Season 2 Episode 3: "Ghosts"
STAR TREK: PHOENIX
S02E03
“Ghosts”
“First officer’s log, supplemental.
It’s been four hours since we entered the Basin. We’ve only charted a small section thus far, with no sign of the Jem’Hadar or their base of operations. Strong gravitational forces have limited the Phoenix to barely more than thruster speeds, making an already difficult search that much more time consuming, and in more ways than one. Communications with the Defiant are already being subjected to time lag, and even I have to share some of the crew's worry that by the time we get out of here, weeks or more will have passed for the rest of the Federation.
It’s enough to make me doubt our initial suspicions. This could be one big wild goose chase.”
“Ma’am! We have something,” Williams called out, pulling my attention from the latest batch of status reports from key departments.
After four hours of nothing, during which Liang retreated to the ready room, the thought of finding something, anything, overwrote any sense of irritation I had from being interrupted. I trotted over to peer over his shoulder at his console. “What’ve you got?”
He sighed. “Still not sure yet. It’s some kind of power signature. Barely visible through the gravity waves. Could be reflecting off of who knows where, but I’ll try to clean up the readings.”
“I am still thinking we should be examining the asteroids more closely,” Rodriguez spoke up. “Using an asteroid for a base would make more sense than building a free floating one.”
“And normally that would be true, except for the gravitational forces present here, which again a free floating base could more easily avoid,” Williams pointed out. The two of them had shared this exchange with each other many times over the last few hours, and I was more than a little sick of hearing it.
“Rodriguez,” I said, trying to keep my voice from becoming too stern. Last thing I wanted was to pile on to my mistake from earlier. “Can you chart a course towards that power signature?”
Rodriguez grimaced. “I can try. If we can pinpoint its location.”
“Do your best,” I ordered. “I know it’s a minefield out there.”
He flashed me a relieved smile. “Putting it very mildly, ma’am.”
I nodded, then trotted over to tactical. “Anything from the Defiant?”
Ishihara frowned down at her console and tapped a few buttons in quick succession. “They’ve found nothing either, but they are reporting the cloak is causing more power drain than expected. They’re warning us they might have to decloak if we’re here for more than thirty-two hours.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long.”
Then a voice spoke up that sent my heart racing and my mouth dry. “Ma’am,” said Twilight. “I have something.”
I swallowed, wishing desperately I had some water handy. I approached her cautiously, every instinct within me screaming to flee, to leave her alone, to not provoke her further. “Y-yes, Ensign?”
She eyed me cooly for a moment, then turned her gaze back to her console. Tapping at the controls she brought up a map of the Basin. “Here’s what we’ve charted so far,” she said, her tone strictly professional. “Most of the singularities are small, weighing in between one and two solar masses, but several of them, including these three, are much more massive.” She zoomed in on the map at a trio orbiting each other near the center of the Basin. “These three are the only ones that won’t die off within a few centuries. The gravitational lensing is much heavier here, especially in the center area.” She tapped with her magic on the screen, where a set of figures displayed.
I leaned in closer to see. “Wow,” I whispered. “That’s… that’s pretty bad.”
“Yeah,” she snorted. “We get caught in there, we can kiss everyone we know goodbye.”
“So it’s safe to say the base isn’t going to be in the center,” I mused. “Do we have the records of the Toronto’s sensor readings from their original expedition?”
Twilight arched an eyebrow, her muzzle pulling into the slightest of sneers. “Of course we do, ma’am. I made sure to solicit them from Memory Alpha before we left the starbase.”
That snide tone burrowed into my brain like a fire smouldering to life under a pot of water. I was well within my rights as her superior officer to quash that disrespectful tone, but I was smart enough to know now that she was doing it deliberately, trying to provoke me so she could have more confirmation of her mistaken beliefs.
So despite how frustrating it was, I ignored it. “Okay, can you show me where the Toronto was trapped?”
“I can.” She pressed a few buttons then performed a brief library query, after which an icon of an Oberth-class starship appeared on the screen. “Here. In orbit of the smallest of the three larger black holes. They were caught in a gravitational eddy that pulled them too close.”
“How did they eventually escape?” I wondered, wincing as I considered the class of ship. Once numbering in the thousands, the few remaining Oberths had been reassigned as test mules for Academy students undergoing basic ship maneuvering drills and usage of sensors. After one such exercise I fully understood why the other students considered them to be 23rd century death traps. One student in particular, some guy named Paris, liken them to a Pinto, which was apparently a 20th century Earth automobile prone to exploding at the slightest touch. Oberths weren’t that bad, but I still never wanted to serve aboard one.
Twilight launched into a complicated explanation involving the warp engines, which had me mentally kicking myself more than a few times for how obvious it should’ve been to me. “Once they escaped, they were towed to a Starbase, where the ship was scuttled.”
“I’m not surprised, after the damage they suffered.” At least the explanation gave me a few ideas for how to get the Phoenix out if we were similarly trapped. “Can you combine the Toronto’s readings with our own, see what that does to the map?”
“I’m not sure what you expect that to accomplish,” Twilight scoffed. “Their readings are over a century old.”
A brief growl escaped my muzzle before I clamped down on my trained instinct to demand the respect I was owed. “Just humor me, Ensign.”
“Fine.” A few more tapped buttons brought up an overlaid secondary map layer, this one colored in a bright cyan to distinguish it from the original. As I expected, the singularities were arranged in a completely different pattern, outside of the triangle of massive ones. “See? They don’t match up at all.”
“I can see that,” I murmured as I looked over the map. “Is there a chance you can use these two maps together to plot how the singularities might have moved over the course of the past century?”
Twilight’s brow furrowed as she glared up at me. “With all due respect,” she said, her words syrupy sweet and full of insincerity, “what do you expect to get from that, ma’am? The Dominion have been in the Alpha Quadrant for barely a year. This base we’re searching for can’t be more than six months old. Charting the past hundred years isn’t going to–”
“Ensign,” I cut her off, putting just enough steel into my tone to demand her obedience. “Answer the question.”
She rolled her eyes and tossed up one forehoof. “Yes, I can, but it’ll take days if you want an accurate map.”
“I don’t need that,” I said with a shake of my head. “Give me what you can in a few minutes.”
“Fine,” she shrugged, turning back to her console. “If you’re happy with something that’s about as accurate as throwing darts at a dartboard from the opposite end of a football field.”
While she worked I decided to give her some space and check on the other stations, including tactical. I wasn’t sure why I’d asked for this map either. Maybe it was boredom, or maybe some bit of intuition in the back of my mind. Or maybe I just wanted to pretend I could find a map to the maze we were navigating
...no, I knew why. I wanted to show Twilight I could be professional, like she wanted. I wasn’t sure if it was working though.
After a few moments Twilight called me over and showed me a looping image of singularities shifting across the Basin. “There you go, ma’am. Not sure what it is you’re looking for though.”
I watched the loop for a while, entranced by the patterns. Despite the lack of sufficient processing time the computer still produced an unintentionally beautiful video of singularities moving around like a group of cosmic ballroom dancers. No single one was left by itself, each turning another in turn as the loop progressed through a century.
Except… “Wait. Why is that one jumping?” I asked, pointing at the least dense singularity.
Twilight shrugged. “Probably because it's so light compared to the others it can’t be accurately predicted without sufficient processing time.”
I nodded my head a bit. “Well you did say it’d take a few days normally.” I was about to return to my seat when an idea struck me. “Twi–err, Ensign,” I paused for a moment to cuff myself upside the head, “did you include the asteroids on the map?”
She glared back at me, then her frown softened as she concentrated. “No, I didn’t. Hold on.” She went through and changed up both maps to reflect the additional data.
And the instant she did I grinned like a loon. “Do you see what I’m seeing?”
“I-I do,” Twilight said, her jaw wide open in shock. “I-I don’t understand. I would’ve thought any planet would’ve been torn apart long ago.”
“Maybe it was. No one really knows how or why the Basin formed in the first place. Can you rerun the simulation but with the planet and asteroids added?”
She nodded and turned back to her console immediately with the familiar glint in her eye that told me she was enthralled by the task at hoof. If not for the gulf between us I’d have teased her about sticking the tip of her tongue out the side of her mouth, a habit she picked up whenever she was totally focused on something.
After a few minutes she sat back in her chair and held up her hooves in apparent triumph “There, got it.”
I watched the new loop, trying my best not to lean over Twilight’s shoulder too much. “Wow…”
The image looked similar yet different all the same. The same trio of singularities spun around each other, but the cadence of their waltz was entirely remade by the massive, almost gas giant-sized plant that sat between them. As the loop progressed the gravitational pull of the singularities ate away at the planet, one chunk at a time, until their dance floor was nearly obscured in a cloud of planetary shards.
“That’s it then…” I muttered, still focused on the looping image. "The small singularity isn't jumping, it's being tossed around by the gravitational waves left over by the destroyed planet."
"Like wake turbulence on a galactic scale, ma'am," Twilight said.
I nodded my head, though I had to fight the urge to offer her a hoof bump as well. "Pretty much, yes."
As I watched the shards of the planet distribute, I noticed that a small cloud floated out further away from the rest of the Basin. Still well within the gravity well, but once they were flung out there they stayed without moving much compared to the rest of the asteroids.
“Okay, pause the loop,” I ordered. “Where are we?” Two more starships appeared, representing the Defiant and the Phoenix. We weren’t anywhere near the stable cloud, I saw. “Okay, now, add the power signature that Williams detected.”
