Chapter Five
The Grand Tour
When Twilight was finished speaking to Fleet Admiral Janeway and Vice Admiral Johnson, she wandered back into the bridge. Little had changed except for a few more crew members had appeared carrying out their assigned daily tasks. Twilight then spotted both Spike and Trixie staring outside a massive screen. As she approached them, she noticed that some of the Bridge officers seemed either amused or simply interested in how her friends were reacting to the picture they saw before them.
“What are you two looking at?” Twilight asked approaching from Trixie’s right.
“Twilight you have to take a look at this,” Spike answered as Trixie was too mesmerized.
Twilight approached the large screen and looked into it, it was then she knew exactly what had mesmerized the duo. The screen showed the starship orbiting above Equestria, but it showed more than that, it showed Equestria in detail from orbit. There was a natural beauty about it; Equestria looked like a giant blue, white, and green ball floating the black void of space.
Twilight couldn’t draw her eyes from the picture; she could see lands she only read about. And it wasn’t just that she could see them, but if she looked hard enough she could see roads and houses. It was amazing. Then as she widened her view she got a real sense of how high she, or rather the ship, actually was.
“Magnificent isn’t it. One never really knows how small they are until they see their planet in space for the first time, gives you a real sense of being.” Quells voice came from behind the trio.
None of them turned to look at her as the sight before them was too amazing to see. Quells stood near the tactical consol completely amused. “Humans once said when they first explored space, ‘We went to the stars to see what’s out there, but what we really found was the beauty of Earth.’” Quells added, “Personally I never saw what was so special about Earth, it’s no different than the…”
“Quells, mind your manners,” Lotar jumped in.
The being with a long helmet began to speak. To Twilight, its language sounded similar to two pieces of metal scrapping against each other. But the rest of the crew understood him well and all laughed. “What did he say?” Twilight asked finally turning away from the screen.
“Sometimes he forgets that I am a Q, because of how I act…sometimes. That’s Tran, a Breen, the ships junior tactical weapons controller.” Quells grimaced.
The green woman snickered as she shook her head, and then turned to Twilight, “If you three want to know, we’re orbiting your planet at around two hundred miles up. I’m Viquoof by the way, ships navigator, but you can call me Viz.”
Trixie turned around, “This is completely amazing, Trixie has never been this high before. How fast are we going?”
“Seems really slow if you ask me,” Spike murmured.
“That is actually an optical illusion; our present speed is four hundred and fifteen kilometers per hour. It is a standard orbiting speed for this vessel,” The pointed eared woman next to Viz explained.
“That is Elal, ships helmsmen, of Vulcan.” Quells explained.
“As am I,” Said the blue suited, pointed ear male sitting in what Twilight assumed was the captain’s chair, “My name is Sul’Vin; I am ships senior science officer and First Officer.”
“A pleasure to meet all of you,” Twilight said looking around at all of the bridge crew. Then her eyes fell upon the machine woman again and the uneasiness returned.
However the crewmember gave a warm smile as if she knew what Twilight was feeling, “Three of Five, you may call me Three. But my birth name was Samantha Rose.” Three answered, “I am Borg.”
Twilight nodded, “A pleasure.”
Quells sensed the uneasiness and quickly jumped in, “Well it seems you ponies have acquainted yourselves with the bridge, time for you to view the rest of the ship.”
Quells lead the party first to Deck Five to the ships mess hall named Tavern 557. When Twilight asked why the ships mess was named that way, Quells was happy to explain. “Well the ship is named after Captain Ernst Evans. The ship he famously skippered was called the USS Johnston . Back long ago ships had registries to distinguish themselves before they were named. And the Johnston’s was DD-557. So we picked 557 as the Tavern’s number.”
The party then approached a surprise for Twilight, instead of the modern metallic doors that accompanied the rest of the ship, these doors were wooden. However they still slid in the same manner as the rest of the doors. When they entered, the trio was surprised to see the mess being a large area.
Far to their left were several large windows looking out into space. There were many tables as well, most however were hidden behind a large wall that separated the eating area from the rest of the mess hall. Nearer to the ponies were a set of comfortable looking couches many of the crew were relaxing on.
The wall that divided the eating area was curved almost as if it was a wave rippling through the ocean. In the middle of what Twilight deemed the trough was a large glowing white object that looked like a large tree ornament.
