First Contact

Chapter 916: Edge of Twilight

War makes strange bedfellows, - Anonymous Terran Saying

"Defiance of Mars is breaking up, Captain. Looks like she caught it amidships with that last nCv battery," the Ensign Soto said, coughing.josei

The bridge lights were flickering, the carpet scorched and bloodstained. Multiple panels had gone out with a fury, some still smouldering. The viewscreen on the forward inner hull of the bridge was cracked and damaged. Medics were working on two bodies, trying to stabilize them enough to take them to medbay. The atmosphere was full of smoke and harsh vapors, the tang of vaporized blood and the stench of roasted flesh.

"She'll be coming for us next," Lord Captain Pikark said, tapping his fingers on the armrest of his command throne. He tapped a button set in the recessed control panel.

"Aye, Captain?" his Scotty asked.

"How long till impulse engines are back. Give me something," Pikark said.

"An hour, Captain, maybe more. The creation engines are down, that last phasic emp pulse took out most of the nanite systems on the ship," the Scotty answered.

"You might not have that long, old friend," Pikark said, then let up on the button. He looked at his Soto. "Crew status."

"Bad, Captain. SUDS array two, five, and seven took direct hits. We've lost over half the crew," the Soto said.

"Spok?" Pikark asked.

The 'vulcan' turned slightly from his console. "Yes, Lord Captain?"

"Any ideas?" Pikark asked. He uncrossed and crossed his legs.

"There is no ships in range, Lord Captain. With Defiance of Mars gone, that leaves us as the sole non-Mantid ship in the entire sector," the Spok stated, his voice cool and remote. "Our ship is badly damaged and the Omniqueen's ship is still at 78% combat effectiveness."

"Suggestions?" Pikark asked, tapping the ring again.

"Stay at range, hope Tech Sergeant Chen can fix either the Pike Shot cannon or perhaps the Omniqueen's ship will suffer a sudden manufacturing defect and explode," Spok said.

"Levity, old friend?" Pikark asked. He bit back a curse as he saw another wave of supplementary craft leave the Omniqueen's vessel.

"Merely grave-side logic, Lord Captain," the Spok said.

"STATUS CHANGE!" Commander Ingersol called out from his station at security/combat control.

"Talk to me, Roc," Pikark snapped.

"Hellspace breach, 2.2 million miles. It is not the size of a PAWM combat vessel. Fairly small," Commander Ingersol said, his voice tight and clipped. Unlike everyone else, his uniform was immaculate and his hair wasn't even mussed. "Vessel exiting Hellspace," he paused a moment. "It's a Terran Confederacy vessel."

"Of all the times," Pikark mused. He tapped his rings again. "Uhura, hail them. Tell their Captain he can challenge me to a duel after this."

The Uhura nodded, touching her communicator headset and speaking quickly while her other hand danced across the console.

"Lord Captain, you need to see this," Commander Wes "The" Crusher said. The young man's face was hard, a scar across his face from where a Mantid bladearm had sliced across his flesh, right below his eyes. A relic of the Mantid boarding the Dakota three months ago and the Crusher's furious defense belowdecks.

The image changed from the Omniqueen's vessel to the new arrival.

It was all black. Twisted and scorched warsteel with burning red runs on the hull. Three cylinders welded and chained together, pylons with barbed and spiked wired wrapped around them, two engines glowing red with Hellspace energies, and an egg shaped 'saucer' section with the wide end cut flat.

NX-80102DX DAKOTA burned on the hull in Mantid and Mirror Universe Confederate runes.

"By Grabthar's hammer," Doctor Lazurus breathed from where he was on the secondary scientific console. "Look at her."

Pikark nodded, feeling his emotions drain away, leaving him with that singing emptiness that often filled him during battles.

"It's gone badly wrong on their side," Pikark said. He lifted his hand and looked at his Terran Empire Military Academy class ring, shifting his hand to make the jewel gleam, as if nothing in the universe was as important as admiring the gem. "Let us hope they will at least attack the Omniqueen once they are done with us."

"Confederacy Dakato is targeting the Omniqueen," Crusher said, his voice low and rough. He was squinting slightly, his brow furrowed, as he stared at the console with eyes filled with a burning red light.

Pikark didn't worry. He'd seen Crusher like that before. The young man was from the Confederacy's side of the mirror. A LARPer that found himself swapping places with his Imperial version.

