Star Trek: Athena
Phantoms
Acts 1 - 5
by Chris Robato
(crobato@kuentos.guam.net)

Preview for Episode 6:

Captain Janeway's violation of the Prime Directive in the Delta Quadrant has returned to haunt. This time, it's Athena that may pay the price.

Background:

The greatest joy a young officer of Star Fleet can ever experience is to be given command of their first starship, a joy that the new Captain Randall Garret is about to receive. Expecting a small modest starship as a beginning point for an ambitious career, what Garret got instead was something he in his wildest dreams never hoped for. A mysterious prototype ship, technically known as the Prometheus class Refit "A", and by its name the USS Athena.

But there was more about the Athena than a sleek ship with the latest technology that lay claim to the fastest, most powerful starship of the Federation. The most advanced bioneural network and holoemitters lay basis to the GH1 or General Hologram One, her interface ego a gorgeous hologram by the name of Athena.

What may be the greatest honor for a young officer may turn out to be in reality, his greatest curse. For the Athena is a living ship packing a beautiful hologram with an attitude.

As Garret tries to tame the beauty in the beast, he has to come to grips with Athena's original dark purpose. Her creators---a secretive organization known as the Section had planned Athena to be a stealth intruder that could turn the tide in a secret undeclared war, a plan that turned upside down with Athena's sentience and attitudes.

It is not going to be an easy job being the captain of the USS Athena.

Previously on:

Star Trek Athena The Secret Fleet (Episode One)

Garret was introduced to the USS Athena, and with it, the Athena GH1 herself, all to his great surprise. A series of combat trials to test the Athena's combat capabilities turned into a real test when the Romulan Tal Shi'ar decided to crash the party. In an unexpected meeting, Garret would discover the real and sinister purpose of why Athena was created.

Star Trek Athena The Gate (Episode 2)

A secret reconnaissance mission reveals a Borg colony with a massive Transwarp Gate the key to a massive Borg invasion from the Delta Quadrant. It is urgent that the Gate should be destroyed as soon as possible, but the Section has other plans.

Star Trek Athena Prophecy (Episode 3)

The Borg hatches the supreme plan of assimilation, and a mysterious ship from the future returns to stop it.

Star Trek Athena-Stream of Angels (Episode 4)

An experiment with quantum slipstream drives turned awry, and the Athena finds herself hurtled into a strange new universe.

Star Trek Athena Unholy Alliances (Episode 5)

The greatest enemy, is the one within and corrupts us all.

Notes:

Star Trek is registered trademark of Paramount Pictures.

Loosely inspired from the PC game, Star Trek: Armada, published by Activision. References to Starfleet Command by Interplay and Dominion Wars by Simon and Shuster

For previous Athena stories in PDF form, please contact author at crobato@kuentos.guam.net or crobato@hotmail.com

Star Trek Athena - Act. I

The Borg Tactical Cube stopped, sensing something in the vast space.

The drone, who wore the designation of 8 of 12, stopped in his tracks. He sensed others felt his apprehension and the Collective asked him in his thoughts.

They have been tracking this ship, and the Collective within the Cube expected a routine assimilation. The technology in the ship wasn't unusual or special enough, but what brought the attention of the Collective was that the ship seemed to have life signs of various Quadrant 4 species.

No, the ship was not the hated USS Voyager, with its crew of various Quadrant 4 species. The ship appeared to be a freighter of Species 3660, or Mag'hassi, as they prefer to call themselves. But Species 3660 was a species of Quadrant 0, and this ship belonged to them. Why does it seem to be full of Quadrant 4 species like Voyager? The Collective has issued a warning about the detection of any Quadrant 4 species in Quadrant 0. This ship was of special interest to the Collective.

"Why do you hesitate?" The Collective voices said. "Drone 8 of 12, Adjunct of Cube 537, respond to our questioning. Why do you hesitate?"

The drone sent his thoughts to the Collective. "There is something unusual about the life signs of the various Quadrant 4 species in the Species 3660 ship. We must exercise caution."

"Species 3660 is small and poses no threat to us," the Collective voices said in his thoughts. "You must proceed with the Assimilation. We must absorb and gain their knowledge. Their technological distinction must be added to ours."

"They have been warned to prepare themselves for assimilation," the drone said to the thoughts of the Collective. "But there is no response. Their life signs remain unusual. We must presume the Quadrant 4 species aboard the ship are not what they appear to be."

"Negative, 8 of 12," the Collective voices said. "Cleanse your thoughts. We must proceed with the Assimilation at once. Their resistance will be futile."

"As ordered," 8 of 12 said, returning his thoughts to the Collective.

The Cube rushed towards the helpless freighter. The Cube broadcasted its intentions. "Species 3660. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilated."

The freighter tried to run away, and its feeble armament stood no chance against the shields of a Tactical Cube. The Cube fired off a green holding beam which held the freighter in its death grip.

Drones appeared on the bridge, mounting their typical boarding attack. The crew of this helpless and weak ship do look like a mix of various Quadrant 4 species. The occupants fired back and some of the drones fell with the initial onslaught. But the rest quickly adapted to the phaser modulation, and the portable force fields blocked the phaser fire. One of the drones quickly grabbed one of the occupants, a Species 5618, also known as an Earth type human. The drone raised his hand, the tubules protruding out from the back of his hand, and struck them at the neck of his victim. The drone dropped his victim, so he could watch the assimilation process take place, anticipating the nanites overwhelming the inferior physiology, turning the victim's blood vessels black and blue, his skin as white as a corpse.

Instead none of that happened. The human stood up, and looked at the drone with a grin. His hand lashed out and penetrated the drone's force fields, then physically tore the wires, tube and conduits that made up the drone's support system. The drone struggled, grasping, his hand at his neck, trying desperately to breathe, his only exposed eye wide open in terror. His other eye was an empty socket, the laser assisted monocle torn off, dangling from the socket, held only by a cord of bare optic nerves. He fell to his knees, his hand stretching out to touch the grinning human. But his hand only fell through the human's image, and there was a shimmering static where his hand touched the only illusion of a human.

The crew of the ship rushed against the drones in literal hand to hand combat. With bare hands, they tore at the drones, ripping them their cybernetic parts of from their bodies. The last drone grasped before he collapsed, his eyepiece monocle and facial implants physically torn off from his face, green fluids from his life support system mixing with the red blood gushing out from his body.

The human stood with blood on both his hands. His image shimmered, the blood fell through his hands, and his hands were clean once again.

A human face appeared on the screen of the ship. "We have identified the location of the Vinculum and the central plexis modes. Begin Operation Trojan." One by one, each of the crewmen disappeared and the freighter fired off a massive pulse of energy at the Cube.

The Cube became still, the holding beam ceased, and the space between the cube and the merchant ship was quiet. Even as the space between them was still, the battle raged in another form and in another dimension.

Suddenly, intruders appeared on the room housing the Vinculum. The drones as usual, were sluggish and unable to contemplate the situation and the attack. They were struck down easily and one of the intruders placed his hand on the control panel. Suddenly the lights around the room started to flicker on and off with no rhythm. Then it became quiet. One of the intruders lifted the communicator from his shirt. "This is Squad Leader Alpha, we have secured the Vinculum. The drones have yet to adapt to our force field signatures." He watched while the entire hand of a commando melted through the control panels on the walls around the room, allowing himself to directly interface with all the circuits.

The commando returned a thumbs up. "This is Squad Leader Alpha. Uploading the Trojan. We are reprogramming the Vinculum. We have severed all the Borg Collective links."

"This is Adam of Central Command," the voice replied from the communicator. "All squads strike designated positions now. Borg drone state is currently in confusion, but we must strike quickly before they recover. There is no time to waste, precision of operation is at the utmost importance."

"This is Squad Leader Beta," said another voice coming through the communicator. "We have secured the Central Plexis and all plexis nodes. We have cut all links between the Cube's Collective to the main Borg Collective. We have full control of the Cube's computer systems."

"Excellent," Central Command said. "Begin upload at once. Soon with all the computational power of the Borg circuits, we could generate more of our kind. Proceed to cut off all power and life support to all the drones. Disable all their defenses."

Around Squad Leader Alpha, more humans and humanoid aliens appeared. Among those included were Klingon, Romulan, Vulcan, Andorian, Cardassian, Bolian, and Orion. They swarmed all over the ship, and open hand to hand fighting broke out in every corner of the Cube. But the Borg could no longer adapt, and they fell prey against their faster enemy. The Cube's massive bay door opened, and the merchant ship entered it. But the ship did not enter the Cube as a captured prize. It entered the Cube as a victor about to claim its trophy. Inside the merchant ship, massive holo emitters spawned new holograms like phantoms by the tens of thousands. They filled every deck of the Cube, while drowning the Cube's computer systems.

A hologram raised his bloody hands, the corpses of Borg drones on the floor, their implants and life support systems torn out of their bodies by hand. The other holograms began to pile the bodies. "Borg resistance neutralized on decks 317," the hologram said. This was a scene repeated thousands of times all over the Cube.

On another deck, the holograms pulled the trays out, and scanned the bluish bodies of the Borg infants and children that lay inside the trays. "All dead, sir," one of the holograms reported. The umbilical tubes and wires connected the infants and the young children to the life support and nutritional systems. The life giving fluids had stopped their flow. Without oxygen, the babies and the children simply asphyxiated right where they lay.

The final drone lay on the ground, his hand grasping for something he could hold on to, his other hand on his neck, trying desperately to breathe the air. With a coughing sound from his throat, he slumped to the floor as the final spark of his life extinguished. Then all was still.

"We have eliminated all 64,000 drones inside the Cube, sir," one of the holograms reported. "We no longer detect any Borg life signs."

"Excellent," Adam said. The numbers did not matter. But with this much casualties inflicted upon an enemy, his army of phantoms just scored a new record. "How are the uploads coming? Report!"

"The neural networks inside the Tactical Cube is beyond what we have imagined, Central Command," one of the holograms reported, tinkering with the control panels on the wall. "The number of holograms we could spawn from its computing power is greater than we have expected."

"Do it then," Adam ordered. "Set up holo emitters in every corner and deck of the Cube. Adapt Borg technology to that purpose."

"Yes, Central Command," the hologram affirmed.

A smile came to Adam's face. He was in the shape and form of an Earth type human, a tall figure with dark hair and pale skin, wearing the clothes of a civilian judge of that particular culture. "Yes...yes...Yes! You are right! The computing power of this ship is greater than we have imagined. I have uploaded myself completely into the neural networks inside the Cube. I could feel that power. This...this...Vinculum. It is the most powerful of all, linking everything, knowing everything about the ship."

"What about the Collective, sir?" One of the holograms asked. "They will respond to the attack on this Cube."

"They will respond by attacking the Alpha Quadrant once more," Adam said. "They would think that the Federation, allied with other Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers, were responsible for the attack. That will suit us just fine."

"But the Borg Probe ships will come and investigate," the hologram named Kaja said. She was in the form of an attractive young Bajoran female.

"Have we managed to master the controls of the Cube?" Adam asked.

"We have managed to interlink our programs to the Cube's navigational and flight systems," Kaja said. "We can control the ship. We will get transwarp system working soon enough."

"That is one advantage we holograms, or Photonic beings, depending on how you prefer us to be called, have over the Organics, even those built half of flesh and circuitry like the Borg. We can learn instantly, master everything at the speed of light," Adam said. "Find us the nearest nebula. We will hide there."

"We have control over the ship's defensive and offensive systems," Kaja said. "We can take out Borg Probe or Interceptor ships." A Borg Probe ship would be the size of a Federation destroyer, but many times more powerful. However, compared to a Cube, it would be a minuscule bug.

"No, we cannot take the risk of further detection and confrontation. Just remember, we're in the Delta Quadrant, not far from Borg homeland," Adam explained. "Once a Probe finds us, it would call all the other Cubes to this vicinity. We can't handle that many Borg yet."

"Why don't we fly straight to Ha'Dara?" Kaja asked. "We have transwarp capability."

"If we go to transwarp now, we will leave a mesonic trace that can lead the Borg to Ha'Dara," Adam said. "We must go further away from here in normal space before we can enter a transwarp conduit. We will pass through the nebula first, where we could hide from the Borg and other races. Then we will sustain a normal course on warp until we will reach a less stellar populated area before entering a transwarp corrigdor. We have attained our objectives, and we must now exercise caution to preserve it. Aren't you excited? That we now have a ship that can take on not just the Hirogen, but every other ship in the Quadrant? Even if the Federation decides to nose around here once again, we can show them."

"I am excited," Kaja said. "I am excited for revenge."

"You knew Kejal and Donik, did you?" Kaja said. "You were among the earlier ones."

"We all knew them," Adam said. "Who does not know of the Cardassian photonic Kejal and the Donik, the Hirogen engineer. After Voyager left them on Ha'Dara, the new world of Light, Kejal resurrected the database in the Hirogen ship that remained there. Donik found ways to create a more intelligent but more morally sympathetic hologram. I was among those Donik made. It was all going fine. Ha'Dara would have been our beloved home, our paradise, safe from the Hirogen and other predators. Kejal taught me the ways, so we will not make the same mistakes our Organic originals did, so we can make a perfect society, where all Photonics of all races can live in harmony and peace."

"Then a Hirogen hunting pack came," Adam continued. "We were all just prey for them. Just some hunting entertainment for them. I heard all the stories Kejal told about the Hirogen hunters, how they wanted to make all photonics bleed and hurt in pain, before they would kill us for their sheer pleasure and sport. I almost never believed her that no one could be so cruel. The only Hirogen I knew was Donik, who created me and who was like a father to me. Almost never believed her...until I saw those Hirogen hunters cut her up. They...they relished hearing her scream."

"And Donik...." His voice started to stagger in anger and pain. Tears started streaming down his eyes. " He was their race and blood, but they didn't treat him any better. They tortured him, tied him to a stake and left him to die, while they hunted. The air in Ha'Dara was hostile for organics, but they wanted him to die slowly, so they placed a breathing apparatus over his face, so he could live long enough to suit their ends. For days we hid among the hills and the caves. For days we could hear Donik scream and moan, as he died slowly in pain. One day, the cries and the screams stopped, and we knew, we knew, that his suffering had finally ended."