“Err, okay,” Twilight murmured as she concentrated hard enough she stuck her tongue out the side of her muzzle again. It was such a Twilight thing to do that for a moment, just a moment, I forgot about all the tension between us, and I was just the big sister hanging out with my little sister again.
But then her facial expression turned stoney, shattering the mirage. “Still, based on the reflections,” she said, “the power signature could be anywhere in this area.” She tapped a button and added an orange colored circle to the map that covered half the Basin. “Does that help?”
I studied the map just a little more when something caught my eye. “Ensign, zoom in on grid thirteen gamma.” As the map zoomed in, my suspicions were confirmed. While most of the gravitational eddies were fairly consistent in their coverage, there was a small area with a gap, almost like a tidal pool on the shore of a cosmic beach.
I grinned triumphantly. “I think I know where the base is. Good work, Ensign.” I trotted back towards my command chair without looking back to see Twilight’s expression. I didn’t want to know if she was sneering at me. “Helm, new heading, bearing zero three zero mark one one five. Take us to the following coordinates, quick as you can. Ishihara, signal the Defiant to follow.”
“Ma’am?” Rodriguez questioned, even as he punched the coordinates into his console. “Are you certain? That’s far outside the search pattern.”
“Trust me, Mr. Rodriguez,” I said. “You’ll see.” I tapped my combadge. “Captain Liang to the bridge.”
Liang emerged from the ready room a few seconds later with an almost eager look on his face. “Have we found it?”
“I believe so, sir,” I replied as I shifted over to my first officer’s chair. “Though it will still take us some time to get there.”
“The power signal reading is becoming stronger,” Williams called. “Clearer, too. Fewer reflections. We’re definitely on the right track.”
“Well done, Number One,” Liang said with a grin. He untucked his cane from his arm and set its point down on the floor so he could lean over onto it. “Yellow alert. Let’s set the trap, people.”
I braced myself, prepared for the inevitable combat once we entered within range of the base. We had no way of knowing how many Jem’Hadar ships were present, to say nothing of potential automated defenses or booby traps. The idea that I may be about to lead us into a trap was already gnawing away at me.
“Oh Williams,” Liang said as he drummed his fingers along the side of his cane. “Do be sure to flood the area with our sensors. Make us as obvious and oblivious as possible.”
“Yeah yeah,” Williams grumbled as his hands moved over his console. “We’ll look like the biggest idiots in the galaxy.”
As we crept ever closer to the base, and the sensor readings became increasingly clear, my nerves got increasingly frayed. I found my stomach twisting itself up to the point I had to excuse myself to the head just to calm down. Why the thought of combat was scaring me this much, given the last bit hadn’t, I wasn’t sure.
“Easy Sunset,” I murmured as I splashed some cool water on my face and stared at my reflection. “You’ll be fine. We can do this.”
When I returned to my chair, Liang gave me a knowing look. “Something wrong, Number One?”
“Just nerves, sir,” I said.
“Hmm…” He surreptitiously glanced back at Twilight still sitting at one of the rear consoles. To his credit though, he didn’t say anything about her. “I understand. The waiting. Always the hardest part, the waiting. Hurry up and wait, they used to say in Earth militaries, centuries ago. Still applicable to Starfleet today.”
“Yes sir, they said it a lot at the Academy,” I replied.
“Oh did they?” Liang twitched his eyebrows. “Hmph. Must be Brand. She always was a fan of the classics.”
“Sir!” Williams spoke up, drawing our attention. “We’ve found the base! Three million kilometers, dead ahead.”
Liang stood from his chair, holding his cane with his right hand. “On screen.”
A lump of rock cast in shades of greys, browns, and a bit of rusty red popped up, with a large blur of something purplish covering a substantial portion. “Magnify,” Liang ordered. The picture zoomed in, revealing a complex that resembled an octopus. A squat, rectangular building clung to the asteroid’s surface, while multiple corridors shot off in different directions, each leading to other smaller buildings. Even more strange, hardly any of it was lit up at all.
Something about the sight made the butterflies in my stomach lurch hard enough I had to slap a hoof to my mouth. “I don’t like this, sir,” I said.
“Noted,” Liang snapped. He glared at the screen. “Any sign of Jem’Hadar fighters?”
“Just one, sir,” Williams said. The viewscreen shifted to show a completely broken fighter aimlessly drifting, its hull cracked open like an egg. “But it’s dead.”
“What the hell?” Liang whispered. Raising his voice, he continued, “Any life signs on the station?”
“No sir,” Williams answered. “Life support appears to be offline as well. But these readings are… unclear.”
“Unclear?”
Williams scowled down at his console. “There’s some kind of interference present but sensors can’t clearly identify it. The readings I’m seeing keep fluctuating randomly. If there is someone down there, they’re hiding.”
Liang nodded in response as he leaned back into his chair a bit and closed his eyes, his fingers lightly tapping the top of his cane in quick succession. Williams shot me a curious look after a few seconds of silence had passed, but I tried to give him a reassuring nod. I was about to say something myself when Liang sat back up and pointed his cane at the viewscreen. “Mr Williams, I want a full scan of the area. And I do mean everywhere. If there’s even a hint of some Jem’Hadar ship hiding out there I want to know. I refuse to fall into a trap while trying to set one of my own.”
“Aye sir.”
Liang turned to Ishihara. “Hail the Defiant. I want to talk to Sisko, face to face.”
“They’ll have to decloak for that,” Ishihara pointed out.
“I’m well aware of that, Commander. Just do it.”
Ishihara shrugged, then did as requested. After a moment the Defiant shimmered back into existence, swiftly followed by Sisko’s face appearing on the viewscreen. This time, however, he wasn’t smiling. His grim expression and piercing gaze brought that sense of intimidation rushing back up my spine. Sisko’s voice came through slower than usual, lower-pitched. “I hope, Captain, there’s a good reason for the Defiant to break cover like this.”
“Ben,” Liang said, causing me to raise an eyebrow. When the heck did he get on a first name basis with Sisko? “Please tell me your sensors are showing the same thing ours are. There’s no Jem’Hadar here. Nothing’s alive down there at all.”
“Dax?” Sisko inquired, looking to a blue-collared Trill Lieutenant sitting at the Defiant’s ops console.
“He’s right, Benjamin,” said Dax, which caused my other eyebrow to join the first one. “But there’s a lot of interference. It could be a trick of some kind.”
“Damned strange one if it is,” Sisko muttered. He scratched at his chin, then sighed and nodded. “Alright. I take it you want to send a team down there.”
“Ideally a large one,” Liang confirmed. “We can transport–”
“I wouldn’t recommend transporting anywhere, Captain,” said Twilight of all people. She stood up from her console and showed no fear even as Liang and Sisko stared her down. “There’s far too much interference from the singularities to safely use the transporters. And whoever goes down there is going to be subject to further time dilation. An hour down there could be several up here.”
“She’s right,” Dax added. “Sensor readings are all over the place out there. There’s no telling what effects all these singularities might have on a transporter beam.”
“Then it’ll have to be by shuttle, which means the Phoenix. The few shuttles we have definitely aren’t up for these kinds of conditions.” Sisko concluded. “Captain, pick your team. The Defiant will stand by under cloak to monitor the situation. Dax, do you have a recommended distance?”
Dax exchanged a look with Twilight via the viewscreen. “I’d say at least ten thousand kilometers. That should keep the dilation down to a minimum, while letting us maintain a stable position.”
“I suggest we keep a similar distance,” Twilight chimed in. “From both the Defiant and the asteroid.”
Liang frowned. “Are we sure we can’t get closer? Even that’s going to cause some issues. Communication will be limited.”
“We can’t risk it, sir,” Twilight insisted. “A stable position among these kinds of gravitational forces means we drift all over the place as it is. If we get too close we risk colliding with either the Defiant or the asteroid base.”
“She’s right,” I agreed, the taste of my words sour in my mouth.
“Very well then.” Liang pointed at Rodriguez with his cane. “Helm, take us in. Find the best position at that distance you can hold, and keep us steady. Number One, you’ll lead the away team. Take the Euphrates, and make sure you have security, engineering, and science personnel with you.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, rising from my chair. “Williams, you’re with me.” As I headed for the turbolift I tapped my combadge and gave orders for the rest of the team, then barked, “Main Shuttlebay.”
By the time I arrived, the team I’d call for had assembled. Zhidar and Maia for security, Cadeneza and Danielle for science, and Hill for engineering. Re'l would be our shuttle pilot, of course, and she was already standing by to warm up the Euphrates for launch.
I saw Cadeneza glaring daggers at Maia, her hands clenching at her waist. “Cool it,” I whispered to her. Once everyone was seated, I raised my voice to address them.
“Okay, people, here’s the deal: that Jem’Hadar base appears to be abandoned. There’s no life support so we’re going to have to suit up. Hill, once we’re there, your job will be to get life support and computers back online as soon as you can. Zhidar, Maia, you know the drill. Danielle, Cadeneza, Williams, you’re going to help me figure out what the hell happened over there.”
I walked over to one of the weapons lockers in the shuttlebay. “Everyone takes a phaser rifle and a sidearm. Remember, this isn’t just an away mission. This is war. You see a Jem’Hadar, you don’t hesitate. Shoot to kill.”
“What about any Vorta?” Williams asked.
“Any Vorta, or anyone other than Jem’Hadar, we take them prisoner, if we can do it safely,” I answered as I pulled out rifles and smaller type-two phasers and distributed them. “Okay, let’s get suited up.”
