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File #3 - "Echoes"

"I'm not sure what to make of this?"

Captain Nicholson looked over to his first officer while gently sipping his mint tea in his small, office like Ready Room.

He never really cared for this room that much, it was somewhat cramped and did not feel anywhere near as spacious as the ready rooms of his peers. He longed for the same space afforded to those in charge of Intrepid Class or Galaxy Class starships.

His Ready Room was a tiny, almost "closet-like" space as he had described it, with a neutral grey colour pallet which had come to be expected from modern Federation starships. Gone were the days when Federation starships were built for comfort, like the Galaxy Class, the Battle of Wolf 359 had irrevocably changed the Federation's design philosophy to focus more on defense.

He glanced out of the large, rectangular windows into the abyssal maw of space. There was only one noticeable object, a Century Class starship, still far enough away to appear somewhat small, despite the Warrior being considerably smaller than the Republic.

Commander Val'sha had barely touched her green tea. She absolutely despised how the replicators on Federation starships were really only able to suit human comforts depending on the crew of said vessel. Under her icy, Vulcan exterior, she longed for a vessel like the T'Kumbra, a vessel crewed by all Vulcans.

It was not that she despised humans, she just longed to be with her own people and work alongside them rather then having to put up with the considerable pungent aroma that was undetectable by humans but ever so obvious to her.

"Our contact with this species is somewhat limited Captain?" reminded Val'sha, her analytical eyes glossing over the PADD she was holding in her hand. "It is possible that Starfleet Command made an oversight or incorrect entry in their records?"

"I find it heavily unusual that Starfleet Command had a Gallifreyan within our organisation..." replied the Captain, turning to look at the stricken Republic, slowly floating in space. "Yet never mentioned this to anyone... That's not the only mystery we are facing here as well."

There was a few seconds of silence while both of them pondered exactly what this could mean or struggled to give an explanation for the lack of information from Starfleet.

"What happened to the Republic?" asked Captain Nicholson, putting his empty cup back into the replicator and looking over to his first officer. Val'sha was intelligent, insightful and sometimes a little brutal in her analysis of the fact but he doubted that even she had the answers here.

Val'sha finally picked up her green tea and gently sipped it through her full and plump lips, a trademark of her family. "Captain, I would submit that as we cannot speculate on the fate of the Republic, we should report the incident to Starfleet and await further orders."

Nicholson smiled, he had always liked Val'sha's absolutely unyielding logic. He felt that a Captain always needed to have a voice of "common sense" on the Bridge and she was proving to be an excellent choice, despite her youth and inexperience in a command position.

"Agr..." He had to stop, halfway through his acknowledgement and eventual compliment her exception analytical abilities as the internal communications system interrupted him with the voice of his german tactical officer.

"Captain to the bridge..."

---

Captain Richard Nicholson strode out onto the bridge and immediately took up his position in the center chair as Commander Val'sha, who walked out the ready room behind him, took her position at the command console to the left of where he was sitting.

"Report?" barked the Captain.

"Captain, I am picking up a huge influx of secondary neutrino particles that appeared on sensors just a few moments ago." replied Ensign Zant, his antenna were twitching like crazy which clearly showed his excitement to the rest of the bridge.

Nicholson tapped the controls on the armrest of his chair in order to read over the sensor readings himself but he had always been a tactical officer and was unable to make much sense of all this scientific data. He knew the basics but lacked the specialisation of somebody that had devoted their life to scientific pursuits.

"Meaning what?" he asked, craning his head behind him to look at his science officer. He really did not want to be embarrassed on his own bridge for his lack of scientific understanding.

"Well I don't know... it could indicate the presence of a wormhole but I am not reading any graviton flux. I'll need to take additional..."

Zant was unable to finish his sentence before the entire room suddenly darkened and the klaxon for Red Alert sounded.

"Containment Breach... Deck 5... Section 42 Alpha... Main Sickbay..." boomed Mayer as she tapped the console directly behind where Nicholson was sitting.

"Bridge to Sickbay... Kevin, what's going on down there?" Nicholson immediately asked but there was no response as the ship suddenly shock heavily, causing the holographic bridge controls to flicker and shimmer in the reduced lighting.

"Captain!" Anna struggled to keep her voice in check as she tapped the controls furiously. "I'm reading multiple explosions on Deck 5..."

Nicholson was completely awestruck as he climbed too his feet, as the ship shook violently causing him to lose his balance and fall out of his chair again. Could this have something to do with the body that they had brought aboard? It seemed more than likely.

"Divert emergency containment fields to Deck 5" responded Commander Val'sha as Captain Nicholson reviewed his thoughts in his head. How could he have been so stupid as to bring whatever this was aboard his ship and risk the safety of his crew. This was his first command and for all his training and pompousness, he found himself frozen and totally unprepared for a crisis situation.

"Captain!" shouted Zant over the sparks flying and explosions that rocked this entire experimental starship. "The neutrinos are coalescing... forming secondary tunneling particles..."

Another explosion rocked the interior of the ship, causing a console to explode in the face of Lieutenant Mayer, who was immediately thrown backwards away from her console. Val'sha immediately rushed over to her but it was too late, a piece of shrapnel had impaled her through the chest.

Val'sha immediately reached out and tapped the control panel in front of her. "Security teams to Deck 5..." realising that the internal scanners showed an alien presence on the ship.

Captain Nicholson stood on the exploding bridge in a complete daze... all these thoughts rushing into his head were too much for him. He examined his choices that had brought him to the Warrior as all the commotion around him seemed to drown out.

"Helm control is offline!" shouted Kiska as she tried desperately to bypass the damaged control circuits around the ship. "We're dead in the water..."

"Commander!" shouted Zant over the sounds of some of the EPS conduits on the bridge rupturing. "I'm reading another Federation vessel coming through the anomaly... Its eh... Excelsior Class... U.S.S. Victorious."

Commander Val'sha was getting continual reports of the body of Commander Tempest, moving through the ship, projecting some kind of powerful electromagnetic energy that was deflecting all the phaser fire that the security teams were trying to subdue it with.

"They're hailing!" shouted Kiska as she attempted to pick herself up off the floor. Captain Nicholson still stood in shock and disbelief, almost in a state of panic, forcing Commander Val'sha to take over.

"On screen..." replied Commander Val'sha, attempting to bring shields and weapons online just in case they were needed as internal explosions continued to wreck the ship.

"Audio only..." replied Kiska.

A distinctly alien voice came over the communications system, distorted, sounding like many voices talking as one but not in such a way that was instantly recognisable as the Borg Collective. This sounded far more insidious.

"We... Are... Alive"