>> Star Trek fan fiction >> Special Ops >> On the Flipside

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Captains Log supplemental:

MacDermott was kind of enough to provide any supplies that he had available. The Missouri is reporting back to Utopia Planetia, and the Shadow Horseman is heading to Starbase 47 where we will sit in dry dock for about two weeks completing the repairs to our damaged systems.

The bridge was not as damaged but you could tell there had been a battle. Gorman stepped out of his ready room and onto the bridge. He stopped and looked around. After a brief sigh to himself he walked over and relieved Lapel.

"Thanks Doran." He said. "Now how about you go and get some rest?"

"I think I'll do that sir." Lapel replied as he stood up from the chair. "It's still a long ride to Starbase 47."

Gorman turned to Mirek who was at his console.

"Mr. Mirek I'm sure you can reroute navigation to my chair so you can get some sleep can't you?"

"Yes sir I can." Mirek said with relief.

"Then do it Lieutenant."

Lapel waited for Mirek. They both were smiling.

Allenbies console went to alert. "Sir, I'm picking up a Jem'HaDar ship on an intercept course."

Lapel and Mirek stopped walking and turned around. They both looked aggravated but they took their seats.

"Looks like R and R will have to wait boys." Gorman said with a smile. " How long till it intercepts."

"About two minutes sir."

"Computer alert Tarbis that he is needed on the bridge."

The computer came back. "Affirmative."

"Raise what ever shields we have and arm quantum torpedoes."

"Aye sir, weapons armed, shields at sixty-three percent." Lapel replied.

"Allenby, what heading are they coming in from."

"Heading zero-six-four mark zero two-five."

"Hmm, that's almost directly overhead." He said more to himself. "Mr. Mirek prepare to execute maneuver Gorman-three-alhpa-one."

Mirek ran his finger across his controls. "Aye sir, ready to go."

"Sir, they're in weapons range. They're firing!" Allenby shouted.

"Brace for impact."

The ship shuttered as it was hit by a phaser blast.

"No damage to shields." Mirek shouted.

Tarbis entered the bridge from the back hall way pulling on the rest of his uniform. "Can't anyone get a wink of sleep on this ship."

Gorman turned to look at tarbis. "Don't worry Mr. Tarbis this should be a quick battle. Mr. Mirek return fire and execute command."

The Horseman did a barrel roll and came up underneath the Jem'HaDar ship. She unleashed a volley of torpedoes. The Jem'HaDar ship did not stand a chance. The Horseman flew through the debris of the ship as if doing a victory dance.

Mirek was proud. "Ships destroyed si..!" He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence.

The ship swung abruptly to starboard. The crew grabbed a hold of anything they could find to prevent themselves from being thrown about. Alarms were sounding everywhere. Several ODN conduits eruppted blowing steam through out the bridge.

Gorman managed to gain his composure. "Report!"

Allenby tried her best to stay in her seat. The force of the ship was almost too much for her. "Sir, we traveled through the Jem'Hadar's temporal wake. We were leaking plasma and it some how interacted with our systems."

"Which means what exactly?" Lapel asked.

Allenby slapped her controlls then threw her hands in the air. "I'm not sure."

At that moment everything turned black.

Act 1

Gorman opened his eyes to find himself staring at the ceiling. He had a pulsating headache and groaned as he rolled over onto his stomach. He grabbed hold of his chair and pulled himself up with one arm.

He looked around the bridge and noticed that everyone else except for Tarbis was in the same manner. Tarbis was the only other person to regain consciousness and was looking over the others with a tricorder.

"Report" Gorman groaned and then grabbed his head from the pain of his headache.

Tarbis was startled by the Captains voice. "I'm not sure what happened sir, but somehow we were all knocked unconscious." Gorman nodded hid head and Tarbis continued. "I checked the sensor logs and the ship is still under cloak. The computer has put us back on course to Starbase 47."

"Very well." He paused and put his hand on his temple. "Can you do something about this headache." He sat down slowly into his chair.

"Yes sir. And sir, there is something else you should know." Tarbis was reluctant to continue.

"Which is." Gorman managed to say.

"We are in Romulan Space."

"WHAT!" Gorman shouted. He moaned in pain. He continued at a low whisper. "Explain."

