• Published 17th Oct 2021
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The Warp Core Conspiracy - Unwhole Hole



Captain Kirk and the Enterprise witness the failure of Equestria's first warp attempt, and on investigation find something far more sinister may be afoot.

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Chapter 1: Approaching a Planet

“Captain's log, stardate 2334.72. Recent observations of of the radio telescope Epsilon-Theta Three have identified primitive radio transmissions arising from an area on the deep-edge of the galaxy, in an unclaimed region previously thought to be uninhabitable. The Enterprise has been dispatched to examine unusual readings from the radio telescope in detail, and to confirm the possible presence of an inhabited M-class planet.”

Captain James T. Kirk, having completed his report to the best of his ability, closed the recording, also to the best of his ability. He sat back in his chair and for a moment stared at the viewscreen before him. The universe outside was dark. Unusually so. The Alpha Quadrant was already at the edge of the galaxy, all all quadrants were, but this region sat at the very periphery where stars were less dense, beyond which there was the vast and impassible expanse of uninhabitable void which no warp-drive could cross.

In the distance, he saw one star. It was only a pinprick of white light, distant and dim, barely discernible against the light of distant galaxies. To the untrained eye, perhaps it would mean nothing, but Kirk’s eyes were far from untrained. He recognized what it was, at least in a general sense, and understood its significance.

It sat at the center of the screen. A planet. One of a distinct and particular kind of beauty. Even without Spock’s readings, Kirk already knew. He saw the wisps of pure-white clouds and the deep blue oceans, and continents colored verdant green even at a great distance.

He had seen many like it, but even at a distance, Kirk understood that this one was different from many. Different from Earth itself. Earth, though not dissimilar now, had suffered greatly in its past. Centuries of pollution, of depletion, and with at least two devastating nuclear wars, it had only recently recovered to anything that might be considered verdant—but it was only similar to this world in appearance. So much had been lost. So many species destroyed. The once-great forests were now relics of history books, and what had once been green nature was now covered in vast cities, with the forests and grasslands preserved in small parks and reserves.

This world had not yet experienced that trauma. It was new and fresh.

And yet it bore an aspect unlike any world Kirk had seen.

“Spock?”

Spock stood behind Kirk, staring deeply into the bridge viewfinder and making slow calibrations with its single calibrating dial. He did not answer immediately.

“Fascinating,” he said, looking up from the scope. “It would appear that the information from the radio telescope was largely correct, although with several major calculation inconsistencies.”

“Spock, I’m not exactly concerned with the inconsistencies.”

“No. I had anticipated that you might not be.” He turned to the viewscreen. “The planet in question is in orbit around a currently unnamed dim white-dwarf, maintaining a highly eccentric orbit with a calculated minimum solar distance of four hundred billion kilometers.”

“Spock, that’s farther from their star than Pluto is from the sun.”

Spock nodded. “Yes, Captain. That is a way to phrase my much simpler and more accurate description in far less precise Terran terms. However, this star is significantly older and dimmer than Earth’s sun.”

“It looks oddly...green, for being a Pluto.”

“No, Captain. The planet is indeed M-class.”

Kirk already knew that, and had an idea why. He had seen the two objects orbiting the planet.

“The planet contains two major large satellites,” continued Spock, “although both are of similar size, the slightly larger of the two generates a significant amount of light, acting, in effect, as a miniature sun.”

“A spotlight. Something like that must take immense power to operate.”

“No doubt, Captain. However at present I am not able to ascertain its exact source of power, although the energy signature is suggestive of some manner of potent nuclear reaction. Its structure is almost certainly artificial.”

“Almost? Spock, when have you ever been so indecisive?”

“Captain, I simply do not yet have enough information to draw an accurate conclusion. However, as I had previously stated, this situation is, indeed, fascinating. I therefore intend to investigate it as thoroughly as possible as soon as we complete this conversation.”

“Of course you do. Are there signs of habitation?”

“Yes. Scans of the surface indicate the sparse presence of small pre-industrial cities. Both on the surface of the planet, as well as on the lunar colonies.”

Kirk almost jumped from his seat, and the entirety of the bridge crew—who had of course been listening intently to Spock’s calming voice—turned suddenly.

