//------------------------------// // Heart Racing // Story: Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// The glass around the Pure Heart vanished, allowing it to drift gently to the floor. Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” You did not earn the Heart because of your answer, the hologram said. You were largely correct, but we were never looking for a comprehensive definition. We were looking for a good leader. You have proven yourself to be one. Take the Pure Heart—it is yours. The hologram vanished, leaving only the Heart. Cosmo, Tippi, Twilight, and Toph could only stare at it, feeling its power waft through their souls. Data was not affected by its aura in the slightest. He walked right up to it and picked it up. “We have obtained a Pure Heart.” He said in a jarringly artificial voice. Toph facepalmed. “You gotta put more effort into it, Data! Lift it to the sky and shout!” “...The timing is appropriate for such a thing,” Data admitted. He lifted the green Pure Heart over his head. “We got a Pure Heart!” Then the green expanse of nothing ceased to exist. All five of them were unceremoniously ejected from the plane into a sand dune next to Tomalak. “Hah. I knew you couldn’t do it,” the Romulan chuckled. Data stood up, Pure Heart still in his hands. “On the contrary, the mission was a success.” Tomalak stopped laughing immediately. He reached out to touch the Pure Heart, but it pushed him away. With a scowl, he turned his back to them. “What is the next step?” “Return it to Flipside so it can open the door to the next universe…” Tippi answered. “We need to get back to the Enterprise.” “That will be difficult.” ~~~ Captain’s Log, Stardate 47932.2 Word has finally reached the interior of the nebula: the Pure Heart has been obtained from a Progenitor relic. Now all that remains is to get it back to Flipside. Unfortunately, the Metarex are not making this easy, since they have had the past few days to set up a blockade around the entire nebula. ~~~ “Tactical report,” Picard ordered, taking his seat in the Enterprise briefing room. Worf nodded, gesturing to the screen that displayed the nebula. “Our forces are consolidated within the nebula. During the first few hours after the initial entry, many of our allied ships joined us, since the Metarex had not set up their blockade yet. We have a total of forty-seven sizable ships of varying firepower now. However…” The image zoomed out to show a sphere of Metarex forces surrounding the nebula. “No more ships have been able to pierce this blockade. Furthermore, there are at least seven ships who entered the nebula who have not managed to make contact with us yet.” “Flying blind is a terrible thing,” Riker said. Worf continued. “There are at least two hundred separate Metarex ships in the blockade. For now, more have stopped arriving, but this does not mean there aren’t any in reserve they could deploy at any time. They are holding position far enough from the nebula to react to any outgoing torpedoes or missiles with ease.” Zooming out further, there were several clusters of ships not arranged in a sphere. “These are the rest of our allied forces that have been collecting over the last few days, from all the major powers aside from the Ferengi and the Borg.” “What of the other cube?” Picard asked. “It is still sweeping up material at the other battle site, presumably for assimilation.” Riker sighed. “Well, assuming we manage to stop everything from being destroyed, the Borg are sure to have a lot more tricks up their sleeves.” “Another bridge we will have to cross when we get there.” Picard leaned forward, folding his hands together. “We need a way to get either us or the runabout through that blockade. I’m open to suggestions.” Riker broke out into a smile. “Sir, I happen to have been talking with Doctor Eggman about that. Tell me what you think of this…” ~~~ Dark Oak stood at the command station of his warship, staring at the nebula. He’d done almost nothing but stare at the nebula for days, waiting for any sign of activity. With news of the Pure Heart being obtained, he knew something had to happen soon. But still, the nebula was motionless. So motionless that he was tempted to order a charge, but that would just make them blind as bats and ruin their advantage. Anything could slip out in that situation. What were they waiting for? He knew the runabout was sitting in the Romulan part of the outer fleet, but they had done nothing at all. Did they want Dark Oak to make the first move? He was no fool—attacking the Romulans would take most of his forces, allowing