Scrawled on the Back of a Sea Chart

by MrAskAPirate

The Longest Day, Part I

Author's Note:

Still on my Star Trek kick (going to Northeast Trek Con last weekend and playing chauffeur to Garret Wang afterwards didn't help any) so have another taste of the adventures of Captain Sunset Shimmer and the crew of the U.S.S. Harmony,

Everything was blank. A ringing white expanse that surrounded her on all sides; nothing and yet everything. Someone was calling her name. It was distant and distorted, but the urgency behind it told her she was needed. A thick, heavy odor set off warning bells in her mind, though she couldn’t immediately understand why.

She coughed; feeling the sensation more than hearing it, and the world suddenly faded into terrifying focus.

The smell was smoke, the alarms were not just in her mind, and she knew the voice that was calling her name.

“Sunset! Sunset, can you hear me?”

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes snapped open, and she found herself looking at the panicked face of Twilight Sparkle. A few strands of her science officer’s indigo hair had fallen loose from the bun she normally kept it in, but that and the dark smudges on her cheeks did nothing to hide the relieved smile that blossomed.

“Are you all right, Captain? Can you stand?” she asked as a shower of sparks from a ruptured EPS relay in the ceiling rained down on the bridge behind her.

Sunset nodded and swallowed hard as Twilight helped pull her to her feet, only for them both to stumble as another telltale explosion rocked the ship.

“Damage report,” Sunset called out as she shook the last of the haze from her mind.

“We’re still reeling from the volley that hit us before we got the shields up,” Flash’s voice cut through the alarm klaxons from the tactical station near the rear of the bridge, “Main power is offline; auxiliary and emergency systems are holding for now. Shields are at twenty-eight percent.”

“Casualties reported on decks one, four, and five through nine,” Twilight’s voice took over as she resumed her station at ops. “Medical teams are already en route.”

Her words were proven true even as she spoke them, the turbolift doors sliding open to allow Fluttershy and two of her medics to rush onto the bridge amid another jarring impact.

Sunset spared them a quick glance, about to protest that she was unhurt, only for her ears to lay back when she noticed Rarity slumped and unmoving in her chair a few feet away. A thin red streak from hairline to jaw contrasted harshly with her first officer’s porcelain skin. Despite having taken the brunt of the exploding panel that had knocked both of them from their command stations, the labored rise and fall of Rarity’s chest at least proved she was still alive.

As Fluttershy knelt and began scanning Rarity with her tricorder, Sunset pulled her eyes away from the scene with an angry grimace and sat down hard in her chair.

“Talk to me, Rainbow!”

“Two Hegh’ta class birds of prey; they hit us right when we dropped out of warp,” Rainbow Dash’s tense voice echoed back from the helm. “Bastards must’ve been using the magnetic interference from the asteroid belt to hide from our long-range sen-” She was cut off as another burst of disruptor fire shook the hull.

“They were waiting for us,” Flash gave voice to the words that everyone else was already thinking. “The distress call from that Bolian freighter was a fake.”

“Or they attacked a freighter knowing it would try to call for help,” Sunset added. “Bridge to Engineering: we need main power and warp drive back online now.”

“I hear ya, Cap’n,” Applejack’s distinctive drawl arrived over the comm, “an’ I’d love to give you some good news, but they hit our starboard pylon somethin’ fierce. The EPS conduit’s ruptured an’ we’re leakin’ plasma; we’re talkin’ thirty minutes at least!”

“You’ve got five,” Sunset answered back as the Klingon’s resumed fire, nearly throwing her from her chair again. “Rainbow, make for that asteroid belt to give us come cover; Flash, return fire!”

“They’re pursuing,” Rainbow said as she made the required course adjustments.

“On screen.”

The viewport switched to rear-view mode, showing both Klingon ships making hard angled turns to bring their weapons to bear on their Federation prey. A hot red-orange beam of phaser energy lanced out, illuminating the led ship’s shields in a dazzling green glow, but nothing more.

Flash shook his head.

“Their shields are holding. Emergency weapon batteries aren’t going to be eno-!”

Another burst of disruptor fire tore into them, rocking the ship violently. A console interface near Flash overloaded and blew, showering him with sparks and shards of glass, but the young man held up an arm to shield his face and stubbornly held his ground.

“Ugh, that last hit fused the primary phaser coil! Shields at sixteen percent!”

“We’ve lost the port impulse engine!” Rainbow called back as she fought to maintain control. “Rerouting power to compensate!”

“No!” Sunset called out suddenly. “Let her drift, Rainbow!”

“What?” Rainbow and Flash both asked at once, the former twisting around in her seat to meet her captain’s fiery gaze.