Tarbis started running a cortical scanner over Gormans head. "I wish I could sir. Somehow after we were knocked unconscious we drifted six light years into Romulan space."

"That doesn't make any since, we were no where near Romulan territory when we were attacked."

Tarbis stopped the scan. "How is that sir?" Tarbis was referring to Gormans headache.

Gorman started breathing normally again. "Much better thanks. See what you can do for the others, I'll be in my ready room."

Gorman started to walk towards his ready room. "Computer, down load all information for the past five hours and forward it to my ready room."

The computer said back, "Affirmative."

***

Gorman sat behind his desk going over all of the information that was on his display when his door chimed.

"Come." He said

Lapel walked into the room.

Gorman smiled at the fact that Lapel was up and walking. "Ah Commander, glad to see you're up and about."

"Thank you sir, I just wanted to let you know that we will be entering Federation Space in about five minutes."

Gorman breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair. "That's good to know. I still have yet to figure out how we ended up so far into Romulan territory."

Lapel took a seat. "The last thing I remember was the ship swinging around. I could barely hang on and then I woke up in sick bay."

Gorman nodded. "Something caused us to loose attitude control, do you think it is possible we found our way into a worm hole?"

Lapel thought about it for a moment. "No, I don't think so. This area of space has been traveled through countless times, I'm sure a worm hole would have been discovered by now."

"I agree." Gorman stood and walked to the replicator. "Scotch." He looked back at Lapel as if to ask if he wanted anything. Lapel shook his head.

"Is it possible we established some sort of warp field bubble?"

Gorman sipped on his drink and walked back to his desk. "I thought about that." He placed his drink down and brought both of hands up to about chest hieght as if he was trying to talk with his hands. "When we went through the Jem'Hadars' temporal wake we were leaking plasma. Perhaps the plasma had an adverse effect on our warp nacelles and we jumped to warp inside a bubble."

"Those were my thoughts as well. If we...." He was interrupted.

"Tarbis to Captain Gorman."

"Go ahead."

"We have entered Federation space and are attempting to contact Starbase 47 only.."

"Only what?"

Only the station isn't responding.

Gorman and Lapel looked at each other. "The Jem'HaDar?"

They both stood and walked onto the bridge.

***

"Scan the region for debris." Gorman ordered from the captains chair.

Mirek spoke back after checking his display. "I'm not detecting any debris, but we are still pretty far out. Our sensors can't break through all of the ion interference in this area of space."

Allenby turned with a confused look on her face. "Sir, I don't remembered this area of space being bombarded with ions before."

Gorman nodded, "And the mystery just keep getting larger."

Lapel crawled out from underneath a ODN conduit. "There that should do it. I boosted the confinement beam. Try to scan for the station now Mr. Mirek."

Mirek ran his fingers across the controls. He paused a moment and his eyes grew large. "Sir." He spoke softly.

"The station isn't there all right, and..."

Gromans interest was peaked. "And what Mr. Mirek?"

"And neither is the Planet that it orbits."

Act 2

"How can that be?" Gorman asked in frustration.

Mirek wanted to come up with an answer but couldn't. "I don't know sir."

"Captain." Tarbis interjected. "There is something else." Tarbis brought up a picture of a star on his screen. "I'm not detecting the star Cygnus Nine."

"WHAT!" Gorman shouted. "How can an entire Solar System disappear?"

Tarbis stood and walked to the center of the room. "Computer activate holographic display."

The small display unit rose from the floor beneath them.

Tarbis continued. "Show me a star chart of this region of space."

Above the small display unit several stars lit up into existence. Along with planets and Federation Symbols which designated Starbasses."

Gorman approached the display. "See look right there." He pointed to add emphasis. "There is Starbase 47." Gorman thought to himself a moment. "Computer when was this star chart created."

"On stardate 5550.63"

"Hmm, it is up to date." Gorman started to scratch his chin. A nasty habit he picked up from his father to show he was in deep thought. "Computer, rescan this area of space and compare that to the present star chart."

The computer hummed for a moment or two. "There is a twenty five percent incontinuety."

Lapel walked over to the display. "Explain."

"Insuffenciant data."

