring nine Vertiform machine intelligences. The Pentaptych had become staples of the medical ward, especially among the children. The Quad of utility bots, self-evinced from a disastrous mining rig, long traveled, once captured by pirates, now hiding among the Station and making a home also took up a vigil around their joint problem.

An explosive which had slowly built itself into a doomsday level threat over the last few weeks. Nanofibers and self-generative DNA turned what was once a flower configuration, stem and petal shape subterfuge, to the unholy fusion into the EPS conduit which it had become. The Fusion Core relied on Plasma funneled into at high pressure, the conduit was akin to arteries feeding the heart. Its corruption was near total, and the true danger wasn't in the explosive but the black matter contained within. If they could separate the Black Matter, the day was saved, so it all came down to Commander Mindo's plans from the Pandora, and her newfound vertiform associates.

=/\= Francis here. Lieutenant Kell, time to hightail it!" The Captain had more than a sense of urgency in his voice.

One of the Exo Comps, the pretty one with a long neck, manifested a Starfleet officer holographically. A Human male, mid forties, tall, but with a stoop, and dirty blonde hair began speaking in a plain monotone, "Sufai Kell, we are here to help. Bikram controls these exo-comps; the Quad is prepared to deliver the weaponized black matter. They have their orders after that. Once secured, the explosive will require surgery to disarm, hence the pentaptych. The device is charging from the Thunderchild beam, you have twelve minutes of containment fields, at least fifteen minutes of the charging cycle remains before detonation."

Sufai was relieved to have the help, any hands were better than by herself.

"If we drop Thunderchild's power beam, how much time for the detonation?"

Reggie replied quickly, "Without the added power, the trickle charge will evince power out of ambient matter surrounding it, as you can see from the EPS trunk. Several hours at most."

Sufai knew better than to jump at the first idea, "Without containment, the destructive yield will carry through the whole station?"

Reggie nodded, "The core would not survive, even powered down, the reactions would result in a catastrophic amount of damage."

A gamble. She could separate the black matter, that had to happen or everyone was dead. She couldnt drop containment until she had secured the payload. Once that was done, she could focus on the explosive but with limited time, did she maintain the containment fields and save the station for total destrution, or lift the fields, stop the beam, and trade time for an order of magnitude of damage? The time table was grim, it didnt work at all, and seconds were only passing in one direction.

Priorities, Sufai. What comes first.

She steeled her nerves, bomb defusal was something she hated to even think about. A warp core or Matter/Antimatter reactor was way more dangerous, but bombs were meant to kill, and resist being disarmed. Her scans showed the sensor voids within, easily finding the pocket with a thousand times more mass. Within, a sensor void masking a volatile substance capable of gluonic dispersal, the most complete dissolution of matter. Acid, for space and time, but worse, a thermite wildfire which could spread far beyond their sector

"Ok." She had a loose idea of a plan and helpers to make it happen.

"Nessy, take Banshee's feed and create a 3D display over the device and update. Peggy, extrapolate from Commander Mindo's notes on the Pandora, and apply my revisions into a step by step guide for me to follow, Eudora, you are my hands, Aeyla, Create a suitable apparatus to operate through so I can make microsurgical adjustments, feed to Nessy's display, Zombie create power linkages to the tools so we don't charge the damn thing any more. Ambrosius, Prepare the phases based on Peggy's assessment, be one step ahead of my needs; start with a Quantum teleportation hexaquad around the whole junction, Koronis and Polyx should be operating the generator, and running power, monitoring the black matter containment in Zombie. Zombie are you sure you're ready?"

The largest and toughest of them all, Zombie chortled in machine speak, Nessy translated, "A service to the Trilliions of units like us. I desire to be of use!"

Sufai smiled, these bots were made of stern stuff. The others responded to her orders promptly, Peggy sent the instructions, derived from the Pandora many years ago. The air in the station's secondary power conduit hummed with a low-frequency vibration that rattled Sufai’s teeth. The Thunderchild was blowing out EPS all over the station, soon there woul dbe nothing left to carry power to her containment fields, theyd have to stop firing the beam any minute.

Her eyes took in the inner cell of the bomb. A Zero-Point Containment Cell, its obsidian-black casing seemingly drinking the light from her work lamps.