“Let her drift,” Sunset repeated, “try to make it look like we’ve lost helm control, but be ready to bring us about and put that lead bird of prey within a ninety degree arc of our bow.”

Rainbow stared at her in confusion. She started to shake her head but hesitated, a sly grin forming on her face.

“Aye, Captain!”

She spun back around, tapping out commands on her display that sent the Harmony into a slow, listing spin as Sunset stepped away from command and over to ops.

“Twilight, I want you to start building up a positron charge in the secondary deflector; as big and as fast as you can. Reroute auxiliary power and anything else you need except for essential systems and torpedo fire control. We’re close enough to those asteroids that the Klingons shouldn’t be able to detect the buildup through the interference.”

“A charged particle burst to disable their shields,” Twilight stated as much as asked, her slender fingers already dancing across the appropriate LCARS keys as Sunset turned to face Flash.

“Once Twilight’s ready, I want you to be ready to drop shields just after the next disruptor hit.”

“I can overload an EPS relay in the cargo bay on deck eight at the same time;” Flash added, “make it look convincing.”

“Do it,” Sunset nodded.

“It won’t take them long to reset their emitters,” Twilight said. “We’ll have a window of no more than a few seconds… and they’ll need to be close. Five kilometers at most.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that; those KIingons will be so close you’ll be able to smell the gagh on their breath,” Sunset replied.

“Good thing Rarity isn’t awake to hear you say that,” Rainbow Dash quipped, her own nose crinkling at the notion.

A smirk played across Sunset’s lips. “Sunset to Pinkie.”

“What’s happenin’, Cap’n?” Ensign Pie’s energetic voice came back. “You know, aside from the ship rocking harder than one of my sister Maud’s planetary geology surveys.”

Sunset’s smile broadened.

“You know that shipboard concert you keep asking me to approve?”

---

“Fire!”

Twin bolts of green disruptor energy shot out toward the spiraling federation vessel, slamming into the shields with a spectacular glow.

“Their shields are down!” a burly Nausicaan growled.

The Klingon captain let out a deep laugh through his toothy smile.

“Arm torpedoes!” he barked, pointing to the bald-headed Orion manning tactical. “Blow them out of the stars!”

“Captain!” a reptilian Gorn hissed from the other side of the bridge. “We are picking up some sort of transmission from the Federation ship.”

“Oh?” the captain raised an eyebrow. “Have they decided to beg for mercy?” He laughed heartily and was joined by most of his crew, for they knew there would be no mercy this day.

“I am not certain,” the Gorn said. “The signal is too weak. We have likely damaged their communications array.”

“Bring us closer then,” the Klingon continued to laugh. “Let us take a few moments to revel in the mewling of these pujwl’ before we snuff them out.”

The helmsman--another Klingon--complied, and the Starfleet vessel grew steadily larger in their viewport.

“I... have locked onto the signal,” the Gorn said slowly.

“... And?” the captain prompted him.

“It is… unusual.”

“On speakers!”

The Gorn complied, and the Klingon bridge was suddenly filled with the sound of… someone singing?

'Cause I love to see you beam, beam, beam,
Yes I do!
Tell me what more can I say
To make you see
That I do!
It makes me happy when you beam, beam, beam;
Yes it always makes my day!

The various members of the bridge crew glanced at one another in confusion as the offensively sweet song continued, the solitary singer now joined by a chorus of others

Come on every pony smile, smile, smile!
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine!
All I really need's a smile, smile, smile,
From these happy friends of mine!

“What is the meaning of this?!” the enraged captain growled. “Do these Federation petaQ mock me even in defeat?”

“Nope!” the voice of the original soloist spoke through the transmission, “we just really needed you and your ship to come a teensy little bit closer so we could give you a super-special present! SURPRISE!!”

Before anyone on the bridge could react, the Starfleet vessel righted itself, pointing dead at the approaching bird of prey, and a bright blue pulse erupted from its deflector dish. The Klingon captain braced himself, but the wave of energy seemingly failed to do any damage as it washed over his ship.

“Captain!” the Orion shouted, “Our shields! They are-!” He stopped mid-sentence. The entire Klingon bridge crew watched in horror as two sparkling red points of light leaped from the torpedo launchers of the Federation vessel, speeding towards them with unerring accuracy.

The Klingon captain stood as the projectiles tracked directly toward the viewscreen. A slow smile creeped onto his features as he nodded appreciatively.

“majQa’,” he said under his breath. “Well played, Starfleet…”

---

“Direct hit,” Flash announced, though the fireball blossoming on the viewscreen made his words almost unnecessary. “The lead ship has been destroyed.”

