Star Trek: Prelude to Discovery

Star Trek - Prelude to Discovery

"Transport is," Phaser in her left hand and tricorder in her right, D.W. looked about at the landscape of the barely class M planet. "Good."

The Human race had one ship in this time period capable of Warp travel. One ship. And you could guarantee it would be guarded. D.W. examined her Tricorder and recognized the distant target. It was one point one two three kilometres beyond the perimeter fence. Seismic sensors in the dirt seemed to pick up her footfalls and relay them back to a central computer. A simple adjustment to the tricorder and a virus passed from the seismic sensor back along its cable and disabled the computers, wiping them.

The phaser burned a hole in the perimeter fence and D.W. stepped through.

Hallowed ground. D.W. walked toward the distant target monitoring the tricorder. Even the grass was suffering from radiation exposure. Its genes had mutated to include an odd splitting of the grass leaf into two crinkled blades. The current source was definately the ship. The rest was Environmental Radiation. How did the human race even survive this era?

Grass seeds caught on her boots and she carried them forward.

D.W. recognized the location. There would be a statue of Zefram Cochrane just over there. One day.

The Phoenix had landed, its reactor hot, though the Naecelles had retracted. And it sat on the landing field with primitive landing gear consisting of hydraulic rams in down position. If it were not for that and the Titanium capsule, the entire thing might be mistaken for a nuclear missile.

D.W. looked about. There was no one around. The Tricorder informed her that the closest possible threat was the Vulcan ship landed at the edge of the camp.

D.W. examined the warp engine with the tricorder. She could make minimal adjustments to the reactor itself but they would yield meaningless results. Likewise the warp drive on the other hand was at its limit. That left the Warp Field itself. Adjustments in flight would allow her to shape the field symmetry to its absolute potential.

Ignoring the innebriated passenger D.W. climbed into the Titanium cockpit. A feat that seemed easier than had it been in a vertical launch position. A last look in the direction of the Vulcan vessel. She would steal the Phoenix. Zephram Cochrane's Phoenix.

It launched, the warp field adjusted by a tricorder, and the imbalance in the warp field vanishing as new and unexperienced harmonics smoothed out the high-vee vibration that would have otherwise spread the ship thinly across a Parsec.

At warp ten the Phoenix closed the distance to Alpha Centauri B.

There would be no Parisian evolutionary event on this flight transforming D.W. into an Amphibian-lizard thanks to a distortion of the Warp field. Nor, fortunately, was her Captain around to abduct as a mate.

D.W. lowered the Warp frequency and throttled back to Warp one.

Lilly awoke from a dream in which she beheld the entire Universe. For a moment she saw and understood everything. And then it was gone.

"Zee?" The Phoenix canopy revealed a sky filled with stars. Night again? "How did it go with the...?"

Lilly had been drunk under the Table.

"Vulcans?" D.W. looked back at her crewman. "From what I've read, it goes quite well."

"Read?" Lilly's mind tumbled through the possibilities as she focused on the Stars moving by the canopy. "We are moving?"

"Warp one." D.W. remembered her first time at Warp. "Welcome to Alpha Centauri B."

 "Zee said it was terrifying." It was beautiful. "Its incredible."

"I know right." D.W. "It must be a Guy thing."

"Alpha Centauri B?" Lilly focused on her abductor. "That should have taken four years at warp."

"I made some special modifications myself." D.W. held up the tricorder. "It took us five minutes."

"Had somewhere to be did you?" The Tricorder was near identical to the one Jean-luc had used. "Captain Picard leave you behind?"

"Sorry," D.W. examined the Tricorder and adjusted the Warp field. "Thats a different ship."

"In that case who are you?" Lilly's hand found her machine gun. "And why are we here?"

"Dixie Winifred Polaski." D.W. loathed the prospect of a projectile weapon wound. "And you have been recruited by Section thirty one for a Mission."

"Alright." Lilly let go of the gun. "What's the Mission?"

"At this point in time there is a Sphere orbiting Alpha Centauri B at one percent light speed." D.W. examined the Tricorder again. "Its not there in the future."

"Is it the Borg?" It had barely been a day. "I can't take on the Borg."

"Dont know." This would be an exploration of the unknown. "This will be an exploration mission."

"Like a landing party?" Lilly laughed at the ridiculous suggestion. "You know that suggestion is...?"

"Insane?" D.W. laughed with Lilly. "Insanity is a relative concept Lilly Sloane."

"Star." Alpha Centauri B loomed large in the cockpit transparent Aluminium windows and Lilly didnt like the Idea of flying into a Star. "Star's getting close."

"And its going to get a lot closer." D.W. focused her attention on the Tricorder. "Our destination is orbiting the Star every five minutes."