Sufai knelt before it, her movements slow and deliberate. A bead of sweat traced a path down her temple, but she didn’t dare wipe it away, letting it run to her neck and on down. To her right, the EPS junction glowed with a sickly violet hue, its plasma feed physically distorting as the exotic matter inside the cell acted as an entropy-siphon, dragging raw energy directly out of the station’s "veins."

She activated her Multiphase Resonator. The tool emitted a faint, oscillating blue beam that danced across the cell’s surface. On her handheld scanner, the readings were a chaotic mess of sub-space harmonics and quantum-vibratory signatures. The Commander Mindo who invented this had to have been a mad genius, this was way advanced.

The "black matter" inside was reaching its Chroniton-load peak, and once saturated, a single molecule would vent, triggering a Sub-Space Vacuous Decay that would dismantle the station’s molecular structure atom by atom, ultimately releasing all of the energy once nothing new could be expanded onto.

With a steady hand, Sufai adjusted the resonator to a High-Frequency Harmonic Dampening setting. She watched the scanner's display as the violet glow of the EPS feed began to stabilize. She was creating a micro-static vacuum around the matter, effectively "tricking" it into thinking it was still connected to the power grid. The cell’s magnetic latches hissed, releasing a puff of supercooled gas.

Thanking the gods who listened for giving her a how-to guide, Sufai used a Magnetic Constriction Beam to physically lift the shimmering, oil-slick mass of exotic matter from its housing. It hung in the air, a globule of pure lethality that seemed to warp the very space around it. She began the delicate process of drifting the "slurry" toward the waiting Transporter Buffer within Zombie. The robot’s internal cooling fans kicked into high gear, screaming as they struggled to dissipate the massive thermal load generated by the proximity of the black matter.

"Zombie, you can carry this right?"

The bot didnt reply, shaking a bit as it forced the body to accomodate the will. After a moment, an affirmative tone sounded. As the matter slid into the robot’s containment housing, the heavy lead-lined shutter slammed shut with a definitive clack. The immediate threat of the "black matter" was gone, but the Initiator Coil left behind in the EPS junction was still glowing white-hot. Even without its exotic payload, the device remained a massive thermonuclear-equivalent explosive tied directly to the station’s fusion core.

"Sufai to Thunderchild, cut beam, task remaining power to containment."

Captain Izzy replied in a worried tone, "It will be minutes at best before total power failure across the board, even pulling life support, lights, gravity, we can buy you five minutes more."

"I understand Captain, the black matter is contained, trying to save the station now."

"God speed, we are all rooting for you."

"Okay ladies, and lads... Surgery time, let's go." Sufai’s hands flew over the junction’s manual overrides, her fingers dancing across the touch-sensitive pads to reroute the electro-plasma flow into a Dummy Feedback Loop. The bots opened layer after layer, using water to cut metal and prevent even thermal energy from charging the unit.

It took several minutes of silent rantic clipping and peeling to unveil the triggering mechanism. There was a single connection point, which made it simple to choose. With a final, sharp snap of a manual breaker, the white-hot glow faded to a dull orange. The EPS junction returned to its Golden color, and was silent from the station shut down. Sufai slumped against the bulkhead, her chest heaving, as the transport robot whirred past her on its way to who know where.

Her tricorder buzzed an alarm, she saw the containment fields were draining the batteries from hours to minutes, but she was done. "Two minutes from power collapse, wow, I thought it was gonna get close. Thunderchild, we can swap to auxiliary power-"

The sudden whine was her only warning. If Judah had not been watching, she would have died right then and there.

The device had been disarmed, but H'tek in his madman way knew how to get the last laugh. There was a delayed secondary activation, a dead man's switch. A Bomb defusal expert might have thought of it, but when Sufai failed to realize this in time, the discharge into the Fusion Core caused the whole EPS control room to ignite into flames.

{Second Star Cargo Deck}

Sufai came to her senses on the deck of a strange ship which smelled of livestock, with hundreds of people looking down at her. Her terror and confusion evident, she heard a boys voice proudly announce, "Got her!"

She fainted, the impact of her near death moment causing nervous failure.