“Hay yeah!” Rainbow whooped “That’ll teach you jerks to mess with-!”

Another explosion silenced her as the second bird of prey swung around the cloud of debris left by its former wingman and raked Harmony’s hull with more disruptor fire.

“We’re not out of this yet, but at least we’ve evened the odds.” Sunset said over the sounds of the barrage. “Shields back up!”

Flash tapped the proper key and was met with an unsatisfying buzz. He quickly tapped out the sequence again and the sound repeated. His face went white.

“Shields aren’t responding!”

“Please tell me you didn’t actually blow out the shields when you pretended to blow out the shields,” Rainbow’s flat accusation drifted back from helm control.

“No!” Flash said defensively as he attempted to bypass the system failure. “It’s-”

“Not important right now!” Sunset cut short their bickering. “Take us into the asteroid field Rainbow; keep as much rock between us and them as you can.”

“We won’t be able to stay hidden for long with only one engine,” Rainbow said as she complied.

“Understood.” Sunset turned to ops. “How long until we can emit another particle burst?”

“Deflector control circuits have overloaded,” Twilight shook her head. “That was our only shot, but I doubt they’d make the same mistake their sister ship did anyway.”

Sunset grimaced.

“Applejack, warp engines would be very useful right now.”

“Three minutes, Cap’n!” The former farmer answered via comm, her voice straining over the unsubtle sound of a plasma welder.

“Not good enough!” Sunset shouted back, but she received nor expected to receive a reply. She let out a huff. “Recommendations.”

Her answer was silence, the sight of drooping ears, and a worried exchange of glances among her bridge crew.

“Dammit,” she whispered, staring at the viewscreen as the bird of prey attempted to maneuver around a cluster of asteroids for a clear shot before the Harmony dipped down, obscuring the Klingon ship with another large rocky fragment.

Almost ten uncomfortably long seconds slipped passed without a word before Sunset sighed again, her eyes drawn to the dedication plaque affixed to the bulkhead near the ready room door.

“Harmony... we barely knew you,” her solemn, quiet words laced the air with ice. “All hands, this is the captain. Prepare to aban-”

“Captain!” Twilight cut her off. “Reading a massive neutrino surge, bearing two-five-one mark six-seven. I think it’s… yes, another ship is decloaking!”

“More Klingons,” Rainbow surmised, “Just what we needed.”

“This doesn’t read like any Klingon ship I’ve ever seen,” Flash shook his head.

“On screen,” Sunset commanded as she stood and took a few steps forward.

The image widened to show both the bird of prey that pursued them and a large area of space just above the asteroid belt that shimmered and danced with the telltale ripples that preceded a cloaked ship.

So large, in fact, that Sunset had just started to wonder if an entire battlegroup was decloaking when the concealment effect fell away in full, revealing a streamlined, black-hulled ship that dwarfed nearly every vessel Sunset had ever seen. She quickly found that the coloration made it difficult to grasp the shape and sheer size of the vessel even though she was staring right at it.

“Sweet Celestia…” Twilight breathed, while a weak ‘whoa’ was all that Rainbow could manage.

The bridge darkened suddenly, and Sunset found herself swallowing on reflex when she realized it was because the sleek, titanic ship was literally eclipsing the nearby star, casting a menacing shadow over the asteroid belt and both ships currently maneuvering through it.

“Analysis; anything you’ve got,” she called out, snapping Twilight from her stunned state.

“Uh… n-nothing matching vessel’s configuration in our database. No ID signal or identifying marks,” she relayed, sounding oddly confused. “The hull appears to be some kind of neutronium alloy, but sensors can’t penetrate it.”

“It’s not answering hails,” Flash shook his head. “Should we-” he was cut off by a rapid beeping from his station. “They’re charging weapons!”

“Evasive maneuvers!” Sunset called to Rainbow, who was already prepared to throw the ship into an evasive roll.

“They’re targeting the Klingons!” Twilight’s voice rang out, staying Rainbow’s hand.

The bridge crew watched in stunned silence as the giant ship opened fire; dozens of turrets spraying bolt after bolt of vibrant blue energy into the asteroid field to Harmony’s stern, kicking up clouds of rocky dust in the process.

The bird of prey, a class of ship known for its maneuverability, managed to weave through the opening salvo, but it was a case of too little, too late. An energy bolt tore through both the shields and port wing like tissue paper. The impact sent the craft into a spin as three more blasts ripped into the primary hull. A final shot obliterated the long ‘neck’ that connected the bridge to the rest of the ship an instant before the entire vessel was engulfed in the telltale anti-matter explosion of a warp core breach, leaving only twisted tritanium and vaporized dust in it’s wake.