Kirk paused, unsure if Spock was joking. Except of course Spock was not joking.

“No, Captain. Vulcans do not, in fact, joke.”

“You can’t be serious, though. Spock, a pre-industrial society? With lunar colonies?”

“The smaller of the two satellites appears to be structurally similar to the incandescent one, although presently inactive and covered in rocky debris. In effect, acting as a moon, although considering its mass it appears to be retaining a thin atmosphere. Despite the harsh conditions, it can be assumed to be habitable. I assess it as a Class H or lower Class-L world.”

Kirk groaned. “Spock, I wasn’t exactly concerned with the habitability of the moon. I was concerned about how they got there.”

"I should think that would be obvious, Captain. They achieved it through some manner of flight. This conversation has prevented me from acquiring additional data which I might use to construct a more complete hypothesis."

Uhura looked up from her comm station, holding her earpiece to her ear. “Captain, I believe I have to agree with Mr. Spock.”

“You can tell that from the comms?”

“From the radio transmissions emanating from the planet. I am still feeding them into the ship’s universal translation mainframe, but the preliminary results indicate a relatively simple society.”

“In what way?”

“Well, an industrial society will usually transmit advertisements for consumer products. Automobiles, for example. This world makes no reference to advanced consumer products. They’re broadcasting music, simple news...and various point-to-point communications. It is too early to say for sure, but I would guess that these people have not yet invented the internal combustion engine. Radio and electricity even seem new to them.”

“Cyaptain!”

One of the bridge crew stood up. A young ensign—almost excessively young—recently assigned to the Enterprise, and seated beside Lieutenant Arex. Peculiar among humans, he had retained a strong accent from some country that doubtlessly no longer existed.

The ensign stood stiff, saluting. “Permission to speak, sir!”

Kirk smiled to Uhura, and even Arex, busy at the helm, seemed to find the young man’s behavior comical.

“Permission granted, Ensign Chekov.”

“Considering that this planet is inhabited by sentient life, but is clearly of a pre-warp nature, is this not a situation where the Prime Directive forbids approach?”

“This planet already has an advanced lunar colony. Suggesting spaceflight. We can’t know that they’re pre-warp--”

“Yes, Cyaptain, I had already considered that, and an analysis of the area around the planet indicates that there are no apparent warp fields.”

Kirk frowned. “I do not recall having granted you permission to access the forward sensors.”

The ensign blushed. “I may have...found a workaround.”

“And with your assessment,” said Spock, sounding extremely disgruntled—through a change of tone so subtle that even Kirk could barely detect it— “it is important to recall that identification of warp signatures is a notoriously unreliable technique, especially if few warp-capable ships are present.”

“Well, yes, but I made some modifications to the search protocol and the algorithm used to identify trails—”

“And we will have a discussion about modifying standard practices without permission.”

The ensign stiffened. “Yes, Cyaptain.”

“Although you are not wrong.”

Chekov blinked. “I...am not?”

“No. Without clear evidence of warp signatures we can not confirm that this planet qualifies for contact. Therefore, we will observe it from a distance. It’s as simple as that.”

“But Cyaptain, this wessel is two hundred eighty eight point six five meters in length, and at this distance their telescopes should surely be able to be seeing us.”

Arex looked up. “Based on this planet’s level of technological development, I doubt they have telescopes sophisticated enough to detect something so small. I have already positioned the Enterprise to avoid back-lighting, but even if they witness our shadow, they will likely consider it little more than a smudge on their lens.”

“And the Enterprise does not release radio waves detectable by their receivers,” added Uhura.

“Oh. Yis.” Chekov looked down, disappointing and embarrassed. “My apologies, Cyaptain.”

“Not to worry, ensign. You are here to learn after all.” Kirk turned around. “Spock, continue your analysis. Lieutenant M’Ress, prepare the torpedo tubes with the sensory probes. Set the internal self-destruct charge to three days. I don’t want to risk contaminating the planet with our debris.”

“Aye, Captain.” M’Ress began the procedure, but suddenly stopped. She sat up suddenly, her pupils narrowing suddenly. “Captain! I’m detecting something on the sensors.”