{IBEX}

Geri was worried, her limited time with the bots had shown them to be capable and endearing. The fact they had been the solution to containing the Black Matter was astounding. That which amazed her was also the source of her grave concern. The Ibex had a Temporal Vault, it would remove time from the equation. They'd have ages to address the threat of the Black matter. However there had come to be a new problem.

Zombie couldn't rematerialize the Black matter without being destroyed.

Peggy, Banshee, Nessy clustered next to their inert brother. Zombie had to focus all internal efforts to dematerialize the nefarious stuff into his buffer. The fragile nature of the containment had turned Zombie into a timebomb, and Geri had no answers.

{[PEGGY]-[ZOMBIE](Preservation metrics indicate likely failure. The loss of your contributions to net efficacy will cause unavoidable decay of process.)(We Must Take Action)(Zombie is family)(Lives are on the Line!)}

Peggy was sending multiple lines of thought at the same time, and ordinarily it was bad form, but in this context it was akin to sobbing.

They had to place Zombie carefully onto a platform gurney, Banshee began making their signature low tone hum. Nessy observed from a distance, dark but looming, almost angry.

Once placed on the sled they made one last pause. Even Geri felt the moment, and touched the mottled gray rough bot's shell. It was searing hot, and Geri slightly burned her fingertip. A petty injury didnt even register until she pressed the control to lower their friend into the Temporal Vault. Zombie would be in a form of stasis, aging at the rate of femtoseconds. The other three bots said nothing, stunned into silence.

Geri signaled Damion deciding to keep it simple, "Captain Ildaran, containment is complete. Ibex can depart station."

"Acknowledged, Ma'am," Damion replied. "Departing station now. Exo-Comps, you have our deepest thanks." It was all he had time to tell them as IBEX arrowed out of the damaged station, silent and disguised.

{Starbase 109}

Containment switched to delaying tactics in a heartbeat. Alidade and Judah operated on a faster wavelength, and caught the detonation trigger in progress. With auxiliary power coming online, the minor delay gave the station power grid a chance to allocate its reserves to the containment fields. Judah did the same, Overlapping the perimeters and providing redundancy. Every bit of it was needed, as the Fusion core ignited in a small nova.

Level ten fields could keep a Warp core breach contained if they had power to do so. Judah poured the coals, Alidade had just fired Thunderchild's raw energy into the station's heart. A side effect of the direct energy beam was the blowouts of EPS prevented the explosive effects from traveling through many pathways. Alidade's plan crippled the power systems, but saved the day as the energies had only one easy clear direction. Downwards from the station.

A flat disc of white-hot incandescent plasma spread in a flat plane trying to pierce the dual containment fields, and failing to do so rebounded to blast off the bottom third of the station entirely. Secondary explosions rippled in some areas with EPS flow still, but the real moment of existential dread was from the expanding plasma disc powered by the Deuterium reserves in the inert plasma. Every ship within ten kilometers suffered something, but being so close, the Second Star and Thunderchild took it in the face.

The Thunderchild was backing away quickly. Its forward sensors were all fried as well as the array dish which was sparking and leaving bits of it behind as the ship backed away. The Thunderchild darted and rolled this way and that to avoid departing vessels. Clearly Alidade was in full control of the vessel as she decided not to wait for commands from the crew. Many were suffering radiation burns, dizziness, and temporary blindness.

Captain Izwyx could only track what was happening using all of her senses and even then it was unclear. The sudden release of such energies hit the crew nervous systems hard, many collapsed where they stood. Desperation and practice being stupidly drunk enabled her to remain awake.

"Alidade, get us to safety!"

"Doing just that now," returned Alidade's voice. "Hold on." She rolled the ship a little fast than the inertial dampeners could tolerate as they were operating only at partial functionality.

The Thunderchild narrowly missed a pair of retreating refugee vessels as it continued it reverse motion. Everyone was going in any direction they could to get away from 109. Destinations did not matter at the moment; just away from the station. The Thunderchild was outrunning other fleeing vessels, even while flying in reverse.

"We are at a safe distance now, Captain."

{Second Star}

Merchant Vessels are built tough, add their specs to a warframe like an Excelsior class and you've got a tough ship. Internal bracing, courtesy of Judah prevented deck collapse. Personnel fields, scaling up the intertial dampeners, and the power already sent to their containment saved them from annihilation so close to the source of such an explosion.

