>> Star Trek fan fiction >> Helix >> Crossing, The

PROLOGUE: THE ASSIMILATION WARS

Without warning, they invaded the Alpha Quadrant and spread across the known galaxy, with an unstoppable hunger for power.

At Wolf 359, their technology and skill were assimilated, and the enemy went on the conquer the Breen next. The Romulan & the Klingon Empires united as a front to stop the marauding invaders, but they were quickly overwhelmed in size and in numbers.

The Cardassians never had a chance. Even with detailed information and newly designed weaponry, their stand at the Cardassian homeworld was nothing more than a refueling station for assimilation...

Scattered across the galaxy, refugees from most of these conquered worlds, pulled together to form a resistance force to oppose The New Borg Order.

Now, in the aftermath of their major strike against the enemy, only one ship remains.

In a last ditch effort to free the planet of Bajor, the Borg have reaffirmed their creto...

It was the end of the universe. The orbit above Bajor was littered with what was left of the Resistance. Borg Drones, small pyramid-shaped attack crafts tumbled end over end, releasing disrupter shots from each of their four points.

The warship Helix weaved and bobbed its way around the scatter ship wreckage and laid plasma-charges, which seemed to be their most effective defense.

"In coming!" Tash Gan An'War yelled as the Romulan-trained Vulcan braced himself. Photon torpedoes erupted as they struck the ship's rear shields. The Helix banked hard left causing the three surviving crew members to fall from their stations. Captain Alex Garret crawled his way to the communications station. Without a second thought, he pushed aside the body in the chair and tried and reestablish a link with any surviving warships.

Mia, Tash's older sister frantically tried to relay information to her captain. "We got three Drones decloaking ahead of us! I can't get anything from the damn automated defenses, or the nano-tech repair systems.

"Four minutes, if we last that long!" she called out from the weapons station. Alex tried to patch a distress call out to anyone listening, but his cries fell upon dead ears.

The Helix flew in directly for the large cubed ship, which loomed in the background. Sensing the incoming threat, the Borg ship unleashed it's own defenses, in the form of a dozen plasma torpedoes.

"Not meaning to sound pessimistic, but this isn't looking good, people!" Alex struggled to the Captain's chair and plotted an alternative route. "Tash, get us close in on the small ships! They won't be too quick to fire with us too close!!

Their small ship banked a hard left and then streaked directly at the pursuers. The Borg-Drones maneuvered outward and responded with another barrage of torpedoes. Two struck the Helix, and blew off small pieces of hull. Mia's station exploded, throwing her backward. She quickly rose to her feet and stumbled to the science station, not even noticing the large bloody gash on her forehead . "The warp core is still stable! But we got three plasma conduits blown!"

"We'll have to manually reroute power to the main deflectors from engineering. Can you get down there?" Alex stumbled to her position.

"Negative! I'm reading hull breaches ship-wide and containment-field power was diverted to the shields! Life support is down on all decks! There's no one else alive except us!" She furiously ran her fingers over the console. "I think I can get the auto-phaser systems reinitialized. But I'm not promising anything!"

The pursuing Drone ships continued to bombard the Helix with phaser power, slicing off the small ships hull piece by piece. It dipped and dodged, trying to use wreckage for cover, as two more ships decloaked and joined to pursuit.

Flickering lights and damaged equipment covered the floors, while the remaining three bridge crew-members did what they could to keep their ship together.

Tash suddenly pulled the ship with a hard right angle. Two drone ships decloaked in front of them, and it became apparent that the Borg were corralling them into a trap. By the end, twelve pyramid ships surrounded the Helix in a spherical formation, and the giant cube ship slowly approached toward them. But unlike previous attacks, the pyramids didn't pound the small ship into submission. They seem to pause in mid-space, as if waiting for the Helix to make the next move.

Alex, Tash, and Mia stared at the flickering viewscreen. The picture was fuzzy, but they could see the enormous Borg Cube foreshadowed in the distance.

Tash rerouted power to the sensors and attempted to scan the enemy. "Their weapons are powered and locked on us, but their waiting for something." his console beeped. "Wait a minute. Their attempting a full sensor scan of the ship, but something's wrong."

"I don't know. Something emanating from our deflector dish is disrupting their scan. But that doesn't make any sense..."

"Alex" Mia turned to him. "There's an incoming message from the mother cube." After a few moments of silence, he nods to her. Through the haze of static and smoke, a face slowly materialized on the screen. It was one of the first of his race to be assimilated. The former humanoid captain who first encountered the Borg at sector J-25.