As Twilight looked towards her right, she spotted four large wooden barrels jutting into the wall. They were eerily similar to Applejack’s Cider barrels in her basement. In front of these barrels was an old style bar complete with sets of stools for persons to sit on. Twilight even saw a female humanoid with wolf like ears and a tail serving food and drinks to the patrons.
When the humanoid noticed Quells, she beamed and waved them over. As the quartet approached, Twilight could see the humanoid had cherry red hair that matched her eyes. However her “wolf” ears and tail were a light brown. The humanoid smiled as the ponies approached, “My, my, are these the famous ponies of that strange planet below?”
“Hey Yari, yup these are them. May I introduce Ambassador Twilight Sparkle, Miss Trixie Lulamoon, and Mister Spike. Everyone this is Yari Lupus, bartender of Tavern 557 and ships Morale officer.” Quells introduced.
“Yes and welcome to Tavern 557, we got all the pleasures the Milky way Galaxy has to offer in a retro style of service. What’ll you ponies and dragon pleasure?” Yari asked.
“Forgive Trixie’s question but are you another non-human look-alike like Quells?” Trixie asked.
Yari was completely unfazed in her smile, “Actually I am human, but people on Earth refer to me as a Chimera. The result of some messed up experiment many years back, too long of a story to tell.”
“If you don’t mind Trixie asking another question, but this tavern seems so out of place from the…futuristic design of the ship,” Trixie asked, “It puzzles Trixie but why is that.”
Yari laughed again, “It gives the crew a sense of ease, almost the same feeling as antiques give off am I right?”
“Well if that’s the case,” Spike smiled as he chipped in, “Let’s see what this antique has to eat, I’m starved.
Twilight giggled, “That’s Spike, always thinking with his stomach. Will it be okay?”
Quells nodded, and Yari handed Spike a menu. Trixie, also feeling a little famished, requested one as well. Twilight however wasn’t as hungry, so the lavender pony turned to the glowing object; Quells followed Twilight to the object and explained, “This is the Preserver Star Chart. Admiral Johnson and the rest of the Evans crew discovered this about five years ago.”
“I remember reading about the preservers in many of Equestria’s history books besides Princess Celestia mentioning them.” Twilight admired, “What does it depict?”
“Well,” Quells started, “The chart is broken into three pieces, the Top depicts the majority of the Zeta Andromeda Galaxy; the one we are currently in. the Middle is the Milky Way Galaxy. However we’re still not as yet sure what the bottom depicts.”
“It’s absolutely amazing.” Twilight said.
After Trixie and Spike had their little respite of food, Quells recommenced with the tour. She took the trio to Deck seventeen and into a large room. Twilight knew the moment Rarity would ever walk in here; she’d be instantly traumatized by the horrible decor of the room. It was nothing but a black base room with yellow lines that, very neatly, formed grid boxes.
“And this is the Holo-deck. One of four on the vessel crew members uses this as a room for recreation and enjoyment.” Quells explained.
“This, it doesn’t seem very useful.” Twilight commented.
Quells snickered, “Computer activate program Quells five.”
Just then the grid boxes faded away the whole room transformed to a completely different scene. Twilight, Trixie, and Spike soon found themselves standing on warm sand with a gentle ocean breeze blowing and the sound of waves lapping on the shore. They had magically appeared on a beach!
“But we haven’t been transported!” Twilight stammered.
“Nope we’re still aboard the ship, but this room transforms energy into matter in a similar matter to the transporters. The difference I think is very clear.” Quells explained. She then watched as Trixie and Twilight began to frolic and play in the water while Spike simply enjoyed the false sun.
Much later, after drying up, the party reached the end of the tour in Main Engineering, deck twenty. Unlike many ships of the past where Main engineering was located near the heart of the ship, this was placed more near the stern of the Evans . “And finally this Main Engineering, the Evans beating heart.” Quells explained.
Twilight noticed a tall man with blue antennae and ice white hair, dressed in an Engineer’s uniform turn from receiving another engineer’s report and look at them. His face was hard, as if it was chiseled out of ice, and unlike the rest of the ship he didn’t seem pleased to see the ponies.
“What’s all this here, I don’t exactly remember this ship becoming a…” the blue man began.