"Evasive, get us out of the blast zone Judah!" Quinton screamed too late, but Judah had taken a page from Alidade, and took over the ships reaction times.

Kas, his first mate, best friend, confidante, and right hand had held on without being flung from her seat. She worked controls to get feedback, "Shields held, well, the primaries did, our secondary grid blew out but the redundancy worked."

Othor made the first observation of the destruction, "Oh no..." His eyes were directed out the physical dome of the bridge, where their own eyes could take in what had just happened.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DHAXNau_tK6Cu8fdYhZtK6rRWi5DhsGN/view?usp=drive_link
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TEVSmnSOKohV180Idvtvl041qJIrbHOH/view?usp=drive_link

Starbase 109 had survived the explosion, but the damage was evident. The twin containment fields had directed the blasts energies in a disc outwards, popping the lower end of the station off like the cork from a champagne bottle. Secondary explosions had pitted the hull, exposing their once home to the open void of space. They were close enough to see individual items, books, bottles, clothing spreading into small orbital ring around the station.

"No Bodies. I sense no... death. Could it be?" Othor extended his sense, Judah scanned with what sensors they could muster, Vicente and Kas simply looked. No bodies floating, no flashes of transporter signal desperately saving the last few.

Fala was scanning from sciences, and was first to say it.

"I don't detect any life signs in the debris. I think we got everyone off in time!"

Quinton wasn't guessing, "Establish contacts with the other ships, whoever is most capable can get to work, inside and out of the station, find the folks we missed, they are there." He showed the plan of action Captain Izwyx had agreed to, "Kas, Send our teams for damage control as we agreed."

Kas smiled, he was cute when got all captain-y. She hit the comms distribution list for all the emergency workers ready to deploy, "Full suits, Double pay, to stations to stations! Now people!"

Poised in the middle of it all, the Second Star began beaming people to the Ticonderoga, Thunderchild, and the sections of station internally still supporting life. Comms routed through their station, and soon a request from one Entaaro Nasz was sounded to come aboard.

Vicente didnt even ask, he knew what to do, and sent the Klingon directly to the Leased Deck for Starfleet, where a battle ready OPS center awaited.

Quinton wasn't done, "Ticonderoga, sending our people directly to the maintenance cores following your planned dispersals." He turned to the OPS panel, "Vicente, any civilians on board who want to volunteer can be sent to Ticonderoga first, only approved hazard specialists can go onto station, and only with Starfleet escorts." Then he hit the square orange button which made shipwide intercom announcements, "Job's not done, it's time we show off. Nobody dies today, and we get to be heroes, isn't that swell! So save the day, and keep your crewmates alive and well, you hear me, zero deaths! We keep the streak alive!"

{Zelux Pal}

Captain Francis had been around for a lot of horrible sights in his thirty-plus years in Starfleet. Nothing hit his gut more than the enormous blast that erupted from the starbase. His starbase. It took what felt like minutes for him to register Quinton's news of no casualties.

"Captain Francis," Blurg, the Zelux Pal's Commanding Officer said, "The Second Star has sent a message."

Blurg filled in Francis on the message.

Returning to his senses, Francis said, "Please send the Second Star my gratitude." His voice was quiet, but did not shake. Even the sight they were experiencing did not take away his commanding tone. "Let them know I will be joining them momentarily. I'll inform my crew to meet there tomorrow at 0900."

The comm officer looked over to Blurg, who nodded.

Francis finally too his eyes off the screet and turned to the Pal's Ferengi Captain. "Thank you, Blurg... for everything. I'll see to it you and your crew are fairly compensated for your services."

Blurg shook his head. "None needed. This was a return favor for you and your crew saving our lives. We are even."

The Pal's first officer stood. "Master, he just said..."

Blurg glared at his XO. "I said we are even."

Francis looked around the room at his friends who had gathered on the bridge of the Zelux Pal. Commander Mindo, Qaraq, even Criswell still looked dumbstruck. A part of Francis still was, but his duty as a Captain needed to come first. Whatever came next, Francis had only one goal: rebuild.

{End}

 

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