"Now I know you are insane." Lilly realized she was going to die. "Nothing orbits a Star that close."

"This does." D.W. throttled back from Warp as the Phoenix dropped into the Shadow of a planet half the size of Jupiter. "Welcome to the Roscum-Keary Postulate."

What is this?" There was a glow that reminded Lilly of the Warp Crystal Zephram Cochrane had shown her. "Wow."

"Its a planet." D.W. looked at the diamond dyson sphere. "And no we wont be landing on the outer shell."

"I dont see an atmosphere." Lilly considered her options. "So good choice."

"I guess option B then." D.W. smiled and adjusted the warp field. "Phased cloak it is."

"Wait," That didnt sound like a return home. "What did you say option B was?"

"We will pass right through it." D.W. calculated the warp field symmetry changes and attacked the tricorder interface. "Its quite simple."

"No." Lilly took a deep breath as the Phoenix dived at the planet suddenly liquid looking planet. "No!"

"Field is good." The thick ocean of the diamond dyson shell gave way to an alien landscape wracked by lightning. "Wow!"

The random light illuminated a hidden world.

" Gravity is kind of earth-like and Radiation is survivable." D.W. smiled at Lilly. "Care to take a look?"

"Are you crazy?" Lilly regretted not shooting this crazy bitch. "Thats an alien atmosphere out there."

"There is the EVA suits Cochrane has in the locker back there." D.W. became serious. "I suggest trying one on for size."

"Bullshit sister!" Lilly pointed at the Window canopy and the static potentials shifted causing her companion's hair to stand on end. "If we go out there we will die."

"This isn't a yes or no moment." D.W. examined her Tricorder readings. "There is something I need your help with."

"What part of No..." Lilly lifted the machinegun and was confronted by a Ray-gun on stun setting. "dont!"


"Shit!" The Abducted Lilly Sloane awoke and discovered she was confined to an EV suit. "You bitch."

"You going to lay there all day?" D.W. tapped a gloved hand against Lilly's helmet. "Bring your gun."

"Hopefully we wont need it," D.W. moved away from the Phoenix across the inverted reality as lightning chained off the lanscape. "Unfortunately we loose a lot of personnel just visiting unexplored worlds like this."

"Let me guess." Lilly Sloane retrieved her weapon. "Sucked out through a hole in their helmet?"

"No." D.W. "Pulled into subspace as the alien climbed out over them."

"Subspace?" Lilly was fairly sure this was bull shit. "What's Subspace?"

"We use it for long range communications." D.W. stared at the Tricorder. "Turns out Subspace was teeming with life."

"That doesnt look good." D.W. Looked up at the horizon curving upwards into the perpetual electrical storm emulated in the display. "There is a Fungi infestation ahead."

"Fungi?" Lilly couldnt see anything other than her companion's poorly illuminated exosuit and the glow of the tricorder. "What do you mean fungi?"

"Just dont make eye contact with it," D.W. smiled at a forgotten memory. "And we will be fine."

"Eye contact?" Lilly thought about shooting her companion in the back and going back to the ship. "So why are we realy here?"

"To do something important." D.W. avoided the fungi stepping aside allowing Lilly an unobscured view of the fungi. "Dont make contact with it whatever you do."

"Thats different." Lilly stared at the blue glow. It was like a fountain of light. "It reminds me of the blue glow off the Reactor."

"Cherenkov radiation." D.W. nodded. "Thats because it is Cherenkov radiation."

"So its undergoing a nuclear reaction?" Lilly checked the radiation guage on the wrist of her suit. "How the hell is it generating that much Radiation?"

"Its not." D.W. poked a fungi with her glove dislodging spores. "Its merely particles travelling faster than lightspeed as they emerge from subspace."

"You said you communicate over great distances using subspace." Lilly pulled her hand away from the blue glow of the fungi. "If that's the case what is it communicating with?"

"Itself." D.W. "It spread across the galaxy via subspace."

"How complex?" Lilly looked at the Fungi  Had been something her mother had told her? What was it? "How complex is the Network?"

"Unknown," D.W. adjusted the settings on the tricorder. "It might extend beyond the Galaxy."

"Intergalactic?" Fairies. A story.  "Fairy Ring."

"This fungi," Lilly Sloane pointed at the Fungi. "On Earth long ago they said Fairy Rings were portals to a realm where the Fairies dwell."

"What an interesting idea you have there." D.W. smiled. "It had taken years for Federation researchers to make that connection."

"If that's the case," Lilly focused her attention on the Tricorder as it detected a radiation spike. "Who were the fairies?"

"We are about to find out." D.W. grabbed Lilly's gloved hand with her spare hand and plunged her remaining hand with the tricorder into the event horizon. "Hang on."