Barely ten minutes had passed since we all piled into the shuttle and I already wanted to get out of the environmental suit. I hated the infernal things.The way your breath echoed in your ears, the pure silence of the outside, the heads up display that bedazzled you with so many readouts you couldn’t be sure where to look, the way you couldn’t see anyone’s faces behind the protective layers placed on the helmets, the awkwardness of using magnetic boots to walk around rather than artificial gravity… I could barely stand it. It was confining, always had been, and ever since I’d returned as an alicorn the feeling was even worse, as if the wings had imparted a small amount of the pegasi’s natural claustrophobia on me.
I looked down at the front of my suite and frowned. Mine was a different color from the rest, a custom model colored in shades of orange and gold rather than the white that everyone else wore. It was a deliberate choice to make picking it out of a locker in an emergency easier, but it also had the side effect of making me stick out like a sore hoof, which I frankly didn’t care for much. I’d have preferred to blend in.
But the worst part was the effect it had on my horn. I could still use my magic, but having the suit in the way was like fumbling around in the dark for a dropped sheet of paper in a room the size of the Phoenix bridge. It made everything clunky and weird, difficult to use.
Re'l, the only one not wearing a suit since she’d stay aboard the runabout, sat ready at the controls. “Ship is prepped for launch, ma’am,” she said. “Too bad Twilight’s not coming along.”
“Shimmer to bridge, we’re ready down here,” I called out, ignoring Re'l’s comment. The last thing I wanted was to bring my sister along. Besides, there were standing orders for the two of us to never go on an away mission together, given the risk to the Federation if the Dominion captured either one of us.
“Understood, Number One. We’re almost in position. Stand by for launch.”
I turned my gaze to the front window of the runabout, where we could see the main shuttlebay door slide open. The outside space was just as twisted and contorted as ever, fascinating to look at, if also just a bit nauseating. As the Phoenix shifted in position I could just barely make out the asteroid in the distance.
“Euphrates, you are clear to launch. Good luck out there, Commander.”
On cue, Re'l brought the Euphrates up and out of the shuttlebay, passing through the forcefield and into space. The instant we left the Phoenix the whole shuttle began to shudder, jerking from side to side. “Sorry, everyone!” Re'l said as she frantically ran her hands over the controls. “Gravitational eddies from the Basin. Can’t do much about it.”
“Great, as if I didn’t have enough reason to be sick,” Hill moaned, doubling over to rest his head between his knees. “I hate these damned suits.”
“Me too,” Cadeneza said, her phaser rifle hanging loosely from her hand. “And these rifles–”
“Stow the chatter, people,” Williams barked.
Cadeneza quieted down, though I caught sight of her flipping Williams the bird from behind her back. I snickered at the sight, and she must’ve noticed, because she switched to private suit comm to say, “I really don’t like these rifles though.”
“I know, I know,” I said. “I don’t like them either. But we’re walking into enemy territory.”
“Yeah.” Cadeneza snorted. “As if I joined Starfleet to be a soldier.” She hung the rifle by its sling around her shoulders, then brought out a tricorder. “I kind of need a hand free to use this, you know.”
“Soon as we make sure the initial area’s clear.” I gently plucked the tricorder out of her hand, placed it back in its pocket on her suit, then floated her rifle back into her hands. “Until then, you keep this on you.”
“Pfft. Fine.”
“Everyone brace for landing,” Re'l said. She hunched over her console, a feline growl starting at the back of her throat. “It’s gonna be rough.”
The runabout shook like crazy as she initiated final descent towards a small landing pad just outside of the base. “No way you could get us inside?” I asked.
“There’s no inside to get to that I can see,” Re'l countered. She pointed at the lone hangar door, shut tight, with no obvious airlock located anywhere.
Zhidar bared his teeth in a menacing chuckle. “We could always blast it open. Use the phasers.”
“And risk blowing whatever’s inside out into space?” Danielle scoffed. “Do not be so foolish.”
“Agreed,” I said. “We’ll be better off spacewalking it.”
“So we’d have needed the suits anyway,” Zhidar barked with laughter. “And you pitiful whelps were whining about them.”
“Zhidar,” Williams said evenly. “I believe I said to stow the chatter.”
Grumbling, Zhidar complied.
“Well there has to be a way inside regardless, but we’ll have to move quickly,” I said as I moved to the runabout’s airlock. “Re'l, forcefield.”
Re'l tapped a control, raising up a blue atmospheric containment field around the cockpit of the runabout, then vented the rest of the atmosphere. “Good to go,” she said via comms.
“Okay, Hill, you’re with me. The rest of you stay here till we get the hangar open and Re'l brings the ship inside,” I ordered as I opened the runabout’s exterior hatch. Engaging my suit’s magnetic locks, I stepped outside. I could feel the force of gravity trying to rip me off the surface already, the asteroid’s meager gravity unable to counter even the slightest pull from the surrounding Basin. I tried not to look up relative to my position and focused on moving one hoof at a time.
Hill behind me wasn’t doing much better. I could hear his whimpering in my suit comm. “Easy, Hill,” I said, trying to soothe the poor guy. “Just keep your eyes down and breathe. We’ve got this.”
“Sorry, ma’am, I know I’m being unprofessional,” he said as he slowly inched his way forward. “It’s the combination of the suit and space around us.”
“I hear you,” I replied as I neared the building. Each hoof step clomped in total silence apart from my own breathing and Hill’s voice. The sheer quiet disturbed me on an instinctual level. “Almost there. Just a little bit further.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
When I reached the building, I brought out my tricorder and started scanning the area. My magic was much clumsier with the tricorder than usual thanks to the damned suit. “I’m not seeing much in the way of power,” I said. Then I scowled at my tricorder and performed the time-honored tradition of hitting a piece of equipment so it’d work. “But I can barely scan anything beyond five meters.”
“There might be a manual access hatch,” Hill suggested as he came up next to me. He shuffled his way along the hangar door, keeping his helmet level with it till he was on the other side, then brought out his own tricorder. “Not much of a power reading here either.”
“Wait a minute,” I said as I brought my tricorder down lower. “I think I found something. Try about a meter off the ground on your side, Hill. Should be an access port.”
“Yup, found it,” he replied.
I slid my tricorder back into its pocket and used my magic to feel out the edges of the cover, then with one telekinetic pull snapped it out. I let it go and it went sailing up and out of sight. “Looks like a manual release,” I said as I awkwardly stooped down to examine it more closely. “Hill, you see one on your side?”
“If you mean a lever, then yeah, there is,” he said. He had to kneel down and use a tool to pop open the panel.
“Okay, we’ll probably have to pull these at the same time. Ready? Three, two, one… pull!”
I yanked the lever down with as much force as I could bear, while Hill strained to match me. The hangar doors pulled apart… by less than half a meter. “Okay, we’re going to have to repeat that a few times, Hill. Ready?”
He flashed me a thumbs up, so we pulled our levers again and again, cranking open the hangar door till finally it opened up enough for the runabout to maneuver inside. “Re'l, hold off bringing in the runabout till I give the okay.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
“Watch yourselves out there, Shimmer,” Zhidar added.
“Understood,” I replied.
As I stepped into the hangar, I switched on a large flashlight, trusting that over trying to use my horn light. As I panned the flashlight over the small shuttlebay, the first thing I noticed was the crushed remnants of a shuttle embebbed into the starboard wall, as if some giant had punched it into the wall with her fist. The force it took to crumple duranium like that… I shuddered.
“Uh, ma’am! Ma’am!” Hill screeched, his flashlight shaking like crazy as he tried to shine it over the wall near his position. “Look!”
“Calm down, Hill, what’s the–holy…”
My stomach flipped as I panned the flashlight over a massive blood stain crossing the floor in front of us toward the port side wall. The light barely glanced off something metallic and I panned further to my right.
“What in Tartarus?”
I saw Jem’Hadar soldiers, all dead. Not just dead, but crushed. Eviscerated. Torn asunder in a brutal, visceral fashion. Visions of my final fight on the bridge of that Dominion ship rose in my mind as quickly as the bile in the back of my throat, but I forced myself to swallow them back down. “There has to be at least ten of them, maybe more...”
“What the hell could do that to a group of Jem’Hadar?” Hill gulped. His panicked breathing echoed through the comms in my ears, grating on my nerves.
“Easy, easy, Hill, calm down. That’s an order.” I tugged on his arm to pull him away from the stain. “Come on. We need to find a control panel, something to turn the power on with.”
“O-okay,” Hill said shakily, nodding several times before he followed my lead. He cast his flashlight up at the ceiling, which stood roughly ten meters above us, then down along the far wall. “There’s a catwalk up there, ma’am, leading to a room.”
“Could be the control hub for the shuttlebay,” I concluded. I passed my light along the catwalk till I spotted a ladder. “Okay, I’m going up there. Stay down here for the moment till I confirm it’s safe.”
Climbing the ladder proved much more difficult than I had anticipated with the magnetic boots, but eventually I got up there with a little help from my horn, and followed the catwalk over to the small room we’d spotted. “Confirmed, it’s the shuttlebay controls. Come on up, Hill. I need some help getting power back on in here.”
I returned to the ladder and waited for Hill, taking a small bit of solace in the fact that the magnetic boots were frustrating my bipedal crewmates as much as they were me. We made our way back to the control room and quickly assessed the lone computer console. “Looks like this connection was severed somehow,” Hill said, pointing to a set of circuitry running near the base of the console. “I think I can fix this. Hold on.”
I watched as he took out a couple of tools and created a makeshift patch to the cable. As he finished, the console sputtered a few times, then fully lit up. “Good job, Hill,” I said, giving him a genuine smile before I remembered he couldn’t see it.
“Thanks, ma’am,” he said, stowing his tools away. “It’s… a little easier in here. Where I don’t have to see… it.”