"I AM LOCUTUS, OF BORG." The figure wore a mesh of gray and black technology. The only remnants of humanity left were on a third of his face. "ANY ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE WILL BE IRRELEVANT." the thing said forcing an automated grin on what was left of it's face.

Alex grinned. "We kinda figured that out on our own, Johnny." He started to pace with a nervous grin. "Tell me something...uh... Locutus?"

"Why are we still hear? Why haven't your little pyramid 'do-hickeys' blown us away?"

"THE CONSCIOUSNESS HAS TARGETED YOU AND YOUR CREW FOR ASSIMILATION. WE HAVE SCANNED YOUR SHIP AND FOUND IT UNFIT TO WITHSTAND OUR ATTACK. YOU WILL DROP YOUR SHIELDS AND PREPARE TO BE BOARDED."

Alex was caught off guard. The Borg had already scanned them, so they should have been able to penetrate the shields and disable the ship. Or they could have just destroyed the ship altogether. There was more this than they were on. Could it be that the Borg had learned how to lie?

"I'm sorry Locutus, but in your scans you known that your attack disabled some primary ship operations. We don't have access to the shield controls or any other technology at the moment.

Alex glanced over toward Mia and saw her hands slowly moving over her console. She glanced up toward him and winked.

Alex continued to fish... "Uh...If we don't fix the systems locks, this ship will...self destruct in seven minutes. With the three of us working ...we should be able to power down in...in five minutes. According your initial evaluation, isn't that a correct assumption, Locutus?"

The screen change to a forward view and Tash and Mia turned to Alex, who was still pacing.

"O.K. people, we gotta figure out what the hell's goin' on. 1, they're having trouble penetrating our shields, 2, for some reason, they've target only us for assimilation. And 3, the Borg are trying to lie their way onto the ship. The missing piece of the puzzle is right in front of us, and we've got five minutes to find it."

Mia jumped from her seat and dashed for the engineering console. Alex followed behind her. She ran through the still-functioning computer directories, until the data she requested sprang to life.

Mia brought the data on the main viewscreen. "You were right. For some reason, they're scans didn't show that we still have a few tricks up our sleeve. We got major damage across the board. But...." she pointed to the screen. "This subsystem still has a couple things intact."

You betcha. The Trans-Fold system is still online, and what appears to be some type of disruption field generator."

"The Trans-Fold system is the experiment ship-wide transporter we've been working on. It's never been tested but Captain La Forge swore by it. I don't know about the Field Generator, but It's some of the tech we acquired from the Borg-Core near Vulcan. Geordi didn't have any time to run field testing on it either. But it is some type of weapon."

Mia's words awakened something in Tash's memory. He frantically analyzed his theory.

"They already are...as of thirty seconds ago." she brought up the comm-system. "The problem would be...."

"The only problem is the Fold System draws power directly from the warp core. If we use the disruption field as the diversion, it'll take about 90 seconds to channel what power we have left to the Fold Systems for the jump; that's barring any damage from enemy fire when we take the shields offline."

"Dammit!!" Alex yelled as he began to pace again. He glanced at Tash's direction and saw the Vulcan tense and staring at Locutus' hailing signal. "Patch it through."

"Almost. Two minutes until assimilation." He held his thumb up and smiled at the man-thing.

Tash took a moment to gather his thoughts, and then... "Our shields...the protected systems...the primary core. It's all derived from Borg technology we acquired from the assault on the Core at Vulcan."

"Yeah." Mia responded. "And that should make it easy for them the override and assimilate the ship with no problem."

"Wrong!!!!" Tash yelled with enthusiasm. He put his findings onto the main viewscreen. "We've always assumed since the Borg ships are made up of individuals forming one unison collective, that all Borg Cubes were linked the same way!"

"But what if we're wrong?" Tash played with the console. "When we attacked and destroyed the Cube at Vulcan and acquired the technology, all Borg ships, which derived from that specific Core either shut down or self-destructed. I believe each cube is like an independent colony! They don't automatically share information like individuals in a collective."

"My god." Alex said with a smile. "That's why they didn't kill us. They don't want us, they want the freakin' ship!"

"The Cube at Vulcan developed this technology, but didn't get a chance to upload it to the other collectives! Now they plan to get it from us."

Alex knew they had to capitalize on Tash's theory. "Mia, get the Fold system ready as soon as possible. We're gonna make a run for it."