the blockade to be broken. If they needed him to move first, they would stand here forever. Which was just fine with Dark Oak, since the Void would eventually come to his rescue in the end, but he doubted they were satisfied with sitting still. They were going to do something. But why the wait? Ping ping ping ping. “Infuriating, isn’t it?” Dark Oak turned slowly to see Q floating behind him, playing with a paddleball. Ping ping ping ping. “All hands, high alert,” Dark Oak ordered. “A Q has entered the ship.” “Psh, a Q, really, you disgrace me.” Ping ping ping ping. “What do you think that alert is going to do? Summon some little savior that can protect you from me? Maybe you’re calling that laughingstock of a prophet over here, I’m sure he’ll be of great help.” Dark Oak approached Q, refusing to show fear or concern. “Your kind will not interfere.” “Where do you get your information?” Q shrugged. Ping ping ping ping. “How would you have the slightest clue what the Continuum has decided?” “I have my sources.” Q rolled his eyes. “I just plucked the information out of your head, you know. Let’s see… yes, some very good sources in there, indeed. But what’s this? Relying on that jester to predict the Continuum? That’s quite the gall you have, sapling.” “It is not wrong.” “Mmmm…” Q leaned back. Ping ping ping ping. “Your self-confidence is quite annoying.” “Leave. You have no purpose here.” “Who’s to say I won’t ignore the command of the Continuum? I’ve done it before, wise guy. And if you push me enough I might do it again. One snap of my fingers and you’re a literal turnip.” To prove his point, Q created a hundred turnips and dropped them on the ground. “You don’t want to be a turnip, do you?” “Do as you wish,” Dark Oak said. “I rest easy knowing your punishment will be terrible.” Ping ping ping ping. “Do you wish to know why they aren’t doing anything? Why they aren’t clapping their hands to erase all your efforts from the sky?” Dark Oak made no response. “Fear,” Q said, letting out a laugh. “Imagine that, the Q Continuum, afraid! Afraid of what, you may ask? Oh, they say they’re afraid for their lives, afraid of the Void attacking them directly, but that’s going to happen regardless. No, they’re afraid of putting themselves forward and failing. Because, the Q, failing? Perish the thought!” Ping ping ping ping. “Better to lie still and accept death than to fail in defiance of it.” “Weak.” “Agreed.” Ping ping ping ping. “I almost wish you would defy them,” Dark Oak said. “That you’d prove your race to truly be worthwhile.” “Oh, so you think we have to lower ourselves to your physical, narrow-minded ideals? Now who’s the arrogant one?” Ping ping ping ping. “Arrogance is a title given to those with power by those without it.” Ping ping ping ping. “Sounds like you’re in denial.” Dark Oak waved a dismissive hand. “I grow tired of this.” Ping ping ping ping. Dark Oak swiped the paddle ball out of Q’s hands and crushed it. “Enough of this! What is your game?” Q floated up to his head and grinned. “My game—if there really is such a thing—is over now. Goodbye!” He snapped his fingers, filling the room with paddle balls and vanishing. Dark Oak smashed through the flimsy toys and ran to his console. “I want a full sweep of the ship—the fleet! Q has done something, and I want to know what!” Dark Oak was incorrect. Q had not done anything to the ship or the rest of fleet. All he had done was make Dark Oak worry—worry enough that he’d put everyone on high alert and check everything. In their panic, they would forget to monitor one very important detail… And you can’t say Q did anything, perish the thought! There was no bar on talking to the lower lifeforms. He didn’t give them any information pertaining to the situation at the nebula, either. Ask him, and he’d assure everyone who ever asked that what happened next was purely unintentional on his part. No one believed him but they couldn’t exactly prove anything. ~~~ Hours later, a report flashed across Dark Oak’s screen—finally, something was happening. A Federation ship was poking its head out of the nebula. Its warp engines were firing up and would form a warp bubble the moment it was free of the nebula’s dust. “Destroy it,” Dark Oak ordered. The nearest twenty ships in the blockade moved from their position, firing upon and utterly destroying the ship with ease, sending debris flying in several directions. Too easy. Dark Oak knew there was some sort of ploy going on here. Reviewing the records, he was convinced of it. There had been no life signs aboard that ship. They had wanted it