Star Trek : Earth Strike
Episode 3: My Enemies Enemy
Incandescent fire engulfed the port nacelle of the Starship as the Enterprise slammed to a halt just beyond Earth orbit. If it had been possible to leave a skid mark in space, Sol System would have been permanently marked. Damage control systems shut off power to the nacelle.
“We have lost warp power.” Spock informed Picard.
“I hope you don’t want to go anywhere else in a hurry,” LaForge said over the intercom, “we're going to be a long time putting this back together.”
No one replied as all eyes and attentions on the bridge were focused on the viewscreen. A fleet of strange ships exited from the dimensional gateway. Hundreds of small shuttle sized vessels, though they looked far more dangerous, and an even dozen far larger vessels of a similar design emerged into Earth space.
“Err...Captain?” Asked Geordi.
“Understood, Mr LaForge,” acknowledged Picard, “impulse engines?”
“ Operational.” Assured the Chief Engineer.
“Keep them that way, I think we’re going to need them. Picard out.” The captain turned to Data. “Sensors, data? Give me a reading on those ships.”
“Uncertain, Captain.” Replied Data, his fingers moving like lightening on the console before him as he strove to sharpen his readings. “There seems to be a large biological facet to their design, they appear to have been grown rather than made.”
“They are alive, like ‘Tinman’?” Asked Riker.
“Not exactly,” explained Data, “I do not believe that the ships are sentient: they are more like biological machines containing controlling organisms. I am having some difficulty separating the life-signs of the ships from those of the occupants.”
“Hail them.” Picard ordered Worf.
“No response.” Reported the Klingon.
“Open hailing frequencies. Unknown Vessels, this is Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise. Please identify yourselves and state your intentions.” Picard watched for a moment as the last ship emerged from the dimensional gateway which shut behind it. The alien fleet rearranged itself into a globular cluster formation, the smaller ships surrounding the larger. He looked back at Worf.
“Still no reply.”
“Anything counsellor?” Picard asked Deanna Troi.
“I’m... not sure, Captain,” the Betazoid said, “I think they are telepathic; maybe they don’t use subspace communications. I’m trying to make contact and... I feel close to an answer of some kind, but...” She shook her head in frustration.
“I too sense something from the alien ships, though it is vague at best.” Stated Spock. “Perhaps, Counsellor, if we were to combine our abilities?”
“A mind meld?” Asked Deanna.
“Indeed.” Spock agreed.
“Make it so.” Picard ordered after glancing at Troi for her nod of assent.
In seconds Spock was kneeling beside Troi’s chair, his fingertips crawling over her face as he sought to reach inside her consciousness. “My mind to your mind. Your mind to my mind. Our minds are one.” Spock said repeating the phrase over and over, like a mantra. Very shortly Deanna joined in, their voices perfectly synchronised. Perhaps it was due to their own separate experience with telepathic phenomenon, but in moments the mantra ceased.
“We are one.” Spock and Troi stated together.
“The Aliens,” insisted Picard, a hand on each of their shoulders, “can you contact them?”
“Attempting.” Said Spock-Troi. “Receiving... certainty of purpose... resolution...grievance, anger, hostility...” Their next sentences took on a strange timbre, as though the alien influence somehow remodulated both their voices.
“Allies of the Borg will be destroyed. The weak shall perish.”