Gorman refused to give up. "Computer, can you create a star chart of the exsisting area of space at the present time."

"Affirmative."

"Do it!" Gorman shouted.

The computer started to place holographic views of each star as it scanned the area.

"Star Chart comparrison complete. There is a twenty five percent incontinuety."

"I know that damn it, just show me the star chart."

The computer displayed the entire completed starchart in a lighter color. It placed it horizontal to the one that was already diplayed.

"Computer over lap the two star charts."

The two star chart began to fuse together. After a few moments there were several red flashing lights.

"I don't believe it." Lapel said. "There are fifteen stars missing."

"There is a twenty five percent incontinuety."

Gorman was becoming agitated but was able to hold it back.

"This can't be right. According to this, Starbase 247, Deep Space Five, Several outposts along the Neutral Zone, they're all missing." Lapel had a confussed look om his face that was matched by Gormans.

"Hold on just a damn minute." Allenby shouted as she stood from her seat. The crew were stunned they have never heard her curse before.

"Computer, compare our quantum DNA makeup to that of the surrounding space."

"There is a twenty five percent incontinuety."

"Just as I thought." She said. She then looked at Gorman. "Sir I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

***

Captains Log: Stardate 5173.5

It has come to our attention that we have entered an alternate Universe. It seems that our battle with the Jem'Hadar opened a Quantum Singularity which brought us to this point. There isn't a whole lot we can do until we analyze the data we have obtained.

Everyone had moved into the briefing room where Tarbis was standing at a display screen in the front of the room.

"Here is the point of impact here." Tarbis said. He was pointing to the viewer which was replaying sensor logs from their battle.

Gorman was leaning back in his chair. "And that is the moment we all became unconscious?"

"Yes sir." Tarbis answered. "But the sensor logs were still working." He looked up towards the ceiling. "Computer isolate data on section six point three alpha and transfer to holographic display."

After a few moments the holographic display in the center of the table was in view. It was nothing but data from the sensor logs.

"Look at that." Lapel said. He pointed to add emphasis. "The warp core jumped out of phase."

Mirek leaned forward "How can that be?".

Lapel pondered his next words. "There could have been a malfunction in phase inducing cloak power conduit."

Gorman eyebrow arched. "In English Commander."

Lapel stood. "Our cloaking device uses interphase technology this you may already know, but what you may not know is that in order to stabilize the ship, the power conduits run directly through the warp core itself.

Gorman leaned forward looking at the data. "So what does this jumping out of phase have to do with anything?"

"It appears as if the cloak attempted to activate on it's own. Probably from the surge of power that we took..."

Tarbis interrupted him. "And the core stabilizers were not prepared for it."

"Exactly! Somehow the phase shift tore through the plasma that we were venting and opened a singularity which brought us here."

Gorman leaned back in his seat. "I see. I think"

"Am I the only one that didn't follow that?" Allenby said in a jocular manner.

Gorman smiled but ignored her. "So how do we get home?"

Tarbis and Lapel looked at each other coldly.

"Um well sir." Tarbis started. "The thing is that it is a miracle we weren't vaporized the first time."

"How do you mean?"

Lapel answered. "The interaction between the warp core and the interphase array was highly unstable. The chances of us being able to open another singularity are a million to one."

"Great." Gorman said sarcastically. "So we're stuck in this," He threw his hands into the air. "Wherever we are, for the rest our lives."

"It appears that way sir."

Gorman was not happy.

Act 3

The crew were seated in their respected places on the bridge of the Shadow Horesman cosidering the situation. None of them really looked happy but they took some comfort in knowing that they were together. Everyone did their best to keep their feelings to themselves so as to not discourage anyone else. Gorman was the first to break the silence. "Well I see no other choice, we need to head towards Earth."

Everyone shifted slightly. Mirek turned to face Gorman. "But sir we don't know anything about this Universe."

"We know that there is a Federation here and that is good enough for me."

"I agree Captain." Came the voice of Lapel. "However I suggest we at least observe this federation for a while before we make contact."

"Agreed. Mr. Mirek lay in a course for Earth."

Mirek pushed several buttons. "Aye sir, course laid in. Full impulse"

"Engage."