“Well just be prepared for more of… it… inside the rest of the facility,” I said, patting him gently on the shoulder of his suit. “Now, let’s get the lights turned on in here, maybe some gravity while we’re at it.”
Thankfully the control scheme was just as simple as the one from the Dominion ship that had captured me, so it took but a few moments to get lights and gravity restored, as well as life support to at least the immediate area. “Re'l, go ahead and bring the runabout inside. Should be safe now.”
“Aye ma’am!”
“You know what I realized,” Hill said as we watched the runabout slowly penetrate the force field envelope. He gestured to the whole of the hangar with both arms. “There’s room in here for two shuttles. But there’s only one wreck.”
“Maybe some of them escaped whatever happened here?” I wondered. I tabbed through the console’s control menus, trying to access the base’s computer, only to be firmly shut out by a firewall. “Damn it. I can’t bring up any security footage.”
“We’ll probably have to do that from the main computer core,” Hill said. “This place is a total wreck… whatever did this probably wiped most of the files to keep their presence from being known.”
After taking another look at what little of the computer I was able to see, I nodded. “Yeah. Actually, it’s kind of funny.... They must’ve done it the same way I wiped the computers aboard that ship.”
“Huh?”
“Nevermind.” I left the control room. “Come on, we need to join the others.”
The rest filed out of the runabout in short order, save for Re'l. “Holy shit,” Cadeneza shouted when she saw the pile of blood and body parts, which had smeared down the wall and back onto the floor thanks to the restoration of gravity. “I can smell that even with my helmet on!” Then she snorted. “Actually, If there’s life support, can I take this helmet off now?”
“Not until we verify if we’ve restored it in the whole base,” I said. I held up my right forehoof to give directions. “Zhidar, you’re on point. Danielle, you and Hill take the middle with Williams. Cadeneza, Maia, and I will bring up the rear.”
Zhidar snarled something under his breath. “I hope there are still live Jem’Hadar in here,” he said. “It would be a waste if there weren’t.”
“We’ll see,” I said. With the lights on in the hangar I could spot two ways into the base, one a large hallway presumably for cargo, the other a smaller access corridor leading off the control room. I pointed with my rifle to the larger corridor. “We’ll go this way first.”
Williams, Cadeneza, and Danielle all promptly brought out their tricorders and began scanning. “This is frustrating,” Danielle murmured, her French accent growing stronger. “Just like outside. No more than five meters in any direction.”
“I’m picking up something I don’t recognize, though,” Williams added. “Some kind of odd energy signature I’ve never seen before.”
“Let me see,” I said, taking a look at his tricorder. Then I grinned. “You’re just detecting my magic. That’s why you don’t recognize it.”
Williams frowned as he circled the area with his tricorder. “Maybe. It almost seems like… no, nevermind.”
“I’m detecting a nitrogen oxygen atmosphere behind this door,” Cadeneza called out. “So it looks like life support is restored through the base.”
“Let’s hope the tricorder’s at least reading that correctly,” I said. “Zhidar? Lead the way.”
Zhidar brought his rifle up, then stepped up to the door and tapped the controls. It opened up with a brief hiss of air and equalizing pressure, revealing a long corridor with dim, flickering lighting leading up to a t-intersection. Smashed console screens dangled from the walls, while shards of broken equipment, PADDs, and disruptor rifles littered the floor.
Well, the parts of the floor that weren’t painted with amber Jem’Hadar blood.
“This is becoming obscene,” Danielle commented as Zhidar slowly led us forward. “Why so much blood? What happened here?”
“Good question,” Williams muttered. He waved his tricorder around. “Well I’m still seeing a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere. I’d say we’re safe to take off our helmets for now.”
I considered that, then nodded. “Fine. Take ‘em off, everyone. Conserve your suit’s oxygen.”
As I unscrewed my helmet to attach to the back of my suit, a wave of nasty smells hit me, the metallic scent of blood mixing with smoke and chemicals to form a nauseating bouquet. Hill outright choked on it, doubling over and retching. We all stepped back in case he vomited, but he shook his head. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” he insisted.
Zhidar snorted, rolling his beady eyes as he leveled his rifle forward. “We should check out this room next,” he said, gesturing to the large pair of double doors on one wall. He didn’t wait for a response from Williams or myself before he sallied forth and opened them up.
The huge metal doors had slid about halfway before the mechanism literally ground to a halt with a sickening thud. Zhidar tried the control panel a few more times to no avail, so we squeezed through single-file. The cargo bay was, unsurprisingly, just as wrecked as the hallway outside. Broken shelves, equipment, and consoles littered the area. Dozens of Ketracel White barrels lay split open like so many eggs, spilling their contents onto the floor and making it like an ice rink under our boots. The overhead lights barely functioned, requiring us to break out the flashlights again.
“I doubt we’re going to find much in here,” Williams murmured after a couple of moments. “I’m not detecting any live energy signatures, nothing.”
“Hang on. Is it just me, or does it look like someone rifled through the place rather than simply blowing it all up?” Cadeneza suggested. “Like they were searching for something.”
“Hmph. Like what?” Maia snorted.
Cadeneza’s eyes flashed as she grit her teeth. “I don’t know, Ensign. Maybe we should take a closer look?”
Maia arched an eyebrow. “As you wish, Lieutenant,” she said, a trace of a smile appearing on her face. She stepped forward, her rifle up and ready to fire as she approached the damaged shelf.
Cadeneza followed right behind, heedless of any potential danger as she whipped her tricorder about in a frenzied pace of scanning. “Damn it,” she muttered. “I’m not seeing much. Just spare ship parts.”
“Maybe that explains the missing shuttle?” Hill suggested. “Whoever took the shuttle needed to fix it first, so they came here for parts?”
“I doubt we’re going to find out that easily,” I said. “We should–”
“Un instant, s’il vous plaît," Danielle interrupted as she pointed her flashlight past the shelf and around the damaged barrel. “There’s signs of weapons fire here.”
Sure enough, as we looked closer, we saw a number of disruptor burns on the wall, scouring the metal. I held up a boot-covered hoof to one and touched it, watching bits of metal flake off. “Damn. High powered too. I’m surprised they didn’t blow clean through.”
“Probably a force field,” Williams said as he shoved his tricorder right up on the wall. “Yeah, yeah now that I’m close enough I’m seeing it. There’s force field emitters running throughout this wall. Must be an exterior bulkhead. Would’ve taken a few photon grenades or a shuttle’s phaser bank to disrupt the force field enough to actually hit the wall.”
“Is it active now?”
“No, it’s not,” he answered. “So watch your fire everyone. Last thing we need is to puncture a hole in this place.”
Cadeneza shrugged as she lazily spun her rifle in her hand. “Like there’s anything to worry about. This place is dead.”
“Oh, yes, obviously,” Danielle said with an arched eyebrow. “Just a pile of dismembered Jem’Hadar and tricorders that cannot see past five meters. Nothing to worry about at all.”
Zhidar rumbled something under his breath and left the room, urging the rest of us to carry on following him. I kept a close eye on Cadeneza, whose expression kept oscillating between lackadaisical and furious.
As we reached the T-intersection, where all three passageways continued on into flickering darkness, my ears perked up. “Wait,” I hissed, holding up a hoof. “I hear something.”
“What is it?” Danielle inquired. “I hear nothing.”
“Ssh,” I ordered as I swiveled my ears around, searching for it. “It’s… it’s like it’s…” My ears locked on target. “It’s in the wall.”
Williams’s tricorder began beeping insistently. “There’s a new energy pattern,” he muttered. “Quickly rising too, like something charging up.”
“L-like a reactor?” Hill said, his voice shaking as much as his grip on his rifle.
“No, more like…” I saw his eyes widen dramatically. “Everyone, scatter!”
A hatch popped open just ahead of us and lobbed a glowing sphere into the air. A high pitched whine followed as it screamed towards us at frightening speed. “No time! Get down!”
I managed, just barely, to throw up a shield in time to protect us as the photon grenade exploded. The shield redirected the grenade blast to the walls on either side of us, ripping them open like tin cans and exposing several rooms in the process with ear-piercing shrieks of metal.
“So much for keeping quiet,” Maia groused.
We were just beginning to climb to our feet when a repeating klaxon blared through the base, and panels in the ceiling, walls, and even the floor began popping open, revealing grenade launchers and disruptor turrets. “They’ve got automated defenses!” I cried out as I saw the barrel of one turret glow cherry red.
Then they fired, sizzling bolts screaming down the hallway towards my shield, which was already cracked in several places. “Retreat!” Zhidar bellowed as he dropped to one knee, rifle held up. Maia joined him, adopting the same pose. “Get to cover!”
The others wasted no time speeding their way back towards the cargo bay. “How long can you keep this up?” Maia cried as she lined up her sights on the closest auto-cannon.
“Long enough,” I answered. I closed my eyes to focus on the mana charging through my horn, and lowered parts of the shield while strengthening others. I molded it around us, protecting us from the disruptor fire as it washed over, while giving Maia and Zhidar just enough room to poke their phaser rifles through. Then my eyes opened again. “You’re clear. Take that cannon down!”
Zhidar and Maia let loose a volley of phaser rifle fire, only to discover a small forcefield wrapped around the cannon, protecting it. He glanced over at Maia and grinned a toothy grin. “Time for the one-two punch,” he growled. “Ready?”
“Aye!”
They turned back to the cannon. Zhidar unleashed a fusillade of continuous phaser fire pummeling the small force field. It fizzled and buzzed until it was overloaded by the sheer energy thrown against it. Now exposed, Maia fired burst after burst of compression phaser blasts, melting and warping the disruptor cannon until its power core detonated and it exploded, scattering metal shrapnel everywhere.
Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. I let the shield drop for now, but we could hear the hum of other disruptor cannons waiting just out of sight. “This has just become a lot more dangerous,” I said as I tapped my suit communicator. “Shimmer to Phoenix. Come in Phoenix.”
All I heard was static, followed up by the occasional burst of noise so high-pitched I couldn’t make it out. “Damn it!” I growled as I turned off the communicator. “We can’t reach them.” I swapped over to another channel. “Shimmer to Re'l. You’ve got the Phoenix on your sensors, right?”
“Yes ma’am,” Re'l answered, “but they’ve moved off. They’re further away than they should be.”
I frowned. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know. They’re not responding to my hails either.”
“Well, keep trying. Some kind of automated defense system just came online and is trying to pin us down. We’re okay for now but the sooner we can get out of here, the better. Shimmer out.” I scowled and waved for Zhidar and Maia to follow as I trotted back towards the cargo bay. Everyone else had their rifles out and ready. “I just tried to reach the Phoenix, but they’re not responding. And they’ve moved off.”
“Think they spotted a Jem’Hadar fighter?” Hill proposed, worry etched all over his features.
“No idea. But if they’re doing that, we’re not going to retreat,” I said. I waved my own rifle in the direction of the now exploded t-intersection. “We should move on. Hopefully we can figure out whatever set off the automated defenses and turn them off.”
“I’m surprised a place like this even has automated defenses,” Williams said, frowning hard enough to add extra wrinkles to his eyes and brow. “That’s usually something you only see in high-priority starbases or other such military facilities.”
“Not enough men,” Zhidar growled. “A base this large should have had hundreds of soldiers, but it’s in the Basin. Why waste the men when you can set up these?”
“And it’s probably a trap, too,” Maia said as she rubbed her chin. “They knew there was a risk the Federation would figure out where the raids were coming from. So they probably set these as a final trap in case they were overwhelmed.”
“You sure we shouldn’t just head back to the Phoenix and blow this place sky-high from orbit?” Cadeneza asked.
I shook my head. “No. We can’t go anywhere until we can locate where the Phoenix is so Re’l can plot a safe course back. But in the meantime, there’s a mystery here, and I aim to solve it.”
Williams nodded. “I agree with Shimmer. Besides, with Shimmer’s abilities, we shouldn’t have a problem dealing with these cannons. They can’t have anything too powerful, or else they’d blow up their own base in the process of defending it.”
“I’m not invincible, Williams. Remember the squad simulations? Proving that was the whole point,” I said. I reached up and tapped at my horn with my hoof. “That first blast took a lot out of me. I wasn’t expecting it.”
“But you tore apart a Dominion battleship with your magic,” Cadeneza said, glaring at me with disbelief in her eyes. “You’re not telling us a simple photon grenade wiped you out.”
My blood ran cold. I didn’t like to think about those moments on that ship, when the magic surged throughout my body, far stronger than I’d ever been able to command before or since. I still didn’t know where some of the power had come from. Was it simple rage and adrenaline, allowing me to tap reserves I couldn’t use otherwise? Did I draw upon something else, drain power from subspace or some other magical realm? I didn’t know, and if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to know.
That power I felt when I obliterated the Dominion ship was too tempting, too much of a potential addiction. Like a drug it urged me to indulge, to seek it out and take one more hit, because what would that hurt, right?
Except it would hurt. I was sure it would, somehow. It was too much like dark magic, the sinister, seductive side of magic on my world that gave you easy power in exchange for corrupting your soul. The thought that the power I used to destroy the ship had its origins in dark magic was enough to keep me from ever wanting to experiment with it again.
It scared me. It scared me to death.
“It didn’t wipe me out,” I finally responded. “It just drained me. I can still use a shield. It’s just going to be slow going.”
“Then we’d better find the central computer to this place and fast,” Williams said. “And keep your eyes on everything. Nothing says they can’t suddenly pop out from behind us.”
The next half hour saw slow progress indeed. Just moving into the T-intersection itself put us in awful danger, thanks to disruptor cannons in both hallways. I planted myself like a tree and threw up a shield to cover both sides, allowing us to unleash concentrated fire in both directions. It took three people per cannon to take them down fast enough to avoid my shield shattering under their unyielding assault. By the time it was over, my whole body was shaking, sweat pouring down my face and underneath my pinned wings.
“I… I need a minute,” I huffed as I tried to catch my breath. I took a long drink from my suit’s water spigot, swallowing it greedily, letting it cool my parched throat. I desperately wished I could peel off my suit, even for a moment, just to get some more air flowing over my body. Ponies overheat more easily than most humanoids thanks to our fur, and the wings didn’t help in that regard. Small wonder the pegasi liked to keep their cloud cities high enough in the atmosphere to be super chilled. “Okay… let’s go.”
The next several hallways weren’t any less of a time consuming slog. Disruptor cannons and grenade launchers around every corner, and no cover of any kind to hide behind. As we worked to take them out one by one, I began to worry which would run out first – our phaser rifles or my mana reserves.
Worse, we hadn’t found much of anything useful. Just more blood, more signs of damage everywhere, the occasional torn apart body. That finally changed when we came across a half-destroyed room that I recognized as a Jem’Hadar containment facility. This place suffered the worst of the damage; several disruptor cannons were torn out of the ceiling in a broken heap of shredded electronics, while burns pockmarked the walls. One of the cells was completely blown out from the inside.
“Well well, this looks important,” Cadeneza said as she broke out her tricorder, the warbling noise echoing oddly through the room as she scanned it. “Whatever caused all this damage, it all started right here with a jailbreak.”
“Obviously,” Zhidar snarled as he took up a guard position near the door, using his fingers to silently direct Maia to do the same. “Work faster.”
“Trust me, old friend, we’re all tired of this place by now,” Williams said, patting Zhidar on the shoulder.
“If I may, Commander,” Danielle interjected, a strange look in her eye. She held up her tricorder. “I am reading a lot of that magical signature in here. Are you certain we’re only reading your emenations?”
I arched both eyebrows, resisting the urge to snap at her. “Positive. I’m the only one on this rock that can use magic, unless one of you’s been hiding something from me.”
“Then why is the signature different?”
Everyone froze. All eyes turned to Danielle at once.
“What?” I gasped.
“I recalibrated the tricorder twice, ma’am,” she replied. “It’s not the same.”
Everyone looked back and forth between the two of us with slack jaws. Even the normally stoic Maia looked shocked.
“Huh, she’s right,” Cadeneza said. “Look, you see this energy pattern? See how it’s moving like this?” She showed me her readings, producing an undulating wave.
I reached for my water spigot, my throat suddenly drier than the Sahara. “Yeah? That’s my magic.”
“No.” Cadeneza shook her head. “It isn’t. This is what I got from the cell.” She pointed to the blown up cell. Then she pointedly ran her tricorder over my phaser rifle, which was still hovering in my magic. “And this is your magic.”
My world fell out from under me as I watched the second pattern. It was subtle, the difference between the patterns. Like two waveforms just slightly out of phase with each other.
But there it was, clear as day. Another magic user was out there, somewhere.
And by the looks of it, they were incredibly powerful.
“How is this possible?” I whispered.
Zhidar rolled his beady eyes. “Oh please. Obviously some other pony left your world, just like you and Ensign Sparkle.”
“And came here?” I shook my head. “No way. We both showed up in the exact same place when we arrived on Earth. We had it mapped out to the millimeter. If somepony--” and oh was that odd tasting word after all this time-- “else left Equestria, we would’ve seen them in San Francisco.”
“What if it wasn’t a pony at all?” Maia asked. “What if some other species has the same abilities as Shimmer and Sparkle?”
Hill eyed me, gulping. “Is that possible, ma’am?”
“Leeet’s not get too hasty here, Hill,” Cadeneza said before I could answer his question. “We shouldn’t assume anything in a floundering death trap based off only a handful of readings. That’s just bad science.”
Williams stepped over to the one remaining console in the room. “Which means we need more information. Can you get this thing working, Hill? Maybe we can bring up some kind of security footage, or a prisoner log.”
“Uh, I can try,” Hill said. He broke out his toolkit, and after a moment I joined him in diagnosing the issues. Thankfully it was just an electrical short causing the problem and after about ten minutes Hill had patched around it. “Okay, try it now.”
Williams worked the console like he’d been born to use it, hands dancing across it so rapidly they were almost a blur. “Damn it,” he growled. “It’s no use. The data core was fried. I can only find some outdated log entries and a single audio recording.”
“Well, what are you waiting for, man?” Zhidar rumbled. “Play it!”
“Let us out of here!” shouted an unfamiliar voice. It was feminine, deep and smooth like a dark chocolate mocha, though the effect was somewhat ruined by her screeching.
“No,” replied a different voice, this one higher pitched, masculine, with a sing-song quality. “I’m afraid you’re far too interesting of specimens for us to release.”
“Specimens?” I repeated. “Plural?”
Another feminine voice spoke up, this one coarse and rough, as if she’d gargled gravel on a daily basis. “Specimens? What do you idiots take us for? You really think puny creatures like yourselves can keep us here?”
“Of course,” replied the masculine one, whom I was almost certain was a Vorta, judging by the copious amounts of smarm. “We’re well acquainted with abilities like yours by now, though I must admit the difference in your appearance is… concerning. Cause for experimentation, if you will.”
A third feminine voice, this one full of energy and exhibiting a child-like innocence, groaned, “Oooh, but if you don’t let us go we’ll have to break our way out.”