"Yes. Yes we have. We are ready to drop shields and give command of the ship to the Borg." Alex slowly walked to his seat. "Locutus?"

"What can we expect from becoming part of the Borg. Is it different from our present existence?" he glanced over at Mia, hoping to give her enough setup time.

"EXPECTATION IS IRRELEVANT. DIFFERENCE IS IRRELEVANT. YOU WILL BECOME ONE WITH THE BORG..."

The thing smiled again, but this time with a little more enthusiasm. "PAIN IS IRRELEVANT. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED."

"Uh-huh. That's what I thought you'd say." Alex replied. His two Vulcan looked back at him nervously. "We'll drop shields in fives seconds. Stand by..." The screen went blank. All three warriors sat in their assigned areas waiting for their final chance at escape.

Tash ran his fingers over the console. "Our shields are down..... Their shields have dropped!"

Suddenly, the faint appearance of four transporter signals started to appear on the bridge.

Outside, from the Helix's deflector mechanism on the front of the ship, a spherical shockwave pushed outward toward the small Borg-Drones. The Borg cube tried to raise its shields, but the shockwave engulfed all of them in a matter of seconds. The low edge of the Cube erupted in a blaze of firestorms which spilled over to nearby smaller ships. The Borg-Drones were overtaken by an explosion, their shields couldn't withstand the impact.

The Helix pushed its way through all the commotion and raced away at maximum impulse. The Cube, damaged and all, picked up speed for pursute.

Alex watched in awe at the destruction they left behind as his ship slipped into warp. He hoped to at least disorient the enemy long enough to get out of weapons range. But this was extraordinary.

Tash replied. "According to the sensors. It some sort of shockwave generated by the shield generators. Apparently, the wave grew exponentially. It had some type of phase harmonics which allowed it to synchronize with the shields frequency. The cube suffered 28% damage on it's lower left edge"

"Why didn't anyone tell me about that daman thing? We should've used that in the first place! What about the Fold System, Mia?"

She scurried across the bridge to the engineering station and then the tactical station. "Give me 75 seconds! The matter / antimatter flow needs a stable transition for the fold process..."

The Borg cube gained enough distance to shadow the Helix from the nearby sun. The small ship banked hard to the right and pushed away from it's pursuer.

"They're having trouble getting a weapons lock, but I don't know how long I can keep this up!"

Locutus' face popped up on the screen. "ALEX GARRETT! YOUR ACTIONS ARE IRRELEVANT! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THE BORG! ESCAPED IS IRRELEVANT! THERE IS NOWHERE TO HIDE!"

"You didn't actually expect us to make it easy for you, you bastard?" Alex responded.

As the others turned and looked at him, Mia shook her head and smiled. "Way to go, Alex. That showed him."

He smiled, reclining with his hands behind his head. "That's why I'm the Captain."

"ESCAPE IS IRRELEVANT! RESISTANCE IS FU--" suddenly the screen changed to a forward view.

"Fifteen seconds!" Mia shouted. "I'm beginning to configuring the warp nicelles."

From the Borg cube's underbelly, a trio of shimmering, spinning orbs rushed toward the Helix.

Tash was the first to see them. "We got three type-5 multi-quad torpedoes locked on us! Impact in twelve seconds! I'm adjusting course to dodge..."

"No!!" Mia yelled. "We'll loose the trajectory for the fold-system! If we change course, it'll take another minute to realign our course."

"If one of those type-5's explode anywhere within 200 kilometers with the shields offline, the ships gonna be ripped apart!"

The Helix's main thruster ,which burn white luminescent plasma, turns a rich gold as the fold system initialized. The Borg-pedoes aligned with the ships course, constantly gaining speed.

Tash and Alex watched the aft view of the torpedoes gaining on their tails. Mia intensely watched the powerbars on her display slowly reach optimum levels as if by sheer will, she'd push the system faster. The lights on the bridge dimmed and Helix began to tremble.

"Five seconds until jump! Fold system's initialized! Grab something and hold on!" Mia shouted.

Inside of a half second, the Helix's Fold System emitted a temporal field directly in front of the ship. A small hole in space was suppose to open and transport them across 163 light years instantly. But as the small rip in the time-space continuum opened and the ship began to enter, the three Borg-pedoes detonated 50 kilometers behind them and engulfed the Helix as it passed through the rift.

On instinct, Tash dove for the floor. When the torpedoes' detonation shockwave met the ship, his station exploded, ripping his chair apart.