“Jurhal!” Quells snapped, “These are our ambassadors from Equestria,”
“Yes I know who they are, I’m upset that their so late. Usually you supposed to show guests engineering before you show the holo-deck Quells.” Jurhal answered.
“Must have slipped my mind,” Quells laughed, “This is Jurhal of Andoria, but we call him Moral for his…famous opinions.”
Twilight wasn’t exactly sure of what was going but she went along with it.
“And don’t worry, he’s not mad, that’s how he always looks.” Quells added.
“Ha, ha.” Jurhal said unamused, “Come you three, I’ll show you this ships personal heart.” Jurhal turned and walked towards a large cylinder that dominated the entire room. One the top side of it, red lights flashed in a downwards motion. The opposite was on the bottom, except the lights were blue. “This is the warp core; here Matter in the red cylinder is rammed with Antimatter through dilithium crystals producing…” Jurhal began.
“Producing enormous powers within the range of ten times the power of the sun.” Twilight finished in a point-of-fact tone.
Jurhal looked at the Lavender pony legitimately shocked, “It’s not that powerful but yes.” He then turned to Quells, “Where’d you find this one?”
“Science, and book study, happens to be my specialty besides diplomacy.” Twilight boasted. Trixie and Spike looked at Twilight with amusement while Quells kept her smug smile.
After much discussion between Jurhal and Twilight, Quells finally pulled them away. She soon led the group to Deck ten. “And up this way will be where your quarters will be for the duration of your stay. We’ve made up this section with staterooms for any of the ponies who wish to fully explore this ship after what I assume will be a rather fun party.”
“Oh knowing Pinkie Pie, fun is going to be the understatement.” Twilight said, “You will be certainly catching her at her best.”
“That much is certain” Trixie added.
Just then Spike noticed a large set of doors similar to the ones seen in front of the Holo-deck, “Hey is this holo-deck?”
Quells stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the doors. After a moment, she seemed to mentally kick herself for forgetting this. For the first time Twilight saw this…Q’s expression become subdued and almost melancholy, “No….no this is something different.”
“May we see it?” Spike asked before Twilight could warn him off.
“Well…I guess there’s no real reason to say no. It was made for others to remember them.” Quells answered somberly. She then walked in front of Spike and opened the doors.
The room inside was dark, with only one, light blue light source. That source was a bluish hologram shaped similar to the combadge worn by all the ships crew. Quells walked up to it while the trio remained near the door, after all the other surprises this ship had they wanted to be ready to leave. But this one was different.
After Quells pressed a few buttons, the room was suddenly filled with hundreds of smaller combadges, all glowing white. The trio looked around the room with wondrous eyes, but all knew that the wonder would not lead to a pleasant find.
Twilight then looked at Quells, “What do they all mean?”
“They represent the combadges of crewmen lost…in a war. You see the normal crew compliment aboard the USS Evans is around one thousand three hundred five officers, crew, and families. In that war we lost four hundred and fifteen souls.” Quells answered.
That last line stung. Trixie raised a hoof to her mouth in shock, while Spike somberly looked at the floor. Twilight however was close to tears. Despite Equestria never experiencing a true war, engagements of the past had certainly draw causalities. But they were so small that the pain never lasted. And they never numbered in the hundreds. “I’m so sorry,” Twilight stammered.
Quells nodded, “I know, these men, women, and Tran gendered species gave their lives for the Galaxy and the freedom of its people. Against….” But for some reason Quells couldn’t bring herself to say the species name. Whether it was to painful or too long of a story to explain, she simply ended the line with “…Against our most greatest enemy.”
A/N: I'M BAAACK EVERYPONY! Okay so Thank's to Sandy I was down for a while but i'm back and Here's chapter five. Three Things, one i'm not a hundred percent sure if my explanation on how the Warp Core worked was accurate so if I'm wrong please inform me kindly. Second I will give props to anypony who can guess Which Anime Character i make a loving reference to. Third This chapter as did the first one points to the prime enemy that will be faced. I'm not telling who, but expect anyone of the Federations former enemies to be at odds here. Since this was based from STO the list is now very long.
This chapter is Dedicated to all those affect by Super Storm Hurricane Sandy, may we all recover and be prosperous in the coming days.