Kirk leaned forward. “On screen.”

The viewscreen shifted, enhancing part of the view of the planet—or more specifically, the lunar colony. With the image enhanced, Kirk could definitely see that Spock had been right, as always. There were clear signs of cities, not made of glass domes or contained metal structures as was normally the case with moons but apparently carved from strange, dark stone.

Circling the planet, though, he saw a large space station linked to the moon below by glimmering tethers. A space station fed by space elevators. Although he did not initially know its purpose, he quickly understood that it was meant as a drydock.

A ship emerged from the forward bay of the station. It was peculiar in color and shape, as most alien craft were, but this one was especially odd. The surface was painted a dark shade of violet, and appeared almost to be made of something organic instead of plated metal. The shape overall maintains no pretext of being an aircraft as the Kingon or Romulan warbirds did, but showed none of the procedural, modular form of a Starfleet vessel. It was at once elegant and smooth and but bizarrely brutalist in construction. It was a strange, long-pointed thing.

“I suppose that explains how they reached the moon.”

“Captain.” M’Ress turned over her shoulder. “That ship beginning to generate a spatial distortion around its surface.”

Kirk felt himself inhale sharply, but found himself smiling uncontrollably. This sort of thing was the very reason he had joined Starfleet in the first place.

“Then this...may very well be their first,” he said, barely containing his glee and awe. “And we’re here to witness it.”

“Cyaptain.” Chekov’s voice carried none of the awe that filled the room. Instead, it almost cracked. He sounded terrified. “I am analyzing that ship’s warp-field architecture, and it’s unlike any ship recorded in our databanks—but it’s unstable! There are mathematical flaws in its derivation--”

“Chekov, there is no way you could know that--”

Spock moved past Kirk with remarkable speed, descending to Chekov’s console and tapping on the controls.

“He is not incorrect,” admitted Spock. “Their warp architecture utilizes features beyond our technological capacity that make certain critical aspects of warp calculation that we would consider inerrant almost totally opaque--”

“Spock, the short version.”

Spock, as impassive as ever, replied. “In essence, the material form of the ship will fracture on activation.”

“It will explode!” cried Chekov. “Cyaptain, we have to stop it!”

Kirk winced. “Chekov...you know we can’t do that.”

Chekov’s eyes grew wide. “But—but Cyaptain, they will--”

“The prime directive is very clear on this, ensign.” Kirk clenched his fists, wishing there was another way—but he knew there was no alternative. “We cannot interfere with the natural development of their technology.”

“We are going to watch them die, then?!”

“Ensign, do you think I want to? What do you expect me to do?”

Chekov opened his mouth, but he did not have an answer.

“Captain,” said M’Ress, sadly.

Kirk looked up at the viewscreen. The ship was activating its field, and whatever alien mechanism it used to accomplish it was visible. It generated itself as a sequence of pink-violet plates surrounding the vessel that slowly merged into a single field around its surface. Then ship apparently utilized this to turn itself into position, and although Kirk could see no apparent nacelles on the ship’s surface, the field began to bend.

Then, for a brief flash, it stretched—and vanished.

The bridge of the Enterprise fell silent. A moment of great rarity and joy had been soured—until Chekov’s eyes grew even wider than before.

“Cyaptain! Cyaptain, it has dropped from warp! It is intact, but only barely!”

Kirk moved swiftly. “Lieutenant Arex, intercept course to its current position, warp speed!” Kirk slammed his thumb into his chair’s comlink. “Kirk to transporter room, prepare for emergency transport. Situation to Code Yellow.”

“Code Yellow,” repeated M’Tress, raising the internal alarm.

“But Cyaptain, the Prime Directive--”

“The Prime Directive no longer applies, ensign. This society is no longer pre-warp. This is now a First-Contact scenario.”

“Warp speed,” said Arex, pushing the ship forward.

It jumped, taking a surprisingly long time to reach the stranded and badly damaged ship. Its warp core had been powerful, and it had gone far before the field had collapsed. As they emerged from warp, Kirk was able to see it. It was listing, its surface charred and sparking with feedback from the shattered field.

“Their warp core?”

“I cannot determine its status,” said M’Ress. “It does not appear to release a normal warp signature when inactive.”

