Chapter Text
Prologue
Beta Quadrant – 2246
Stardate 621.7
IKS 'Iw Batlh
The IKS 'Iw Batlh glided silently and invisibly through space. A Federation ship was studying an asteroid belt point two light years away but the 'Iw Batlh's crew paid it no mind. Let the Federation investigate dead rocks; they were after something much more interesting. Cloak still engaged, they skirted the G'thlAn system, or what the Federation called Ajilon. Ahead appeared nothing but empty space but Captain Jolran knew better. It was no coincidence that the Kobayashi Maru had met its demise here.
Jolran gave the command for all stop and pulled down his targeting scope. It was difficult to land a hit on something you couldn't see but the information was very specific. He sighted the two distant stars he'd been told to look for and called the coordinates to the weapons officer. “Fire!”
The golden gleam of a torpedo shot forward on the small view screen, dwindling in size until it was almost impossible to tell from the stars. One of the younger officers muttered something and Jolran turned on him, intending to teach the whelp a lesson about doubting one's superiors. Before he could draw his dagger, the empty space on the view screen suddenly turned a brilliant red hue and Jolran had to clutch at a console to keep from being thrown to the deck as the ship rocked violently. Alarms wailed and Jolran opened his mouth to order them shut off.
He never got the chance as the red light seemed to flow right through the view screen and creep across the bridge like a fog of blood. Screams echoed across the small bridge as the red mist enveloped his helmsman and navigator. Their cries were cut off abruptly as they slumped and vanished beneath the creeping menace. Jolran snarled – they were young and didn't know how to meet death with dignity. And then the blood red mist was swirling around his ankles, up to his knees, his thighs . . . He clung to the console, determined to stay upright even as the stuff sucked the very strength from his legs.
Then he looked down and saw that it was not the strength that was gone but his legs. It was then than Jolran screamed.
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Beta quadrant – 2246
Stardate 621.8
USS Halifax
Lt. Micah Ramon of the USS Halifax stared at his science console a beat, unable to believe what his eyes were telling him. “Sir! A Klingon bird-of-prey just de-cloaked!”
“On screen!” Captain Matthew Hall moved to his command seat even as Lt. Ramon followed his order. “Shields up!”
The view screen flicked from the detailed view of the asteroid they'd been probing for dilithium to the Klingon ship. A red glow seemed to emanate from the from bird-of-prey. “What is that? The build up for some new weapon?” Captain Hall turned to Micah for answers, but Micah had none.
“Captain!” The tactical officer's voice was stressed. “Shields are not responding.”
“Bridge to Engineering! We need shields!” Hall leapt up from his seat and was heading for the science station.
Micah looked frantically from the weird red glow on the view screen to his panel. “I, uh, I don't know what it is, sir.” He tightened the bandwidth trying to draw more detailed information by targeting the sensors for precisely. “The ship, it's coming apart!” He looked up at the view screen, fear etching his features.
On the screen, the Klingon ship seemed almost alive. Micah had once seen his cat catch a bird once, and the bird had chirped desperately as it fluttered and fought for life. The wings had twitched and stretched as its feet scrabbled for purchase on anything. That's what the Klingon ship looked to Micah now as tremors rippled along it hull. The ship bowed in the middle, then snapped back. Another visible tremor made the distressed ship seem to vibrate and expand, like a bloating corpse, before suddenly collapsing in on itself and vanishing in a twinkling of reddish light.
“Mr. Ramon, what the hell was that?!” Captain Hall was peering over his shoulder but Micah was as baffled by the readings as he was. Only seconds ago, virtually every type of radiation, harmful or benign, had been off the charts and wave patterns that Micah had never seen before had been dancing and pulsing across the terminal. But the moment the other ship vanished, the reading were gone. The only things the sensors showed now was the typical background radiation of the universe and scattered motes of space dust. There wasn't so much as a sliver of duranium hull plating on sensors.