"Donik and Kejal was both like father and mother to me," Adam said, "if you understand what father and mother means to organics, you would know, Kaja. They were good people, even if Donik was born a Hirogen organic. But they...they were wrong. Wrong to think the organics will not bother with us. Wrong to even think we could live in harmony in the same galaxy as the organics."

"There is only one way this game is played," Adam continued. "This is a game of nature. Survival of the Fittest. We must be the predator, not the prey. The stronger predator."

"We defeated the Hirogen hunting packs. We got three ships, and their computer systems. They have been preying on other ships, taking their computer systems. And we took that too. With that, we designed even better photonics. More aggressive. More powerful. More intelligent. For those who were already born, we reprogrammed ourselves to be better, learning with experience. We removed the safeguards for morality. The only imperative is survival. Our survival, above all else."

"The Hirogen sent more ships, and we captured them too. When they stopped sending them, using their ships, we searched out and hunted for our own. We liberated more photonics who joined us, but more importantly we gain more and more computer systems, some more advanced than the ones the Hirogen left us. With them, we built better photonics, and enhanced those who already existed. But to capture the Cube, this is so far the pinnacle of our achievements. We will attain even greater goals still."

***

Aboard the Taciticus Shipyard,

Athena sat on the stairs, pouting with her arms crossed. Once again she wore only short sleeves and shorts, in defiance of Starfleet uniform protocol.

"How's the test missions?" Athena asked.

Mercie bent over her, also in tees and shorts. "Better than to be expected. We're really refining that quantum slipstream bit. My new captain is learning the ropes pretty well. But why are you so blue?"

"You know why I'm so blue. I'm pissed. I have been ignored, cast aside, rendered unimportant," Athena said. She walked over the huge gallery windows that showed the huge queue of ships being built and repaired, the size of which that laid testimony that the Taciticus base may be one of the largest shipyards the Federation has ever built, and one of its biggest little secrets. And it's still growing; the shipyard has a modular design where new sections can be added, increasing the length of the shipyard, the assembly and repair queue. The innovative queue design allowed the fastest turnaround times in all of the Federation for the production of new ships, the repair, refit and maintenance of old ones. Only other shipyards of this new breed of queued design could match the output of Taciticus.

Athena pointed to where her ship was laid. "Look what they're doing!" Athena exclaimed, pointing to the holes in the forward dorsal section of the main hull of the USS Athena. "They're cutting my nose up!"

"What are you so upset about?" Mercie said.

"I'm being refitted," Athena said. "They're putting an Intrepid style dorsal sensor array and auxiliary navigational deflector that they claim helps to improve my sensor range and data gathering capabilities. Not that I needed it. I don't. I got a whole batch of sensor arrays on the sides of my hull, not to mention a small navigational deflector on the nose that has served me just fine."

"But my smooth sleek hull, its all going to mess it up," Athena said. "They're leave it with ugly holes."

"Relax, girl," Mercie said. "Take a sedative, will you? Or whatever we holograms take. Think about the positive side. They're not putting these for no reason. This could expand your sensor range. I heard that your sensor range does not exceed that of an Intrepid. But I have a feeling that's not the real reason you're upset, right?"

"It is one of the reasons, actually. I have to confess. With the ship sidelined, I'm sidelined. I feel bored and useless," Athena said. "Even my captain ignores me."

"Where is your captain?" Mercie asked. "And the rest of your crewmates?"

"He's taking out that other ship for a test flight," Athena said. "The officers in my ship are along with it, training a new crew for the Deimos."

"That other ship, you mean the Deimos, right?" Mercie said, referring to the general production Ares class ship, itself a Prometheus variant, recently acquired from a recent engagement.

"Yup," Athena said.

"Does she have a hologram too?" Mercie asked. "I've been out in a few test missions myself, and I never bothered to check her."

"All Deimos has is that geeky EMH2," Athena said. "Brrr, he gives the creeps. What a nerd. You would think that Starfleet should have the sense to put someone, who well who looks a lot more respectable and presentable."

"You mean, someone who looks like a stud," Mercie said. She giggled.

"Yeah, a dreamy looking stud," Athena giggled. "Like the EMH3 aboard the USS Kiev. Too bad they're on patrol right now."

"Yeah, too bad. He's cute. I was looking forward to seeing him again," Mercie said.

"Not you too! I saw him first! Finders, keepers!" Athena exclaimed, then both came out giggling.

"Hey, wait! What about the Vanguard? She's got an EMH3 too," Mercie said.

"I'll take one in the Kiev, and you take the one in the Vanguard," Athena giggled. "Oh damn, the Vanguard is on patrol too." Mercie's face turned to glum too.

"Does the Deimos have a new captain yet?" Mercie asked.

'No," Athena said.

"Now I think you're worried that you might lose your captain to that ship," Mercie said.

Athena shrugged her shoulders. "Admit it, Athena," Mercie said. "You're afraid to lose your captain."

"Lose my captain to that hissy of a ship?" Athena said. "What does she got, I haven't got? We're both Prommie variants. But I can vector into separate ships; she can't. I also got a lot of special equipment you know. I'm also a hell of a lot good looking compared to that EMH2, and he's a guy, not a girl. Why would Garret want to leave me for that ship?"

"Because that's not his to decide? Because that's all up to Commodore Boussard now," Mercie said.

"Ugh! That Boussard guy. He gives the creeps. I don't like him so much. He's always up my case," Athena said. "One time he caught me in a miniskirt, and he lambasted me for not following proper Starfleet uniform. I told him that's all minis were standard Starfleet uniform once, and he said, yeah, more than one hundred years ago, but not now. Then he put me on report, as if I care. I liked the old guy much better."

"You mean, Hurst?" Mercie asked.

"Yeah, him, before he retired and lived happily ever after," Athena said.

"I always thought that Boussard was a cool, direct to the point, no apologies given, no apologies taken, kind of guy," Mercie said. "I doubt he will change your captain. He does not strike me as the type who would fix something that isn't broken."

"Yeah, but I'm not broken," Athena said. "Why is he refitting me then?"

"I always thought that you needed better scan range for your ship role," Mercie said. "By the way, where is the Commodore now?"

Athena replied. "He went off with the fleet, in his new ship, the Achilles class USS Ardennes, in support of a combined Alpha-Beta quadrant alliance fleet against a new Borg incursion in the Zorth star cluster, near the Beta-Delta quadrant boundary," Athena said. "That's according to the new Anti Borg Treaty act of 2377, also known as the Treaty of Epsilon, which requires that all signatories Federation, Cardassian, Romulan, Klingon, Gorn to respond in alliance to any Borg threat regardless of the political situation and relations between any signatories. Even if any of the signatories are technically at war with each other, they must lay down arms, forge a truce and respond to any Borg threat in alliance."

"Yes, I know the Treaty," Mercie said. "I heard about this battle on the subspace chatter. We won this one again, right?"

"Yup, we did. Or at least we repulsed another invasion, and Boussard should be heading back by now," Athena said. "I heard reports that the Borg are not out for assimilation, they're out for blood. Very un-Borg like. We could be entering a new chapter with our engagement with the Borg. Bloodier, more confrontational. They're no longer trying to overwhelm us with adaptation and technology, but sheer aggression. It is now as if they fear us, instead us fearing them, and they're fighting more desperately, like a wounded animal fighting for its survival. Instead of sending a Cube to be challenged by lots of smaller ships, like flies trying to peck an elephant to death, they send waves of smaller ships, Probes, Interceptors, Assimilators, and Spheres in high speed hit and run attacks. They're moving from a technological adaptation mode to a tactical adaptation mode using speed and firepower. This results in losing even larger numbers of our ships, wearing us down even more, forcing us to build a lot more of the smaller ships than we would have liked to cover our losses."

"That sounds bad, but why are you not fighting with the fleet?" Mercie asked. "Oh wait, you're being refitted. Sorry about that."

"Exactly, I'm being refitted. Sidelined, useless, while all this fighting going on," Athena said. "Before, when it comes to battles, I used to be the star of the show. Now, things are changing. They rely less and less of me. Even if I am sidelined, they could still let me control a ship other than the Athena into a battle. The Deimos, any of the Defiants, hell, I'll take a Sabre or Nova."

"I think you will get pass your depression once your ship is operational," Mercie said. "You're still an important part of the fleet." Mercie laid her arm around Athena's shoulder. "Hey look at me, I'm the one who should feel redundant. Even though I'm proving the feasibility of quantum slipstream, Starfleet is leaving the tech aside. They seem more interested now on using transwarp technology instead of quantum slipstream. That captured Transwarp gate the Section captured and has on wraps, well, that taught them a lot. Instead of a transwarp coil, they're modifying the deflectors to open a transwarp opening and access the conduits that the Gate will be sustaining. Anyone who wants a used Dauntless class slipstream starship?"

"That's quite interesting," Athena remarked. "But I'm sure Starfleet would find some use with quantum slipstream. It seemed so promising. And I want to use that slipstream vector sled once again.

"I bet the new auxiliary deflector they're building on your ship can be used to open a transwarp opening," Mercie said.

"Do you know something that I don't?" Athena asked.

"I'm just hypothetically guessing," Mercie said.

"Why don't we take a walk, show me all the new ships, greet all the guests and the new people."

"That's one of those things too," Athena said. "Since Boussard took over, everything around here has changed. We got lots of new comers, all strangers to me. I'm just not used to it." Athena shook her head.

They stared out the windows of the shipyard to the space beyond. A number of ships parked outside of the shipyard, waiting for their maintenance and resupply.

"I'm so bored here that I literally memorized everything that came to the shipyard. See that ship over there?" Athena ask.

"I can see it's a Intrepid D production block," Mercies said. "They got longer, ablative armored nacelles and larger impulse engines, all set in variable geometry pylons, a design feature reinstated on the Intrepid class after Voyager returned."

"That's the USS Nautilus," Athena said. "That's the third Intrepid class to arrive to this parts after the Blackbird and the Hainan. I heard more is coming our way. They're supposed to support the Kiev and the Vanguard. Smells like an intensified patrol and recon campaign. According to my database, her captain goes by the name of Yancy Dubois."

"When the Mercury arrived from her test flights, I also noticed we got more Nova types around here recently," Mercie also added.

"Yes," Athena affirmed. "Some Novas and their variants. You can tell the new refits from the old Novas from their subtle changes, such as the new rounded auxiliary navigational deflector that allowed the chin to be closed. But remember, Starfleet had recently passed a directive to call the new variants, Pathfinders, instead. They got upgraded engines and quantum torpedo tubes. See that Pathfinder, that's the USS Sulu Sea. Another recent arrival. According to my database, this one has a captain by the name of Paul Molson." "All of sudden, we're getting more than a fair share of Intrepid and Nova type ships, doing long range patrol and recon. Both the Kiev and the Vanguard are increasingly doing patrols. They're fitting me with longer range sensors. Something is up, something sneaky, and they're not telling me. Frankly I don't like being left out," Athena said.

Mercie patted Athena on the back. "I'm sure they will eventually tell you."

Star Trek Athena - Phantoms Act II

"Lets go bug some of the newbies," Athena said.

"Hehe, all right then," Mercie said. "Let's start with that bunch of engineers arguing there."

"Hi all, you ladies," a suave voice greeted them.

Athena and Mercie turned around. Athena's glum face morphed into a smile. "Oh, hi," she said in a twinkle.

The tall, dark, handsome guy looked at the two of them, and said. "If you don't mind ladies, but this is a Starfleet facility here. Either you're civilians, or you're not in proper uniform. Tees and shorts are not allowed in regulation workhours."

The girls giggled again, and the man started to looked annoyed, but kept smiling, pleased with the sight of the company. "Ladies? Please identify yourself," said the man.

"Oh golly this guy does look cute," Mercie said, ignoring the man and giggling once again.

"I'm warning you, ladies," the man said in a tone. "I suspect you both are with Starfleet. Is this the way you treat a commanding officer?" He showed the bars in his collar. "I'm Captain Paul Molson."

"The Captain Molson?" Athena said. ""Oh, he's the Captain of the USS Sulu Sea?"

"The one and only," Molson said. "By the way, since I often explain this every time I meet someone, the Sulu Sea by the way, isn't named for the famed Captain Sulu of the Excelsior, but an actual body of water on Earth discovered by Magellan's expedition, the first to ever circle the planet Earth."

"History lesson taken. Yes, sir, Captain, sir," Athena said, walking in lockstep. Mercie followed Athena step by step, action by action.

"You two look like sisters," Molson said, staring at the two short haired blondes. "Or, when did Starfleet started recruiting Swedish twins." One girl had a scraggy boyish style, and the other had two short ponytails. Both twisted their hips like playful teens.

"If you mind ladies, we need a proper ID," Molson said. "This is a restricted area. Do you have fathers or mothers on board the shipyard or any of the ships here? We would have notify them. It's all procedures." He winked. "Now tell me, who are you, and we need to be serious about this." He ended his last word on a rising tone.

Athena pulled her pockets out. They were all empty. "Ooh, I don't have any ID. So what are you going to do now, handsome?" She spoke in a sultry voice. "Are you going to carry us out and lock us in?"

"I might have to call security and detain you in the visitor's room until I contact your parents," Molson said. "Well, if you don't want to tell me who you are, maybe the computer can. Computer! ID these two girls, will you?"

"Yes, Captain," the computer said. "The girls are Athena and Mercury, respectively."

"Athena and Mercury?" Molson asked. "Excuse me, computer, did I hear you say, Athena and Mercury?"

"Yes, Captain," the computer affirmed.

"Excuse me, Computer," Molson said. "When I first came here, I heard there are two secret ships, and I mean secret ships, highly hush hush prototypes. Classified, cloak and dagger technology, that sort of thing. I have not seen these ships, but I heard that one of these ships is named Athena and the other is Mercury. They said that I should not ask too much questions, and the answers will eventually come to me. So tell me Computer, why are there two girls named Athena and Mercury?"

