STAR TREK: EQUESTRIA

by Alicorne

Chapter Fifty- The Plan

CHAPTER FIFTY

THE PLAN

“What,” I growled. “Is a ‘Cthulhu’ and how would you spell it?” I gave the Timelord a dangerous glare as he burst into manic motion, stabbing at and adjusting settings on his borrowed control board.

“Ages ago and in another Universe,” The Doctor’s voice said in a distracted voice. “After the Silurians went into stasis and long before anything like a mammal developed on the planet there came to Earth a collection of truly alien beings that were reckoned as Gods by the inhabitants of the place at the time. Now I don’t, as a rule, have anything against ‘Gods’ as such… as long as they don’t make a nuisance of themselves. But this lot were truly in a class by themselves!” He paused for a beat, chewing the inside of his lip before launching into another series of rapid-fire adjustments to his controls.

“It can be said in their defense that these things were utterly indifferent to the people who lived there. They had as much in common with them as you or I have with exotic particles created in high energy atom-smashers. …Though that isn’t quite correct, those particles at least came from this universe! You see, these creatures did not descend from the Heavens in flaming chariots or emerge from the Primordial Chaos in a victorious fanfare of divine trumpets. They seeped down into that reality from fathomless, unknowable… places and stayed out of the light of the sun in dank, misty locales and dreamed their dark and twisted dreams unaware of and not caring about anything around them. Their very existence, though, had an effect on the places they stayed. On the rare occasions one of them stirred forth on unknowable errands they warped and defiled the world around them. I suppose that was the catalyst that set the whole Miasma in motion; you’ll have to ask Luna or Celestia about the Miasma, I just don’t have the time right now! In any event, intentionally or not, they allowed themselves to be seen on occasion. You see, there were people about in those days. Oh, not the sort of people you would recognize as such but they thought and reasoned and were self-aware in ways no animal can lay claim to. They saw these beings from afar and wondered at the strange signs of their passing. The boldest… or perhaps less prudent of them… driven by curiosity or some emotion our kind have no analog to, sought them out. What they found, more often than not, was so utterly alien and therefore terrifying that they simply could not wrap their minds around the significance of what they’d discovered. Most of them died outright, their minds blasted from within as they made contact with these twisted intellects. A very few, perhaps those who stayed on the very thin edge of sanity, returned to tell the tale of these incredible beings from Beyond The World. They exhorted their brethren to revere them and urged one and all to pay homage to these, for lack of a better description, Gods. It’s a story that’s played itself out countless times in this Universe and Others! …Just give me an increase of a few megacycles in the field there, won’t you?” He pointed to a set of controls in front of Maglev who was frankly gaping at the little Stallion.

The Mare in my Head was leaning forward in her seat, hanging on to his each and every word with an intent expression. I spun her chair around in a circle, making her clutch her armrests and squawk, to get her mind back to business!

“Doctor, this had better be going somewhere and fast!”

“Yes, yes, yes!” He flapped a hoof at me irritably. “I’m filling you in on events that took nearly a billion years to unfold in just a few minutes. I’m going as fast as I can so you must be patient, my Dear Captain!” He fixed me with a stern gaze and did his best to intimidate me. In a one-room schoolhouse in a bygone age he might have pulled it off. But he was on my Bridge on my ship and I would be damned if he was going to get away with it!

My gaze let him know it, too, as I locked eyes with him!

“Captain… Starry!” His gaze lost its pedantic crotchetiness but none of its urgency as it appealed to me. “I’m truly explaining as fast as I can. What Discord has done is appallingly monstrous! Something is stirring over there…” He waved a hoof at the ship on the screen. “That must never be wakened. As long as Cthulhu dreams, as long as its consciousness never comes to bear on us directly we have a chance! It walked the Earth, not your Earth but one very much like it and certain insane individuals were able to gain a measure of Power from the merest excreta of its existence. They worshipped it in their ignorance, you see. Made it into a God of their purposes, though Cthulhu has no use or need for any devotion! Its mind is so utterly alien and unknowable that any communication with it would lead to madness, death or worse! It could blast this ship just by noticing it!”

“Doctor, I don’t have time for ghost stories! I have over two hundred megatons of photon torpedo on deck ready to go. Discord himself couldn’t cope with the EMP much less the radiation! I’ll guarantee you it won’t know what hit it. It’ll be dead before its nerves tell its brain what’s going on, trust me!” I made a move to my comm panel to give Kirk the go-ahead but the Doctor halted me with a pointing hoof aimed straight at my heart!

“Captain.” His voice was quiet and so utterly sincere that I stayed my hoof. “If you do that you will kill us all… if we’re very fortunate.” The blue eyes of the Doctor blazed with the knowledge of uncounted years and horrifying experiences. The eccentric little Stallion was gone and the Timelord exhorted me with his gaze and his absolute… authority!