Mia wasn't as lucky. The front viewscreen tore open, and large fragments knocked her from the comm-station and into the air. And as Alex saw her toppled end over end at him and slam hard into his chest, he was lucky she went limp; allowing him to absorb most of the impact. But his head sprung backward and slammed hard on a piece of railing. And as he blacked out, perhaps for the final time, the last thing that ran through his conscious mind was the image of the borg-a-fide Jean-Luc Picard reaffirming what every resistance fighter figured out before those last fatal seconds: ...RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

The systems around Wolf 359 was littered with what was left of The Federation Fleet. An all out assault on the Borg before they reached earth was suppose to be enough to disable the threat. Using a makeshift plan, 40 starships in teams were suppose to ambush the large cube from different directions, hopefully too confuse them. Unfortunately, reinforcements didn't arrived on time, and instead they were picked off like sitting ducks during target practice. Only two ships were close enough to continue the fight...

The Federation flagship, U.S.S. Enterprise was the first to encounter the Borg at sector J-25, and they were the first to engage them outside of Sector 001. After being disabled and mounting repairs they proceeded on to intercept the enemy at the Earth system.

The other, the U.S.S. Craven was on routine maneuvers near the Neutral Zone when they received word. When they reached Wolf 359, all that was left were the shattered remains of what use to be Starfleet. On contacting the Enterprise, they were instructed to round up survivors in the area until further noticed. And even through Admiral Cynthia Porter outranked, the Enterprise's interim captain, Commander William Riker, she agreed with his suggestion and initiated relief efforts.

"Attempting to commandeer as Federation Transport, assaulting Starfleet officers, aiding in the escape to several known criminals..." Admiral Cynthia Porter read off of her message pad. "Kyle, Kyle, Kyle... What the hell am I going to do with you?"

"The same thing you always do with terrorists on your leash, Admiral. Let me go."

Sitting across from her, in a holding cell and on the opposite side of a defense barrier, a warrior calmly sat in the shadows. By just looking at Kyle K'nar, you'd place him in his mid-fifties and in good shape. What you wouldn't know is that he's lived several lifetimes; all of them as a soldier against one dying cause or another. It's one of the perks of being a joined species.

"Not this time." Porter stood up. "Before, The Federation was content with your raids on Cardassian ships. But now you've graduated to Starfleet robbery, and that really pisses me off." She walked close to the barrier. "Between you and me? I don't give a damn what you do to them. For all I care, you and that Bajoran Resistance Cell of yours could blow up Cardassia Prime. It makes no difference to me.

As the Admiral began to walk out of the room, Kyle had to play his last card. "Maybe under interrogation, I might slip about your little operation." He smiled when she stopped in half way through the doorway. "You know how Starfleet security gets when they want answers. Maybe all those things you're keeping from everyone will accidentally come out. You hear me, Admiral?"

She stood silent in that spot for roughly ten seconds. It was one thing to use any means to get yourself out of a predicament. But to even suggest betraying THE PROGRAM was something which drove her violently insane. Without turning around, she replied. "I don't thinks that's a problem, Kyle. Because I don't think you'd survive the trip to Earth. Do you hear ME?"

Without waiting for a reply she exited the room, leaving Kyle to ponder her threat....

On her way to Engineering, Admiral Porter suddenly heard the sound of loud voices in extreme turmoil. Her first thought was that word of the Borg's conquest of Earth had just come in. Her heart rose into her throat and she stopped to lean on the corridor wall. Her thirty plus years in Startfleet, and her quick rise up the ladder seemed to have been all for nothing.

"Admiral!" a voice called from the down the hall. Admiral Porter glanced up and saw Lieutenant Commander Katherine Brooks, her second in command, rushing to her side. "Did you hear the news?"

"The Enterprise engaged the Borg at Earth. Don't ask me how they did it, but I have a confirm report from Commander Riker that the Borg cube was destroyed. We won!!" Kathy was estatic.

"No, I'm not and neither are you." The Admiral's voice was stern. "We still have a minor mystery to solve."

Kathy nodded. "Right...our visitors. I have Lieutenant Mathews working on it. We should have something by now."

Lieutenant Mathews went over his recent findings, while the Admiral and Kathy stood by.

He was quickly formulating the best way to break the news to them. He led them to the main computer console which was an island piece of equipment in the middle of the room; the large warpcore luming in the backdrop. A series of holographic files popped up in front of them

"I ran a background check on all of them like you asked. The two Vulcans came up a blank. But the human..." he isolated a file. "Alex Garret. According to Starfleet records, he's an ensign stationed aboard the U.S.S. Melbourne."