“Oh I don’t think so,” replied the Vorta. “Not with the defenses we’ve put into place.”
“You stupid, bucking fools--” the recording abruptly cut out with a burst of static.
Williams scowled down at the console. “That’s it. That’s all it had.”
“Did you recognize those voices, Commander?” Danielle inquired, her expression pensive.
I shrugged and shook my head. “No idea. And before you ask, I don’t know what he meant by difference in appearance either.”
“Sounds like the Dominion captured them deliberately to experiment with,” Cadeneza mused, rubbing at her chin awkwardly with her suit glove. “But how’d they catch them in the first place? From where?”
“Asking each other won’t help,” Zhidar said. He gestured to the door. “We should press on.”
“Right.” I took another swig of water from my suit spigot and a few deep breaths, then gathered up my strength. “Back to the slog.”
We journeyed down the only corridor we’d yet to explore. It was slow going, full of even more disruptor cannons. As we fought our way through, it occurred to me to wonder why there were so many of these things left. Given the damage the three escapees had wrought, and the number of Jem’Hadar killed, why weren’t these defenses enabled before? Did they take everyone by surprise? Did they move so fast no one had time to enable them?
If that was the case, what started up the defenses after they left?
The last disruptor cannon exploded in a shower of sparks and burnt metal, prompting me to turn my attention to the set of blast doors we’d reached. A blue force field sparked across the door as we approached.
“Well, someone’s hung around after all, it would seem,” Zhidar growled.
I spotted a familiar Jem’Hadar label next to the door that identified the room inside as an operations center. “Finally, some answers.”
“Ma’am, we have a problem,” Maia said, holding her compression rifle up. “I don’t have enough charge left in my rifle to take this force field down. Neither does Lieutenant Zhidar.”
Everyone else checked their weapons and found they were running on fumes too. “That figures. We finally make it here and our phasers are out of juice.” I groaned as I examined my own rifle, which I’d loaned out during every fight. The dim red lights indicating low charge frustrated me to no end. “Dumb phasers.”
Hill grimaced and held up his tool kit. “I can burn it out, but it’s going to take me a while.”
“We’ve been here far too long as it is,” Williams grumbled. “Whatever we do, we’d better hurry up.
Hill approached the wall to pull off a door panel, only to shriek in surprise as a voice piped through a speaker. “S-stay away! Get out! D-don’t!” The high pitched voice was familiar, the same one we’d heard on the recording.
I stepped forward. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Shimmer, from the Federation starship Phoenix. Who am I speaking to?”
“No one!” replied the voice I presumed was the Vorta, sounding very much like a whiny foal. “N-no one is here!”
“We know attacks against Federation convoys have been launched from this base, which we have now taken control of,” I continued, rolling my eyes. “Disable the forcefield and surrender. I promise you will be treated humanely according to Federation law governing prisoners of war.”
“T-the Federation?! No! No, I won’t! I won’t betray the Founders!”
I glanced over at Hill, who’d brought out several tools and was poking at the panel with a flux coupler. “We’ve already destroyed your defenses. You’ll make everything much easier on us all if you give yourself up, now.”
“Wait.” The sound of the Vorta’s mewling shifted, sounding more menacing. “Wait. That voice. That name. Shimmer. I know you. You, you killed my previous clone!”
That caught me off guard. The voice had seemed somewhat familiar, but I’d disregarded it as coincidence. “Yukarin?”
“Yukarin Four, actually,” he growled back. “Unlike my naive and overconfident predecessor, I understand your power and capabilities. We learned much from your destruction of our battleship.”
Zhidar chuckled under his breath. “Seems your reputation precedes you,” he said, giving me a toothy grin.
Ignoring Zhidar, I called out, “If you know me as well as you say, then you know that forcefield’s nothing to me. We’re coming in one way or the other, Yukarin.”
Yukarin snapped back, “Y-you idiot, Shimmer. You think I survived those, those monsters only to be captured by you? I don’t think so.”
“Uuuuh, ma’am?” Danielle’s voice took on an edge of panic. “I’m showing a sudden rapid increase in energy, like a reactor building to overload.”
“What?” I ran forward and attacked the force field with my boot-covered hoof, which only succeeded in scorching the cut-resistant material. “Yukarin, you idiot! You’re going to kill us all!”
“That’s the idea. I won’t allow the Federation to learn what the Dominion discovered here. My death will serve the Founders, by finishing the job my predecessor started: eliminating you!”
“Oh for goodness’s sake--Hill! How much longer?”
Hill paled as he looked up at me. “I-it’s going to take a few minutes, ma’am! This force field is a lot stronger than most!”
“We don’t have a few minutes,” Williams said, holding up his tricorder. “That reactor’s going to blow in less than sixty seconds!”
Snorting in frustration, I picked Hill up in my magic and pulled him back behind me. “No offense, Hill, but let me handle this. Everyone stand back!”
As my fellow officers took cover, I bowed my head and closed my eyes, aiming my horn at the force field. I took several slow breaths, letting the mana build up as I slowly formed a spell matrix in my mind. The formulae and numbers danced in my head as the energy surged, coursing through my mana channels, drawing most of what I had left to give.
“Thirty seconds!” Williams said.
“I’m so sick of countdowns,” I murmured as the spell matrix finished taking shape. My eyes snapped open, glowing white as a beam of light shot forth from my horn like a lighting bolt, surging through the air with a scent of ozone as it burnt out the force field in a near instant. “There… go!”
Everyone wasted no time barreling through the door, with me following from behind, my body heaving from the magic I’d just expended. I desperately wished I could sit down, get something to eat, maybe take a nap, but there was no time. I barely had the chance to take in details as Zhidar smacked Yukarin over the head with his rifle before going to work on the nearest console. Hill, Williams, and I all joined him at other consoles as we worked to stop the reactor overload.
“Ten… wait… that’s it!” Danielle cried. “You did it. The reactor has stopped!”
Hill fell over against his console, breathing an audible sigh of relief. “I’m so done with today,” he moaned.
“You… you fools,” Yukarin groaned as Zhidar grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him up onto his feet. Blood streamed from a gash on his forehead. “You… still won’t take me alive.”
Zhidar bared his teeth at Yukarin. “Please. If you were not a coward you would have already activated your suicide implant.”
Yukarin paled. “Oh. You… you know about those. Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you?”
I sneered at him. “And you called your predecessor naive? Hmph. But look, it’s okay to be scared. Unlike your boss, the Federation doesn’t kill prisoners.”
“Scared? Scared?!” Yukarin bellowed. He wrenched himself free of Zhidar’s grasp, though he made no other hostile moves, not with six phaser rifles trained on him. “Of you? Of death? Never. Failing the Founders? Yes.”
“Then go ahead,” Zhidar growled, poking Yukarin in the chest with his rifle. “Kill yourself. We’re waiting.”
Yukarin’s face twisted into a dark sneer, but he didn’t move. After wasting a couple of moments staring at us, he sighed. “Perhaps… perhaps I am afraid of death after all.”
“Then stop wasting our time,” Williams said. “What happened here? Who did you take prisoner? How did they escape?”
“Oh no. I won’t be telling you anything,” Yukarin replied. He clamped his mouth shut and pointedly looked away.
Zhidar turned to me. “Let me interrogate him, ma’am. I’ll get the little weasel to squeal.”
“No,” I said simply. “Not happening. Restrain him. We’ll take him back to the runabout with us. Hill, Cadeneza, work with me here. We need to get into these computers and make a copy of their files.”
“You won’t find much,” Yukarin said as Zhidar and Maia tied his wrists into handcuffs. “I instituted a complete data wipe. You think I would be foolish enough to leave evidence?”
Hill wasted no time in accessing the console and calling up queries of the main computer.“He’s right, ma’am,” he sighed. “It’s going to take me a while to sort through all this, see what I can recover.”
“Copy whatever you can, HIll. We’ve got to hurry.”
“Re’l to Shimmer,” came a sudden hail.
I tapped into my suit comm. “Go ahead, Re’l. What is it?”
“Ma’am, I just received a burst message from the Phoenix. They want us back aboard as soon as possible. There’s a small fleet of Cardassian and Jem’Hadar ships on their way here. Estimated arrival in two hours, give or take”
“Great. Wonderful. Thank you, Re’l. Shimmer out,” I replied, trying to keep bitterness out of my tone. “Hill, what’s your status?”
“I’ve just about finished, ma’am,” Hill replied.
Nodding, I said, “Good. And set the autodestruct when you’re done. One and a half hours, silent countdown. I don’t want them to find anything other than pulverized rubble by the time that fleet shows up.”
“First she stops the overload, now she wants to trigger it,” Yukarin said. “Make up your mind, you mercurial beast.”
Zhidar responded with a snap uppercut to the gut, causing Yukarin to double over, wheezing. “Shut up.”
“Zhidar, let’s try not to be so rough with a POW, hmm?” Williams said, giving Zhidar a knowing look.
Yukarin sneered at Zhidar. “Please, sir, may I have some more?” he quipped.
Zhidar reared back, all too happy to oblige, but he stopped at the feel of my magic on his arm. “Don’t. That’s an order, Lieutenant.”
“Feh. Fine.” Zhidar dropped his arm. “Not worth my time.”
Hill’s tricorder let out a triumphant beep as he held up his equipment. “Done!”
“I have set the autodestruct per your request,” Danielle added. “Enabling now.”
I pointed with one hoof to the exit. “Let’s move, people! Back to the runabout!”