The barrage ended almost immediately, leaving an unnerving calm to settle of the bridge of the Harmony.

“So… they’re on our side?” Rainbow asked.

The unknown ship turned suddenly, far faster than its massive bulk would imply was possible, and headed directly for them.

“Oh, you just had to ask, didn’t you?” Flash said, but Rainbow barely heard him, already keying in commands to dive the Harmony deeper into the asteroid field.

“Wait,” Sunset and Twilight called out together, drawing everyone’s attention back to the viewscreen.

The immense ship shimmered as it passed above them, fading from existence as it re-engaged its cloaking device, and was gone.

Sunset took a deep breath before collapsing back into her command chair.

“Stand down from red alert,” she said, the alarm klaxons going silent at her command. “Twilight, keep an eye on the sensors in case they decide to come back for us... and for any other surprises today might be planning to throw in our faces. I want casualty and status reports from all decks and all section heads.” She glanced to her right, noticing for the first time the Fluttershy and her medical team were gone, presumably having taken Rarity with them to sickbay. “Route all reports directly to me for the time being.”

“Who they hay were those guys?” Rainbow asked the obvious question on everyone’s mind as she guided the ship clear of the asteroid belt. “The hull design kinda looked Reman, didn’t it?”

“Those turrets were firing some kind of phased tetryon charges,” Flash shook his head. “I’ve never heard of any species using that kind of weaponry except the Hirogen.”

“And the Hirogen certainly wouldn’t have just left after dispatching the Klingons,” Twilight added, gaze never leaving her console. “They view collecting ‘trophies’ from their hunts as one of the most important-” She stopped, eyes narrowing as she tapped out another command. “Captain, we’re receiving a low-band transmission. Text only.”

“Source?”

“Unknown,” Twilight shook her head. “It looks like a set of coordinates.” She tapped a few keys and forwarded the data to the terminal on the arm of Sunset’s chair.

“That’s less than a light year from here,” Sunset estimated as she viewed the message through narrowed eyes.

Twilight nodded. “Star charts place nothing at that location; it’s just an empty point in interstellar space.”

“A low-power signal like that has very short range,” Flash added. “Unless there are more cloaked vessels nearby, it has to be from the unidentified ship.”

“So our mysterious ‘friends’ are inviting us over for dinner?” Rainbow scoffed. “Whoever they are, they really suck at baiting a trap.”

“If they’d wanted to destroy or capture us they could’ve done it right here,” Flash countered. “Setting up a trap now doesn’t make much sense.”

“Uh, duh,” Rainbow shot right back as she turned in her seat. “That’s exactly what someone setting up a trap would want you to think. They lull you into a false sense of security, then lure you and your ship into the waiting maw of some giant, ancient, forgotten cosmozoan monstrosity that gains strength by consuming the life force of sentient beings, and is nearly ready to awaken and cut a swathe of destruction across the galaxy as it consumes entire worlds to feed its ravenous, unending hun-”

Rainbow stopped as she realized that the rest of the bridge’s occupants, including a two-man repair team that had shown up sometime during her rant, were now staring at her silently.

“What?” she asked defensively.

“You’ve been running too many Daring Do holonovels,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Yeah! ‘Cause they’re awesome!” Dash answered back with a grin, leading both Flash and Twilight to roll their eyes.

“Applejack to bridge.”

“Go ahead,” Sunset called out.

“Warp power’s back online, fer now. Wouldn’t push her any faster’n warp four though, least not until we can spare a few hours to replace half a dozen sections of conduit and run an integrity diagnostic on the whole dang system.”

“Acknowledged,” Sunset stood and headed for her ready room. “Rainbow, set a course for those coordinates; warp four.”

Rainbow sat up straight, her ears following suit and her feathery wings ruffling slightly.

“Wait, really?” She blinked. “We’re just gonna go? Even knowing it’s a trap?”

“We don’t ‘know’ it’s a trap,” Flash had to fight to keep the irritated edge out of his voice, “but, I have to agree with Rainbow on this one, Captain. Flying in there blind in a ship in need of serious repair isn’t…” He hesitated. “It doesn’t seem like the best idea.”

“You’re right, it’s not,” Sunset turned on her heel to face them. “In fact, it’s a pretty terrible idea… but an unknown ship with technology and firepower that outclasses anything Starfleet or the Klingons have right now just took our side in a fight, and now there’s a chance they want to talk to us. Even if they aren’t looking to be our allies, we need to know who they are and what they want, and the sooner the better.”

She took in the understanding nods from her crew with a sigh as she turned and let the doors close behind her.

---