"That's what the records say. But I think..." Mathews paused again. "Ma'am, this whole situation is wrong. What we know and what my findings read are totally off the mark."

"Well obviously, Ensign Garret shouldn't be hear since the Melbourne was destroyed during the Borg attack. Secondly, the data records say he's twenty one years old. But the examination the doctor performed states that's he's closer to a man in his thirties."

"No Admiral, that's the point!" he shouted at her, more in excitement than in defiance. "I've traced Ensign Garret's starfleet records; birth date, education... everything. He is suppose to be a twenty one year old man. I also check the doctor's findings and ran diagnostics on all the equipment. The man in sickbay right now is Ensign Garret, and he is in his late twenties / early thirties."

Admiral Porter turned to Kathy, who's expression showed her just as much puzzlement.

"I have...a hunch." Mathews brought up Garret's medical logs. "The first thing that caught my eye, was the dozens of internal and external injuries we found all over his body. This man has been under heavy fire for a number of years. There are lacerations, which suggest cauterized disruptor and phaser wounds. Some of the wounds are so old, they suggest Garret has seen constant combat for the past five-six years."

"Is this going anywhere, Lieutenant?" Kathy asked sternly. The Admiral had to smile, she loved when her 'Number One' exerted some of her newfound authority. She was gonna mold this one into her own image.

"Yes ma'am." Mathews brought up more data. "On Garret's initial medical scan, we found certain anomalies in his genetic structure. During the biospectral analysis, we found Tripamine residue in his cerebral cortex. According to the Doctor, it's found mostly from temporal shifts. We found the same in the two Vulcans and the other 38 corpses onboard, This makes me think that he was involve in some type of time~space disruption."

Kathy interrupted. "That would explain his rapid aging. Maybe something happened to him when the Borg attacked the Melbourne? Some type of wormhole anomaly?"

The Admiral interceded. "But that still doesn't explain the Vulcans. The scars on his body suggest he's lived those missing years. And we still have the ship."

"Yes..." Mathews said enthusiastically. "..the ship." He ran his finger along the console, and the holographic images changed. The image of the small craft they have in tractor appeared. "I ran this craft through the computer and came up with nothing. But I accidentally came up with....this." another image popped up alongside the previous. "Admiral, I give you the U.S.S. Defiant."

She stared at the image. "That doesn't resemble any Starfleet vessel I've ever heard of?"

"You shouldn't, Ma'am. I doesn't exist. I retrieved this record from the data files we got from the survivors of the U.S.S. Saratoga. Apparently, it's an experimental attack cruiser designed to fight the Borg. Unfortunately, they never got a chance to finish it."

Mathews played with the console again. "This is the final design of the Defiant. But it went through several earlier revisions. It first started out as the Dante-Class, then the Moreau-Class, and then this -" The image which appeared was the craft they had in tow; although more sleek and finely tuned. "This is the Valiant-Class U.S.S. Helix. According to the files, it never made it off the drawing board."

"But, we have it..or something resembling it in tow." The Admiral pondered her next question. "What have your internal scans come up with on the ship."

Mathews looked at both of them. "During the outer-hull scan, we picked up traces of Romulan, Klingon, and Federation technology - along with a metal composition unknown to us." He figided with the console. "But when we tried the internal scan, we received nothing but feedback."

"Yes Admiral. We even tried to beam an away team over. The transporter logs showed a successful beam-over, but the away team never left the pads. It seems the ship is emitting some type of deflector shield which repels any physical penetration."

"Wait a minute..." Kathy said. "I thought you said the ship only had enough power to limited life support?"

"It seems the ship has managed to increase it's power output from 7% to 68% on the past eighteen hours. It has some type of self-contained regenerative repair systems..." he shut the console down. "...similar to the Borg, ma'am."

The Admiral's face look grim. Only minutes before, she had been given the good news the Borg's destruction. Now she was about to find out the the nightmare may have just begun.

She stepped closer the the engineer in order to whisper. "What are you trying to tell me, Lieutenant?"

He met her gaze. "I think the ship we have in tow, at one time was assimilated by the Borg..."

When the door swung open in sickbay, Alex Garret didn't even flinch. He kept his head between his legs and his hands covering his head. He had tried to walk away before, but the containment field had other ideas. Admiral Porter slowly walked in, staring at what was suppose to be an Ensign with an adequate service record and a bright future.