destroyed. Another ship, this time a Cardassian one, poked its head out of the nebula, without a single life sign on board. Yet, it still charged up its warp engines. “Destroy it. Even abandoned, we cannot let it escape.” Four other ships came out of the nebula at different locations, a Romulan, Klingon, a larger than usual Eggman robot, and one ship from a lesser race known as the Breen. Every last one was destroyed in short order. Why are they sacrificing ships? They’re valuable firepower and resources. What is their ploy? He began analyzing the places they had come out. They had emerged in roughly a circle, pointing toward one side of the Nebula. Each ship had forced the Blockade ships nearby to move, leaving… Leaving a hole in the middle of the circle. “Ships, move to coordinates 0, 37.4, 55.2. They’re weakening the blockade.” Just as he finished giving the order, the remnant of the Borg cube emerged from the nebula, heading directly for the hole in the blockade. Several other ships appeared behind it, including the Enterprise, nestled snugly in the middle of the formation. They started to pull up their warp drives, but the Metarex were too fast—they’d moved back to their position enough to interrupt the warp bubbles. However, the blockade was still weak in that area, and the fleet was making a spearhead effort. Dark Oak didn’t allocate more ships than were already there. They’d tried to exploit a weakness in the blockade already, he wasn’t about to make another one. He would, however, order all fire to be focused on the Enterprise. They needed to keep the door out of reach. Unfortunately, the Metarex couldn’t just ignore the other forces, least of all the Borg cube. After losing a half-dozen ships, they shifted back to firing upon the Borg rather than the Enterprise. After whaling on it for far too long, the cube was utterly destroyed—but the Metarex forces were severely weakened. To make matters worse, the Cardassian arm of the military had appeared on the other side of the blockade, attacking it. It was a hopeless situation. Or it would have been, if Dark Oak didn’t have other ships on standby. He waited for the spearhead and the Cardassians to get as close together as possible before ordering a dozen larger ships through Void portals, unleashing surprise spreads of explosive torpedoes. Two of these ships appeared behind the spearhead, so they couldn’t just jump back into the nebula. “And they are pinned,” Dark Oak said to himself. “I’d like to see them get out of th—” A priority message slid across his screen. Twilight and company had already gotten through the door. “HOW!?” Dark Oak shouted. “When did… how…” Dark Oak slammed a hand onto his console, cracking it. “Metarex, we have failed. There is no use in wasting further resources in this battle. The losses are not worth it. Retreat into the Void.” The Metarex ships ran. They still lost a dozen more ships to the attack before it was over. HOW!? Dark Oak asked himself as his ship slipped back into the purple vortex of the Void. How did they get to the door? ~~~ “If only we could take the door to them,” Riker said, standing on Flipside’s platform. Eggman scratched his chin. “It would be possible to move it if you moved the wall it was on. Just separate it from the ship.” “Then how would we get it to them? The Metarex will shoot anything and everything. Unless…” Riker scratched his beard thoughtfully. “Doctor, your machines have proven resistant to Metarex weapons. Could you design one that… looked like it was destroyed?” Eggman grinned. “I like how you think! I can do exactly that! Better yet, how about I make an exploding robot! One that takes a hit, goes up in a massive fireball, but still ejects a piece of debris just large enough to hold a door inside… I’ll have to build it on the other side but oh ho ho ho ho ho will this take them by so much surprise…” The machine had been christened the Eggsploder. It flew out with the other ships as part of the decoy. When it was hit, it exploded exactly as it was supposed to—sending debris in seemingly random directions. However, it was anything but random. The largest chunk flew right through the blockade and into open space, where a cloaked Romulan warbird picked it up the moment the Metarex were occupied with other things. It delivered the package directly to the runabout, prying open the chunk of seared metal to reveal the yellow door. The moment they entered, the Metarex had lost. Twilight walked through the door, grinning. “Well done, everyone! We’re back!” There were cheers both in Flipside and in the fleet. Sweet, sweet victory.