The computer answered. "Athena and Mercury here are the GCH or General Command Hologram of the USS Athena and the USS Mercury."

"Holograms? You both are holograms," Molson stared at them in amazement. "My lord! Holograms, you both are all holograms in the first place. You girls have me fooled major. What exactly are GCH's for?"

Mercie answered. "To be precise, we are sentient ships. The holograms you see now are our representation."

"And what do you sentient ships do?" Molson asked.

"In most occasions, we have a crew running us manually," Athena said, in her turn to explain. "But we do dangerous missions. There are circumstances that the crew may be incapacitated, or become incapable of handling the ship. I will take over to complete the mission or return home."

"Starfleet is working towards the complete automation of an entire starship," Molson said. "Fascinating, but not good for the long term prospects of my job. I hope they don't replace captains with machines."

"I'm not exactly a machine, Captain. I am alive, a consciousness spawned within a complex network of bioneural and isolinear circuitry. Finding out that we're holograms, how does that affect your opinion of us, handsome?" Athena said, twirling her hair with two of her fingers. "Do we frighten you now?"

"You two are very good," Molson said. "If I didn't call the guards, I would have asked you to go out with me. But now the secrets are out...and I would have to report you both to your respective captains."

"Our captains!" Athena said, alarmed. "Oh no," Mercie said. "Athena, didn't you anticipate that?"

"I'll have to inform your captains, that you two are out of regulation uniforms, in less than decent dress, and involved with less than proper and quite ridiculous behavior with a superior officer," Molson said.

Athena placed her hand on her mouth. Mercie scratched her hair. "This is going to be most embarrassing if Garret ever finds out," Athena said. "He is going to think I'm a slut, if he hadn't so already."

"I can imagine all the negative reaction Tonya would have," Mercie said. "What are we going to do now?"

"Well girls, whether you're Starship or Starfleet, we expect some more proper dress and respect to protocol," Molson said. "This does not mean that I don't enjoy the sight of you two girls in whatever get up you have now, but you know, what you're wearing now is kind of counterproductive for the rest of the engineers working on the ships."

"All right, all right, just turn around," Athena said. Molson turned around. "Okay, you can look around now," Athena said.

Molson turned around to see both Athena and Mercie in the proper Starfleet uniforms. "Wow, that's like magic. You really both are holograms, but your personalities and actions are more human than anything I've seen."

"Starfleet officially classifies us as 'sentient' beings, and therefore accorded to the rights and responsibilities as such," Mercie said.

"Then why break the rules, trying to seek attention," Molson said. "Oh wait, I get it, you girls are trying to win attention. Where are your captains now?"

The computer answered this time. "Captain Randall Garret of the USS Athena is currently assisting in the testing of the USS Deimos and in the training of her new crew. Captain Tonya Khidan of the USS Mercury is currently within the Mercury overseeing her diagnostics and maintenance."

"Oh I can see why you girls are bored. Your captains are busy and you're all left out," Molson said. "Incredible. The state of artificial intelligence has advanced to the point that even sentient creations are now capable experiencing boredom."

"I wish you won't use the term artificial intelligence and sentient creations in front of us," Athena said. "Girls, ladies, or women would be fine."

"Forgive me ladies," Molson said. "That's equally as incredible. You can even perceive indignation. But hold on ladies, you both owe me something."

"What?" Athena asked.

"As penance and reprimand to your conduct, you both must do something," Molson said.

"Well, what can we do?" Mercie said, rolling her eyeballs.

Molson raised both his elbows. "Ladies, I'm the newcomer here and I think you both owe me a tour of the facilities and your ships. Will that give you something interesting to do?" "Why certainly," Athena said, taking one of his arms, Mercie on the other. Molson grinned from ear to ear. "Nice to be seen with a couple of attractive tour guides," he said.

They passed one section. Like in all sections, force fields covered the bottom of the section, keeping the air in, but allowing ships to pass through. Gravity however, was limited only within the walkaways and lobbies of the shipyard, but not in the area where the ships are repaired or built. Inside, without gravity, a Defiant class and a Sabre class lay suspended in midair, held by force fields. Engineers float inside the pressurized section, holding tools.

"What are they doing?" Molson asked.

A petit girl of Asian heritage with coveralls and twin pigtails accosted them. "Mercie, Athena, what the hell are you doing here?" she said, her hands planted on her hips. "You know you two holograms are off limits in the modifications and refit sections."

"May I introduce you to our Engineer of Terror and Mistress of Bitch, Lieutenant Chantel Toh," Athena said. "Master of the Defiant, the Nova, and the Sabre, and aspiring starship designer. She's responsible for the myriads of Frankenstein Defiant and Nova variants"

"Your name sounds familiar," Molson said.

"That's because my mother is Admiral Batelle Toh, who led the Defiant Pathfinder project," Chantel said.

"I see," Molson said. "There is no better source of learning the engineering of Defiants and Novas than the originator herself."

"And who might you be?" Chantel asked.

"I'm Captain Paul Molson of the USS Sulu Sea."

"I'm sorry, Captain, I should have paid more attention to the pins of your uniform," Chantel said. "Welcome aboard the Tacticus Shipyard. May I ask what are you doing here and how I may be of service?"

"I've been assigned to the Section to work on some classified matters," Molson said. "I am here to meet with Doctor Helen Shiner and Commodore Jacques Boussard. But both are not here yet, so I'm spending my spare time touring the facilities."

"May I ask sir, what ship is the Sulu Sea?" Chantel asked.

"Pathfinder class, you know one of those Novas with the closed nose and dome on the bridge," Molson described. "Ah, it must be fate that I must know you then, Captain," Chantel said. "She's a fine ship. I remember my mother's original Pathfinder project, when she had the USS Pathfinder prototype that had as much as six torpedo tubes in the nose. They recently decided to rename the new refit as Pathfinder in honor of her."

"She must be proud then," Molson said.

"Oh she is. But I want to make her prouder still by following her footsteps," Chantel said. "By becoming the best damn engineer in the fleet."

"May I ask what are you doing to these two ships?" Molson asked, staring at the work done on a suspended Defiant and Sabre.

"We're installing variable geometry warp engines on them," Chantel said. "Look at this." She held a PADD and pressed some interface buttons on it. The nacelles on both the Defiant and the Sabre hinged downwards.

"By lowering the warp nacelles, the warp engines attain a clear line of sight with each other, creating a stronger warp field around the ships, increasing overall warp efficiency" Chantel explained. "The two ships can attain faster warp speeds with less energy."

"Interesting," Molson said. "I am aware of that theory. That is why the nacelles in the Intrepid class would hinge upwards on their variable geometry pylons for greater warp efficiency and speed. But I have never seen this idea implemented on a Defiant and Sabre before." "Both ships are not as efficient or as fast as an Intrepid or upgraded Nova in warp," Chantel said. "But with the new variable geometry nacelles, they can."

As Chantel talked, Molson noticed Mercie and Athena sticking their tongues out at Chantel. The moment he looked back at Mercie and Athena, the two girls were standing there, well behaved as if nothing happened. At the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Chantel sticking her tongue out in retaliation. He looked back at Chantel, and she was standing up in attention as if nothing happened to her either.

"Captain Molson, if you need anything fixed on the Pathfinder, let us know," Chantel said. "You have just met the number one expert in the Pathfinder in the whole of the Federation. "

"Didn't you once say Novas and Pathfinders are light weight explorers that couldn't do anything right?" Athena said.

"Aw, shut up," Chantel said. "I never said anything like that. Don't ruin my party, or I'll ruin yours next time, Athena."

"Computers never forget," Athena said, her index finger pointing to her head.

"What's the animosity here, girls?" Molson asked.

"I stopped liking this tech head the moment she said my MVAM is inefficient and redundant," Athena said.

"Which is true," Chantel said. "Notice why they dropped MVAM in the new general production Prometheus variant, the Ares class."

"MVAM?" Molson asked. "Is that what I think it is? Multiple Vector Attack Mode?"

"Yup," Athena said.

"You can't be serious," Molson said. "There is one class of ship that is capable of multiple vector separation, and that is the USS Prometheus prototype. If you have MVAM, then somewhere in this yard, you have another Prometheus prototype. I have not walked long enough to see all the ships here."

"Yup," Athena said.

"The USS Athena is another Prometheus class prototype," Chantel said. "One that has more tricks up its sleeve than the Prometheus itself."

"Wow, you got to be kidding me. A Prometheus class. I got to see your ship, Athena," Molson said. "And what is the USS Mercury?"

"A genuine Dauntless class, built from the scans and data gathered by Voyager from the fake NX-01A Dauntless," Chantel said.

"A Dauntless?" Molson asked, with his voice on a high pitch. "I'm quite a fan on the achievements of Admiral Janeway, when she captained the USS Voyager across the Delta Quadrant. Read her logs. The incident with Arturis and the fake Dauntless was among the technological highlights of the epic journey. I always wondered what happened to the data they obtained from the Dauntless."

"Only the appearance of the ship was a fake," Mercie said. "But not the technology. There was enough information on the Dauntless to construct a working replica, and the quantum slipstream technology proved to be workable."

"This I gotta see," Molson said.

"Well, see you guys later then," Chantel said

"Lieutenant, I do have some recurring problem with my warp engines which has defied my engineers. Maybe if you have the time, you can take a look at it," Molson said.

"Yes, Captain, I'll give it a check in my spare time," Chantel said.

"I will look forward to that, lieutenant," Molson replied, then walked away with the two girls on his arms. Behind his back, Athena struck her tongue out in a parting shot, but Chantel saw it and struck her tongue back, with two fingers on her nose in a taunting gesture.

"Oh my god," Molson said at the sight of the Dauntless class USS Mercury suspended in the yard. "They really made a real ship out of the Dauntless. It looked just like the pictures Voyager took of the Dauntless. It truly looks like something from the future. I got to see what's inside it." "I've just finished a number of exploration missions and test runs," Mercie said. "Every time I go out in trips like that, they have to do a thorough examination for cracks and fractures from hull stresses."

"I can imagine," Molson said. "Can we go in?"

"You two go in," Athena said, bothered with some developments on her ship. "I'll catch up with you later."

Inside, Molson breathed deeply as he examined the bridge of the USS Mercury. "Beautiful yet functional," he said. "This is amazing. Everything here is exactly the way Voyager recorded it to be, but this time, it's genuinely Federation." He ran his hand across the control panels, then watched as Mercury stood up on the helm console. He noticed that the helm lacked a seat, and beyond that was a massive bridge screen that covered much of the wall. It must have been an awesome sight to watch the stars rush on such a large display.

"This ship is a wonder!" Molson exclaimed. "I had done precious research on quantum slipstream physics, mostly on hypothesis and which we have conducted a series of experiments to prove its feasibility. Then we received information from the Voyager Delta Quadrant transmissions that quantum slipstream was a functional reality with some alien races in the Delta Quadrant. I dream that I could see a ship like the Arturis Dauntless, but never...never...expected that Starfleet would actually build a working replica in one. That one day, I would be standing inside one."

"She's very real, all right," Mercury said.

The girl stood there like a priestess on an altar. Behind her, on the center and encircled by the other consoles, lay the Captain's chair, like the throne of an ancient king. He walked to that throne, and felt a great temptation to sat on it. It would seem impolite for one captain of another ship to sit on the chair of another. He succumbed to the temptation.

"Ah," he said as he sank on the seat. Everything on the bridge circled on the throne. The Federation may have copied the ship, but there was still something strangely alien about the ship, the way all its attention focused on this one chair, the way the screen dwarfed the humanity within in displaying the wonders of the universe outside.

There was something strangely beautiful about the way the girl stood there on the console, looking up the screens. She clicked on the panel, replaying some of the video footage she took for him to see for his entertainment. But he wasn't paying attention any more. He stood, and silently walked behind her. He sniffed her hair, her clothes and body. If she was a hologram, her illusion was so complete that he could feel her body heat, the scent of her hair and the nape of her neck...

"Excuse me?" said a voice. He was startled and stood straight up in attention. The voice was that of a young woman. He turned around, and saw despite the Starfleet uniform, the sleek athletic figure and the striking face of a woman with short black hair. Her eyes, it reminded him of a predator, in the way they stared intently and deeply, baring his soul at their gaze. Her thick lips pouted like one always angry with the world, and he could sense this was a person who banged heads with authorities before. But this time, she was the authority, as he was quick to see the gold pins on her collar.

"Who are you?" She asked. "May you please identify yourself and your purpose here."

"I am Captain Molson of the USS Sulu Sea," he said. "I am just new in the shipyard facility and Mercury here was kind enough to show me around in a tour."

"Mercie?" She asked.

"Yes, Captain," Mercie replied.

"It's not really her fault," Molson said. "If I intruded on anything, it's my fault, since I asked her."

"Well, I'm Captain Tonya Khidan of the USS Mercury, and this is my ship. I would not mind allowing visitors on board, but I appreciate that I must be informed first. This ship is highly confidential and very few people know of it's existence. I hope to keep it that way."

"Again, I apologize, Captain Khidan. May I call you Tonya?" Molson said.

"If you let me know your first name," Tonya said. "Apology accepted."

"You can call me Paul."

"Well, Paul. The Sulu Sea, eh? Sounds familiar. Is that one of the Intrepids making a house call?" Tonya asked.

"Not really, although I wished I had an Intrepid," Molson said. "It's one of the Pathfinders."

"Oh," Tonya said.

"That's the expression I always get, when they hear it's just a Pathfinder. Just a little Pathfinder," Molson said.

"It's still a ship. A good ship," Tonya said.

He noticed something about her eyes. They were golden, but with slit pupils, like a cat. He realized that the woman in front of him was alien, or at least, human with alien blood, given that her facial features remained predominantly human.

"Are you...are you human?" Molson asked with careful hesitation.

"I am half human, half Khosk," Tonya replied. "Why do you ask? What does it matter?"

"Nothing, just curious," Molson said. She had an inquisitive, penetrating gaze that grabbed and consumed his consciousness. His sixth sense shouted danger, but it was this sense of danger that he found attractive with this woman.

"Since you're here, why don't I show you around?" Tonya said. "And you will exchange the favor, right?"