When Alex acknowledged her presence in the room, he burst out in a huge belly laugh and wiped his face with a shaky hand.

Alex laughed a little louder. "You... You and this whole... freakin' setup!" his laughter dwindled to a slight chuckle. "I don't know why you're still keeping up the act. You got the ship... you got us..." he leaned forward so his face was almost touched the containment barrier. "Why don't you get rid of all this virtual bullcrap and get it over with?"

The Admiral waited until he was through. "I don't know what you think this is, Ensign. But you need to realize you're in serious trouble."

Alex acted as if he didn't here her words. "This is a nice choice though." he said.

"The time period, I mean. Good times for me. Man, this Federation locale is exquisite. I know you guys had holographic technology, but I never figured it to be so life-like. It even smells like I remember."

The Admirals patients was growing thin. "I don't know what you're talking about, Ensign. But I'll answer all your questions as soon as you answer mine."

"Deal!" Alex replied with enthusiasm. He quickly stretched out on the medical table like at a psychiatrists office and closed his eyes. "Fire away..."

"How did you make it off of the Melbourne before it was destroyed. Their was only one surviving shuttle and you weren't on the manifest."

"A-ha! You just slipped up, Locutus!" he yelled outward, as if referring to some unknown observer.

"Your records are incorrect. The Melbourne wasn't destroyed. It was seriously disabled and we drifted for a good two weeks until we were discovered by the Saratoga. Then, we used it for parts to repair the Saratoga. You need to update your records.

"Look. I don't know what you're talking about, Garret. Both of those ships were destoyed in the first attack." The Admiral fearcly slammed her fist on the barrier. The loud sound startled Alex. "Whether this...delusional world you're trying to sell me is a lie, or from some type of head injury to suffer, I don't care. We arrived hear at Wolf 359, we found you and two Vulcans aboard a Borg-a-fide Federation ship that isn't suppose to exist!" she saw that Alex's grin had disappeared and he stare confusingly at her. "Listen, the cube was destroyed a couple hours ago in sector 001. The Borg threat is over..."

Alex slowly sat up. "Mia and Tash are still alive? Where are they, damnit! This isn't amusing anymore! Are the Borg so chicken-crap that they have to play games with their captives?"

"Will you stop it! I know there is no Earth! There is no Starfleet! It's all gone! So cut the bullcrap and lets get this over with!" Alex paused for a second.

"Wait. Why am I not dead?" he jumped off the table. "The torpedoes detonated before we got away. This can't be happening..."

"But it is Ensign.." Cynthia stared into his eyes. She then knew that this wasn't some elaborate scheme he was playing. She truly believed what he was saying, whatever it was. "Right now, we need to piece together what has happened. This is not a Borg trick."

Alex didn't hear her. His mind was racing through the infinite possibilities was what could've happened. "The Fold system activitated. We... entered the rift, but... torpedoes detonated and.... and... that was it...."

Alex quickly looked at her. For the first time, he truly took a good look a his surroundings. The link and minor burns on the Admiral's uniform, the slight discoloration of the workstations from excessive use, the nausiating feeling he used to get from breathing in a Starship environment. "Oh God. This isn't a trick, is it , Ma'am?"

"But... all this... it never happened. Earth was assimilated, along with the Enterprise at Sector 001. And that was back when..."

An hour had passed since Mia and Tash had been taken from sickbay to a holding cell. When the security officers came to their cell and said they were to be escorted to the Admiral's quarters, they left the confined area with great enthusiasm. They studied the detail of the starship's structure. Mia had studied Starfleet specifications during the construction of the Helix, and she came to the conclusion that there was too much detail for this to be an illusion.

When they reached their destination and the door swung open, the two siblings found Alex and the Admiral sitting and talking.

"Tash, Mia. Please have a seat. Your Captain and I have some things to explain to you." Admiral Porter said. But the two Vulcans stood their ground. Without even acknowledging her presence, they focused their attention on Alex.

"You could say that." Alex responded with a half smile and scratching the back of his head. He gestured toward the sofa across from him and they sat down.

"How is all this possible?" Tash asked. "There are no more Federation ships left."

The Admiral got up and walked to replicator. "Two hot cocoas." She said, and in an instant two cup materialized. She handed them to the Vulcans. "Alex told me you two had a fondness for chocolate." They swiftly took it. It had been a three years since 'pleasurable' supplies had run out in the Resistance.

"So what you're saying is we've slipped into some type of ....alternate universe?" Mia asked.

