SO IT BEGINS

BY: PUNISHER

The insects warbled in the dusk.  A soothing peaceful sound.  Coupled with the combination sunrise/sunset of the binary system it provided a relaxing environment only the most expensive of Holo Suite programs could provide.  And that was still almost a century away.  In the distance, Federation Outpost 428's comm tower could barely be seen.  But it was there, and other than that, there was no sign of human interference on Sigma Viagra IV.  That's what made it the perfect place for shore leave.

  Captain Hikaru Sulu stopped his reverie and continued to collect samples.  He carefully scooped out another strange plant--scanned it.   Nothing dangerous, but just exotic enough to help his hobby; though most of his crew wouldn't agree with him that horticulture was a suitable hobby for a starship captain.  Everyone needed an outlet right?  Spock had his lyre.  Kirk had his Judo.  They both played Chess.  Funny, Sulu thought, he still thought of them as part of the crew.  They had long since stood down and retired.  All except Spock who had followed his father's footsteps and entered the diplomatic corps.

  In fact, the old ship had been destroyed at Chal...a Romulan world...not very far from here.  Sulu reminded himself that Outpost 428 had once been the headquarters of a series of defensive outposts along the neutral zone.  Sulu remembered that too...the Balance of Terror that had been maintained for so long.  The Enterprise had survived all that and more....well now they were about to launch a new one...NCC-1701B.  Sulu wished he could be there.  Not just so he could meet his old friends, which he very much wanted to do, but because his daughter would be the helmsman.  Sulu could almost hear Kirk's voice, "Things wouldn't be the same without a Sulu at the helm." His communicator beeped, disrupting his thoughts.

  He flipped it open and it chirped to life.

  "Sulu here."

  "Captain, we're getting some very strange readings up here.  It looks as if a wormhole is opening up near the planet."

  "Is there any danger?"  Over three hundred of Excelsior's crew were on planet.

  "Too early to tell sir.  There is a large output of chronoton particles....it looks almost like a Transwarp signature."

  "Transwarp?"  Damn...looks like my shore leave is over.  

  "Better bring me up."

  "Aye, Aye sir.  Transport room, beam up the captain...oh my..." the transmission was washed out in burst of static.

  "Excelsior!  Come in Excelsior!"

  A terrible sound shattered the evening silence.  Sulu had never heard anything like it before, but it was loud enough that he thought he'd go deaf.  He turned around just in time to see a bright beam scoop Outpost 428 off the planet like a child scooping a toy from his sandbox.   Sulu had no idea what to do...  then the transporter beam gripped him.  In Excelsior's transporter room...No wait...in a cargo hold.  Yes still on Excelsior.

  "Sir! please step off the pad!"

  Sulu jumped off...no sooner than he did than someone else materialized behind him.  The process continued.  Sulu was completely disoriented.  The red alert klaxon was sounding!

  "What's going on!?"

  "I don't know sir! primary systems are offline..."

  The ship lurched to one side and everyone was thrown to starboard.  Sulu felt as much as heard the pounding on the hull.

  "We're under attack!" Sulu yelled.  He jumped back onto the transporter. 

  "Beam me to the bridge!"

  "Sir it's too dangerous...these are cargo transporters and they..."

  "Mister I don't have time!"

  "Aye sir."  Sulu dissolved and reappeared in hell.  

At least that's what it looked like.  The bridge looked like the Kobayashi Maru simulator after a particularly bad exercise.  He turned to his science officer.

"The Romulans?"    

"No sir....like nothing we've ever met before."

"Damage report."

"Most primary systems are offline! Engineering is trying to restore warp capability."

"Damn."

"Cargo Bay 12 to bridge."

Sulu keyed the comm-link, "Go ahead."

"Sir, we've gotten the last of the survivors.  No other life signs on the planet."

"How many?"

"84 Sir."

"Damn."  That meant that he had just lost over two-hundred of his crew.  To an unknown enemy.  Damn them...he'd make them pay.  But he had to get his ship to safety.

"Engineering, where's my warp drive?"

"You've got up to warp three sir, but I can't promise it will hold up."

"Helm, course set to nearest nebula....warp speed."

The Excelsior shot away as its attacker continued to pillage the planet.

"Science....who the hell was that."

"Our primary sensors are down sir, I'll have to review the sensor logs in order to tell.  They were definitely not Romulan" "Or just not any Romulan configuration we are familiar with." or maybe there was someone new in this sector...if so the Romulan's wouldn't like it either. 

Lt. Commander Janice Rand turned from the communications console.

"Captain, the attacker has just begun to broadcast a message on all

subspace channels."

"On audio."

Sulu's spine turned to ice.  He remembered this from some logs he had looked at when they dealt with the 1701-D....that incident had been so highly classified no one was supposed to know about it.  And Sulu didn't even like to think about it...yet the strangely harmonic voice coming over the comm forced him to think back to the events of five years ago.  He listened to the message."

"We are the Borg.  You will be assimilated.  Resistance is futile."  The message repeated.

"Rand, get me a channel to Starfleet command with special attention to James T.  Kirk."

"Why Kirk sir? He's no longer in Starfleet."

Sulu sighed...sometimes Rand wasn't the quickest to catch on to things.

"Isn't it obvious commander.  Something has gone horribly wrong in the timestream."  

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