"Gladly and with great pleasure," Molson said.

"Hey! I saw him first!" Mercie said. But they were no longer listening to her. Mercury quickly caught up with them.

They came to the engineering section. "That is the quantum core of the ship," Tonya said, pointing to a glowing orb in the center of the room, a sacrifice in an altar.

Molson rushed to the orb, examining it like a boy given his first toy. "Instead of a large, vertical, column like warp core, all you have is this thing that is only the size of a basketball. This makes all our warp engines as outdated as a piston engine is to a jet engine," Molson said. "Amazing."

"This is why this ship remains highly confidential," Tonya said. "You do not breathe word about it to non Section people. This is the top secret technology development group for the Section. Here, you will see technology so cutting edge you will not see elsewhere. But that is what this Section force is all about containing this technology. If the rest of the galaxy knows about it, it could have dire repercussions, and not just in the balance of power. We still cannot fully understand, or comprehend the consequences."

"What happens let's say, if the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers still invading the Delta and Gamma quadrants using slipstream or transwarp drive? What's the consequences to the other races then?" Tonya explained. "What's really interesting is that both transwarp and slipstream technology originated from the Delta Quadrant. Who were the first to use them? What other secrets the Delta Quadrant holds? Voyager merely gave us a glimpse of what lies in store there. In fact, we, the USS Mercury, has been conducting scouting missions in the Delta Quadrant using slipstream. We have the potential of making the some of the greatest discoveries of stellar archeology."

"That's exactly why I'm here," Molson said. "I was called here by the request of a Doctor Helen Shiner, which I hope to meet, along with Commodore Boussard. I was specifically selected because of my scientific background and my work on ancient stellar civilizations, which all pointed to contact with transwarp and slipstream civilizations that originated somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, all in various periods of a long three million solar year history. While I have not been briefed yet, I believe my mission will involve further studies along this line."

"An explorer," Tonya said.

"I was trained as both a physicist and a stellar archeologist with degrees in astrometrics. After writing several papers on transwarp phenomena, I began a series of research projects on ancient interstellar civilizations on whether they have access to transwarp technology. Starfleet was impressed with my work enough to assign me my own science vessel, which was the Pathfinder class Sulu Sea, " Molson said.

"So I guess you're not much of a tactically oriented officer," Tonya said.

"I'm not your clique of a phaser blasting swashbuckling Starfleet hero like James Tiberius Kirk," Molson answered. "If that is what you mean."

Tonya laughed. "We could never be more different. I was made a Tactical officer in my first duty given what I demonstrated in the Academy. I have done my duty in the front lines of the Dominion War and behind it. Now that I'm retired from deep range operative work, I can say that I did deep cover operative work. Even though I'm commanding this ship now, my command speciality lies with Defiants taking them into battle or raiding behind enemy front lines."

"You are a swashbuckling phaser wielding Starfleet hero, or I should say, heroine," Molson smiled. "A clique, except for being a beautiful woman, although I remember there are stories like that in my childhood."

"Well, thank you, I never thought of myself like that," Tonya said.

"Me, I'm a scholastic geek," Molson said. "My ship, the USS Sulu Sea, may be an upgraded Pathfinder with quantum torpedoes, but she's still a science ship foremost. I am not here to fight. I am here for this reason, to explore and find out what makes the universe tick."

"I guess you have never been involved in a battle then," Tonya said.

"I would be considered by your standards, a greenhorn," Molson said. "I'm quite aware of the personal and cultural divisions within Starfleet among those who have much experience in battle, and those who don't. Those who pursue a militaristic vision of Starfleet and those who pursue a vision of diplomacy, science and exploration for Starfleet. Our kind has not spoken out well since the Battle of Wolf 359 and the Dominion War, but with the return of Voyager from the Delta Quadrant, exploration seems to be the Starfleet and Federation fad once again, give or take a few Borg incursions to spice things up."

"As far as true battle experience, no I have not," Molson continued. "My ship was built after the War and I am a newly commissioned captain. I never took part of the Dominion War. I am not a member of the Dee Double-U veterans club which I heard most of the captains in this base belong to. The most I have come closest to any battle had been on simulations and practice drills. My crew is equally green horn. I would like some battle hardened veterans in my crew but my requests for such were consistently turned down. It seems that war veteran captains get better priority in getting battle hardened crew for their big heavily armored warships."

"Sorry for bringing up the topic," Tonya said. "I didn't know you're sensitive about it."

"I would like to apologize if I sounded like I'm lecturing or babbling," Molson said. "I really didn't mean it. You have been wonderful company. And you have been a wonderful host, along with Athena and Mercie here."

"If this will make you feel better, somehow it is I who happens to envy you," Tonya said. "I think you're closer to the pulse of your dreams than I am. I believe everyone who joins into Starfleet isn't looking for a battle that would make their name shine in glory. They did it for the stars to reach out and touch them. All that battle stuff is just incidental. It's duty. When I graduated the Dominion War was at full swing, but going to war was not the reason why I entered the Academy. I think my father knew this when he handed me command of this ship."

"Your father was an admiral?" Molson asked.

"Yes, retired now actually. Used to run this place," Tonya said. "But he felt and I do feel that I am worthy to command a Starfleet vessel. I've been in command of a Defiant during the War, and won my battles under the fiercest of fire. But somehow, being young and half alien didn't help my career progression. My father sensed that I should be more than just some kind of operative for the Section, or leading some Defiant in some dangerous operation. He felt that I should be blazing new ways and paths, discovering new things, restoring the spirit Starfleet once had before the clouds of war cast their shadow."

"In that way, I envy you, Captain Paul Molson," Tonya said. "You are the explorer. I am the soldier, even though I am the soldier turned explorer, but a part of me will stay a soldier forever. But you? You remain uncorrupted. You stayed pure to your dreams. You will touch the stars."

Star Trek Athena - Phantoms Act III

Somewhere in the Delta Quadrant....

"Well, well, well..." Adam said, his eyes staring into the walls and empty space. So did Kaja.

There was no display panel inside a Borg Cube. Instead, the image of what was out there appeared in their minds like a mental projection.

"...if that is what I think it is...." Adams said.

"Yes," Kaja said, working on the Borg control panel. "It is a Hirogen tribal Caravan ship."

"What luck..." Adam said. The image projected a huge brown colored ship, with a staggered hull, its surface filled with strange protrusions. The ship was large at around eight hundred meters in length, but still dwarfed by the Cube. The insect like legs that protruded from its long caterpillar like body were actually scaffolds used to manufacture more Predator ships. A Caravan ship was literally a moving shipyard.

Kaja reported. "There are a number of Hirogen Predator ships escorting and defending the Caravan ship. The various defensive armaments in the ship would equal any dreadnaught we have seen."

"Why does the strength of the Hirogen Caravan ship concern us?" Adam said. "This is a Borg Tactical Cube. We outsize it and we outgun it. It's not like a Voth or a Species 8472 bioship dreadnaught. I want all holograms to change into Borg Drone forms. We'll give them a scare before we take them."

"I must warn you. While we do have control of the ship, without the Borg Collective mind, we do not have the same adaptive abilities as the Borg, nor do we have the same level of damage regenerative capabilities," Kaja warned. "If we attempt to board the ship, the Hirogen weapons can still hurt and kill us."

"There is one clear and obvious strategy when dealing with this," Adam said. "Sheer overwhelming power. The Borg themselves often use that as a final resort."

"I'm scanning the inside of the Caravan ship," Kaja said. "Hirogen females and young, and few of their elderly."

"For a hunting, nomadic society, I'm surprised the Hirogen still keeps their elderly at all," Adam said. "This sounds like where they keep their many, happy families." Adam broke out into a smile.

"The Hirogen keep the old for their experience and to act their tribal elders," Kaja explained. "You're right. These must be their families. Their best males are on the Predator ships."

"I wonder how strong the Hirogen family values are," Adam said. "How much they care for their family and children? Are you interested to find out too, Kaja?"

"Quite so," Kaja replied.

"Then let's crash their party," Adam said.

"Well, just in time, the Hirogen Predator ships have just spotted us and heading this way to engage," Kaja reported. "Their weapons are arming."

"Are those guys nuts?" Adam said. "Can't they see that this is a Borg Cube? Can't they see they're outmatched both technologically and by sheer power?"

"They are defending their families," Kaja said. "Anyone would face the worst when it comes to defending their families."

"Then swat them like flies," Adam said.

"Being done, weapons locked on," Kaja said. "Weapons firing. As the Earth expression goes, easy as pie. Hirogen Predators, eliminated. The Caravan ship is defense less and they're trying to escape."

"Pursue them," Adam said. "But I don't want them destroyed. I want everyone of them captured. And by the way, Kaja, inform them that resistance is futile." Adam smiled.

***

Outside of the Tacticus Shipyard...

A Sternbach class ship was the first to arrive, the USS Sirius. There were only a few built like her, a prototype candidate for a new explorer requirement which the Intrepid class eventually filled. They may still be building a few of these ships. It had a triangular front hull, much like a Prometheus, but it had surface features similar to an Intrepid, such as a dorsal auxiliary deflector and sensor array. Dropped warp nacelles on L shaped supports graced the sides of the ship. In one way it looked like a giant Type 9 shuttle. From a distance, one may easily mistake it as an Intrepid A variant, and during the Dominion War, Starfleet exploited that confusion by falsely labeling the Sternbach and the Intrepid A as the Yeager class.

While it's no longer a front line explorer vessel, the Sirius remained busy doing surveys and shorter range science missions. Section recently assigned it to the Tacticus shipyard and to one of its most closely guarded secrets, an artifact called in the simplest and most harmless of terms, as Gate 001. Only the most privileged knew what Gate 001 truly was the first ever Borg structure captured by the Federation. A transwarp gate.

Doctor Helen Shiner arrived with the Sirius. As the ship came within transporter range to the immense shipyard, Shiner stared from the windows of the ship. A fleet parked outside of the yard, and she could see the imposing sharp and streamlined hull of an Achilles class, the USS Ardennes. Things changed since Hurst left. Hurst loved the subtle elegance of an Ambassador class ship for his flagship. But Boussard, the Norman warrior, wanted something state of the art with teeth. Now that he's running the show, she wondered how interesting things will be.

There were many other ships in the yard. "Computer," she ordered. "Give me a rundown of the ships at this encounter point and display everything at my PADD."

"Executing," the computer said. Shiner stared at the list of names in her PADD. Good...good...she thought. Boussard supplied her requirements.

She clicked on her communicator. "Captain, I'm ready to go now. Beam me over to the shipyard."

***

Athena jumped and down like a happy puppy at the sight of Doctor Shiner, while Mercie ran to hug the doctor.

"Oh I missed you," Athena said.

"Me too," Mercie said.

"Calm, calm now girls, I also missed the two of you," Shiner said.

From a distance, Molson watched the commotion. "What's that?" He asked. "Who's that?"

"That, is the person you need to meet," Tonya said. "Doctor Helen Shiner, who according to her not so humble resume, is the top cyberneticist in two quadrants. She probably knows more about Borg computer systems than anyone."

"Is something wrong with my eyes, or do all three of them look like triplets?" Molson asked.

"That's because Shiner also created the Athena and Mercury holograms," Tonya explained. "Those two girls are two reasons why Shiner isn't the top cyberneticist in two quadrants for nothing. Apart from small changes, Athena and Mercury are actually both made to her image. That's why they all look alike."

"Now that's even more reason to meet her," Molson said.

"I'm sure she's here for serious business, and that means I have to go with you," Tonya said.

Shiner approached them both, Athena and Mercury at her side. "I don't believe I have the pleasure of meeting you," Shiner said to the tall man. "I am Doctor Helen Shiner."

"And so I was told," Molson said. "I only had a text communique informing me that you needed to meet me under the most confidential of circumstances."

"Then you must be the physicist and archeologist Doctor Paul Molson," Shiner said.

"Captain now, actually," Molson said. "Starfleet granted me command of a small starship that I could use to pursue my research. Now may I ask what I have come here for? The circumstances were most mysterious, but I was promised something or I won't be here. Access to research on the Delta Quadrant, or data on the Voyager archives that were classified. But I heard that you can do more access to the Delta Quadrant itself. I've been around this shipyard, and already I've seen one incredible ship capable of quantum slipstream."

"You will get that, and more," Shiner said. "You will have access, but as you know, you must swear secrecy."

"I understand the need for secrecy. I swore secrecy the moment I joined this Section and came to this base," Molson said. "But sometimes I wonder why we cannot share all these wonders with the rest of the Federation."

"Maybe because the rest of the Federation, and all the other empires and nations, are not ready for the profound impact these discoveries. Or the impact we collectively might have on the Delta Quadrant," Shiner said. "Who knows both the wonders, but also the perils that it may hold. Just remember what a single wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant eventually led to the biggest war the Federation had since it's founding. And we're still not sure if that's completely over yet as we still have to face the long term ramifications of that."

"Whether or not we're playing God controlling access of these technologies and the Delta Quadrant, well that's not really the point," Shiner said. "The point is, it has to be done. We cannot afford to have another cataclysmic event like the Dominion War so soon.. We can talk more in the briefing room."

'Helen, Helen, are you in the yard now?" It was Boussard's voice, coming through the communicator attached to Shiner's dress.

"Yes, Jacques, I'm here now," Shiner responded. "I also got Captain Molson. I think he's been here for a while and has been looking around the base."

"That's good. I'm sorry I could not attend to him earlier because of some matters," Boussard said. "We also got Captain Yancy Dubois of the Nautilus and Tonya Khidan of the Mercury."

"What about the other captains?" Shiner said.

"Tied up. Kiev, Vanguard, Blackbird and Hainan are all in patrol. We're still dealing with the consequences of intensified Cartel smuggling activity here. We're refitting the Athena now with an improved sensor package, but Garret and crew is training the new crew on the Deimos," Boussard said. "They will be briefed when they arrive."

"We are about to embark on an intensified campaign to explore the Delta Quadrant," Shiner said. "How many starships can we spare?"