The Bridge muttered electronically, the Main Viewer pinged with every sweep of its scanners, the various stations beeped and warbled quietly but not a Pony spoke as the Doctor and I locked eyes.

“Look at Kyr, Starry.” He said quietly, drawing a veil over and concealing most of what showed through a moment earlier. I didn’t know that I’d tensed until I relaxed. “He’s already been… twisted… by the thing he has onboard. The bulk of his crew no doubt was the price he paid to keep what little of himself he had left intact. That instinct for self-preservation is all he has left, that and his burning for revenge and his craving for what he calls power and glory. Poor fool! Everypony thinks they can bargain with Hell when they approach it, that they will manage to come away the better for the exchange! Delusion! Sheer delusion!”

“I am looking at Kyr!” I retorted, gesturing at the ship on the screen. “From where I sit it seems that all he has to do is whistle and Old Squid Face will do to us what it did to Kyr’s crew. If we can’t kill that thing over there we sure as Hell can kill the guy that can wake him up! We don’t have the time to debate this!”

“Hellooo!” The Doctor said smugly. “Mad Pony with a Blue Box here! I have all the Time we’ll ever need! I have to get to the TARDIS!” He spun around, pointing a hoof at the Ponies under my command in turn.

“You there! Maglev, is it? Keep these settings intact! Under no circumstances don’t allow the integrity of the containment field I’ve set up degrade. I’ll be extremely cross if you do!” Maglev gulped and turned back to his board, shooting me a panicked glance as he did so.

The Doctor whirled toward Code, his coat tails flapping. “Accept no communication from the Werewolf whatsoever! Don’t call him, he won’t call you! Stand by… whatever it is you stand by at times like this! By the same token…” He turned to Milky Way. “Do not do any detailed scanning of the Werewolf. Passive scanning will tell you all you need to know as sure as Bob’s your Uncle! The last thing we need right now is a paradox! …And somepony tell that Mad Bomber in the Transmat Room for Time’s sake to keep his hoof off that button! Kyr will detect any hostile action and wake Mighty Cthulhu at once… to all our detriment!” He sprang toward the turbolift with a Fey glint in his eye, intent on the plan that blazed in his head.

“Starry, if this works I’ll be back in just a few moments. All you have to do is sit tight. If nothing else I should be able to buy you time to move off and hide. If the Werewolf shows signs of regaining power, if there is a huge spike in the Arcane Energy coming from over there, I will have failed. In which case you should proceed as you see fit. Only…” He paused and caught my gaze, lowering his voice to a more personal level. “Take care of Miss Doo for me, won’t you? Tell her I’m so very, very sorry and that I …”

“Now wait one rock-rubbing minute!” I planted my hooves on the arms of my chair and pulled myself free to stand up, swishing my tail to work the stiffness out. I caught the
Timelord’s eyes. “If I read you right you’re planning on going over there by yourself. Not gonna happen! I don’t see a horn on your head much less a set of wings. Whatever else that hyperthyroided flashlight of yours can do it isn’t going to be worth slag against the likes of that!” I hooked a thumb at the image of the Werewolf as it lay dazed in space.

“If all I can do over here is sit tight,” I continued, taking a giant step to join him on the upper level of the Bridge. “I’ll be of more use with you. I’m damned if I’m going to sit on my thumbs while somepony else risks their lives to save my Ship! Save your breath, Doctor!” I said in response to the rebellious look on the Timelord’s face. “I’m your Wingpony on this! Code! My compliments to Lieutenant Kirk and recall him to the Bridge. He has the Conn in my absence. The rest of you carry on with the Doctor’s ‘suggestions’ … since he would never have the bad manners to presume to give orders on my Bridge, wouldn’t you Doctor?”

“Now see here!” The Doctor stomped a hoof and glared up at me. “I’m one thousand and five years old and have more years of experience in things like this than your species had with electricity…!”

“Why the insistence on the lack of detailed scanning, Doctor?” I cut him off, giving him a smirk. “Indulge me about the paradox.”

“Don’t try to mollify me!” He grumped. “I swear! It’s U.N.I.T. all over again! Are you sure you’re not related to a certain Brigadier of that Service? Better them than Torchwood, I suppose.” He shot me a dark look before continuing. “We can’t go out of our way to see what’s going on over there just now because there’s a very good chance that I… we… are already over there!”

Comments

[meerkat8472]

Oh great, time shenanigans, marvelous. Well heres hoping that time travel will make sense this time. Not likely but here's hoping.

[Booster Spice]

Fixed points are intresting because they are those points that have to occur for the current world line to be valid. Thing is, its very very rare that there isnt a whole collection of histories that dont lead up to a given present.

Havng the Tardis side by side can lead to some very intresting side effects though. Personally Id have thought reality disrupting behaviour would be useful for trans proability transmission etc.