The ship hummed as it went to full impulse.

Through the silence everyone could hear Allenbies station going on alert status.

"Captain." Allenby shouted. "I'm picking up a ship declaring off our starboard side."

Gorman and Lapel stood. "What" Gorman shouted. "What type of ship."

"It's a Federation ship." A ship with federation warp nacelles on the back end of the ship materialised before them. "The Computer is running a scan on her now."

"Have they detected us?" Tarbis asked. Gorman was shocked to hear Tarbis' voice, he usually stayed rather quiet.

"No sir." Allenby answered.

"Sir the computer has identified the ship as a Variant of the Galaxy Class Star Ship. Registration number NCC one seven zero one D."

"The Enterprise?" Lapel said, more to himself than to anyone else.

"The ship is emanating ion particles. It seems that their cloak was damaged."

"Is it possible they may have decloaked by accident?" Gorman asked.

"Unknown sir." Allenby said back. "But I would consider evasive action to to be on the safe side."

"Sir!" Tarbis shouted. "They are opening a channel."

The com system could be heard turrning itself on. "This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the federation starship Enterprise. I demand to know who you are and what you are doing in this sector."

"Well, I guess we made contact after all Mr. Lapel"

***

"What do we do." Mirek said in an agitated voice.

"Relax Lieutenant." Gorman said softly. "Get a grip on yourself."

"Sir, we should answer them." Tarbis Suggested.

Lapel shook his head. "We still don't know their intentions."

"They're firing on us." Mirek Shouted

Six photon torpedoes came out of the Enterprise on a direct course to the Shadow Horseman. Everyone held their breath. At the last possible second the torpedoes veered off and collided with each other in front of the ship.

Gorman looked to Lapel "A warning shot?"

"Sir, those were photon torpedoes." Allenby said. "We out match her."

"Good. Bring us about." Gorman walked back to his chair and sat down. "Decloak ship, raise shields and prepare to return fire."

"They're firing again."

The ship shuttered as the torpedoes impacted with the shields.

"Our shields are holding at eighty-three percent."

"I bet that got their attention." Gorman said proudly. "They probably figured we'd be blown away."

Lapel shouted over the red alert klaxons, "They have scanned us sir. Undoubtedly they will know everything about us that we know about them."

Gorman straightened up in his chair. He tugged at his uniform "Lieutenant, return fire."

"Direct hit." Allenby shouted. "Their shields are down to seventy-four percent."

Gorman was smiling but he was about to regret it.

"They are firing Quantum torpedoes."

"WHAT!"

Three quantum torpedoes were stopped by the shields but the blast was too much for the shields to hold together. The fourth torpedo penetrated through and impacted with the hull.

Gorman had been knocked to his feet. He stood up and looked around his bridge that was once again in shambles.

"DAMN, we just got this ship fixed."

"Sir" Lapel said from his console. Gorman wondered how Lapel managed to stay in his chair. "They are lowering their shields."

"What? Why would they do that?"

Tarbis walked over to the Captain. "I think they mean to board us sir."

Gorman looked into tarbis' eyes, he didn't hesitate. "Get to the transporter pad NOW." All of the crew left their seats and headed toward the pad at the back of the bridge. Gorman was the last to walk towards it. "Computer prepare to execute Gorman-Sector-Nine-Alpha-Three."

The computer said back, "Standing by."

Gorman stepped onto the pad and turned around. Mirek was fixing to step up when Gorman stopped him.

"Not you Lieutenant."

"What sir?" Mirek said with confussion.

"What ever happens make sure they don't get this ship."

Mireks' eyes grew large with respect. He took his foot off the pad and saluted the team. "AYE AYE SIR!" Everyone looked into his eyes as if it was for the last time.

"Computer.....EXECUTE."

The team disappeared.

Act 4

Mirek stood in a corner of the bridge under cloak watching as a very well armed away team beamed over. There were several men that he recognized from his studdies at the academy.

Mr. Data walked to one of terminals and pushed a few buttons. Mirek could tell he was downloading information.

Riker walked around the bridge, looking at everything. He seemed fascinated Mirek thought to himself.

Data interrupted him. "Sir this vessel is from a future alternate reality."

That got Rikers attention. "What?"