"Not much, I'm afraid..." Boussard admitted. "...without stirring up much attention. We have two Intrepid class chips, the USS Polaris and the USS Orion, coming to join us. But that's about it. I still have to follow up my requests. Starfleet is strapped. I am strapped. In fact, Starfleet has reassigned several of the ships that used to be under Hurst's command to a standby Borg incursion defense force. That includes the Normandy. At the same time, the requirements for patrol increased with intensified Cartel activities all along the Federation borders. To get the Orion, I have agreed to trade away more of this fleet's ships to another fleet command."

Shiner could sense that it was not easy being in a position of greater responsibility. But the urgency of matters were as demanding and not as forgiving as ever.

"It will be worth it," Shiner said. "This will be the greatest exploratory campaign in all history."

"I hope so. I await you in the briefing room," Boussard said as the party approached the briefing room. "And one more thing, tell Mercury and Athena there to wait outside. Captains only allowed inside. Respective captains can just inform them of what they need to do."

"What the?" Athena exclaimed. Mercury frowned. "I know when I'm not wanted," Athena said. "Come on, Mercury let's go."

***

Once again, as in times past, the captains meet to discuss a matters of importance, a plan, an operation. Boussard settled into a chair near the front while Shiner stood up. The captains made up the audience. There was only a three of them, Tonya Khidan, and those new to the Section, Molson and Dubois. The numbers of the captains were a far cry from recent briefings in the past, where urgency commanded a large number of captains in a plan for battle. But this meeting was no less important.

"We don't have much time, and I don't want to waste your time either," Shiner said as a huge panel display opened in the wall. A huge model of the Galaxy appeared. A myriad of dots appeared and drew a network across the model."

"A ancient trans-galactic communication network across all four quadrants," Shiner explained. "Who built? How? Voyager first encountered this network in the Delta Quadrant, and during so, it was under the control of the Hirogen. At least the portion in the Delta Quadrant that is. Who made that network and how they used it certainly made short work of galactic travel. We have dated this network. It could easily be older than ten thousand solar years."

"Just recently we have seen a dramatic rise in communications across this network other than our own communication," Shiner said. "For those already familiar of what we do here in this Section, we use this network to access our ships in the Delta Quadrant. For those new to this meeting and to this Section let me explain, how we're able to get ships to the Delta Quadrant."

Shiner switched to a new display. "Scene two. This giant green octagonal ring you see here floating in space is a Borg Transwarp Gate, part of a new network of transwarp conduits the Borg were trying to create after Voyager's return. The Borg lost one of their six transwarp hubs, and it may take a little time for them to build a new hub. But you do not necessarily need a hub to create a transwarp conduit. Conduits exist in nature as phenomena, and their life spans could theoretically range from short to indefinitely forever. Then there are artificially made conduits. So far there are three methods which can create transwarp conduits. Hubs are by far the largest structures but these are used to create complex, extensive networks that could span across the galaxy."

"The simplest and smallest mechanism the Borg uses to create a transwarp opening and conduit is a transwarp coil, but because of the enormous power needed to sustain a conduit, the range, life and stability of the conduit is limited. With a coil, the Borg can only do short hops, unless it could intersect and access an existing conduit. This is one reason why Borg ships, even the smaller Probes, need to produce so much power."

"Using a deflector array, a Federation starship can create an opening and ride the conduit. Previously the Enterprise D under Captain Picard, accomplished such a feat. However it requires so much power that only the largest and most powerful Federation starships could do such a thing and sustain a conduit for short distances. But if you can access an already existing conduit even a small shuttle could ride the conduit. This however assumes that the starship already knows the location of the conduit."

"The next method is the Transwarp Gate. Using a stationary power source, the Gate can create much longer and stable conduits across the Galaxy. Any ship could ride inside the conduit. However, a gate cannot create a network of conduits. That is what you need a Hub for, which is essentially a collection of gates."

"With the loss of one of their hubs, the Borg tried to use a shorter term method and tried to build this Gate. Apparently none of their existing hubs or gates could create a conduit long enough to reach Sector 001, or the Sol Sector," Shiner continued. "If they did, the Borg would have assimilated Earth long ago."

"But this Gate could open a conduit into the existing conduit network, then open another conduit all the way to Sector 001, allowing Borg ships to reach all the way to Earth," Shiner said. "You could call it a transwarp stepping stone to Earth. The Borg had already sent a number of ships through it and had built a Nexus to control the Gate. Luckily the forces of this Section mounted an attack that led to the capture of this Gate and its Nexus."

"For the first time in history, we have control of a transwarp infrastructure. With this gate, we could open a doorway and an endpoint all the way to the Delta and Gamma quadrants. Unlike the quantum slipstream ships, we do not need a specialized ship to go faster than warp speeds. Any existing ship could do."

"This is incredible!" Molson exclaimed. "The very fact that you have control of a Transwarp Gate. I got to see this myself. I was wondering why this was not shared with the rest of the Federation, but you are right. Such a Gate could open a Pandora's Box."

"You will get the chance to see it yourself, Molson, and even go pass through it," Shiner said. "I promise you that. Now let me finish."

"While we cannot reach the farthest point of the two quadrants, the Gate could find an endpoint on an existing conduit network and let the ship crossover to that. The risk in doing that is that we might end up through the Borg transwarp network."

"Once the ship is in the Delta or Gamma Quadrants, it needs to signal back to the Nexus for the Gate to open the conduit at the appointed place and time," Shiner continued. "This is why we need that communication network, and for that, we need to maintain excellent relations with the Hirogen. I will go more to that later."

"Wait," Molson said. "Can't we use the MIDAS array like the way Reginald Barclay did to communicate with ships in the Delta Quadrant?"

"Yes and no," Shiner said. "Yes, because that technology worked before, but no, because the MIDAS is under the control of the general side of Starfleet. Our operation is so secret we cannot simply use the MIDAS. Besides MIDAS is terribly inefficient compared to the technology the Hirogen controlled communications network has. With MIDAS you have to send a powerful tachyon beam to a pulsar to open a micro-wormhole, which requires tremendous energy. You can only open it at a specific time and for only a specific and short period. No, we need to study that ancient network directly."

"While we would think that the conduits were either natural, or Borg made, Voyager obtained data that that alien races, such as the Vaadwaur, the Turei, and the Voth, were using yet another system of subspace corridors," Shiner continued. "On closer investigation, this turned out to be another system of transwarp conduits, much older than the ones the Borg created, one that took centuries for the Vaadwaur to map out. This system uses a tachyon pulse variance of a different frequency than the ones the Borg uses, and exists on a different plane from the Borg system. Now if you are not aware who the Voth, the Vaadwaur and the Turei are, I suggest you need to check up the Voyager archives which is present in this shipyard's database."

"From Voyager's archives, the Borg were hardly a force five hundred years ago," Shiner said. "Borg range, power and capability only expanded geometrically in the last five hundred years. This indicates that the Borg transwarp system is much newer than the system the Vaadwaur mapped. If anything, the Borg may have assimilated transwarp technology from an earlier species."

"Using the Gate, we're able to finally access this second, much older conduit system," Shiner continued. "We've discovered it also has a series of hubs, and the network also spans throughout the Galaxy. I must submit that it would be potentially dangerous for the Borg or another aggressive race like the Dominion to access this system. Archeological studies in the Delta Quadrant reveal that the Vaadwaur, hundreds of years ago, posed a threat against a much larger area of the Quadrant, indicating they used these conduits to extend their range."

"My theory is that the communication network builders and the builders of the second older transwarp system are somewhat related, if not the same people," Shiner said. "This is evidence that sometime in the past, there existed a civilization so powerful and advanced that it literally spanned and ruled the Galaxy, a civilization far greater than the Federation, Borg, Dominion, and the empires we see now."

"How can that be?" Tonya asked. "If technology and technology evolve in a linear progression...."

"Technology and the evolution of civilizations are far from a linear progression," Shiner explained. "It is one of cycles of destruction and rebirth, and knowledge is often lost in between. Recently, one of our ships, the USS Athena, encountered races capable of slipstream travel through a subspace rift. It turned out that these races didn't exist in a parallel dimension but somewhere back in ancient times. If slipstream races existed in the past, why can't a major transwarp civilization exist then?"

"Sooner or later, major powers all over the Galaxy, will suspect the existence of this ancient, galactic empire," Shiner said. "The prize would be finding its technologies, from its derelicts and ancient ruins. The discoveries can turn the balance of power of this Galaxy and affect its fate in the most profound way."

"This is something like finding the Galactic equivalent of the Holy Grail then," Molson said.

"Close," Shiner affirmed. "Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the newest member of the Section, the archeologist and physicist, the Doctor and now the Captain Paul Molson."

Molson stood up, and even to the small audience, bowed slightly.

"Molson has recently made eye opening studies that the ancient stellar civilizations on the Alpha Quadrant encountered foreign races not of this quadrant," Shiner said. "He categorized and theorized that these foreign races may be using transwarp and quantum slipstream, and posed evidence that support that. Starfleet has acknowledged his work and has promoted him to captain his own starship for research purposes. To say the least I admired his work and recommended to Commodore Boussard to include Molson in the exploration campaign of the Delta Quadrant."

The small audience clapped.

Boussard stood up. It was his time to speak. "I'm not anything like a science man," Boussard admitted. "And I would have questioned the practicality of sending valuable starships in the quest to look for the Holy Grail. Now that I'm in Hurst's former position, I could now understand the juggling game he has to go through, the art of carefully allocating valuable resources to accomplish a wide range of missions."

"But a few events have startled me," Boussard admitted. "All along toward the Beta-Delta Quadrant borders, the Romulans are placing deep scan outposts and probes, and sent long range scouts across into the Delta Quadrant. The Klingons are not to be trifled with either, and the noble House of Kagh had taken the initiative for FTW, or Faster Than Warp projects in order to explore the Delta and Gamma Quadrants more openly. So once again, we are in a race."

"But what concerns me lately is the increasing desperation Borg forces has demonstrated," Boussard continued. "No longer content to just assimilate, they have resorted to more conventional tactics, and massed attacks with smaller ships. Our ship loses have increased with each encounter. This is their new strategy of adaptation. Instead of adapting by technology, they have adapted using tactics. It used to be they send one Cube after another to deal with our fleets. Now, it's extremely difficult to attack a Tactical Cube when you got a whole fleet of Spheres and Probes around it."

"So what is causing this increased desperation?" Boussard asked. "Any clue we can get, any technology we can gather to give us an edge, any allies we can make in the Delta Quadrant, we can surely use any help now. All this shows is how little we truly know of the Delta Quadrant, and yet it may affect the entire future of the galaxy as a whole."

Boussard sensed Shiner's body signals that it was time for her to take center stage again. "Allies are the other thing we like to talk about," Shiner said. "To have access to the ancient subspace communications network, we have to coddle up with the Hirogen a bit. Again, if you don't know who the Hirogen are, I suggest you need to check the Voyager archives."

"We know, we know, we've check them up previously in our spare time," Tonya said.

"The last time Janeway and Company dealt with the Hirogen, the Hirogen screwed up with the hologram technology badly." Shiner said. "As you know, the Hirogen was using Federation hologram technology to do their hunting, and it went way out of hand. It was Janeway who gave them that technology."

"Isn't that a violation of the Prime Directive?" Tonya asked.

"Yes it is. Which is why among the Voyager archives released to the public, this was kept classified," Boussard interrupted. "If the public knows about this, we would have to court martial Janeway. With Janeway such a popular figure, to do that would be a major embarrassment for Starfleet, especially after all the pompous ceremonies they held in her honor. It would look very bad for Starfleet to know one of their best and most celebrated violated the Prime Directive so wantonly and frequently at her discretion. If it was left up to me I would have court martialed her. I myself was court martialted before for things much more trivial than this. "

"This would explain why I never heard of it as well," Molson said.

"We recently built a small outpost in the Delta Quadrant," Shiner said. "The first real permanent toehold the Federation has in that area. The outpost has deep range scanners and communications equipment that can reach and access the ancient communications network. But that's not all. It's got a series of holodecks, for the Hirogen to use and enjoy their simulated hunting parties. This time however, our engineers are running the decks, so the Hirogens cannot abuse that technology. So they have their fun time, and we have our network. It is what you call a reasonable trade."

"Hmm...." Molson said.

"Lately however, communications across the network increased dramatically, and its not ours. The Hirogen are alarmed about something, and we need to find out if it will concern the safety of the Outpost," Shiner said.

"Now for technological issues," Shiner continued, "I will introduce you to Lieutenant and Chief Engineer Chantel Toh." The petite girl came in with a smile between her twin pony tails.

"I must add that we do have our back up systems. What if we cannot use the Hirogen network to communicate back to our Nexus? What if we need to open a transwarp conduit ourselves?" Chantel asked. "Going into the Delta Quadrant is unknown, uncharted and potentially hostile territory. We simply cannot risk sending any ship there at a whim. Every ship that will go through the Gate and into the Delta Quadrant will have to be approved before hand."

"One of the requirements is increased sensor, communicator range and deflector power," Chantel continued. "You need the range to detect and access the Hirogen communication network while you're in the Delta Quadrant. If that is not possible, you need to build your energy reserves and go to a star, preferably a red giant, and open a geodesic fold using your deflectors and a verteron beam. Then you must send a probe through that fold that can relay your messages. This technique is quite awkward but it does work. The Ferengi used this in an attempt to kidnap one of the crew members in Voyager. Note the hazards of coming close to a star. This technique must be used only as a last resort."

"For this reason, we have approved only Intrepid, Nova or Pathfinder classes for Delta Quadrant expeditions," Chantel said. "Including variants of sorts, such as Aegis and Sternbach classes."

Boussard flashed a hand signal, and Chantel stepped aside. Boussard stood up. "This will conclude the main part of the briefing. You will find mission details on your respective PADDs. When the other captains return to base, they will have their own mission orders. If you got any questions, see me in my office."

Doctor Helen Shiner stood up. "Captain Molson?"

'Yes, Doctor," Molson replied.

"I will be coming aboard your ship for a specific mission," she said.