Personally, Pikark liked the Confed version better than the sniveling brat he had been saddled with due to politics. The young man had gone from someone playing a live action game for children to a valued member of his crew who faced every challenge with a snarl on his lips and defiance in those burning red eyes.

"Channel open. Captain Jeff Pikark commanding," Uhura stated.

Pikark felt relief as he dropped his hand down to tap his ring on the command throne arm. That his Dark Side alternate was still alive could be a bad thing or a good thing, but at least he had met the man several times over the last few hundred years.

"Onscreen," Pikark said, not bothering to adjust his sash. Let his alternate see just how bad things were.

The screen rippled and the bridge of the other vessel appeared.

It had the needle-sharp appearance of a bridge in vacuum. The crew were in heavy armored combat vac-suits rather than standard shipboard uniforms. Every single console seating was either a heavy throne with an armored back and heavy five point harness restraints or a semi-reclined combat couch/pod.

The crew was largely hidden by polarized faceplates.

Only Jeff Pikark, Confederacy Dark Side ship's captain, had his face visible.

He looks twenty years older, Lord Captain Pikark thought to himself.

"Jeff. Fancy meeting you here," Lord Captain Pikark said, lifting his left hand and giving a lazy wave, letting Jeff Pikark see the dueling knife strapped to his forearm and making sure the gems on his rings sparkled.

"Jack," Captain Pikark said, nodding. "Looks like you have a vermin problem."

Lord Captain Jack Pikark noticed the stillness of the other crew, the tightly controlled attitude of his Dark Side counterpart, the set of the other man's jaw, and the dull burning red glow in his eyes. He paused for a second and then nodded. "She's a bit persistent. Does not really seem to understand the concept that no means no."

Jeff Pikark nodded. "We caught two Omniqueen signals while transiting Hellspace in pursuit of our Omniqueen. Yours was stronger and we mistook her for the one we were pursuing."

"That would explain your sudden arrival," Jack Pikark said. He deliberately didn't glance at Spok, who nodded that it was plausible. "Despite there being no advance warning, if you feel the need to rip and tear someone's guts out, well..." he gave a slow smile. "The Omniqueen probably has a lot of guts."

"Interlock warplans," Jeff Pikark asked.

"We're running combat manually, the ship's AI, Madison, crashed about four hours ago," Lord Captain Jack Pikark said. "I am willing to work with you."

"But Captain, he's evil," a Sulu said.

Lord Captain Pikark turned to the Sulu. "I know he is, but we need to work with him anyway."

"This course of action is dangerous, Lord Captain," Spok said. "Confederate leadership recruits from the aggressive."

Jack Pikark waved at the screen with the Omniqueen's vessel on it. "Our Pike Shot is down. She is moving in for the kill. Any better suggestion?"

The Spok shook his head. "Not at this time, Captain."

Jeff Pikark waited for the byplay to finish. "What's your Pike Shot?" he asked.

Lord Captain Jak Pikark shrugged. "It was a superluminal projectile cannon, but our third shot blew out the recoil stabilizers and it jumped the retaining brackets. We're trying to get it fixed, but it warped the bulkheads."

Captain Jeff Pikark was silent for a moment. "Fall back. We'll handle her."

Jack Pikark nodded. "Afterwards, we'll figure out where everything stands."

Jeff Pikark's face was expressionless. "You want a duel." It was a statement, not a question.

"It's tradition," Jack Pikark stated.

The viewscreen went blank.

"Confederate vessel has ceased transmitting," The Uhura said.

"Confederate vessel as accelerated," Commander Ingersol said. "They're firing... by the sons of Warvan!" The last was said in a startled exclamation that was echoed across the bridge.

The Confederate Dakota had launched entire volleys of torpedoes and missile pods. There was the ghostly plucking at Jack Pikark's bones as a superluminal cannon went to rapid fire. The right hand cylindrical hull had gouts of red hellfire erupt from the leading end with each shot.

Jack Pikark counted eighteen shots.

The jet black Dakota wasn't finished. It fired a hyperwave phase cannon, the huge comet of energy designed off of the foundation of the universe's formation lancing out across tens of millions of miles in less than two seconds.

Finally, after both side cylinders fired, the central cylinder fired.

Flames erupted, then sucked back onto the hull, leaving burning hellfire around the front fifty feet of the hull. It looked like successive mirrors shattered in front of the vessel.