"No. Same universe, but..." Alex paused and looked at the Admiral for a second. "...Just a different point. It seems we've traveled back in time."

Their Vulcan expressions went from puzzled to shock. Time travel was an option the brother and sister discussed in the holding cell, but it was a longshot at best.

"But even if that's true, this is still wrong." Tash intruded. "The history logs stated that there weren't any Starships left after the Borg's initial attack."

The Admiral continued. "We have a theory. I've had my people working on a what could've happened." She activated a viewscreen and Alex's Starfleet Record popped up. "At this point in your and my timeline, Alex Garret served as an Ensign aboard the U.S.S. Melbourne. According to Alex's memory, when the Borg's attack started, the Melbourne engaged in the first strike. They were hit hard and lost their right warp nicelle. They had to eject the warp core and ended up floating dead in space for the next weak or so. That was until a badly damaged

U.S.S. Saratoga found them. They used parts from the Melbourne to repair the Saratoga and escaped to the badlands."

Alex took over. "A couple hours ago, the Admiral sent a reckon team to find the Melbourne. The only thing they found was debris and large fragments. It was totally destroyed... along with the Saratoga."

"I still don't understand?" Mia said. "We were all on the Melbourne at the time. Tash and I was were being transported to Earth to stand trial on charges of espionage. When the Borg attacked and the disabled, Alex and defied orders and came to the holding area to help us to escape. We all escaped."

"That's was happened the first time. But now everything's different." He walked to the window, a grin on his face. "One of the Saratoga's escape shuttles brought the ship's sensor logs with them. It shows that, at some point, a wormhole opened in the middle of battle. A half dozen phaser shots from the Borg ship were slightly diverted by the wormhole, causing them to miss their target."

"The phaser shots, which were suppose to initially disable the Melbourne and the Saratoga?" Mia blurted out.

"Correct." the Admiral continued. "Apparently, you managed to alter your own history. And because of that accident, the Borg never made it to Earth. Starfleet managed to destroy it."

"That's impossible." Tash whispered to his sister. "How did we create the timerift?"

"The torpedoes!" Mia shouted. "We activated the Fold system at the same time the torpedoes detonated. The navigational systems must've been damage somehow! The explosion amplified the rift ten fold. Instead jumping us across space, also sent us across space and time!"

The two Vulcans sat back and exhaled. For so long they lived in constant oppression. Pitifully watching the Borg consume entire planets and slowly eating away at life as they know it. Even through they fought to free themselves from the nightmare, no one ever saw any chance for victory. They fought for who would survive the longest. Now they had rewritten history; the immediate threat was over, but Mia knew they Borg were out there - waiting for he right time to strike.

The Admiral turned off the view screen and walked to Alex. "I offered Mr. Garret his Starfleet commission back, but he declined. And since his counterpart in this timeline is dead, he can resume his life. You two on the other hand are another story. If you two would like to be taken to your home, I can get that arranged by..."

"That won't be necessary." Mia said. "We made a vow to stand at Alex's side for as long as we're breathing. That hasn't change." She looked at him and he nodded back.

"Good. I was hoping you'd say that." Adm. Porter sapped her combadge. "Porter to Brooks." She called out.

"Secure the Helix for travel, and then plot a course for the designated coordinates outside of Bajoran space.

"Then, meet me in the conference room exclusively. I'm ready to proceed with what we discussed."

She returned her attention to her guests. "If you'd just follow me, there's something I'd like to discuss with you three...

"The Federation operation known only as THE PROGRAM..." The Admiral started her briefing. Alex and the others sat around the table in the Craven's conference room. Along with Admiral Cynthia Porter, sat Lieutenant Commander Katherine Brooks at her side: one of only seven other people in Starfleet are aware of this secret agenda. "It's the cover name for covert activities not sanctioned by Starfleet. Six years ago, a host of Federation high-ranking officials decided that the binds of various treaties and agreements were hampering relief efforts to certain 'questionable' allies. To remedy this, they decided to contract outside individuals to follow through with these operations. Known smugglers, prisoners, double agents - anyone who could be coerced into line."

"Desperate times call for desperate measure, Mr. Garret. In a time when we have the Cardassians coming at us from one end, and the Romulans from the other, we could use as much help as possible. And the results have been profitable." She activated the viewscreen and short list of assignments appeared.

He paused. "Vaguely. As I recall, we were able to get inside the defense perimeter and smuggle weapons into the slave pens to instigate a revolt."