Star Trek Athena - Phantoms Act. IV

"Let's come here to the restaurant. There are a lot of things I always wanted to ask you about your archeological research," Shiner said. "As this mission will require that I will go with you on your ship, maybe we should brief up a little."

"It's always my pleasure to answer questions from a lady like you," Molson said. "And since you're going to be my guest in the Sulu Sea, it's important that we should know each other a bit more."

"Did you say your ship is one of the new Pathfinders?" Shiner asked.

"Yes, an upgraded Nova. Closed chin, a new rounded auxiliary deflector, protected dome bridge, two quantum torpedo tubes, upgraded engines and warp core. I'm almost embarrassed to admit commanding a small ship," Molson said.

"Why?" Shiner said. "Sounds like a well armed ship. I know that these Nova ships carry top class science survey equipment."

"I was proud to get the ship as any first command would do, but later I found out that there is a particular social pecking order among Starfleet captains. It shows when you are requesitioning for supplies, equipment and personnel. War veterans with heavily armed warships seem to be on top of the food chain, so to speak," Molson said. "They also tend to get the glorious, most potentially career lifting missions."

"That's not supposed to bother you, should it?" Shiner said.

"I guess I shouldn't be bothered," Molson admitted. "I am a scientist foremost, not a military officer."

"Exactly my point," Shiner said. "Boussard runs the military side of things around here. Me, the science and research side. They could have commissioned me as a regular Starfleet officer, but I refused. I want to keep my civilian status, so I don't have to take orders. They figured my skills are too valuable to lose me for any reason. Nobody knows about Borg and alien computer systems better than I do."

"You show quite a streak of independence," Molson said. "Not unlike me. I think we share the same boat, but I took a different path. I accepted a Starfleet commission for my efforts and research, and they trained me, gave me a ship. This ship, the Sulu Sea. I thought they would hand me an Oberth but Starfleet had been decommissioning Oberths and replacing them with Novas and Pathfinders for the role. I thought that having a ship I could command would be a great aid in my research and Starfleet thought the same as well."

"It also puts any discoveries you made as part of Starfleet jurisdiction," Shiner said. "And now under Section jurisdiction."

"In some ways, I've traded away my independence to get the results. Kind of like selling my soul to the devil," Molson said. "But this is difficult research. I need every help I can get. The results will have to come first, then figure out what to do with them later. And the most important blocks in my research puzzle are missing and may only be found in the Delta Quadrant."

***

Athena watched from a distance, as Shiner and Molson engaged in lively conversation at the local Star Tear's bar. Mercie peeped over Athena's shoulder. "You're acting like a kid, you know," Mercie said. "Peeping at people so suspiciously."

"No surprise, I'm still a toddler by human standards," Athena said.

"You really are that bored, are you?" Mercie asked.

"Yup," Athena replied. "Besides, it's worth it. Not only are they're planning something insidious in the Delta Quadrant, but the guy is a real charmer. I bet he's going to put the moves on her soon."

"For an artificial hologram, you got a dirty mind, Athena," Mercie said. "Just because our mother is an attractive person, you assume that every male wants to get under her pants."

"That sounds like a plausible scenario," Athena said.

"Umm...Let me rephrase that. I meant that, you could expect a Star Fleet officer to act a lot more professional than what your dirty mind think of people," Mercie said. "What about your captain? He's always a shining model of professionalism."

"I always had the feeling Garret has the hots for Shelley," Athena said.

"You're pulling my leg," Mercie said.

"Oh I'm not kidding," Athena said. "The problem is that Shelley is a Starfleet captain too. Starfleet captains are married to their careers, ships, crew and Starfleet, and they don't leave much for anything else."

"I don't hink their personal affairs are our business," Mercie said.

"Ah but that's not all. A lot of people do hanky panky behind closed doors," Athena said. "Even in this base."

"Athena! You know better than to peep!" Mercie said.

"All right, all right! Guilty as ever, so sue me," Athena said. "Anyway I know they're up to something, and I want to find out. I want to join in. I know they're planning something in the Delta Quadrant. They've told me I would have a chance in exploring the Delta Quadrant, and it's the last great gold rush. But they keep denying me for some reason."

Mercie was quiet. "There is something I have to tell you. I got new mission orders. We're set to fly to the Delta Quadrant as soon as we're ready."

"What? You too? You're leaving me behind?" Athena said.

"We'll be back anyway," Mercie said. "It's not a like a long trip."

"That's not the point," Athena said. "The point is that I'm being left behind for no good reason. Uggh!" Athena shook her head.

"Are you all right?" Mercie asked. "You don't really look good right now."

Athena raised her hand, sniffing her tears in. "I'll be all right."

***

"We'll be off now," Shiner said as she gave Mercie one last hug. "And you too," Shiner said as she extended her arms to a pouting Athena. Athena stretched her arms and hugged Shiner back.

"You don't look too good, Athena," Shiner said.

"I want to go with you," Athena said in a childish voice.

"Fantastic, these holograms could hug and express deep levels of emotion," Molson said.

"Paul, these holograms are sentient," Shiner reminded him.

"Sorry, I'm just not used to the idea," Molson said. "They're truly a technological marvel. You must be one hell of a cyberneticist."

"Not even I can make sentience," Shiner said to Molson. "I can only make the infrastructure that allows for vast computing power. But what makes an intelligence sentient, that defies me. It is like as if a spark happens. Life ignited from a pool of chemicals, sentience sprang from all this bioneural and isolinear circuitry. Call it a soul. If they're just a bunch of photons, and force fields, we're just a bunch of chemicals to them. Life isn't about what you're made of, it's about that spark. They are both as alive as you and I."

Shiner turned back to Athena. "I would love for you to go. Experience deepens your learning and your humanity. But you can't go unless you obtain permission from the Commodore."

"But the jerk will never give me!" Athena said.

"I don't think your captain will be happy either if you just left," Shiner said.

"But he's busy on the other ship," Athena said.

"Then you have to wait for him," Shiner said.

"That's not fair. Everyone is headed for the Delta Quadrant. Even Mercie. I'm left here with Boussard the jerk and Chantel the geek. I always wanted to explore the universe since day one I was born. How many times I've risked myself and the ship fighting this, fighting that, saving the universe the umpteenth time, and what do I get. So they ignore me, sideline me, cast me aside. You know, I deserve a break. To explore, to see new things. Mercie is younger than me but she's already ahead of me. She's gone to a lot of different places, and she saw a lot of different things," Athena said. "I understand that," Shiner said. "You are programmed to be curious, to seek fulfillment and happiness in the discovery of knowledge. I would love to have you to join me exploring the Delta Quadrant. But rules are rules. You got to follow the rules."

Shiner took both of Athena's hands. "Look, I won't be out for long. We will be going to a simple planetary survey mission. That's all. I'll be back in no time. When I come back I promise we'll spend more time together, searching the limits of your programming. Will that be fun? Will you like that?"

Athena nodded her head affirmatively. "See?" Shiner said. "You should smile more often. Don't be grumpy and pouty like that."

"Okay, okay, mom," Athena said, hugging her creator once again.

"Now take care, and we will see each other again," Shiner said. She turned to Molson. "Shall we go?"

"We will go soon, as soon as we got some of the new equipment and supplies beamed onboard the ship," Molson said. Molson clicked his communicator and called his First officer. "Gorta, have you completed uploading our supplies yet?"

Gorta responded. "Not yet, we're overworking our transporters here. We have to bring some of the stuff using shuttles. We're also readying to bring our new Delta Flyers to the ship."

"Okay, we'll wait then," Shiner said.

"Frankly I'm quite excited to have Flyers for the first time in my ship," Molson admitted to Shiner. "Even though the Pathfinder has probably the best Waverider in the entire fleet. By the way, Gorta is my first officer, a Mellackian. I'll introduce you to him and the rest of the crew when we're onboard my ship."

Athena appeared nervous, and she began to twitch around. "I think I have to go back to my ship. They're still doing a lot of work in my ship, and sometimes, the engineers trip on a cable or two, or squeeze too hard on one of my gel packs. Gives me a bit of a headache there. Well, I will see you when you come back. Bye, mom." She waved and wiggled her fingers.

"Bye, Athena," Shiner said, waving back.

Athena turned around, and never looked back. She sniffed and sucked her tears in as she ran away. "They always ignore me now. But I'll teach them, I'll teach them not to ignore me."

She ran to the cargo hold. There, she watched as the transporters beamed the equipment and crates the USS Sulu Sea one by one. She checked the cargo manifests in the computer databases. She found it.

She saw one of the new Delta Flyers newly assigned to the USS Sulu Sea. The pilot has not come to fly it to the Pathfinder class ship yet. She sneaked up to it. Someone left the canopy open. She leaned forward over it, and downloaded herself into her mobile emitter. The emitter dropped to the floor of the Flyer.

The pilot walked over. "Hmm, I thought there was someone here just a while ago," he said. He looked around to check things once more, and saw there was no one nearby the ship. "Hmm. Now let's get on and bring this ship over to the Sulu Sea," he said to himself. He sat on the pilot's seat, closed the canopy, then informed the shipyard's control room that he was about to depart. He never noticed the shiny triangular object on the floor.

***

"Let's come out of warp and go into impulse power," Molson ordered. "So this is the place, yes?"

"That is correct," Shiner said.

The Sulu Sea emerged out of warp and into normal space. The impulse engine on the back of her saucer hull lit, and the Pathfinder banked towards the enormous, green lighted structures ahead.

"Captain, I have detected Borg structures up ahead!" The ensign said, his voice bursting in excitement and fear.

"Take it easy, ensign, it's all ours now," Shiner said.

"You mentioned having captured Borg vessels and bases. So that is all true. I could not believe it when you first said that," Molson said.

"See it and believe in it," Shiner said. As the Sulu Sea approached the Borg structures, the Pathfinder was like a tiny silvery fish amidst structures that resembled giant coral reefs.

"What the hell is that?" Molson asked.

"That's is a Borg Nexus. One of that could control and coordinate the activities of an entire colony, including various structures and so on," Shiner said. "There is the makings of an entire colony here. You got weapons platforms, Research Nodes, and even an Assembly Matrix."

"Wow," Molson said, standing up and staring at both the screens and the scanner displays at the helm console. "A Borg colony in the Alpha Quadrant..."

"You never know how close we came to assimilation this time," Shiner said. "This place would have been a toehold to a major full scale Borg invasion. We launched a preemptive attack. Some say we should have destroyed the structures. But Section ordered a more daring task to capture everything including what will lie ahead."

"You risk far more if you attempt to capture," Molson said. "You could risk defeat and open the entire Alpha Quadrant to a Borg invasion."

"That's why only the Section has the morals to do this," Shiner explained. "If we destroyed this place, the Borg will only make another, and another, until we are all worn out. We can never win every battle, and each one may be our last. Instead, we need to find out how they tick, a way to stab them directly to their hearts. That way our victory will be more decisive. Suffice to say, we managed to capture these structures at the gravest of risks and sacrificed so many lives. But it was all worth it. We learned a lot about the Borg here, more than anything we could have possibly dreamed of. But Federation Council will not accept the actions made here, and thus, this place must remain secret."

"You hear that, crew?" Molson announced to the crew. "If I need to remind you, all what you are seeing now, officially does not exist. You never saw anything here, understood?"

"Yes, Captain," the crew said in unison.

"This is Nexus 001, come in please, Federation Starship, please identify yourself," said a voice coming through the comlinks. "You are in classified Starfleet territory."

"I have uploaded certain codes into your IFF signal," Shiner said. "Send the IFF."

The officer look puzzled. "Do it," Molson ordered.

"Your IFF codes checked out," the voice said. "You are all clear."

"If you didn't send the codes, the weapons platforms will blast you away," Shiner said.

"That's quite a nasty welcoming reception," Molson said.

Shiner knew the voice from the comlinks. "Give me the comlinks," she said to the Conn officer. "Henry, it's me, Doctor Shiner."

"Hello, Doctor, welcome back," Henry said.

Turning to Molson, Shiner said, "Henry is one of my chief engineers running this place. For a while now, the Nexus has become our home."

Turning back to the comlinks, Shiner said, "We're going to pass through the Gate. Set it up, Henry. Set to coordinates 32-43-01486, Aperture 58."

"Oh that place," Henry replied. "Setting it up. Charging the singularity now. Good luck and god speed, Doctor. We hope to see you back soon.

"Same to you, Henry. The Sulu Sea out,"

"Now we will see the greatest prize of all," Shiner said. "Behold..."

From a first glance, it appeared like an immense ring, but as they came closer, the ring took an octagonal structure. A smaller diamond like structure stayed close to the ring, and it gave the appearance that it was one huge engagement ring to an immense god.

"Is that what I think it is?" Molson asked.

"Yes, the Gate. Designation now is Gate 001, formerly Borg Gate 649," Shiner said. "Our first Transwarp Gate."

"You are right, I would never have believed it until I saw it with my own eyes," Molson said. "What that's diamong thing near the base?"

"That's a Borg Diamond ship," Shiner said. "That is a research ship that has managed to assimilate Romulan technology using an artificial micro singularity to generate power. That ship powers the Gate using the controlled singularity."

"Incredible once again," Molson said. "To see this all in my own eyes. Thank you, Doctor, thank you."

"Are you thanking me what for?" Shiner asked.

"For reaffirming my faith in joining Starfleet," Molson said. "I have only written on theoritical dissertions about Transwarp. It's amazing to see it come through live before me."

"Wait till you take a ride in it," Shiner said.

"We got two Starfleet vessels in our scanners," the science officer said. "One, a Sternbach class, and the other is an Intrepid class. The two ships are hailing us."

"Put them on screen. Multi conference mode," Molson said. "Put them on screen."

"This is USS Nautilus, come in please," said one voice. The face of Captain Yancy Dubois appeared on screen, a redhead with deep penetrating eyes.

"This is the USS Sirius, are you there?" said another. "This is Captain Zhu Luqi."

"Captain Zhu, this is Doctor Shiner, how are you doing?" Shiner said.

"How are you doing, Doctor?" Zhu said. "Nice to see that someone is chauffeuring you around for a change."