We rushed as a group, slowed only by Yukarin, who stumbled and fell over repeatedly until Zhidar picked him up and draped him over one shoulder. Within a few minutes we’d crossed the base and were filing one by one into the runabout.
“Please tell me you’re prepped and ready to go,” I said as I plopped myself down in the co-pilot’s seat.
Re’l, who looked irritatingly fresh-faced next to the rest of us, smiled at me and purred. “Of course, ma’am.”
“Everyone’s aboard,” Williams said as he emerged from the rear, sitting down at the seat behind me. “We’ve got the Vorta tied to a table. Maia and Zhidar are watching him.”
“Then take us out, Re’l,” I ordered. “Back to the Phoenix, fast as you can.”
“Aye,” she said as her fingers tapped the controls. “Everyone brace for a rough ride.”
The shaking and shuddering of the runabout as we left the artificial gravity field of the Dominion base was, if anything, far worse than it had been on arrival. Fighting off the cannons had taken a serious toll on me, and despite the short trip and the bumpy ride I found my eyes fluttering closed a few times on the way there.
But soon enough we were coasting back into Main Shuttlebay, to a much softer landing. A security team greeted us as the runabout door hissed open, and they wasted no time taking Yukarin into custody and leading him out to the brig. “Shimmer to bridge, we’re aboard.”
“Excellent, Number One,” Liang replied. “It’s good to hear your voice. Thanks to the time dilation you were on that base for over two days. Another few hours and we might’ve found ourselves fighting off a fleet.”
I winced. “Sorry to hear that, sir. I’ll have a full explanation in my report.”
“Good to hear it. Report to the conference room in one hour for a debriefing. I’ll want Hill and Cadeneza with you. Liang out.”
I turned back to my team, who all showed matching exhausted faces, save for Zhidar, who simply scowled. “Alright, everyone, good work today,” I said. “Let’s get out of these suits and get some food and rest. Hill and Cadeneza, I’ll see you both in an hour.”
“I’ll start sifting through the downloaded files right away,” Hill said even as he peeled himself out of his suit, unleashing a stink of sweat.
I stopped with two of my legs still in my suit and looked at Hill, then at everyone else. It was at that exact moment I regretted ponies’ heightened sense of smell more than ever before. “Shower first, analysis later. All of us.” Excusing myself to my quarters, I threw myself into the shower and scrubbed myself clean before gorging myself on some spaghetti and wheatballs and two very tall, very cold glasses of water. I followed that up with a double raktajino, just to keep my eyes propped open during the debriefing.
Throwing on a fresh uniform, I made my way to the bridge, and passed through to the conference room. Cadeneza and Hill arrived just after I did, with Hill carting an oversized PADD in his hands. When I looked at it and opened my mouth to ask, he answered me with a simple, “It's my analysis.”
Liang walked in right as we all sat down. “So, I understand we have a prisoner aboard.”
“Yes sir,” I said. Briefly I went over the events aboard the base. “And set the self-destruct.”
“Well done, Number One. Well done all of you,” Liang said with a smile. He’d kept a fairly straight face throughout the discussion, and the only sign of surprise was a brief widening of the eyes and a pair of arched eyebrows when I mentioned the unfamiliar magic. “You should know that the Defiant was recalled by Admiral Ross. Seems there was an opportunity for the Seventh Fleet, and they were needed.”
“I understand, sir,” I said. “What’re our orders?”
Liang pursed his lips and shrugged. “Currently, left to my discretion. The Admiral wants us to finish our investigation first, of course. I’ve ordered us away from the Basin to avoid the incoming fleet, but otherwise… Hill, is your analysis finished yet?”
Hill checked his PADD. “Err, yes, it is sir,” he said, his voice low with surprise. “It looks like we were only able to recover a single file. It’s a video recording, sir.”
Cadeneza, who for some reason had worn her leather jacket to the meeting, tucked her hands inside it and said, “Well, play it already.”
Hill nodded, and tapped a few buttons on his PADD. We all turned to face the screen on the wall.
At first, all I saw was an empty corridor. Jem’Hadar rushed past the camera, carrying disruptor rifles. Screams and shouts from somewhere far away filtered through, mixed with bright flashes and the sound of multiple explosions. Then a volley of force bolts very similar to the ones Twilight and I used rocketed through the air and punctured a Jem’Hadar clean through the chest with so much force it literally knocked him off his feet. As he crumpled lifelessly to the ground, more screams could be heard.
Then a trio of figures ran past the camera, so fast I could barely take in any details. “Hold it, Hill,” Liang ordered. The playback froze. “Reverse it a few seconds and pause.”
“Aye,” Hill murmured as he performed the task. We watched the video play in reverse before suddenly pausing with an image of three humanoids displayed on screen. The moment I saw it the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Something about this wasn’t right, not at all.
“Hill, can you zoom that in at all? And enhance it?”
“I think so. One second…” I kept my eyes locked on the screen while Hill tapped away at the PADD. “Got it.”
A few seconds later a much sharper image reappeared on the screen.
And my blood turned to ice instantly.
I knew these three. They looked different than the ancient texts had described them, but despite their mostly human appearance, the telltale signs were still there. All of them.
Unusually colored eyes with vertical, cat-like pupils. Impressive, voluminous hair ranging from a pair of pigtails in purple and aqua, to a massive bush of orange and yellow to a single ponytail in shades of light and dark, almost black blue...the same shades as the crests they once bore. Ears that looked more like strangely shaped fins. Long, loping tails sweeping behind them, and razor sharp fangs.
“What the heck are they?” Cadeneza murmured as she took in the view. “They’re like… dragon-y fish people.”
“I don’t recognize the species either,” Liang uttered. “Computer, can you identify the species displayed on screen?”
“Negative. No matches found in Federation database,” the computer replied.
“I know what they are,” I declared, trembling. “I’m certain of it.”
“Oh?” Liang eyed me curiously. “Please, do tell.”
I glanced at the trio on the screen one more time, wishing I was wrong despite knowing I was right. “They’re from my world,” I said. “But in my world they look different. Much different.”
“Ah, so that explains the magic then,” Liang said with a nod. “But don’t hold back, Number One. Do you recognize them personally?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No pony alive today would know them at all, save perhaps for Princess Celestia. They’re a trio of spellcasters who turned to dark magic and were banished from Equestria by Starswirl the Bearded over a thousand years ago.” I sat up in my chair, mainly to relieve the nervous twitching in my wings. “Our history books called them Sirens: magical beings who can swim and fly, and who use negative emotions to power their magic.”
“Sirens, huh?” Cadeneza said, intrigued. “Do they have names?”
I hesitated, then nodded. “I don’t remember their individual names, if they were in the books at all. But I remember what they called their group.” I took a deep breath and glanced one final time at the screen.
“They called themselves the Dazzlings.”
Early on in planning for various episodes, Blue pitched to me an idea about a ghost ship. The crew would stumble across it and have some lovely horror-type tension times while trying to figure out what happened to whomever it was. There were scant details in this pitch, but it eventually morphed into the episode you've just read.
Easily the least scientific part about this episode is the time dilation. I very much took the concept and used it for the sake of writing a story, not following strict exact science. So apologies once again to any physicists out there.
For those who were wondering whether or not The Dazzlings would ever appear, you have your answer now.
Thank you once again to my prereaders who helped take a couple things here and improve them dramatically.
Blue would also like to thank you all for coming. Blue will have an AN once the time comes. For now, enjoy. 
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And now it's time for the spinoff: Three Sirens and a Starship! What could possibly go wrong?
Beautiful piece of distraction, I was thinking from the voices that it was Zecora, Dash, and especially Pinkie. given the terror and destruction.
But Sonata goes so well with Pinkie.
Just the force bolts unicorn style that really has me intrested. Thought the Dazzlings, in EQG canon at least were psycho acoustic only.
First thought at force bolt that powerful was Starlight Glimmer.
With the destruction of the shuttlecraft, I thought maybe theyd had a bad gravitational eddy. He Fell Into A Dark Hole?
Oh! Oh! So like in canon Starswirl sent the Dazzlings through the portal to the Star Trek Universe, only they have humanoid forms, quite unlike Sunset and Twilight who stayed in their natural forms. And now we know what killed the Jem'hadar. Did they enchant them into killing each other? Their magic is so gonna cause Twilight and Sunset to clash because of the resentment, I just know it. Well, now I'm really hooked on this story arc.
Well, looks like I read that scene right. The Dazzlings are here. How and why we'll find out in time.
I can understand Jem'Hadar not learning fast, but Vorta? Come on, Yukarian, show some Founder-granted intelligence!
I wonder... Yukarian encountering magic twice now... maybe he's a strange attractor?
Wayback Machine set T+336 hours, engaging.
10889107
You're going to skip the minis?
Looks like Beardman's inability to deal with his problems means that now Sunset et al. have some.
Of course, now I'm imagining the Dazzlings look like Deep Ones with stylish hair.
10889132
More like this, actually:
derpicdn.net/img/2020/9/4/2438024/medium.jpg
Sourced from: this artist.
There's another, better example by a different artist, but it's technically NSFW.
That said picturing them as Deep Ones is amusing.
So even in this timeline, Starswirl the Bearded Jackass was using Earth as his 'someone else's problem' dumping ground. It's even WORSE in this setting because they can still use magic here!
So the Dazzlings are loose with a Dominion Shuttle... going to do what?
The horror aspect was captured well, though I always think it is scarier in situations like this when they have to keep their suits on. It's dark, you can only hear your own breathing... your vision is partially cut off by the helmet you are wearing. You can only see what your flashlight is illuminating...