“Uhura, hail them.”

“The universal translating software has not fully compiled their language--”

“Then do the best we can, that ship won’t hold for long.”

Uhura opened the channel, and static hissed through the speakers—and then stopped. Kirk watched and, to his surprise, saw the ship activate its external field, turning itself to face away from the Enterprise.

“What are they--”

“Sir, they are plotting an escape course. Warp field engaging.”

“Their vessel has suffered critical damage to its hull integrity,” said Spock, perfectly calmly. “They may withstand another warp-jump, but their ship will not survive exiting it.”

Before Kirk could do anything, the tiny, pointed ship jumped to warp.

“FOLLOW IT!”

The stars at the edge of the viewscreen seemed to lengthen as the Enterprise suddenly jumped to warp. Ahead of them, the ship was roughly visible, trailing a pink-violet corona behind it.

“Current speed warp six-point-eight,” announced Arex. “In pursuit course but...sir, their vessel is accelerating.”

“Then accelerate after it!”

Arex pushed the throttle forward, his additional two hands stabilizing their course to maintain distance so as to not get caught in their wake—and yet Kirk saw the other ship increasing distance from the Enterprise.

“Lieutenant Arex!”

“Current speed warp seven-point seven. Seven-point nine. Captain, their ship...it's exceeding warp-nine. It is outpacing us, and rapidly.”

The Enterprise shuddered and the lights flickered.

“Sir, it’s still accelerating! Warp nine-point-three! Warp nine-point four! Nine-point-five!” Arex adjusted his controls, compensating for the loss of power. "We are on the edge of warp-eight, at risk of loss of hull integrity!"

Kirk felt a sense of awe, but no time to act upon it. It had taken humans nearly a century to develop a warp-core that could reach warp-five, while this one was already pushing the limits of Federation technology and still increasing speed.

“Captain! Warp eight! We are above safe threshold velocity! And their ship...”

"Lieutenant Arex?"

"Cyaptain, the wessel, it is predicted to be...at almost warp nine-point-nine five..."

The ship before them began to spark, its vertices erupting with strange blue light.

“Cyaptain, alien ship is beginning to release tachyon eddie-currents! It’s on the verge of tearing itself apart!”

Kirk hit the intercom. “Mr. Scott! Get to the transporter room and prepare for a ship-to-ship transport at warp speed!”

Scottie’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Captain, I’m not a miracle worker! The Enterprise, she’s in a dead-sprint, it’sa takin’ everything I have to keep her together!”

“Captain!” Uhura swiveled on her chair. “I’m receiving a transmission from the ship!”

“On speaker!”

The speaker crackled with static. The translation program was still incomplete, and the message garbled, but Kirk still managed to hear the gist of it.

A high female voice spoke through the static and the humming, sparking noise of her ship beginning to tear itself apart from inside.

“This is...Dancer-One Prototype—pursued by hostile aliens—containment collapse—core breach—too far to teleport—family--I’m sorry--”

The ship suddenly and violently ruptured, bursting open in a vast plume of violet light at warp-nine-point-nine. Arex moved faster than would have been possible for a human, grasping both power controls and throttling back out of warp while immediately engaging sideways thrusters with his third arm. The force was so great that it overloaded the inertial dampeners, sending the crew sideways as the Enterprise narrowly avoided the debris field.

“Kirk to transporter--”

The lights on the ship dimmed, and it shuddered. Kirk looked to Spock, and without a word between them, both were suddenly running.

Author's Note:

I may be using the author-notes section more liberally than I usually do for this story.

Firstly, I would like to say that while I of course enjoy Star Trek, I was really always more of a Next Generation Fan. However, the original series has a certain character to it that I thought would be much better suited to this kind of story. It has a kind of unabashed absurdity to most of it that let them take the weirdest risks when making it.

That said, I am going to be playing fast-and-loose with the Star Trek lore. Namely, I've reduced the bridge staff down for streamlining purposes. You'll also notice that I'm using characters from the Animated Series (like M'Ress and Arex) although changed around some of the roles (Chekov is here, but not Sulu?). So alternate universes or something? Hopefully it works okay, or even adequately.

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