On the bridge of Lord Captain Jack Pikark's Dakota reality suddenly splintered. Shards of razor thin mirror appeared in mid-air, slowly rotating, crystals puffing out from each cracked jagged shard.

Jack Pikark saw himself reflected in each one, dozens of them, all different. Here he was a woman, there he was screaming and gouging out his own eyes, there he was Borg'd out, over there he was laughing wildly as he burned with Hellspace fire.

The mirrors vanished as the Dakota shuddered, a loud vwoom sounding out.

But it wasn't the Confederate Dakota that had made Commander Ingersol swear.

It was the effect on the massive Omniqueen vessel.

The torpedoes surfaced and hit, the Omniqueen's battlescreens lighting up, then wavering as the torpedoes slammed against the Omniqueen's battlescreens like brimstone sledgehammers. The missile pods dropped stealth, fired off their rotary magazines, then fired the nCv shell.

The Omniqueen's shields went down.

That's when the heavy shots hit.

A lance of energy transfixed it, hull plating and interior materials converted to vapor, energy, and debris shooting out both side. The hyperwave cannon hit hard enough to blow halfway through the Omniqueen's ship. Endosteel and duralloy turning into vapor that burned with a white light. The barrage of superluminal cannon shots slammed home.

The Omniqueen's ship began to break up.

"Omniqueen's phasic signature lost," the Spok said.

"A single alpha strike," Doctor Lazurus said slowly. "That monstrous ship destroyed the Omniqueen with a single salvo."

Lord Captain Jack Pikark gave a slow steady sigh. "Signal the Confederate Dakota. Their commander will challenge me to a duel, as is proper. Make the arrangements."

"Yes, sir, Lord Captain," Uhura said. "Communication frequencies open."

----

Lord Captain Jack Pikark hated the transporter. He always had. As an ensign he had seen an entire away party turned inside out and merged together by a malfunction.

The shredded meat had survived nearly a half hour before expiring.

He stood up from where he was kneeling down, taking the time to brush off the shoulders of his uniform, then his bare forearms. His dueling blade was strapped to one arm, the other bare, his rings loaded and charged.

The podiums for the duel had already been set up and Lord Commander Jack Pikark could see that his opposite counterpart was already ready, standing behind a podium with the flag of the Confederate Federation hanging down the front. The other man looked serious, almost tired.

Jack Pikark had to admit, he liked the clean lines of the Confederate Federation military uniforms.

Jack stepped up to the podium and put his hand on it.

"As the one who killed the Omniqueen, you have the choice," Jack Pikark said.

Jeff Pikark nodded. "I will go first."

"As you will," Jack stated. He drew his knife and set it on the podium, then set both hands, feeling the console check his rings and load the data he was carrying.

A small golden pyramid appeared between the two men. It had an eye in the center and a round loop at the top. It shimmered, then lifted up, the eyes blinking. It vanished and the space between the two men rippled slightly.

"Let us begin the duel," Lord Captain Jack Pikark said.

The lights went green as the consoles verified the data and shuffled it.

Jeff stood up and made the motion of picking something up from the podium and tossing it out in front of him.

"For my first time, I summon Warsteel Kuribo!" Jeff Pikark shouted.

The fuzzy round creature rezzed to life in front of Captain Jeff Pikark's podium.

Jack Pikark smiled.

-----

Lord Captain Jack Pikark listened to the crew reports. No injuries, no deaths, no Hellspace madness or alteration.

The Hellspace screens had held.

"Sensor readings coming back," Doctor Lazurus said. "Onscreen."

The Omniqueen's ship appeared. Steaming vapor, debris, and energy, it had been heavily damaged in the combat that had taken place before the Omniqueen had forced the other Dakota into combat by using geometry and being 'inside the curve' compared to the Confederate Federation Dakota.

While his Omniqueen's ship had been roughly a thousand miles wide and a hundred miles thick, this Omniqueen's vessel dwarfed his by a factor of ten. It was massive, thicker than Jack's Omniqueen's ship had been wide.

Fires a hundred miles wide burned with Hellspace energies, flames roaring up fifty miles from the burning ship's hull. A third of the engines, hundreds of them, were dark or twisted wreckage, but there were hundreds more to drive the massive ship.

"She is a big one," Jack Pikark said. He paused for a moment. "Weapon's free, Mister Ingersol."