Data went into further explanation. "It seems that they broke the barrier and crossed over into our universe."

Riker looked at Troi. "Do you sense anyone on board."

Mirek held his breath.

"No, they must have left the ship." Troi said.

Data objected. "No, I do not believe they left. I believe no one was on board her."

Riker shook his head. "What evidence do you have of that Mr. Data.?"

Data walked to another terminal. "Sir, the ship was set on autopilot. There was no one onboard. or we would have found traces of people being here, which we have not found. The Captains log states that when they arrived here, they left the vessel."

Mirekbarely started breathing again, "Ha" He thought to herself. "I wonder how long ago Gorman put that command in the computer to alter our logs." He smiled.

Riker looked at Data, "But they could have faked the logs. Once they realized that they weren't in their own universe anymore."

Data nodded. "But if they stayed onboard, where could they have gone?"

***

Onboard the Enterprise, Gorman and his team walked down an empty hallway. They made sure that they brought their weapons with them as well as their equipment.

Gorman held up his hand to instruct the team to stop. "We need to find away to disable this ship."

The team started giving idea. "Sir, I suggest we head to engineering and take out the warp core. The power loss should drain the shields." Lapel answered.

"Agreed. Lets do it."

The headed towards the nearest turbolift. Just before the lift arrived, Commander Lapel scanned it to make sure there was no inside. He reported, "Sir there are three people in the lift, they are all carrying hand phasers."

"Damn it." Gorman whispered. "Activate cloaks." The team disappeared without a moments notice.

The turbolift opened and the occupants were shocked to find no one waiting for the lift. One of them made a comment about people being impatient and the doors closed once again.

Gorman decloaked. "That was a little too close people. We need to find another way to get to engineering." He turned to Allenby. "You server on the Enterprise-D in our universe, what's the quickest way there?"

"Just the jefferies tubes sir, but that could take hours."

"Sir," Tarbis spoke. "I suggest we use our personal transporter. There isn't much power in them but if we piggy back the signal with the transporter on this ship chances are the crew will never detect us." Go

rman thought about it for a moment. "Can you fool the computer into ignoring our transport mister Lapel?"

"Yes sir."

Good lets do it then.

***

After a few minutes the crew stepped into the transporter room. Gorman cloaked the same time he entered the room so as to give the door a chance to open all the way. He walked over and took out the man standing behind the controls before he ever knew what was happening. The rest of the team entered under cloak before the doors closed.

Lapel stepped over to the controls. "I am realigning the computer to delete our transporter traces and logs as soon as beam out. We just have to hope that they don't discover it from the bridge and over ride." He waited a few seconds then said, "Done." He ran from the controls and stepped onto the pad with the others. Simotaniously they all activated their transporters the same time the pad activated.

They looked around to find themselves standing in the Chief Engineers office. Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge was running diagnostics in the same room. Tarbis walked over and stood behind LaForge as did Allenby. They both watched what he was doing on the display screen. Tarbis' eyes grew very large and Gorman knew something was up. Tarbis hurried back to Gorman as LaForge left the room.

"Sir," He whispered. "You have to see this." Tarbis brought Gorman back to the display console. Lapel was bust setting bombs through out engineering.

"Look at this sir." Tarbis pointed to a picture of the ship they were in. "This ship should have easily have blown us out of the stars."

"So what happened?" Gorman asked.

"It looks as if three other warp nacelles did not decloak with the rest of the ship. The power malfunction made it impossible for them to get full power to weapons."

"I see. Can we use this to our advantage?"

Tarbis looked at Gorman. "We can do better than that sir, we can use it to get us home."

***

Gormans interest was peaked. "Explain."

Lapel had joined the rest of the team curious as to why they were all crowded around one view screen.

"Look here." Tarbis pointed to some numbers that were in the bottom corner of the screen. "This is the temporal variance of the cloaking array that this ship uses. It is the exact same variance that caused the quantum singularity that brought us here."

Allenby pushed and shoved to get a better look. "You're right. If we can cause a large enough explosion with these warp nacelles still down it would open another singularity for only a brief instance."

"How brief?" Gorman asked.

"Maybe a second or two."