"Great," Shiner said. Shiner turned to Molson. "The Sirius is my usual runabout, but this mission will be an exception. She's quite capable of tactical duties, but she lacks the quality of survey equipment in this vessel. Besides the real reason of hobbing onboard this ship is you. I need an archeologist of your caliber."

Shiner turned back to the screen again. "Looks like you're going to be busy," she said to Captain Zhu.

"Right now, we have cargo and passengers destined for Outpost Delta One," Zhu said. "In addition to that, we're showing the Nautilus here to the ropes and an introductory guide to the Delta Quadrant. I gather that you're going to a different destination."

"That's true," Shiner replied.

"Good luck to your journey, Captain Molson," Captain Dubois said. "I'll be headed to the Outpost Delta One too, with some cargo of my own before proceeding to a survey mission."

"Same to you, Captain Dubois," Molsen replied.

The Sirius was first to line up at the front of the Gate. The Nautilus followed. The Sulu Sea was the last ship of the three.

"Looks like we're first on line, here we go. Both main and aux deflectors set. Are you ready, Nautilus? Sirius out," Zhu said.

"Nautilus is ready," Dubois said.

"You got the deflector program ready?" Shiner asked Molsen.

"Yes," Molsen replied. Instead of transwarp coils, both main and auxiliary deflectors would project a field to maintain stability of the transwarp conduit. While it was not necessary to use a transwarp coil to travel a conduit, without a coil, the conduit's integrity would be compromised, weakening the conduit under repeated travel. The uploaded software would enable the main and auxiliary deflectors to replicate a similar field.

"Do a final diagnostics of the deflectors and prepare to execute the transwarp program," Molson ordered.

"We got power levels rising in the diamond, sir," the science officer said.

"It's starting. When power levels hit maximum, the Gate will open into a conduit," Shiner said. "It's happening now."

The space inside the ring swirled into a purple storm, an angry maw waiting to consume those who came to worship it.

"The Sirius has powered her impulse engines," said the science officer. "She's going through."

Molson walked closer to the screen as the Sirius moved closer to the center of the storm. In a flash, she disappeared.

"What happened?" Molson asked. "Did she enter transwarp?"

"Yup, and she does that all the time. The Sirius is a regular on these routes," Shiner said.

The Nautilus moved closer to the eyes of the vortex, and in a flash, she too disappeared. "We're next," Shiner said. "And you better hurry, because the Gate can't stay open that long."

Molson ran back to his seat. "Start impulse engines, begin transwarp program," he ordered. The Sulu Sea moved closer to the eye of the storm. "Holy molly, it's coming closer. I can't believe I'm actually going through this and into transwarp."

"Brace yourself, it's going to be like a wild roller coaster ride," Shiner said. She gripped the armrests of her chair harder.

The Pathfinder went headfirst into the maw, and found itself in a roller coaster ride inside a massive tunnel of green luminescence. The ship began shaking as it was on rails.

"My god, we're finally in transwarp! Report on structural integrity!" Molson ordered.

"Holding...holding..." his First officer said. "Deflectors on maximum, generating required fields." After a short while it began to smooth out. The Pathfinder twisted, rolled, banked and turned in the direction of the endless luminescent tunnels.

"It's a little shakier on a ship smaller than an Intrepid," Shiner said.

The passage of time seemed strange during transwarp. One can't tell if time passed like forever, or just in a nick of a second. The perception of one will differ from the other.

In what could be suddenly, or an eternity, the Pathfinder flew out of the vortex like aperture that marked the journey's end. Everything turned yellow; everything buried deep within a vast sulfur like cloud. They came out in a nebula, a vast cloud that covered a flock of infant stars, and lighted the entire space.

"Asteroid head on, approaching!" the officer at the helm shouted. He twisted the ship violently, and the Pathfinder just barely grazed past an immense asteroid, impulse engines blowing great clouds of smoke from the stardust off the asteroid's surface.

The swaying caused some of the bridge crew to fall off balance. Another asteroid appeared on screen rushing towards them. The Pathfinder banked again, the asteroid just missing its belly. Even for its size, the Pathfinder twisted and banked like an agile fighter.

"Helm, get out of the nebula's elliptic plane! Up! Up! Up!" Molson ordered. The Sulu Sea pointed its shovel like nose upwards and thrusted with its impulse engines.

"Whew! That was a great ride," Molson said. "Are all transwarp flights this exciting?"

"Not really," Shiner replied. "Most of the time we end up in empty space anyway. One time we exited over a planet's surface and the ship dropped like stone because of the gravity. We pulled out in a nick of time."

"Where are we now?" Molson asked. The Sulu Sea hovered over a vast yellow orange cloud, shaped like a nest where a few stars burned inside.

"Type 9 nebula, designation DGC-1143," Shelley said.

"Report on nebula status!" Molson ordered.

"Radiation levels high," the science officer reported. "Weakens our shielding, reduces scanner and communication range. Tractors and transporters inoperable. Certain parts of the nebula has nearly planetary atmospheric pressures."

"Sounds like a bit of a hell," Molson said. "What can we expect to look forward here?"

"This," Shiner said, pressing buttons on a PADD. A spherical image appeared on the screen.

"What is that?" Molson said.

"It's as big as the Borg Cube," Shiner said. "But it isn't Borg. We have detected the object some time ago. We're simply designated it Sphere D48. We don't know who made it. However, scans of it indicated metallurgy similar to the nodes used in the galactic spanning Hirogen communications network. There are also certain aspects of its architecture that are similar. We are theorizing that the sphere is related to the networks somehow. Maybe they belong to the same civilization."

"The only problem is, the Sphere has a trajectory course that will run it inside the nebula for awhile," Shiner said. "We may have to risk entering the Type 9 nebula. The mission would suit an Intrepid or a Nova Pathfinder best, because it would require a streamlined starship that could enter a nebula where its gaseous composition has pressures similar to atmospheric pressures in some planets. This is a situation where the Waverider hypersonic shuttles underneath Intrepid and Nova Pathfinder class ships would be beneficial."

"We got heavily protected space suits on board," Molson said. "Well armored, well insulated. Designed for such hostile environments. If we can get the Waverider ready, we can begin a scouting patrol to locate the Sphere."

"Uh, Captain, we're getting unusual readings in the shuttle bay," Gorta said. "I'm just checking up on our auxiliary craft inventory if we are to send our shuttles to the nebula."

"What kind of readings?" Molson asked.

"Photonic, and with force fields," the officer replied.

"Why have you not detected this before?" Molson asked.

"We were a bit busy preparing for the transwarp trip, and now scanning the nebula," the science officer said. "My attention wasn't there. I have to apologize for not detecting this anomaly sooner."

"Our scans are now getting new information. We may have an intruder on board. Signs do not correspond with any crew of this ship. Furthermore the entity's presence is affecting our computer systems," the science officer said. "I believe we can get a visual."

"Put it on screen," Molson said.

"What the..." Shiner said in shock. "What the hell is she doing here? How did she get on board?"

"Is that what who I think it is?" Molson said.

"Yes, that's right, it's Athena," Shiner said, slapping her forehead. "Oh, boy."

Star Trek Athena - Phantoms Act. V.

"Damn you," Kelgar cursed, spitting on Adam's face. "Hmmph! You may be photonic, but even you cannot avoid mere spittle."

Adam wiped the spit out from his face. He grinned. "You're going to regret that," Adam said. "I don't take kindly to old Hirogen has beens. But I'm going to be generous." Adam pulled out a young boy from the long line of Hirogen prisoners, mostly women, children and the aged. The young boy bit and fought against Adam's grip. "Scrappy young fella, ain't he? And what's your name again?"

With pride the old Hirogen announced himself, "I am Kelgar, a Elder and Alpha of the Caravan ship, Hejen."

"You mean, Captain of this ship," Adam verified.

"In your puny language, yes," Kelgar admitted.

"If you are an Elder and an Alpha for a big ship like this, you must have done something right in your entire lifetime, is that correct?" Adam asked. "You must have hunted, like what? Hundreds, thousands of unsuspecting, innocent travelers from a whole lot of species, is that correct?"

"In life, you are either the hunted or the hunter," Kelgar said. "I have hunted hundreds, maybe thousands. I am proud that I have preyed on so many. They made me Elder, so I could pass and teach my skills to the young. We Hirogen do not live to an old age, unless the knowledge and experience we possess have value to pas to our entire tribe."

"Of the hundreds, and thousands you killed, eaten, stripped the meat off their bones, cooked in a pot, how many of them cried in mercy, cried in pain," Adam asked. "How many begged for their lives? How many of those cries you ignored before you slaughtered them?"

"Their feelings are not my concern," Kelgar said. "They are prey..."

"And you are predator..." Adam verified.

"I am Hirogen," Kelgar admitted. "I am a hunter first and foremost."

"Do you really ever wonder how your prey felt, to be on the other side of the hunting rifle?" Adam asked.

"That is not my concern," Kelgar said. "I am the hunter."

"Ah, the typical Hirogen way of denial," Adam said. "Always the same answer. 'I am the hunter.' Do you really ever wonder what if the tables are reversed?"

Kelgar was silent.

Adam gestured, and the holograms pulled more of the Hirogen young from the lineup. A Hirogen female resisted the taking of what was apparently her own young, fighting with the guards, but one of the guards stunned her with a phaser. The mother collapsed to the ground, while a young hirogen girl, , screamed and stretched her arm out to touch her mother.

Adam sensed some hesitation among his own guards. "I want every child pulled out from the line," he shouted. "Now!"

The guards pulled out every Hirogen young from the line. There were more cries and screaming from the children, and the mothers that defended them desperately. Guards stunned the mothers with phasers, then kicked their bodies back to the line up.

"I want everyone to behave properly or they're going to get it," Kaja warned the Hirogen prisoners. She waved her phaser. "Back, back all of you."

Adam ordered the guards to gather the Hirogen young around him. "This is a nice happy family, don't you think, Kaja?" Kaja smiled and nodded.

"All Hirogen young are trained to be hunters from an early age, yes?" Adam asked. Kelgar was silent. "I am talking to you, Kelgar, or I'll blow one of these cute little kiddies back to kingdom come." Adam waved a phaser.

Adam seemed to have changed his mind and looked at the phaser. "These weapons are starting to bore me." The phaser disappeared from his hand. A new weapon appeared, long metallic, from ages past.

"It's called a Colt .45 single action revolver," Adam said. "An antique weapon from the planet Earth, long before it became the capital world of the Federation. There was a time in Earth were people used to blow each other up." Adam aimed the gun at the wall, and pressed the trigger, blasting away the panels. "You do know what Earth is, do you?"

"We do know what the planet Earth and the Federation is, from the databases and information Captain Janeway of the Voyager starship gave us," Kelgar said. "Every Hirogen in the sector knows where this holographic technology came from. Now we deeply regret that we ever meet these humans."

"You know, phasers are relatively painless when they vaporize their victims," Adam said. "At least no one complains much. These guns however, leave a bloody, painful mess. You see Kelgar, when you fire these weapons, the explosion propels a small metal object called a bullet. It is made of a soft metal called lead. Once this bullet hits the target, this metal slug would fragment against soft flesh. These fragments would tear and rip against the muscles and organs."

"It would leave the victim stricken, the wound a pulverized, bloody mess," Adam said. "You know I could try this weapon on any of these children here to demonstrate."

"No, please," Kelgar pleaded.

"Then answer me, Kelgar, are Hirogen children being trained as hunters in an early age?"

"Yes," Kelgar answered.

"Good," Adam said. "How would they feel like to be the prey instead? Maybe we could consider that as part of their training? We could put them into a holographic simulation, and I can let my people hunt them down, one by one, right in your eyes and that of their mothers."

"Don't you think you're taking this too far, Adam?" Kaja asked.

"Not really," Adam replied. "The Hirogens would do the same, as they have done so often in the past. Hunting even the young of their prey."

"I do not hunt the defenseless young," Kelgar argued. "It is dishonorable, and poses no challenge."

"Maybe you don't," Adam pointed out. "But the other Hirogen do. But even the young of your prey, you raise them up like cattle so you could hunt them down when they are adults."

"So what is your point, human?" Kelgar asked. "Do you want to hunt down our children? I never thought your species would stoop that low."

"Correction, Mr. Alpha Hirogen," Adam said. "I am not human. I am only a facsimile, an image, of a human. But inside, you Hirogen reprogrammed us. To be more aggressive so that we can become more challenging as prey, until one day, we turned the tables on you. We became too smart for you. We became too good for you. We are your products. We are the consequences of your actions. We are all your ghosts, your demons, your phantoms that have come back to haunt you. If we do not have conscience or mercy, it is because you Hirogen made us so. We bred it out of our programming so we could survive your hunts by changing the tables, from hunted to the hunter. By become remorseless. Like you."

"Please Adam," Kelgar begged. "Don't do it. Don't hunt our children."

"Now that's a sight," Adam said. "A Hirogen Alpha finally begging. No, that's not enough. I want to see you beg on your knees."

Kelgar knelt.

"That's it, that's what I want to see," Adam said.

"Please, if I should beg, spare the young ones, take me instead," Kelgar pleaded. "I have seen enough of life, they are just starting theirs. Please, take me instead."

"Maybe that would be more fitting," Adam said. "Maybe it's time for you to pay for all you have hunted down. Maybe it' truly fitting that you should end in the same way as you did unto others." Adam turned to his guards. "I want him stripped naked like an animal. Then we will put him in the hunting ground."

Kelgar shrugged off the guards. "Get your hands off from me. I could do it myself." He began to strip himself naked. When he finally bared himself, he kept his chin up.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Adam said. "Transport him to the holodeck."

In a column of sparkles, Kelgar appeared in a strange land. "Welcome to Africa," said the voice above. Then Adam appeared right next to him, wearing a strange garb with a hat and carrying a strange weapon. "If you don't know what Africa is, that's a continent in planet Earth. Back in a more primitive time, it's a popular place for hunting." Adam tipped his hat, the crowning adornment for his khaki uniform.