The Admiral smiled. "Well, the 'we' turned out to be a Ferengi spy network and four Bajoran Resistance squads we enlisted in exchange for weapons and supplies."

Mia looked and her brother and smiled. "I didn't know the Feds could be so devious."

"You'd be surprised, Vulcan.." Lieutenant Brooks replied. "We're willing to do whatever it takes to keep the peace in this quadrant. Even if that means pushing a few people around."

The Admiral returned to her seat. "Your ship. How did you get it?" she had been wait for a chance to ask.

"Ingenuity..." Alex smiled. "After the Borg's initial attack, we had to use what we had to fight back. We found the schematics aboard the Saratoga and decided to build it. When we reached the Mars Shipyards, we repaired what we could and quietly built the her..."

"One of our last victories came at the Borg Installation above Vulcan. We lost a lot of people but we destroyed their nerve center for that system. We took and studied what technology we found and integrated it into the ships. "

"Incredible..." the Admiral whispered. "We tried to get our people aboard, but it wouldn't allow us."

"DNA Specific security system. Any visitor has to be escorted by one of us. It came along with the rest of the package."

The Admiral nodded with acceptance. She realized that gaining access to the technology would have to a task for a later date. Right now, more prevalent things were at hand.

"If you three agree to this, I'll supply you and your allies with equipment, supplies, ...anything you need. And keep in mind that you'll be doing a service to protect our homes from the horror you've come from. Besides.." she smiled. "...everybody needs a job." Her smile was nothing to laugh about. It was more of a carefully orchestrated grimace. A frightening grimace...

Alex pondered his few options. "We've been freedom fighters for too long. It's going to be good to fight for a bright future for once.." he accepted.

The door slid open and three security guards entered with a prisoner binded in wrist and ankle shackles. Alex noticed he was an older person, but the look in his eyes screamed warrior. He was a force to be recon with.

"Undo the restraints." The Admiral ordered. As they uncuffed him, the prisoners stood his ground; maybe waiting for the right time to make his move.

The Admiral was intent on not letting that happen. "Alex, this is Kyle K'nar. He's one of the leaders of the Bajoran Resistance, and a prisoner as of late." She turned to Kyle. "Have a seat, soldier. I have a proposition which should satisify us all."

"I'm not interested in anything you have to say, Admiral." Kyle replied, his stare circling the room.

"Oh I think you'll love this. It's an offer you can't refuse. Our debriefing is tomorrow, so why don't you four gets some rest...

Kathy Brooks led Alex's team and Kyle into the hall and toward the guest quarters. Kyle walked beside the Alex and they both momentarily glanced at each other.

Kyle stopped Kathy Brooks in the hall. She gestured to security guards to escort Alex and his crew to the guest quarters.

"Alright Brooks..." Kyle started. "You and the old lady have me where you want me. I want ot know here and now, what you plan on doing with me?"

Kathy smiled at the seasoned warrior. "Quite frankly, were going to help do what you and your friends couldn't do for Bajor. We're going to finish what you started with the help of your new...teamates...

An hour after everyone left, Admiral Porter sat in the darkness of the conference room and studied her latest PORGRAM mission objective. She now possessed the final player in her Grand scheme.

She stared at the view screen- the image a beautiful green planet enprisoned by the enemy. Years of conflict with the Cardassians had cost the Federation dearly. Now it was time to strike back. It was time to show everyone how powerful the Federation really is was.

She had to send a subtle message to the enemy that the days of Federation passiveness were ending quickly. What better way then to send her most powerful weapons of war to aid in the downfall of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor.

She laughed outloud as she studied all her pawns in place. All that was needed was the pull the right strings. And with the help of her timelost soldiers, she will single-handedly bring about the end of the Occupation, and place Bajor and all it's wonders where it belongs...

She stared at the Alex Garret's file. "Are they telling me the truth?" she spoke at the screen. "Are you really the AXIS POWER?" No answers came to her, as she deleted the files from the Starfleet database, promptly erasing any information of the Helix's discovery.

And as she watched her reflection in the viewscreen devilishly giggling at these thoughts, she came to realize that the ideals and morals, literally the identity of a beautiful woman named Cynthia Porter no longer existed...

Todd Kelley Helix Phantoms, part 2	On Site 2012.05.10
(EPISODE 4) A new Superpower has been discovered, and their trying to plunge the Alpha Quadrant into an intergalactic war. Now with countless lives on the line, Team Helix and a renegade Klingon out for revenge, have to find away to stop the massacre before it starts.