Gives me shudders just thinking about it... But I don't think you intended to go for full horror here. Though them finding the remains of the station crew all over the walls was pretty gruesome!
Once again this plane of existence is Starswirl's dumping ground. Damn that pony.
and here I was hoping they cloned Sunset.
And Candeza, you joined the military of the federation. despite their denials that is what they are.
Oh my goodness I did not expect that. I love it
Oh boy oh boy the fish pone creatures animal persons have shown up
Glad my thought process was right. I had a feeling it was the Dazzlings based on the dialog from the file they heard at first.
This was amazing I can't wait until you get to Nightmare Moon "the stars will aid in her escape"
10889153
What's funny is, that's just similar enough to "human but with weird bits added on" that I could easily see it in the context of Star Trek.
10889132
I can share the semi-NSFW image Dew mentions, if you are curious at some point. :p just pm/dm me fam.
Wait, what!? The sirens!? The Dazzlings are here too?!
I was not expecting that at all! Though in retrospect maybe I should have since the mirror portal apparently goes to the same place Starswirl uses his banishment spells. So…
Given how the sirens cause chaos and negative emotions with their singing, this might be the perfect thing for Sunset and Twilight to overcome together.
10889291
Make them humanoid and fit the general Trek humanoid vibe. Why are they humanoid though, that's a question you'll have to wait to see the answer to.
That was pretty much the idea, actually.
Well those three are now here. Why do I think Adigo would be stupid enough to mess with the Borg? Hopefully our taco loving one can at least be redeemed.
A little later...
Hmmm... Not NMM, but somewhat close. The Dazzlings. Yeah, that should give Sunset and Twilight some bonding fun time.
And poor Yukarin. HeeHeeHeee!
A big Aliens reference AND the Dazzlings introduced, Dew you are spoiling me this week with all this greatness
I humbly DEMAND that The Dazzlings make it out alive and relatively unharmed. I know they’re most definitely not wholesome and innocent in this fic, but they’re right up there with Sunset as the best characters the Equestria Girls movies churned out.
10889153
Can you give us the reference ID for the other pic, assuming it’s derpibooru. For Science. No, silliness aside I want to picture them as you’re envisioning them. Anyway, excellent chapter!
Much as I love their introduction to the story (Space-hopping murder hobo blender sirens are best sirens), I really, really wish they went by a more serious moniker than 'Dazzlings.'
10889291
I didn't think about that until you said it, and you're completely right.
10889154
The seventh season finale clearly shows Starswirl and the other Pillars fighting the Dazzlings and banishing them through a portal. The Dazzlings and their banishment by Starswirl is definitely canon in the primary MLP series. Equestria Girls answers the question of where they ended up if it's deemed canon. In this alternate take where it isn't, we just got the answer of where they ended up 'cause they'd have to end up somewhere.
10889153
Great getting a visual reference.
I'm with you. Imagining them as Deep Ones with stylish hair is incredibly amusing.
10889291
"Human but with weird bits added on" is without a doubt the best description of a Star Trek alien I have ever read.
10889290
If I'm understanding the timeline correctly, I think that might have already happened already. 🤔
Holy $&@%!!!
I was not expecting the Dazzlings in this story, but I'm glad that they are here, even if their presence means trouble for the Federation, specifically Sunset and Twilight.
Interesting choice of forms. I was expecting/hoping they would be in their natural Siren bodies. Then I remembered they were banished by Starswirl's magic, which is different from that mirror portal that brought Sunset and Twilight to this universe. Regardless of appearance, them being here just made this story all the more exciting.
Whew, finally caught up. Sorry for the lack of comments, but I've been distracted with gaming lately that I fell behind on a lot of chapters from multiple stories. I'm still enjoying it immensely.
Except for the Sunset bashing. I'm getting just a little tired of just about everyone coming down on her, and more than just a little tired of Twilight acting like a b@$^# towards her sister. Yes, Sunset made mistakes since her return, she admits that herself, but everyone just automatically expects her to the bigger person... er... pony. Just because she's an adult/alicorn/Commander, doesn't mean she's above slipping up from time to time, especially with what she went through.
[Sighs] I'm just hoping that the universe will cut her a break sometime soon.
Keep up the awesome job, Dewdrops!
10889367
2407836Bear in mind, as per the warning, it is NSFW.
10889368
True, in the context of Trek, it's not the most intimidating name. But I'm still working with what canon gives me. *shrug*
10889382
Correct. Equestria is further along in its timeline than most people think.
10889375
Interesting observation.
10889384
A good observation re the portal. And yes, had they come through the mirror that Twi and Sunset had, they not only would've ended up on Earth in San Francisco (or rather, San Francisco Bay circa 1300s~, aka territory of the Ohlon, the Chochenyo, the Karkin, the Ramaytush, the Yokuts, and the Muwekma tribes.) Their natural siren forms are also super huge and don't really work for a starship. It'd be like having whales walking around the corridors. Or slithering, rather.
As for Sunset, well... let's just say things may be turning around sooner than you might think.
P.s. I really don’t understand why everybody except Spartans keep taking their helmet off. It doesn’t take much power to generate oxygen from co2 (compared to the power required for shields, phasers, or food synthesizers); so maintaining an air supply isn’t a problem, and it protects you from so many hazards (including olfactory ones!)
10889399
That's a good point.
Although, they were able to transport two humpback whales from 1986 to 2286 on the USS Enterprise in ST IV: The Voyage Home, so it wouldn't be impossible.
Don't take this seriously, just poking a little fun.
10889399
Didn't the Galaxies carry whales aboard? Not in the corridors, but still.
10889452
Technically in Cetacean Ops yes. Also missing the point.
Oh Memory Alpha is a thing in-universe! She's not talking about the website in a 4th wall-breaking joke.
Ah yes, Tom Paris and his making analogues with 20th century automotive history. He's found so many answers to 24th century problems in 20th century technology. 😆 I'll grant I pick up the little references to Voyager more than the references to DS9 as I've seen more episodes of Voyager.
Might be rectifying that soon though as I might just start watching Star Trek now.
I can't help feel that the reveal at the end of the Dazzlings was to avoid the comment section going crazy like in Season 1 Episode 9 trying to figure out who they were. Going off the description of their voices I thought for a minute they were Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow.
I honestly was not expecting to see the Dazzlings show up in this story, but I'm glad they have. It was such a great twist! I guess they'd have to appear given that Equestria Girls as we know it didn't or couldn't have happened somehow. That might mean that the Memory Stone from Forgotten Friendship and the Time Twirler from Sunset's Backstage Pass are kicking around the galaxy. 🤔 Come to think of it, neither would be that out of place in Star Trek would they. Given they've likely been around for a thousand years, I wonder if one of the next minisodes will give us an idea what they've been up to in the galaxy all this time. Perhaps they... hooked up with... Captain Kirk. I... would not... put it past him. 
I wasn't aware the Vortas get cloned. I think it'll be kind of cool seeing Sunset get another crack at taking on Yukarin.
Well that was another great installment. Looking Ten-Forward to the next one. Keep up the great work.
So, the Dazzlings were partly transformed when they were banished from Equestria.
However, I think they didn't appear on Earth, but some other planet. Likely one in what is 'currently' Cardassian space.
Ok, I need some time dilation now so I can read the next chapter. And then the next one. And then the one after that. And then...
10889023
Great... we've jumped back to the 1980's watching NBC on Friday night. What the hell, Knight Rider isn't on until later anyway.
10889120
No way! I pick them up in the suction of my temporal passage. Don't you fret about that!
the Dazzlings well ok i did not see that one coming.
amazing chapter.
10889418
Actually that was a Bird of Prey they had “liberated” from a rouge Killingon officer that they used to do that.
10889418
Actually, that was a Klingon Bird of Prey they captured in ST III ... the 'A' self-distructed as they reached the Genesis ...
https://youtu.be/uG6xQRJV3Zw
Kinda explains it all, huh...?
PS: Sunset. AIM FOR THE GEMS, GIRL...!!!!
10889536
10889549
...oh.
Well, it has been several years since I've actually seen the movie. I only really remember it because of the whales, because I was a bit of a marine mammal fanatic back then.
10889646
Member of the edit team here. Thank you!
And welcome aboard! We hope you enjoy the journey.
Honestly thought it was going to be Starlight, Fizzlepop, and/or Sombra.
Really should have known it was the Dazzlings, after all, if Sunset is here, they should be here too.
There was a moment where I thought it was maybe Luna they captured, but then it was a trio of voices rather than one on the audio recording. However, this would likely mean one thing to Sunset - The Dominion knows how to pull things from between universes. And if they know how to do that, then that same process could be reversed to put stuff into another universe.
“Un instant, s’il vous plaît," Danielle interrupted
And sudenly, we learn that Danielle was a French spy all along.
Before they were revealed to be the Dazzlings, a random fun idea popped into mind. What might've happened if the minions of the Star Trek Changelings captured and got infiltrated by Equestrian Changelings?
10889452
10889454
There is are "cetacean facilities" drawn into the "official deck plans" of the Galaxy Class ships, but they were listed as being for dolphins/porpoises not the bigger-sized whales, like humpbacks--also they were never shown in canon, so it is still a bit apocryphal to much of the Trek fandom.
Although, if you just look at the scale of the thing, the bloody ship would certainly be large enough for even blue whales. Indeed, the damned ship is so huge, theoretically you could wander about randomly for days and not see anyone else on the ship!
--- And it just occurred to me, this could be part of the built-in defense system: an enemy has to capture the crew in order to take over the ship--but if the ship is so big you can't find any of the crew, then you CAN'T take it over!!
10889795
I would LOVE to see that!