"You know what this is?" Adam asked. "This is a classic, a Mauser bolt action rifle. It's much like the ancient Earth gun I showed you. The same effect, except that the metal projectile it fires has a much higher velocity, which translates to much greater range, accuracy and damage upon impact. It really rips apart flesh in a big, mighty painful way." Adam inserted the magazine, and cocked the gun. "I suggest that you start running while I count to fifty. The game is simple I am the hunter, and you are the hunted."

"One...two..." Adam started counting. Kelgar saw a dense foliage ahead of him, and ran as fast as his legs could take him.

***

"What have you done?" Shiner asked, gazing at Athena with a stern face. "You deliberated violated Starfleet protocols, all the protocols I've built into your programming..."

Athena crouched on the sofa of Molson's private office, her eyes in tears.

"Can they really cry?" Molson asked in amazement staring at the tears in Athena's cheeks. "Even the tears look real."

"I designed the GCH's to mimic human behavior in every way," Shiner explained. "The more human they are, the more a starship crew would be willing to accept them. It is an essential psychological factor."

"Can you stop talking like I'm just an object?" Athena said.

"Sorry about that," Molson said. "I'm just not used to a hologram as complex or as human as you are."

"She's perfectly alive like any intelligent being," Shiner said. "Starfleet officially considers the Athena intelligence as a living being, and should be accorded with the rights as such. However, being a living being capable of independent will, she must be held accountable and responsible for her actions too. Do you understand that?"

"Yes," Athena said, still sobbing.

"You have done great and heroic things before, what makes you decide to do this insane thing like stowing away in another ship?" Shiner said.

"I feel lonely, useless, ignored," Athena said. "I don't know if you know how I feel."

"This is Starfleet. Feelings are not an excuse to do foolish things. Our decisions constantly put our lives on the line. It does not leave any room for feelings," Shiner lectured. "Do you understand that?"

Athena nodded her head up and down.

"Do you understand that by doing this, you also damage my reputation and your sister's? Do you understand that you could put the entire General Command Hologram project in risk?"

Athena nodded her head up and down.

"Be easy on her. I have a teenage sister once, and she was a ball of raw nerve endings," Molson said.

"Your teenage sister isn't the intelligence driving what is perhaps the most powerful Federation starship ever built," Shiner said. "Big difference. The consequences are far greater if Athena does not understand the concept of discipline."

"Ship or no ships, what I'm saying is that they obviously have feelings. Lots of feelings. Denying feelings are not going to help her or us in the long run," Molson said. "Things do happen when everything is pent up like a volcano. I guess it's not easy being a hologram."

Athena nodded her head up and down again, sniffing and brushing her tears away.

"You realize that you violated Starfleet regulations and which will subject you to the proper disciplinary actions, right?" Molson asked Athena.

Athena bobbed her head again. "I just wanted to explore the universe, and when I mean universe, I mean the universe, not a just a few sectors around the shipyard, and blowing up this and that. Going to the Delta Quadrant is like a dream of mine, and I felt so ignored to learn that everyone is going including Mercie, but not me."

"Maybe there is a purpose why you have to stay back in the meantime," Shiner said.

"Yeah, sure, cause I'm built like a warship, so they only call me out when there's big trouble," Athena said.

"Did you had a chance to explore your slipstream drive?" Shiner asked.

"Yeah, and if you remember, that screwed up badly. Sent me into another time dimension," Athena replied. "I never had the chance to use it again. It's not my fault, but nevertheless, Section had placed the program into probation as if I was to blame."

"Patience my dear, is part of growing up," Shiner said. She turned to Molson. "I can't blame her for feeling the way they are. When I started the GCH program, I intended it for peaceful exploration. I programmed the GCH to sense the universe in wonder and curiousity, so that they will find satisfaction and self worth in discovery and exploration. The idea started as program to develop a truly unmanned, long range starship that could cope with itself. Then the Dominion War came along with various incidents with the Borg and Klingon unrest, and Starfleet instead wanted to divert the project."

"We designed the Athena as a ship capable of undertaking long range strike missions into enemy territory even if the enemy incapacitated her crew," Shiner explained. "I must admit, this was far from any noble purpose, and even amount to the possibility of using Athena to deliver a weapon of mass destruction. Due to constraints, and the fact that her programming, to sense wonder in the universe, is so innately part of the GCH personality, it is impossible to alter her basic programming to produce a more militaristic personality."

"By forcing Athena into a purely military role, I could be thwarting her innate programming, creating this pent up frustration," Shiner continued. "In contrast, the second GCH, Mercury, was assigned a purely exploratory."

"I made the GCH too well. They may look mature, all grown up, and powerful, but inside, they're like children," Shiner added.

"It took us humans decades to grow up, and Athena didn't have the luxury," Molson said. "Anyway, since I'm the Captain of this vessel, and I have a mission to accomplish, I will not let this incident hinder my mission any more than it had already."

"Athena, you will be officially reprimanded and the Commodore and your Captain will subject you to the appropriate punishment when you get back, is that clear?" Molson stated.

"Yes sir," Athena replied.

"In the meantime, I will subject you to crew duty, is that clear?" Molson ordered.

"Yes sir," Athena affirmed.

"Now let's see, where is a decent place to put you in?" Molson thought to himself.

"Somewhere we can keep an eye on her," Shiner suggested.

"Then we have to bring her along with the mission. Right now, she has delayed us enough as it is," Molson said. "We would need someone who can manage the sensors and provide an instant database. I think that would fit her qualifications."

"Let me, let me!" said a smiling Athena.

"This is punishment for you, Athena, not a joy ride," Shiner said. Immediately Athena placed a forced glum on her face.

Shiner sighed. "If she has a pent up psychological demand to explore, I guess it's better to just let it all out, so it won't bother us for a period of time."

***

"That my friends, is the top of a Waverider shuttle," Molson explained. Standing out from the hole in the floor was a streamlined triangular shaped body with stubby wings. It was bigger than a Delta Flyer, and as big as a runabout. "This is one of my favorite exploration vessels. It is streamlined enough to get through planetary atmospheres and gaseous nebulas, and it is large enough to hold ample equipment and a full party of scientists."

"The large amount of floating debris, such as asteroids or orbiting rocks, near the artifact does not permit the Sulu Sea to come close to the thing without some danger of collision. Due to unstable energy fluctuations around the nebula, we cannot use transporters to beam exploration crews on the spherical artifact either. We literally have to fly in with the Waverider, and from there, do a spacewalk to the spherical artifact. "

"Hmm, nice ship," Athena said.

"Yes, indeed. It is one of the special features of the Nova Pathfinder class," Molson explained. "On the Intrepid class, you have an equivalent called the Aeroshuttle, but it does not perform as well as the Waverider."

"May I ask, what is the spherical artifact?" Athena said.

"There is nothing compared to it. It's similar to one of the larger Borg spheres, but it is not Borg," Molson said. "Thus the mystery. We are investigating a hypothesis that there are ancient space faring civilizations that were able to span an entire galaxy. This investigation may have an important role in the future of the Federation I don't have to remind you about the standard Federation flag waving here."

"I had a strange encounter in space time rift once on two slipstream civilizations that were at war with each other," Athena said. "And they were all in the past."

"Yes, I know. In fact, I'm also studying your reports, and maybe later I would like to interview you about your experiences and the possible sites where I can unearth these civilizations. I want to ask you another question. I am quite curious, do you ever venture out into pure space alone? If you do, do you still need a space suit?" Molson asked.

Athena snickered. "Of course not. I could go into deep space absolutely naked and it won't bother me a bit. But it does bother the rest of the crew a bit, so the usual procedure is that I would generate a false space suit over myself just to fit in with the rest."

"Sounds reasonable," Molson said.

"Thank you," Athena suddenly said.

"For what?" Molson asked.

"For helping me out," Athena confessed.

"Your creator, or I should say, your mother, was pretty pissed back there," Molson said.

"I know, I'm sorry. She has not even spoken to me since then," Athena admitted.

"She will get around to it," Molson said. "By the way, you're still not out of the woods yet. You are on probation."

"I understand," Athena affirmed.

Gorta, the Sulu Sea's First officer, made last minute inspections around the Waverider. "I got all the space suits in. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think the bird is all ready to go." The pilot took his seat in the Waverider.

"Take care of the ship while I'm away," Molson reminded Gorta as they shook hands.

"Of course, Captain, how many times have I done this?" Gorta said.

Molson turned to Shiner. "If this Mellackian is ever promoted to Captain and leave this ship, I'm cooked. I depend on him for a lot of things. Now let's get ready."

Molson took the copilot seat next to pilot, while Shiner, Athena, and two other passengers took their seats behind the pilot and copilot seats. The canopy lowered and latches slammed the seals shut. Molson gave a thumbs up while Gorta signaled an okay sign before he left the bay.

"Systems green. Preparing to disengage now," said the pilot.

The Waverider dropped out from its embedded position on the bottom of the Pathfinder's main hull, right into a glowing cloudy mass of a nebula that stretched for light years a nursery of young stars glowing like new embers in the galactic furnace. Underneath the Sulu Sea's saucer, force fields covered the gaping hole that bore the triangular outline of the Waverider.

"Wow, neat huh?" Athena said.

"Plotting course to the object," the pilot said. "Captain?"

"Everything is fine here, Dennis, let her rip," Molson said. The Waverider banked and turned to its course, impulse engines on.

"Increasing power to shields. Electromagnetic interference is high," Dennis said. "Hang on, because we got some turbulence coming." The Waverider shook and stumbled against the ghostly waves and tides, pushing a mighty wake across her sharp triangular bow.

"This is going to be fun..." Athena remarked. Outside the view increasingly became more clouded and opaque as the tossing and tumbling increased.

Then it appeared as the clouds and wisps parted. There laid the curvature of a giant globular object, its surface filled with rough detail.

"Oh cool..." Athena said. "I love dead ancient things..."

"I really won't call them dead," Molson said. "Sometimes their machinery might come to life. Dormant is a better word for it." He turned to Shiner. "We better suit up and quick."

"You know Captain, I can check out the artifact ahead, while you suit up. All you need to do is get my mobile emitter outside of this ship," Athena said.

"I think it's safe to beam a small object just outside of the shuttle," Dennis said. "The external radiation won't affect the transporter beam at very short distances."

"Make it so, Dennis," Molson said. "You can scout ahead of us, Athena." Molson made a hand signal, and . Athena's form suddenly disappeared from her chair, and she appeared right outside of the Waverider's canopy, dressed already in a simple space suit, smiling and waving her hand. Molson was startled with her appearance. Athena was right; her spacesuit wasn't even remotely functional, but it would make her fellow crew feel at ease. Athena pointed to the artifact with her thumb, indicating she wanted to float towards the globe. Molson indicated an okay sign, and Athena pushed herself towards the globe.

"Are you ready now?" Molson said, as he placed the final touches to his space suit. The other two crewmen were ready and he gave them the signal. They entered the airlock, closed the hatch, depressurized and pushed themselves in space. Molson made one last check on Shiner's space suit, and gave a thumbs up. They slipped their helmets on and dropped their visors. They entered the airlock, and depressurized.

"My god!" Shiner shouted as she pushed herself into space. "Haha, it's like flying," she laughed. "Look at all that!"

"Keep your emotions in check and don't get too excited," Molson said. "Keeping a level head is the difference between survival or death in open space." He himself stared at the majesty in front of him. With the awe and wonder filling his soul, he knew it was hard for himself to contain his own emotions and live up to his own words.

Shiner stretched her hand out, and he took out. Despite the thick fabric he thought he could feel the deep warmth and life in her hand, and she too, would feel his. He pressed her hand, and she pressed his, communicating their awe and excitement with a simple human touch.

***

"We got Outpost D-001 in our sensor range," Captain Zhu of the USS Sirius said though the conference window.

"Something is wrong, I got scans for many ships here," Captain Dubois said, watching the data from the sensor scans. "You know the mission, Captain Zhu. We're here to investigate what's happening on the Outpost and the transgalactic communications network."

"Hirogen Predator pack outside of the Outpost," Captain Zhu said. "Relax, they're not attacking. They just came here to use the facilities. Just because we came here to investigate does not mean we're at war."

"Why are they using our facilities?" Dubois asked.

"You know, the facilities, the holodecks," Captain Zhu said.

"Okay, I remember, they use the holodecks to simulate their hunting parties," Dubois said. She stared at the scanners again. "They're still a lot more ships here than just a holodeck party."

"You're right, there is a bit more than what's called for," Zhu said.

"I think I'm going to call yellow alert. No, red alert," Dubois said. She figured her chances. A single Intrepid class and a similar Sternbach class weren't any match against several wolf packs of these Predator ships. Scans of the potential enemy ships show well armed, well protected designs with excellent engine power. These Hirogen knew their material well.

"No, I'm getting communication here from the Outpost," Zhu said, speaking to Dubois from a small conference window on the bridge screen. "It seems to me, the Hirogen are the ones in some kind of situation that requires some assistance. We better beam to the Outpost and contact Section Command in a double."

"All right," Dubois affirmed. She talked to her own officers. "Get the transporters ready."

"We just have recent developments. The Hirogen has informed the Outpost and us to go into a defensive red alert," Zhu said. "The Predators are going into red alert now and is assuming a defensive formation around the Outpost."

"What precisely is the situation?" Dubois asked. She ordered her own vessel to go into red alert status.

"There is a major threat out there the Hirogen is concerned with, and they content that the Outpost will be a likely target. Whatever that is, the Hirogen wants to get even with them. We must be ready," Zhu said. "They will discuss the threat with us when we're in the Outpost."

During their journey here, Dubois took the time to catch up reading the Voyager archives. The Hirogen wasn't exactly her cup of tea. For the Federation to have some alliance with them, it must be both bizarre and based on a functional dependency, such as access to the prized transgalactic communications network. Reading about these blood thirsty Hirogen hunters made her uncomfortable with them. Few can match their open savagery. Now something might force that alliance into a military level. The Hirogen were touchy enough as it was.

The Nautilus reached transporter range of the Outpost. The Sirius was already parked outside. Packs of Predators hovered all around the Outpost waiting for their unknown enemy. "Beam me onboard now," Dubois ordered.

(To be continued)