This made Lapel uncomfortable. "That doesn't leave much margin for error."

"No sir it doesn't."

Gorman went over it all in his mind. "What about the crew on this ship?"

Tarbis answered him. "We are already going to cause a warp core breach. The Captain will have to separate the ship leaving this part of the hull empty. There will be no casualties."

Gorman paced for a moment. He thought the about the minute chance that civilians could be hurt. He shook his head knocking the thought s away. "Make it so." He said.

Act 5

Mirek kept an eye out on the away team as they read every single display on the ship. He was beginning to get nervous but somehow placed it out of his mind. The voice of Riker startled him.

"Riker to Picard. We can't find anything over here, it seems that the crew abandoned ship when they found out they weren't in the same universe any longer."

Picard replied back. "Understood, we'll put her in a tractor beam and give her to Paris as a gift. Report back to the Enterprise at once."

"Data" Riker began. "I want you to totally shut this vessel down."

Data pushed a few buttons and after a short while, everything was silent. "The vessel is powered down sir."

"Good." Riker nodded. "Riker to O'Brien."

"O'Brien here sir."

Riker looked around the bridge and directly at Mirek. His cold eyes made Mirek shiver. "Beam us back."

The away team disappeared. Mirek walked from out of the corner. "Tractor her in my ass." He shouted.

He powered up one of the computer displays. "Computer set autodistruct sequence.." He stopped talking as he heard the sounds of transporter beams once again.

Gorman and the team stepped off the pad and entered the bridge.

"Glad to see you didn't blow up the ship Mr. Mirek."

Mirek looked at the display. "Er, computer cancel that order."

Mirek turned to Gorman. "Sir they plan on tractoring us in."

"Very well." Gorman moved to his chair. "Power up the ship arm weapons ready quantum torpedoes. We're about the shock the hell of that ship."

"Sir." Allenby shouted. "Forward tractor beam is engaging."

"Move us away now Mr. Mirek."

"Aye sir." The tractor beam shot out of the Enterprise but never found a target. "Tractor beam missed sir."

"Bring us about. Put us right in front of her." Gorman ordered. "Open fire."

The Horseman came about firing a full spread of torpedoes on the Enterprise. The torpedoes hit directly where Gorman wanted them, the warp nacelles on the back of the ship. The Horseman skipped across the hull of the Enterprise firing phasers as they went the main deflector dish blew out into space and exploded.

"Mr. Lapel." Gorman shouted. "Detonate those explosives."

"Aye sir, explosives detonated."

"Captain." Tarbis shouted. "I'm picking up another warp nacelle delcoaking on the saucer section of the ship."

"Good did it have the effect we wanted?"

"Yes sir, the one warp nacelle can't hold the ship inplace. A warp core breach is iminate."

Gorman slapped the arm of his chair. "Keep firing on that third nacelle. Lets make sure he has to separate the ship."

Mirek leaned over to Allenby. "Mind explaining exactly what we are doing for me please."

Allenby smiled.

The Horseman threw everything she had into that third warp nacelle. The warp nacelle exploded in a vast ball of fire.

"Sir it worked." Lapel shouted. "According to these readings the ship is beginning to separate."

"Cease fire. We did what he wanted to do. Take us the stardrive section of the ship and prepare a tractor beam. When this ship goes I don't want it taking the saucer section with it.

"Sir the saucer section is coming about. They are firing torpedoes."

"Brace for impact" Gorman shouted.

The impact never came. As the Quantum torpedoes entered into range the stardrive section of the ship exploded. The unstable cloak opened another gateway that the Shadow Horseman was sucked through almost automatically.

The Horseman was tossed out an opening no larger than the ship itself. It tumbled end over end out of control when it was suddenly brought to a halt by a tractor beam.

Gorman brought himself off of his knees and sat back in his chair.

"Sir, there is a ship outside. They are hailing us."

"Put them through Gorman ordered."

The holographic display came into view behind Gormans chair.

"Captain Gorman." Captain McDermott said. "We had all but given up hope in finding you."

Gorman let out a sigh of relief as the USS Missouri came along side. "Captain, do I have a story to tell you."

Special thanks to Kyle Eggelston the authur of St: ENTERPRISE for making this episode possible.

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